How lovely to stroll around Singapore, with its surprising greenery, and everywhere clean and tidy. Today I enjoyed a walk on Dempsey Hill, a large green area right next to the CBD and opposite the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where previous army barracks have been restored to create lots of eateries, shops, environments to enjoy. Especially nice to enjoy a walk with locals John and Gen, making it all interpretable.
It was clear from the photo above that it was a splendid day for a morning walk. I always enjoy the greenery of Singapore and its orderliness, even when a massive new subway development is underway, as the picture above shows.
The trees and grass on Dempsey Hill all seem especially green and luxuriant, as you can see from the leaves below:
Some of the trees are huge, and many of them have alls sorts of plants growing on them – so many that it seems likely that they just landed there, rather than having to be cultivated:
Dempsey Hill used to contain many army barracks in a large green area. Miraculously, the green area is still there, and now the army barracks have been retained and renovated to be a popular spot, in its green surrounds. These relics of bygone days added to the ambience:
It is a huge area (apparently larger than Perth’s Kings Park) and there are a lot of previous army barracks that have been renovated and are now popular food and beverage places, amidst other uses. Here are a couple of examples, showing high rooves and wide colonnades.
We popped into one of these, Jones the Grocer shop, one of the previous barracks that has now been transformed into a very chic place with great coffee, cheese, food and ambience, as you can see below. The shop has enormously high ceilings … maybe they used to have two floors?
We even spotted the pavilion for the Singapore Cricket Club among our wandering, looking a little forlorn, but maybe waiting for the season to start. As a former British colony, and with a large Indian community, of course cricket is still a respected activity here, but I suspect it’s mostly played elsewhere now:
We also had a quick window shop in a very up-market butcher shop (Huber’s), mostly patronised by expats, it seems. It was a spectacular piece of butchery, with a small army of staff, neatly decked out in their uniforms, and a lovely place to wander for a little while. As you can see, however, shopping here is not for everyone: one of those places that, if you need to know the price, you shouldn’t be shopping there! The prices are on public display, however, and we chose to not invest in any of the Australian Wagyu beef, displayed on the sign below for $148 per kg (and so sensibly priced for every 100 g instead of every kg).
Speaking of signs, the life-sized cow sign outside the butchery, explaining the cuts of beef, was written in English, presumably because only English speakers shop there. But Singapore generally does a better job of catering to different languages and celebrates its multiculturalism, using it in part to promote its tourist industry. We were especially impressed with the sign in five languages shown below, which we saw on first entering the Dempsey Hill area:
Those who speak English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil get explicit advice, while any others can make do with the fifth language of a picture. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which seems to be a numerical overestimation in this case. We chose to not attempt to enter the protected place that had been fenced off.
Walking out of Dempsey Hill into the Orchard road area, we were still surrounded by lots of green-ness. The pedestrian crossing on the right goes over a busy road to the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Singapore’s UNESCO World Heritage Site) on the opposite side of the busy road.
Nearby, the Australian, British and US embassies were prominent, along with those of other countries. Singapore has certainly come a long way in a short time, and is well-connected politically, from its wonderful vantage point. As well as powerful political connections now, it also seems that many of the powerful people in Singapore’s history also lived around these parts of town in the past, and to some extent still do.
We were not far from the famed Orchard Road and were a little surprised to find that the Christmas lights are already beginning to appear, with a motif of ‘Endless Wonder’. The Christmas lights on Orchard Road are an annual spectacle, but are not actually lit until early November (which is just a few weeks away), helping to maintain the status of this as one of the world’s great streets – especially for anyone interested in shopping (which seems to be the entire population of Singapore).
Orchard Road is always lovely to walk along, with some spectacular buildings and lots of greenery; of course it is all spotless, too.
There’s always some interesting new things too, rather like Changi Airport. At present, there is a range of huge sculptures on the footpath, as well as more fixed sculptures at places like hotels (the example above). I enjoyed seeing a nice Fernando Botero sculpture of a reclining woman outside one hotel, as well as a sculpture by a local imitator nearby. (I originally thought Botero was Brazilian, but in fact he is Colombian). I have seen at least one other of his large chunky bronzes in Singapore, so presumably some locals like his work as well.
The statue of the horseman up high reminded me of the Man of La Mancha, but may well have no connection with Don Quixote. I remember hearing once that someone claimed that cities with public works of art are much better places to live in; maybe it’s because there are people around willing and prepared to invest in public art, or perhaps there is tolerance for public funds to be spent on works of art; these kinds of things say something positive about a city. A few temporary (but huge) works by Manolo Valdes from Spain were on display along Orchard Road. (Click on them for a closer look).
While these might not appeal to all – I was less impressed by the butterfly heads than the needle head, for example – the very fact that they are there at all adds a bit of interest to the walk down Orchard Road. And next time I go, there will be different things …
Of course, there are always people around in Singapore, especially near shops and food. There were even people enjoying a cafe at street level, as shown below, reminiscent of Paris (but without the dogs!)
In Singapore these days, you often see motorised pedestrians, too. There are many motorised scooters on footpaths, for example. The couple below on their Sedgways zoomed past me before I had time to photograph them, but I managed to capture the unicyclist as he sneered past. I was unable to resist The photo below, observing that, unlike we mere mortals, this new form of pedestrianisation still struggles with steps.
Walking in Singapore. Always feels safe, lots of green, always clean and always interesting.
If you find yourself here, make sure you go for a walk.
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