Hotel Fort Canning

Feeling frazzled and tired, yet unable to decline your responsibilities or commitments? Ever felt like wanting to get away from it all, but can't because you can't seem to put your work down, at least, in your mind? Being responsibly uncontactable can afford as much peace of mind as a full blown holiday. Remove the guilt and just enjoy the pleasure with a simple staycation (stay • vacation). It is also much easier on the wallet for luxury seekers on a budget too. 

A staycation means that you can enjoy a weekend in the comfort of a luxurious hotel with the assurance that you are contactable in case of emergencies. Book a room at a hotel, and turn up. That's it, très simple. 

Hotel Fort Canning is nestled in greenery like a tropical colonial gem. In sunny Singapore, the sun is warm and inviting, yet, being in the heart of Fort Canning Hill means that guests are shielded from the heat. The lighthearted flapping of the ferns and palms in the breeze creates a cool, slow vibe. Everything is slow, and silent but nothing is dead. You can observe the movement of sunlight and the soft wind in perfect harmony from the multitude of balconies and sheltered terraces while strolling leisurely amidst the white walled grounds, hand in hand with a lover, or with a good book or camera. 

Outside the main lobby

The premium room (book here) I stayed in had a great view. To give you a better idea of how much bang for the buck you are getting, here's a preview: 

View from the (bath)room

Facing Park Mall, the view does not stint on greenery, which is great for people who want to get away from a dreary and dull corporate life. Blue or grey skies, the view is spectacular and refreshingly wide like a panoramic snapshot. And the buildings too, come alive at night, twinkling in the gray background. 

Premium Room 

When I first stepped into the room, what struck me first was the high ceiling. And I don't mean this! 

Tyrion Lannister at the Eyrie, for the Game of Thrones lovers

The high loft makes everything 10 times better. King sized beds look better in a spacious area. The curved lamp looks even more majestic, rather than eerily looming, and the chaise longue, even more comfortable. Pictures hardly do justice to the size of the room. Be assured that you will not have to engage in an uncomfortable crab walk between the bed and the wadrobe like many other hotels- there is enough space.

The room is spectacularly bright, yet, warm and inviting with the various mood lighting you can control with a lazy flick of the finger on a futuristic looking pod right next to the bed, or just use the television remote control if you are snuggled up.

The room

The glass window stretched to its zenith metres above my head, and the automated curtains curled up tightly against the ceiling, far above anybody's reach, to let the sunlight filter into the cavernous space. (You can let them out using the controls to the lights for privacy in the bathroom). Doors to the toilet are flung wide open to reveal the stunning toilet and the accompanying view. It is beautiful, inviting, and absolutely cozy.

And the bathtub looks even more majestic under a wall of stunning white marble. 

The bathroom comes with a bathtub as well as a shower with 2 heads: a rain shower, and the usual spray. Both work equally fine, but I suspect the building's water pipes are a little worn as the hot water slowed into a trickle sometimes. Nonetheless, this is a minor problem, and can be resolved by enduring cooler water for a few minutes.

A plus for me was the complementary coffees they provided within the room. Simply pop one of the colourful capsules into the coffee maker and you can get a cup of freshly brewed coffee. It is convenient and useful, especially when I wanted to be wide awake to take in all the sights of the hotel.

Swimming Pool 

The swimming pool is divided into two decks. The upper deck is for the children in a pool shaped like an '8', and below there is a large lap pool. It is small enough to accommodate up to 10 people comfortably, but do expect to be jostled or kicked a little.

As the hotel is relatively smaller than other luxury hotels, there are also fewer number of guests. Thus the staff is able to give personalised attention to guests at the pool. Expect to see a warm, clean towel placed by some unseen hand next to your personal items when you end your swim.

Do note, however, that there is no lifeguard on duty.

Swimming pool (upper deck)

At night, there is a myriad of activities to do at the nearby malls. Consider a late night movie followed by a slow and romantic walk through the park. Or perhaps just unwind in the bath and look up into the night sky, while wishing you could be there forever...

Night.

Stay a night here if 

• You are traveling to Singapore and want to stay somewhere centrally located, yet offering a high level of privacy. 
• You simply want to relax over the weekend, like I did. 
• It's a special day for you and your loved one. 

Hotel Fort Canning
11 Canning Walk, Singapore 178881 
+65 6559 6769

Drinks for thought

A strange craving for the fruity taste of wine and the kick in the stomach made me seek out a nonalcoholic drink that I can enjoy at night, without the loosening of the nerves it inevitably brings. After all, it is still possible to get the most out of your night with some motivation and a invigorating drink.

Hong Cho

I stumbled on the Hongcho drink at a Korean restaurant. It is a burgundy fruit concentrate in a plastic bottle, being both sweet and fragrant with berries giving that revitalising tangy taste. It is not as sour as one would believe vinegar to be, but the sourness is barely noticeable, even refreshing, like the actual taste of fresh kiwi. 

Dilute with 2 parts of water to 1 part of vinegar for the best taste and drink from any receptacle, be it goblets to feel regal or with your mineral water for health benefits, the most popular being weight loss. For more information on Hongcho, you can find out here. 

Magnolia Yoghurt Smoothie (Strawberry)

The other drink I enjoy occasionally is the Magnolia Yoghurt Smoothie (Strawberry)- a bottle of sticky pink goodness with bits of chewy Nata de Coco. It feels so natural to clutch the red plastic hand in my left hand, and just tilt my head back with the bottle in my right with half closed eyes. I can feel the cold, smooth strawberry sweetness trickling down my throat and into my stomach abused by copious amounts of acidic caffeine to keep me awake for mundane things. Moreover, my stomach growls a lot less after drinking it- it's like a cool elixir that helps to calm my stomach if I had too much acidic food, thus reducing discomfort and easing digestion.

I believe many opinions are divided over the merits of low fat yoghurt. Nonetheless, I need my probiotics, and my sweet fix. If you have a sweet tooth like me, and do not find the strawberry taste medicinal, you may like this. 

Lee So-Ra (이소라) : Eyelash Moon (눈썹달) Album

Lee So-ra, born 29 December 1969, debuted in 1995. Her  sixth album, Eyelash Moon (눈썹달), meaning Eyelash Moon won her the Korean Music Awards for Best Female Vocalist in 2005. She is best known for her Propose show, which showcased live performances by artistes and interviews.

She is less known outside of Korea compared to the likes of Kpop groups and other soloists. This can probably be attributed to the lack of exposure to the language as well as the fact that Kpop is a relatively recent phenomenon largely embraced by the youth.

 Her androgynous voice, highly feminine in its trembling emotionality yet gritty in its stoic and stable core, flows like velvet over an iron fist clutching the edge of her stool. Her songs of love, loss and heartbreak rise and fall over multiple octaves as she goes from her low, mezzo-soprano register to lilting, high and sustained notes that resonate without any nasality but with power and strength.

 The best example is her song from Eyelash Moon, 이제 그만 (Just Stop Now). The crescendo at the last stanza after the natural, steady cadence of the bridge emphasises the longing dredges of love, and the resulting resolve never to meet the man again:

 

사랑이란게 다 이런가요
잊었다 생각하면 더 생각나요
좋아했다면 우리 사랑했다면
다시는 마주치지 말길 바래요

Is love all like this?
If I think I've forgotten you, I think of you more.
If we cared for each other, if we had loved.
I hope we will never run into each other again.

Like a steady wave of the dark ocean at night, her majestic voice rises like a dignified monarch and falls not with a crash but unwaveringly, with restraint and sustained hope. To sum it up, the quote below from a better writer, Ask a Korean, encapsulates her "genius of singing"- having a vision of what he calls the 'fifth' end dimension, and being what truly means to be a singer:

"This is the point at which we see the true genius of singing. Singing is not merely following the commands of the composer. At its best, singing breathes life into what was no more than a clay doll formed by the composer. Singing turns what was two-dimensional into what is three-, four-, five-dimensional. It requires the ability to envision the end result, the fifth dimension that people cannot even imagine, and using your talent to get to that dimension. When this does happen, it is like magic -- it just happens. But instead of applauding, people simply think it is not hard to raise a rabbit in a hat and pull it out in front of the crowd. Lee Sora's influence is made even more meaningful by the fact that she shined in the K-pop desert populated by pretty corporate puppets. K-pop had two periods of nadir -- once during mid-1970s to early 1980s when the military dictatorship cracked down on "subversive" songs, and during late 1990s-early 2000s when the corporate groups almost choked out the scene. During the latter nadir when talentless pretty faces crowded the television screens, Lee Sora never lowered herself to vulgar sex appeal. Her voice alone gently reminded everyone in Korea what mattered in music."

From Ask a Korean (50 most influential kpop artists no. 37)

Ironically, in the homogenous sea of pretty idols and girlishly silly lyrics, Lee's handsome profile enhanced by her short cropped hair polishes the nobility of her voice to an elusive innocent purity that girl groups fail to produce, simply because she is uncontrived, deep, and in touch with her basic instincts to love, nurture and forget.

If listening to what we know Kpop to be is akin to tasting pink cotton candy at a fair offering all sorts of goodies, listening to her is like experiencing feminine strength in its emotive height. It goes from feeling the light salt of one's tears on the tip of one's tongue to tasting the deep saltiness of the sea in huge, airless gulps, and then resurfacing to gasp for the cool, night air before drifting, with closed eyes, into an unadulterated river of blue.

Listen to Lee So-Ra if 

• You enjoy good music in any language. 
• You enjoy listening to a deep, soulful voice.

Clockwork Angel (Book 1 of the Infernal Devices Trilogy) [Book review]

"'There are much more things in Heaven and earth, Nathaniel, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,' he said."

Book 1 of the Infernal Devices Trilogy

Indulging in an easy read over the weekend is akin to slipping into the embrace of a warm bath. Clockwork Angel, the first of the Infernal Devices Trilogy immerses the reader in Victorian London just as easily. Cassandra Clare has managed a praiseworthy fast-paced page turner, with the vivid graphicness of nightmares and a refined emotional touch of unrequited, pining love.

Clare is also one of the few authors whose young adult novels have hit the movie screen after the phenomenal success of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter universe. Her book, City of Bones in The Mortal Instruments series was in the cinemas just this year.

I initially expected Clockwork Angel to be like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games film trilogy, which I personally did not enjoy due to the weak and diluted prose that did no justice to the brilliant idea of combining reality television with a dystopian, Kardashian-like future. Thus it was a pleasant surprise when Clockwork Angel turned out to be a rather solid and highly entertaining read with surprisingly accurate references to Chinese folklore.

Starting her chapters with ominous quotes that will prime every Victorian literature lover for a wild and raw rush of action and bloodlust, Clare weaves humans (the 'mundanes'), dark magicians, healers, vampires or beasts (known as 'Downworlders' or the 'Shadow World') and the Nephilim ('Shadowhunters') together in a coherent story of sibling love and betrayal.

The Nephilim is widely considered to be a race: half humans, half angels, originating from the Bible (Genesis 6:4) which described them as "sons of God" and "daughters of men". Some believe that they are the offsprings of men and angels and are thus more beautiful and strong than other mortals. Others simply believe that they are the offspring of Seth who rebelling against God, mingled with Cain who commited the first murder by slaying his brother and was condemned to roam the earth. The common strain between these different interpretations is that the Nephilim are outsiders of our world, who are not quite human and yet cast away from God.

Tessa Gray, an American girl, crosses the ocean to locate her brother Nathaniel ('Nate') in England. A lonely orphan amidst orphaned Shadowhunters, who by nature of their Nephilim blood are lonesome beings belonging to neither heaven or earth, the book revolves mainly around her search for Nate and her life in The Institute with them. These Shadowhunters have superior physical capabilities but wither away at an age we would consider a human's prime.

Much detail is paid in describing the dreary weather in London as well as the differences in accents. The story begins with her kidnapping by the Pandemonium Club, an occult secret society, which reveals a hidden talent she possesses. This ultimately becomes a weapon as fatal to others as it is to herself and the people she loves.

Tessa’s incredible love for books serves to strengthen her resolve to live at certain points of hardships. Books are an escape for her difficult circumstances. She is probably a reflection of Clare’s love letter to her own passion for literature. It was distracting, somewhat like the quotes at the start of the chapters which felt irrelevant and more of a throwback to the Victorian forefathers of fantasy and gore, but the familiar references are welcome nonetheless, adding depth and dimension to the immensity of what the characters are experiencing.

Set apart from both life and love, Tessa unintentionally embarks on a discovery of other lonely characters and her mysterious past while the different worlds wage war against each other. More importantly, she gains a family in a process filled with blood, murders black magic and betrayals.

Why read this book? 

• To expose yourself to the steam punk genre
• To cast aside one's prejudice of books with fancy covers directed at young adults 
• Simply, to enjoy a good and easy read on sleepless nights! 

Sapore Italiano Singapore: Wine and Salad

wine tinted shadows

Jazz plays. The shriek of the saxophone sounds like the cry of pain amidst laughter at the beach, with sea stung eyes crying salty tears and scratching hands speckled with sand. A pause in the quiet jazz, and the wave crashes again over our heads, bringing another wave of headiness from the deep, dark smell of the Merlot.

The seafood salad soaks in its glistening dressing, soaking up the flavours of the olive oil. The prawn, sweet and supple, lies amidst the bitter rocket leaves. Squid rings are encircled by mussels, and covered in oil tossed over the plate in a wild rhythm. I spear my squid, hoping to elicit the same reaction, but slick liquid presses into the dense meat instead. The tangy smoothness complements the chewy, yet soft and yielding white flesh. 

I press the glass against my lips and look up and out, past the window and its panes and a man in a bowler hat, to the night sky. I thought I saw the stars but they were mere reflections of the lights in the restaurant, with us.

Come to Sapore for great service, wine, salads, pasta and authentic Italian food. 

Sapore Italiano Singapore
Bringing the best of Italy to you
1 CREATE WAY #01-06 University Town, CLEMENTI NUS | Singapore 138602