Singapore's Singas

Jurong BirdPark is largest birds’ park in Asia, occupying more than twenty hectares; inaugurated in 1971, it shares the open-space concept of Singapore’s zoo and night safari parks.

The collection includes more than eight-thousand birds from six-hundred species, most of them from Southeast Asia.

Four walk-in aviaries form the park, among which is the world’s largest walk-in aviary with the tallest man-made waterfall. Beyond that it offers shows; detailed information about the extensive shows is supplied at the entrance. The exhibits and aviaries closely resemble the natural habitats of the birds.

Access

Reach the MRT Boon Lay Station and transfer to bus number 194 or 251.

The Bus Hub Service reaches the park from the city, a one-way trip costs S$4 for an adult and half that for a child. The pickup times and locations are available at www.bushub.com.sg. There are also direct connections to the zoo and night safari. City Tours offers a door-to-door service from the hotels in downtown; details can be found at www.citytours.sg.

Adults pay S$18.00 as an entrance fee and S$5.00 for the Panorail Ride, (children pay half of all the fees mentioned in this review).

Since Wildlife Reserves Singapore is the parent company of the zoo, the Night Safari and the Jurong Bird Park (all of them reviewed in this journal), special tickets valid for one month and combining the attractions exist:

3-in-1: S$40.00 for adults.
2-in-1: Any two of the three parks, S$30.00 for adults.

The park is open daily from 8:30 AM to 6 PM, tickets are sold until 5:30 PM and the Panorail is active until 5:45 PM

Touring Jurong BirdPark

African Waterfall Aviary

The largest aviary in the park – and in the world - is dedicated to the African Tropical Rainforest; its height reaches an awesome 35 meters, like a 13-floors building. The setup includes typical huts, jars, warriors, snakes, African flora, an artificial waterfall and – of course – African birds. A simulated mist is created to complete the illusion of being in a rainforest. The area can be reached by foot or with the help of the Panorail, which is much more impressive.

Yellow and black lovebirds can be watched on hanging coconuts next to the entrance, while on way to the nearby Suspended Bridge bird feeders allow watching birds like starlings and whydahs, in a true feast of color. The bridge displays the usual geometric patterns of African art and allows a panoramic view of the valley-like aviary and the world’s highest waterfall in an aviary. African Crowned Cranes usually drink water from the waterfall’s top. An African hut is next to the bridge, creating a picture typical of a central African rainforest.

Overall, the aviary hosts fifty species and over fifteen hundred birds, including starlings, turacos, carmine bee-eaters, rollers, red and yellow barbets, whydahs, parrots, white-faced tree ducks, helmeted Guinea fowls, South African crowned cranes, Egyptian geese and others.

African Wetlands

The African Wetlands Exhibit was inspired by the St. Lucia Wetlands in South Africa and includes shoebills, African crown cranes, the great white pelican, saddle-billed storks, blue cranes, white-faced tree ducks, white-breasted cormorants, crested Guinea fowls and others.

Dinosaur Descendants - The Flightless Birds

In this area, four huts provide the visitors with interactive exhibitions of ostriches, their feathers and eggs. Nearby, a Dino Dig allows children to experience archaeological diggings and discover fossils and relics amidst the sands.

The Elephant Birds Eggs (considered the world’s largest birds and extinct now), the Cassowary’s Casque, the Double-Wattled Cassowary, the Greater and Common Rheas, the Emus and other flightless birds exhibits are also displayed here.

Hornbills and Toucans Exhibit

This exhibit houses the world’s largest collection of Southeast Asian hornbills and a wide variety of South American Toucans, with 25 aviaries simulating the birds’ natural habitat. The hornbills being an endangered species, they are part of the park’s preservation efforts.

Jungle Jewels

Jungle Jewels re-creates a South American rainforest, the world’s richest and most diverse birds’ habitat. On the exhibit its treetops and taller plants fruit-eaters like the tanagers and contingas can be seen. Yellow hooded blackbirds, red-billed tanagers, red-crested cardinals and many others fill this space that includes a 14 meters tall Flight Gallery, where these can be watched.

Asia's First Heliconia Repository

Heliconias are tropical flowering plants best known for their exotic blooms, and have been successfully introduced to the park that features many other exotic plants. In 1989, the Heliconia Society International designated the Jurong BirdPark as an official collection center, making it the first in Asia. Nowadays the park has 167 species of heliconias.

Lory Loft

The world’s largest Lory Flight Aviary is probably the most colorful part of the park; red, yellow, green and blue feathers compete for the visitors’ attention. Originating in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, the lories inhabit here what looks like an Australian rural landscape complete with a windmill and bushmen hut. At the two-tiered central feeding tower, visitors can hand-feed the birds.

Parrot Paradise

Continuing the alliterations mood, the 32 aviaries in this exhibit include some of the rarest types of parrots. The aviaries include tropical rainforest, grasslands, semi-desserts, riverbanks, and rocky cliffs habitats. Many of the species here are endangered and are part of a preservation effort.

Some of the endangered species – like the hyacinth macaw and the blue throated macaw are native from Bolivia; from the last only 50 to 250 birds are left in the wild.

Royal Ramble

Crowned Pigeons – the world’s largest pigeons - can be enjoyed within three aviaries housing the three different species, namely the Common Crowned Pigeon, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon and the Scheepmaker’s Crowned Pigeon. Strangely, they are endangered due to their tasty meat; the park is part of the efforts to save these species.

Pelican Cove

In this aviary is the world's most complete collection of pelicans, including all of its seven species. It includes the world’s first underwater viewing gallery for pelicans, where they can be watch diving for their fish during feeding time

Penguin Expedition

Sitting practically on the Equator Line, Singapore is not the first place one would search for penguins; yet, here they are. The five species on exhibit are the Humboldt, the Rockhopper, the Macaroni, the Fairy and the King Penguin. The pools are cooled down to 16 degrees Celsius, and feature a landscape of rocks, cliffs, nesting alcoves and burrows.

Southeast Asian Birds Aviary

260 species out of the roughly thousand native bird species from Southeast Asia can be see here. The exhibit concentrates on about a hundred endangered species like the Bali Mynah Blue-Winged Pitta and the Baya Weaver Blue-winged Leafbird. Every day at noon, the visitors can experience a tropical thunderstorm; the rain falls in away from the visitors’ walkway.

Swan Lake

Next to the Pelican Cove, the Swan Lake houses the Black-necked Swan, Black Swan and the Mute Swan.

The Riverine

The Riverine is a freshwater river habitat featuring waterfowl, fishes and turtles. It houses of more than twenty duck species, which can be watched through an 11 meter wide glass-viewing gallery.

Window on Paradise

A 40m long tree-top level walkway which offers an unobtrusive view of the Birds of Paradise; there is no wire mesh separating the visitor from the birds, thus the views are breathtaking. A secondary walkthrough is on the ground level; thus the various birds living habits can be watched.

World of Darkness

The exhibit uses a reversed lighting technique which transforms day to night and vice versa, allowing seeing night-active creatures during the daylight hours. The exhibit includes mainly owls.

Worth the Flight

Jurong BirdPark was the first such a park I visited; it was attractive enough to justify the flight to Singapore.

Located next to the Zoological Gardens, the Singapore Night Safari was inaugurated more than twenty years after the first, in 1994. Occupying forty hectares, it displays 120 animal species, of which 29% are threatened.

Forty-one exhibits can be seen on foot, while the remaining eighteen demand the use of the tram. The park is divided into the East and West Loops and into eight geographical zones with a total length of 3.2km; the walkway length is 2.8km long and divided into three walking trails. A useful map featuring the different trails is giving with the entrance ticket.

Timing

The park opens from 7:30 PM to midnight daily; the show times in the amphitheatre are 7:30 PM, 8:30 PM, and 9:30 PM. Last admission is at 11 PM. The entrance fee is S$22.00 for adults and half that for children (the same applies for the other fees mentioned here).

The restaurants and souvenir shop open from 6 PM. I strongly recommend combining the visit with the one to the Zoological Gardens. The last closes at 6 PM, and thus a natural early-dinner break is created in between the visits. Otherwise traveling to the area twice is cumbersome.

Access

By Car

Take the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) towards Jurong, and leave it at Exit 7 of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE), afterward, follow the brown signs to the Singapore Zoo.

By Bus

Take bus 171 from the City to Mandai Road, alight there at the first stop and transfer to bus 927.

By MRT

Alight at Ang Mo Kio station (NS16) and take bus 138 or at Choa Chu Kang station (BP1/NS4) and take bus 927.

On Sundays and Public Holidays it is possible to take bus 926 from the MRT Woodlands (NS9) or Marsiling (NS8) stations.

By Special Service

BusHub Services offers a daily bus service from pick-up points below to Singapore Zoo, and back. A one-way trip costs $4 for adults and half that for children. Buses depart twice a day, roughly at 9 AM and 1 PM, and on holidays also at 10 AM. The detailed list of stops and times appears at www.bushub.com.sg. A similar service is offered by them for Jurong Park.

City Tours offers a similar service on a door to door hotel basis for $11.90 per person, reservations can be done at www.citytours.sg

Combined Tickets

Since Wildlife Reserves Singapore is the parent company of the zoo, the Night Safari and the Jurong Bird Park (all of them reviewed in this journal), special tickets valid for one month and combining the attractions exist:

3-in-1: S$40.00 for adults.
2-in-1: Any two of the three parks, S$30.00 for adults.

Night Safari Tour

The park can be toured with no specific order, though probably most visitors would pass through all the attractions mentioned below:

Thumbuakar Tribe

A Thumbuakar Tribe performance takes place at the Photomound at 7, 8 and 9 PM, and at the Ulu Ulu at 6:30 and 7:30 PM. Coming from Borneo, the display includes tribal dances, blowpipe demonstrations and fire eating displays.

Fishing Cat Trail

One of the most important features of this park is that the visitors have the illusion of sharing the same open space with the animals. Fences, moats and other separating devices are tastefully disguised. Nowhere is this more worrying than on the Fishing Cat Trail, where leopard cats, small-clawed otters, Indian Gharials and the largest bat in the world - the Malayan flying fox – can be enjoyed and feared.

Forest Giants Trail

This trail is a botanical display of rainforest giants, including over a hundred native plants; some of the trees are well over a hundred-years old. The last being living eco-systems, the display also offers sights of nocturnal animals like toads, frogs, bats, flying lemurs, nightjars, owls, squirrels, tree shrews and of many insects.

Creatures of the Night Show

The show demonstrates the behavior of some local residents: Puma, Barn Owls, Python, Raccoons and others.

Tram Journey I

The tram ride covers 3.2km, offers 18 displays and takes about 45 minutes to complete. It includes a live commentary and one stopover at the East Lodge. It begins from 7:30 PM. Tickets cost S$10.00.

The tram ride begins At the Himalayan Foothills display, where Himalayan Tahr, Bharal, and vultures can be seen, and then continues into the Nepalese River Valley which is home to the otter, wolf, Greater Asian Rhino, jackal and Sambar Deer. The Indian Subcontinent hosts the Striped Hyena, Gir Lion and the Sloth Bear. Due to the special lighting used, the animals are oblivious to the visitors (and most cameras to the animals!).

Leopard Trail

The Leopard Trail is near the East Lodge and is best seen during the tram stopover there. It features the clouded leopard, the binturong and the Malayan civet. Next to it is a dome featuring the giant flying squirrels; sized like house cats, the squirrels glide among the treetops in the dome. A similar display takes place at the Bat Mangrove Walk where Malayan Bats hunt for food amidst the visitors heads.

Tram Journey II

The second part of the tram trip is dedicated to Equatorial Africa and features giraffes, servals, spotted hyenas, bongos and hippos. Then the tram enters the Indo Malayan Region, which is home to the hog deer, the bearded pig and the Malayan tiger.

Tapirs, Red Dholes, Asian Elephants and Bantengs occupy the Asian Riverine Forest and are followed by the South American Pampas where the maned wolf, the capybara and the giant anteater compete for the visitors’ attention. The tour ends with the Burmese Hillside, which features guars and thamins.

A Worthy Adventure

By far, the Night Safari display is the most interesting one among the parks reviewed in this journal. None of the others compares in its richness or in the sense of reality created here; the fear of being attacked by a tiger while walking along the trails is almost valid.

Unfortunately, I found two difficulties with photographing. The first was unavoidable: it is dark and taking pictures demand a tripod and long exposure times. The second was unnecessary. I had spent the afternoon at the zoo and took a few hundred pictures, supposing that I would be able to recharge the camera’s battery at one of the restaurants while dining and waiting for the Night Safari to open; unluckily, there were no electricity outlets available for the customers.

Ancient Orchids

Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, established the first botanical garden on Government Hill in 1822, aiming to introduce the cultivation of cocoa and nutmeg. This garden was closed in 1829, after his death.

The actual gardens were founded in 1859 as a leisure and ornamental park. Its first Director, Henry Nicholas Ridley, arrived in 1888 and is known for persisting in persuading Malaya's planters to grow rubber trees. He devised successful propagation methods and discovered a way to harvest the rubber without harming the trees. After Malaya’s coffee plantations were destroyed by disease, the planters adopted the rubber just in time for the rubber rush driven by the then new car industry.

Beginning in 1928, Professor Eric Holttum, then Director of the Gardens, set up laboratories and conducted the first experiments in orchid breeding and hybridization. The results of these experiments laid the foundation for this industry. Since the mid 1960s, the gardens supply plants and flowers for the roadsides and parks of Singapore.

In 1988, the 3-hectares National Orchid Garden was established and the gardens experienced a shift towards becoming a leading institution for tropical botany, including topics like botanical research, education programs and preservation of cultural heritage.

Access

The gardens are open everyday from 5 AM to midnight, the entrance is free. The National Orchid Garden is open between 8:30 AM and 7 PM daily, with tickets (Adults $5.00, discount tickets are available) sold until 6 PM. The Jacob Ballas Children's Garden is open between 8 AM and 7 PM (Admission until 6:30 PM, closed on Mondays)

The Library of Botany and Horticulture is open from Monday to Friday, between 9 AM and 5 PM, and on weekends from 9 AM to 1 PM.

By Foot

The gardens are near Orchard Road. Keep going until its northern end, and then continue along Tanglin Road. Soon the last changes its name to Napier Road. At the spot where Napier Road changes its name to Holland Road is the Tanglin Gate of the park.

By Bus

From Holland Road
SBS Transit 7, 105, 123, 174
SMRT 75, 77, 106

From Bukit Timah Road
SBS Transit 66, 151, 153, 154
SMRT 67, 171

Walking Considerations

The park is huge; if arriving on a tight schedule the walking distances among the main attractions should be considered.

Walking from the Visitor Centre to the Orchid Garden takes around ten minutes; from the Visitor Centre to the Eco-lake and the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden takes around fifteen minutes.

Then, walking from the Orchid Garden to the Botany Centre takes fifteen minutes and from the last to the Visitor Centre (the starting point) takes twenty-five minutes.

Empress Orchid

The park is divided into the following areas:

Tanglin Core

Tanglin Core is the name of the area next to the Tanglin Gate; it includes the Botanic Center and the Swan Lake as main attractions. Beyond that, an extensive array of lush paths leads among sculptures and six main exhibits.

The Botanic Centre includes the Library of Botany & Horticulture, the Singapore Herbarium, the Orchid Breeding & Micro-propagation center as well as the Education Outreach and Workshop classrooms

The most notorious among them is the Tembusu tree, a very large tree with a dark brown, cracked bark; it is part of the Heritage Trees Scheme, which is aimed to save native trees from extinction.

Central Core

The Central Core occupies the park center and provides access to the Nassim Gate; the Visitor Centre is located not far from that gate. Its main attractions are the Symphony Lake, the Rainforest, the Palm Valley, and the Ginger Garden, where the Halia Restaurant is.

However, its main attraction is the National Orchid Garden.

I must admit I had hardly paid any attention to that flower until I visited this garden. Its magnificent display of color and life is impossible to ignore.

The garden’s collection includes more than a thousand species and two-thousand hybrids of orchids.

It is divided into several areas:

The Burkill Hall & VIP Orchid Garden is a colonial plantation bungalow; it used to be the Director’s House and currently its ground level serves as an exhibition area of orchid hybrids named after VIPs who have visited the garden. Next to it is the VIP Orchid Garden where those are grown; some famous hybrids include: Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher, Renantanda Akihito, Dendrobium Masako Kotaishi Hidenka, Dendrobium Elizabeth, and others.

The Orchidarium is an area where only natural orchids are on display. The Tan Hoon Siang Misthouse displays hybrids and a small collection of fragrant orchids, like the Vanda Mimi Plamer. Finally, the Lady Yuen-Peng McNeice Bromeliad House houses plants of the Bromeliaceae family, which includes plants like pineapples.

In temperate countries there are hothouses; hot Singapore needs a coolhouse for growing certain plants. The one located here recreates the environment of a tropical highland forest, and shows orchids growing only there.

Bukit Timah Core

The Bukit Timah Core is on one of the park corners, next to the Nursery Gate. It features the Eco-Lake, the Bamboos, the Bougainvillea, a garden of herbs and spices, medicinal plants, fruit trees, nuts and beverage crops and the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden.

Heritage Trees Scheme

Walking in the 21st century Singapore is misleading; it is easy for the traveler to forget he is in a tropical island where the rainforest ruled a couple of centuries ago. Thus a plan to keep native trees was implemented in 2001, including eleven trees in the gardens; several of them belong to the rainforest.

The rainforest area of the gardens occupies six hectares and offers a golden opportunity to see how Singapore looked before the city was founded, with attractive trails among an original forest which is kept almost untouched. Few cities have such an attraction and since seeing a well-preserved rainforest in the wildness is difficult this is with no doubt one of the peaks of a trip to Singapore.

Inaugurated in 1973, the Singapore Zoological Gardens offers one of the best experience of its kind in Southeast Asia, comparable to the one of the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok. Occupying an area of 28 hectares, it hosts 315 animals, of which 16% are threatened species.

Concept

The zoo is of the open type, with the animals being kept in landscaped enclosures simulating their natural habitats. Those are separated from the visitors by dry or wet moats concealed with vegetation or below the line of vision; in the case of dangerous animals, glass-fronted enclosures separate the visitors from them.

Moreover, instead of just observing the animals, there is also an extensive educational content offered in most areas of the zoo. Several projects aimed at the conservation of threatened species take place within it, as happens with the oriental pied hornbill, the pangolin and the orangutan.

Awards

Not only I enjoyed the visit; Michelin awarded the zoo a 3-star rating in 2008 and Forbes Traveler recognized it in 2007 as one of the World’s Best Zoos.

Timing and Fees

The zoo is open every day of the year, from 8:30 AM to 6 PM. The entrance fees are S$18.00 for adults, while children between 3 and 12 years pay half of this fee (and of any other fee mentioned below). Additional charges exist for the tram and the boat (S$5.00).

Since Wildlife Reserves Singapore is the parent company of the zoo, the Night Safari and the Jurong Bird Park (the last two being also reviewed in this journal), special tickets valid for one month and combining the attractions exist:

3-in-1: S$40.00 for adults.
2-in-1: Any two of the three parks, S$30.00 for adults.

Access

By Car

Take the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) towards Jurong, and leave it at Exit 7 of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE), afterward, follow the brown signs to the Singapore Zoo.

By Bus

Take bus 171 from the City to Mandai Road, alight there at the first stop and transfer to bus 927.

By MRT

Alight at Ang Mo Kio station (NS16) and take bus 138 or at Choa Chu Kang station (BP1/NS4) and take bus 927.

On Sundays and Public Holidays it is possible to take bus 926 from the MRT Woodlands (NS9) or Marsiling (NS8) stations.

By Special Service

BusHub Services offers a daily bus service from pick-up points below to Singapore Zoo, and back. A one-way trip costs $4 for adults and half that for children. Buses depart twice a day, roughly at 9 AM and 1 PM, and on holidays also at 10 AM. The detailed list of stops and times appears at www.bushub.com.sg. A similar service is offered by them for Jurong Park.

City Tours offers a similar service on a door to door hotel basis for $11.90 per person, reservations can be done at www.citytours.sg

Food and Souvenirs

By the entrance are the Zoo Shop and three restaurants, Ah Meng Kopi specializing on local food, Pizzafari serving pizza and an outlet of Ben & Jerry’s.

Visiting the Zoo

I strongly recommend avoiding the zoo during the morning and reaching it in the early afternoon, so that the visit can be comfortably combined with the adjacent Night Safari. Since the zoo is relatively far from the city, that simplifies the traveling patterns.

Pick up a map by the entrance as they include details of the daily events, feeding sessions, keeper talks, rides and photography opportunities of the day.

Next to the entrance is the Rainforest Walk where Asian small-clawed otters, Malayan tapirs, babirusas and white tigers can be seen. The last are not albino, but feature white and black stripes instead of orange and black ones. A similar colony exists in the Dusit Zoo of Bangkok.

Next to the white tiger exhibit is the Upper Seletar Reservoir, where the visitor can enjoy a twenty-minute cruise on the Boat Safari. Stork-billed kingfishers and the white-bellied sea eagle - Singapore’s largest bird – can be seen there.

The Rainforest Kidzworld offers activities for children including the Wild Animal Carousel and the Water Play, where swimming is possible. Horse carriages take the visitors around this area.

The Fragile Forest zone is home to free ranging mousedeer, lemurs, tree kangaroos and butterflies, all of them moving free amidst rainforest trees, ferns and cascades. Soundscaping and a misting effect add reality to the exhibition; the visitors walk through a path tactfully separated from the animals’ environment.

At 3:30 PM there is an exhibition called Elephants at Work and Play at the Elephants of Asia exhibit, which shows a working elephant’s typical day at a logging camp.

The Australian Outback is home to grey kangaroos, wallabies, the cassowary, emus, bearded dragons, frilled-neck lizards, carpet pythons and of the inland taipan – the deadliest snake in the world.

The Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia hosts over eighty Hamadryas baboons alongside Nubian ibexes, black-backed jackals, rock hyraxes and banded mongooses in a landscape of massive rocks.

The pygmy hippos are one of the main attractions of the zoo; strangely graceful despite their shape, they can be watched through a transparent aquarium. Originary from the forests and swamps of western Africa, they are a rare nocturnal forest creature. Their survival in captivity is more assured than in the wild, since in the last there are less than three thousand left.

The polar bear and the penguins are one of the most prestigious items in the zoo; these are probably the closest specimens of their types to the equator line.

Other items include giraffes, jaguars, white rhinos, African lions, the Primate Kingdom featuring orangutans, chimpanzees and others as well as Mandrills and Manatees.

The proboscis monkey is one of the rarest specimens in the zoo. It has a nose big enough to probably smell ripe fruits all the way to Africa; unluckily, taking its picture is rather difficult since it sits high on trees.

The Komodo dragon is a species of lizard originary from the island of Komodo (and adjacent ones) in Indonesia. It is a huge attraction because it is the largest living species of lizard, reaching a length of up to to 3 metres and a weight of 70 kilograms.

Feeding Times

Certain animals can be visited during their feeding times; the timings are available at the entrance of the zoo. I did manage to visit the zoo during the rare event of feeding the Komodo Dragons (on the first and third Sunday of every month), which probably is the most unusual display. A heavily protected man – within a thick rubber overall, since the dragons are poisonous – feed them with chicken and rats. The last are eaten whole, while the chickens (mercifully killed before the event) are attacked by several dragons at once and eaten in a few cruel bites.

If interested to witness feeding sessions, then Sunday is the best day for a visit, since beyond the abovementioned Komodo dragon, the polar bears, the King Cobra and the Sungei Buaya Crocodile are fed only during this day.

"Why do you write so much about Bangkok’s shopping malls while you make all your major shopping in Singapore?" a friend that was looking at my IgoUgo journals asked.

"You weren’t supposed to notice that!" was my lame answer.

The truth is undeniable. I prefer to browse around in Bangkok – it is much bigger and offers many more shopping centers – but when the time to close a megadeal arrives – let’s say buying a $100 used laptop – Singapore is my first choice.

Shopping in Singapore is one of the most exciting activities awaiting the traveler after a few months in the Southeast Asia’s backwaters. The city is a paradise especially for electronic products; the main shopping district is on the central Orchard Road, which can be comfortably explored by foot. A plethora of restaurants and coffee shops – including all the main international chains – cater for the shoppers; most of the malls include their own food plazas and coffee shops.

Orchard Road

Orchard Road begins at the intersection with Orange Grove Road, next to the Orchard Hotel, and advances southeastwards until it ends at the intersection with Handy Road, where it becomes Bras Basah Road. It is a one-way street and has an extensive underground infrastructure, including underground pedestrian walkways between the malls. Since the street is short and the malls are next to each other, I avoided giving the exact addresses for the sake of reading clarity.

The street got its name from the nutmeg, pepper and fruit orchards that delimited it in the nineteenth century; only in the 1970s it became a shopping area. Yet a lush trees canopy still covers the street creating an especially pleasant environment for the shopper in the tropics.

Orchard Road Shopping Malls

Centrepoint is next to Emerald Hill and houses the local branches of Robinsons and Marks & Spencer, as well as the Cold Storage Supermarket.

Far East Plaza is a cheap fashion and food outlet.

Forum - The Shopping Mall is aimed for children and mothers. It includes a branch of Toys "R" Us as well as an Emporio Armani and a Max Mara.

Heeren Shops hosts a HMV store and is aimed mainly for young people; it is placed within an attractive colonial building.

Hilton Shopping Gallery is located within the Hilton Singapore and hosts exclusive shops; those include Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari, Donna Karan and Dolce & Gabbana.

Liat Towers hosts Audemars Piguet, Massimo Dutti and Zara.

Mandarin Gallery is within Meritus Mandarin Singapore, offering to its guests The Link and Esprit.

Ngee Ann City is the largest shopping mall in Singapore; it hosts mainly Books Kinokuniya and the Japanese department store, Takashimaya, but also exclusive boutiques such as Vacheron Constantin, Louis Vuitton and Channel.

Orchard Point houses mainly the OG department store.

Palais Renaissance is another place for visiting exclusive boutiques.

Paragon is one of the biggest malls in the area and houses such names as Marks & Spencer, Metro, and Toys 'R' Us.

Pinoy Place specializes in shops selling products from the Philippines.

Plaza Singapura offers one of the main cinema complexes in the area, the Golden Village Cineplex, as well as Carrefour and other shops.

Shaw House and Centre hosts the huge Isetan department store – very similar to the one in Bangkok - and the Lido 8 Cineplex.

Specialists' Shopping Centre is one of the main malls in the area for electronic products, selling everything from a digital camera, through laptops to pocket computers; the prices are rather high here. Even if planning to buy in the electronics’ shops mentioned below, I strongly recommend visiting this one before and comparing the products offered; in Singapore new models appear by the hour, thus being updated may get especially tricky.

Tangs is at the Scotts and Orchard roads junction; founded in 1934, it was the first supermarket mall in Singapore.

Wheelock Place is a very important place in Singapore since it hosts a huge branch of Borders books chain.

Wisma Atria offers a large aquarium at its basement which is popular with children and one of the biggest food courts in the area which is managed by BreadTalk.

Reaching Orchard Road

By far, the best way to travel around in Singapore is by the MRT; there are three MRT stations on Orchard Road: Orchard, Somerset and Dhoby Ghaut.

Other Electronics’ Shopping Malls

Sim Lim Square

The Sim Lim Square is one of the biggest electronics outlets in Singapore. It is located at 1 Rochor Canal Road and can be reached by foot after leaving the MRT from the Bugis or the Little India stations. Despite being a bit far from downtown, it is comfortably close to Little India and Bugis and the visit can be thus combined with those attractions. The plaza is open daily between 10:30 AM and 9 PM.

This six-storey electronics plaza offers a plethora of shops offering every existing gadget; the most important difference between this mall and others is that many shops offer second hand merchandise. Laptops begin here at $100, though they come with no guarantee; despite that my experience is that they are completely reliable.

Funan DigitaLife Shopping Mall

The Funan DigitaLife Mall is located on 109 North Bridge Road, at the very center of Singapore’s downtown. Due to its relative isolation from other malls, the prices here tend to be a bit above the average, but the variety of products is awesome, justifying a detour before making the final decision.

Comparing Prices

Comparing prices before buying is essential; unlike most of the rest of Asia, bargaining won’t achieve much here, but the differences between shops may be significant. However, I strongly recommend asking for accompanying items before buying an item; often these are offered free instead of a discount.

For electronics the prices are not very different from those in Bangkok, but the models offered for a given price are newer here.