Raffles ticket:SO THERE I WAS, sipping a Singapore sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, figuring out tomorrow's story . . .
Isn't this what a foreign correspondent always dreamed about, living an experience that once made Singapore one of the most desirable journalistic stopovers? So why did it feel a bit phoney?
For a start, the Long Bar, the haunt of legendary scribblers, which used to be just off the lobby, is now on the third floor of an annex. Also, the other customers - like myself, I suppose - had dropped in because having a Singapore sling (below) in the Long Bar was as de rigueur for tourists as an Irish coffee at Shannon.
Once a symbol of opulence, where British colonials gathered to sing There'll Always Be an England as Singapore fell to the Japanese, in 1942, Raffles Hotel has been restored to its original grandeur and its 103 suites faithfully renovated in colonial style. They are named after writers who stayed there, such as Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Pablo Neruda.
Maugham is said to have worked all morning under a frangipani tree in the palm court, turning the bits of gossip he picked up at dinner parties into stories.
Raffles has become a theme hotel, its name hijacked for corporate gain and attached to opulent Raffles hotels around the world. The Long Bar, which makes a fortune from its overpriced gin slings, was but one of 15 "food and beverage facilities" and 70 speciality shops in the complex. One could buy Raffles golf balls, fridge magnets, pith helmets and miniature Singapore slings (the top seller). There were also Raffles plates and cutlery you could purchase if, as my guide book put it, "you can't afford to stay at Raffles and nick your own."
I could afford to stay for one night, and I didn't nick the crockery. But I did make a gaff when making my reservation. "Could I have a room for the night?" I asked. "We don't have rooms, sir," came the rather dismissive reply, "only suites."
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