Singapore - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 676

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National Museum of Singapore
he National Museum of Singapore at 93
Stamford Rd (Singapore History Gallery:
daily 10am-6pm; Singapore Living
Galleries: until 8pm; Living Galleries free
6-8pm; S$10; W nationalmuseum.sg) is
housed in one of Singapore's most
distinguished colonial buildings. One of
the highlights is the permanent Singapore
History Gallery, best accompanied by the
free audioguide. It charts the city's
humble beginnings through to the
harrowing World War II occupation by
Japanese forces, then to independence
and the present day, using artefacts, visual
presentations and audio footage. he
Living Galleries showcase interactive
exhibits which explore Singapore's
complex society through food, fashion,
photography, film and wayang.

which have been renovated into one of
the most popular nightspots in town,
Clarke Quay - a buzzing hive of clubs,
bars and restaurants. Nearby Boat Quay
and Robertson Quay are almost equally
lively, lined with restaurants and bars.

Chinatown
he two square kilometres of Chinatown ,
located just south of the Singapore River,
once constituted the focal point of
Chinese life and culture in Singapore.
Although nowadays the traditional
aspects of the area are on their last legs, a
wander through the surviving nineteenth-
century streets unearths historic craft
shops and restaurant buildings.
he Chinatown Heritage Centre (daily
9am-7.30pm; S$10), at 48 Pagoda St, is
located in a row of restored shophouses
which give visitors an idea of what the
whole neighbourhood once looked like.
he five-tiered, Tang Dynasty-inspired
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (daily
7am-7pm; free) at 288 South Bridge
Street houses what is reputedly the sacred
tooth of the Buddha, kept in a gold stupa
and only brought out on the first day of
the Chinese New Year. he multilevel
museum and rooftop garden are worth
lingering in. he enormous Thian Hock
Keng Temple (the “Temple of Heavenly
Happiness”; daily 7.30am-5.30pm) at
158 Telok Ayer Street, a hugely
impressive Hokkien building, is one of
Singapore's oldest; dragons stalk its broad
roofs, while the temple compound's
entrance bristles with ceramic flowers,
foliage and sculpted figures.
Amoy Street is another Hokkien enclave
from the colony's early days. Long
terraces of shophouses flank the street,
all featuring characteristic five-foot ways ,
simply covered verandas that were so
called because they jut five feet out.
Turn right out of Ann Siang Hill and
you'll see Eu Yan Sang at 269 South Bridge
Road (Mon-Sat 8.30am-7pm), opened
in 1910 and geared up, to an extent, for
the tourist trade. he shop has been
beautifully renovated and sells a weird
assortment of ingredients, from herbs and
roots to various dubious remedies derived
from endangered species.

Fort Canning Park and Clarke Quay
When Ra es first caught sight of
Singapore, Fort Canning Park was known
locally as Bukit Larangan (Forbidden Hill).
Singapore's first British Resident, William
Farquhar - a political o cer appointed by
London - displayed typical colonial tact
by promptly having the hill cleared and
building a bungalow on the summit. he
bungalow was replaced by a fort in 1859.
An early European cemetery still survives,
however, on whose stones are engraved
intriguing epitaphs to nineteenth-century
sailors, traders and residents.
here's a back entrance to the park
which involves climbing an exhausting
flight of steps that runs next to the Hill
Street Food Centre on Hill Street. Once
you reach the top, you're greeted by a
brilliant view along High Street towards
the Merlion monument at the mouth of
the Singapore River. he highlight of
Fort Canning, however, is the Battle Box
(daily 10am-6pm, last admission 5pm;
S$10), an underground bunker museum
which uses audio and video effects and
animations to bring to life the last hours
before the Japanese occupation began in
February 1942.
On the other side of River Valley Road,
which skirts the southwestern slope of
Fort Canning Park, lies a chain of
nineteenth-century godowns (warehouses)