I am back Singapore 49 years since my first visit. That visit part of trip to the UK with my parents. We sailed to Naples on the P&O liner the Canberra and headed across Europe by train. After spending time in England, we flew to Geneva. The return flight to Australia was from Frankfurt was by QANTAS. The plane stopped in Rome, Cairo, Karachi, Calcutta and Singapore.

How aeroplane travel has changed.

1966 Visit

I have quite a good recollection of our stay in Singapore. We stayed in the Sea View Hotel. As the name suggests, it was in the coast. I have searched the internet, but cannot find are reference to the hotel. I assume that it is long gone.

As readers of this blog will probably know, my father was a British soldier and was captured by the Japanese in the fall Singapore in February 1942.
For those that don’t know his story, it can be found at:

A Guest of the Japanese Government – My WWII Story by Ron Wilkinson © 1999

I recall that Dad hired a car so we could get around Singapore. We visited the Army base in the Changi district. The base was still under British control. Later in 1967 the British announced that they would be leaving Singapore.

Dad wanted to see the Selarang Barracks. This place is famous in the fall of Singapore in 1942. The Japanese wanted all the captured soldiers to sign an instrument agreeing that they would not attempt to escape. The British and Australians refused to sign. The Japanese forced over 17,000 of the prisoners in the square within the Selarang Barracks.

There was limited water and virtually no  toilet facilities. There was also no protection from the sun. In a short time it was clear the disease would spread. The soldiers agreed to sign. I understand most of the soldiers used false names like Micky Mouse, Donald Duck and Adolf Hilter.

I have a vague recollection seeing the barracks and Dad talking to some British soldiers.
I have a more vivid recollection of the trip back to the hotel. We got lost. Dad spotted a van with the name of the hotel on its side. We followed the van, clearly on the assume it would lead us to the hotel.

The van stopped in front of a timber building. The driver and passenger went into the building. Dad followed them. He soon returned to the car. He told us that the place was a bar and he could find the driver because “they all looked the same”.

We waited for some time. Finally, the driver and his off-sider returned. Dad spoke to them and they led us back to the hotel.

Another recollection was driving across the causeway into Malaysia. I recall that we drove north into Johor. We stopped to see some rubber trees. Somewhere there is slide of me looking at tree that was being milked.

I also have a vague memory of us having lunch at Raffles Hotel. I can certainly recall Dad talking about having a drink in the Long Bar before being captured.

I can also remember the airport when we left to fly to Darwin. It was very small and there certainly weren’t any air bridges. I can recall that we bought a pair in binoculars.

Singapore Booms

Starting around 1967 Singapore embarked on an extraordinary period of economic growth under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew.

First DFAT Visit in 1984

I joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in September 1984. My first trip was to Moscow, East Berlin and Bonn. I travelled with a crusty old ex Air Force bloke.

In those days the QANTAS QF1 flights to London stopped in Singapore and Bahrain. We stopped off in Singapore on the way to London. Our hotel was on the corner of Scott Road and Orchard Road. It is still there and is called that Marriott Tang Plaza. I am not sure what is was called them.

By 1984 much of Orchard Road had already been developed. There were lots of hotels and shopping malls. Over the years that number of malls has increased.

We only stayed overnight before flying on London. I can recall by colleague taking me to a rather dodgy bar across the road from the hotel. I certainly doesn’t exist anymore.

On the return trip from Frankfurt, we again stopped over in Singapore. This time we stayed at Raffles. I recalled that I had had a bit of the discussion with my crusty old colleague about my desire to stay there. His view was that it was “old place” and modern hotels were better. This was typical, he was a dickhead.

Anyway, I must have one that argument. Raffles was on the Department’s list of preferred hotels so there was no reason why couldn’t stay there.

I have checked the prices for Raffles today. It costs SGD 1070 (about AUD the same) per night. The Marriott Tang Plaza costs SGD 480. That “old place” must be doing something right.

Returning from Kathmandu 1985

My next visit to Singapore was in March 1985. This was the final stage of the trip to India and Nepal. I have talked about that trip in my posts on my recent trip India.

After being in India we flew to Kathmandu where we stayed for over a week. We flew out of Kathmandu to Bangkok. This was a really bizarre flight.
We were not long into the flight when there was a load screaming sound. The sound stopped. The pilot then made the usual announcement that “we will be flying at 30,000 feet”. That was all very well, however, when I looked out of the window, I could see the side of a mountain with no snow. My knowledge of geography told me that Mt Everest was 29, 000 ft high. Something didn’t compute.

At one point an air hostess ran down the aisle crying. The screaming sound started again. The pilot then told us that there was a problem with the air-conditioning and we would be returning to Kathmandu.

As it turned out, the plane did not turn around. We continued on to Bangkok, seemingly very slowly.

I was very glad to land in Bangkok. I recall that we were over an hour late.

After a brief stopover we flew to Singapore.

We stayed at Raffles. My colleague has just reminded me (via Skype) that “while it was a great hotel, the rooms were a bit tied”. That probably explains why the hotel was with the budget for the DFAT preferred hotel list.

Working in Singapore in July 1985

Later in the year the same Foreign Affairs colleague and I spent three weeks working in Singapore. This was part of trip that included Bali, Jakarta and Brunei.

This time we stayed at the Marco Polo Hotel. The hotel was located in Taglin Road near to the Australian High Commission (AHC) on Napier Road. The British High Commission and the American Embassy are located on the same road.

The National Library of Singapore web site has a reference to the hotel:

“Marco Polo Hotel, built in 1968 on Tanglin Road, was one of Singapore’s famous landmark. It was so well-known that many popular personalities chose to stay there in the 1970s …Thee hotel interiors boasted of jade, green onyx, marble and teak carvings. It also had a roof-top restaurant. Lobby lounge girls dressed in cheongsams added to the exotic look of the hotel and it was well-known for its high quality service”.

Albeit, we were working we were able to see mot that Singapore had to offer at the time.
One night we went to Bugis Street. The street was famous for being frequent by ‘Lady Boys’. The government was not keen on this ‘activity’ and announced that that street would be closed down. The First Secretary from the AHC took us to there on one of its last days of its operation.

He told us that one of the “tricks that the Lady Boys do is to pick pocket your wallet”. Sure enough that is what happened to him. The wallet was returned to the AHC the next morning will nothing missing.

After we finished work in Singapore we went to Brunei for a week, before flying back to Singapore, for a couple of days and then back to Australia.
We stayed in the Grand Hyatt in Scotts Road. That place is still going and looks much the same.

Passing through in 1986

My next visit to Singapore was in April 1986. That was in a return trip to England. In hindsight, I wished that I had never made that trip.

With the family 2009

My next trip to Singapore was in January 2009. The trip took in Ao Nang, Phuket and Bangkok in Thailand.

One the reasons for the trip was to enable my daughter to see where her grandfather had been during the war. To that end we when out to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery and the Bridge over the River Kwai.

When we were in Singapore we went to the Changi Museum. It was a good way to introduce my daughter to that part of her grandfather’s life.

I took the opportunity to visit the Fort Canning Battle Box. This is an excellent place to learn about Japanese invasion and the British surrender. My then wife wasn’t interested and my daughter didn’t accompany me.

One of the biggest changes that I noticed to the city between 1986 and 2009 was the train system, the MRT. It had started operation 1987 and by 2009, it cover most of the city and the rest of the island.

Short Visit in 2010

Not long after the trip above trip, I separated from my wife.
In July 2010 I made a short trip to Vietnam. This involved a short stopover in Singapore. I took the opportunity to visit the Ford Factory WWII Museum. This was where the British formally signed the surrender documents in February 1942.

This Museum is currently closed, but will reopen in a few months.
I also took the opportunity to check out some of the ‘lively’ spots in the city. As I noted above the government under Lee Kwan Yue was quite strict. They closed Bugis Street and the whole city gained a reputation for being sterile. This was having an impact on tourism.

Also a lot of the colonial buildings had been demolished to be replaced with modern tower blocks and shopping malls. Other were vacated and were in disrepair.
In an effort to bring some life back into the place, the government decided to keep the colonial building in certain areas and encourage some ‘lively activity’. In particular, they preserved the Chinatown district and the buildings along the river from New Bridge Street to the Harbour. They encouraged bars and restaurants to be established in the area. The financial district is nearby. The plan worked. The cashed up financial industry workers (many of the them ex-pats) started frequenting the bars and restaurants.

In 2010 this was a ‘happening’ area and it still is.

I was shocked to find that the Marco Polo was no more. As the Singapore now tells me:
“The hotel however slipped into oblivion when it was torn down in 1999, and on its site now sits a condominium called the Grange Residences”.

I guess that problem was that it wasn’t fully utilising it land foot print, and wasn’t old enough to have the appeal of a place like Raffles. However I think those “lounge girls” have been missed by many.

Now in 2016

So I am back in Singapore again. I am en-route to Cape Town in South Africa and plan to make my way through southern Africa to Nairobi before heading to London in May.
I flew from the Gold Coast on Scoot, the budget airline owned by Singapore Airlines.
I am certainly not staying in the any pf the hotels noted above. Rather I am staying in a ‘luxury’ hostel in Chinatown. It is the Adler. It is properly described as ‘luxury’. A problem for most ‘women folk’ would be that there are 20 bunks the dorms and you, of course, share showers and toilets. However, the beds are very private with curtains and it is spotlessly clean.

Long Walk

On my first day I went on long walk over Canning Hill and along Orchard Road and on to the AHC. Not too much has changed. There is probably one or two more shopping malls on Orchard Rd since 2010.

Security around the AHC and the American Embassy is more obvious.

An area that has change in the Marina Bay area. This was almost complete in 2010. It is an amazing shopping precinct. It must have every high end luxury brand represented. There seem to be no shortage of customers.

Raffles

On the way back to Chinatown I stopped off at the Raffles Hotel.  I had a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar.

Canning Hill and Fort

The next day I went on another walk and this time did a guided tour of Canning Hill, the Fort and the Battle Box.

It was a reasonable tour. The guide told us about the early colonial days when the East India Company and the history of the Fort. It was established in the early 1800’s as a place to protect the British in the event of a uprising by the locals. They were fearful of an incident similar to the Indian Mutiny .

After WW1 and the advent of airpower that Fort was effectively demolished and the underground bunker the ‘Battle Box ‘ was built. This was used in WWII. The famous meeting between Major General Percival and his fellow commanding officer on Sunday the 15th of February where it was decided to surrender.

If you take the tour get see the room where the meeting took place. There are wax models of the soldiers involved.

Changi Museum

Next day I when out to the Changi Museum and Chapel. This is a very moving place. I left a note in the Chapel in memory of my Dad.

Flickr Links
Singapore 2009
https://flic.kr/s/aHskuCS7zE

Singapore 2010
https://flic.kr/s/aHsktRzVMX

Singapore 2016
https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/TzkK5d

About the Marco Polo Hotel
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_913_2005-01-22.html

About the MRT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_%28Singapore%29