When to Visit - Arts and Events

The island hosts numerous festivals throughout the year whose dates vary as they are calculated by the lunar calendar. One of the most spectacular is Chinese New Year, when shops and houses are brilliantly decorated with streamers and lights, and lion and dragon dances are accompanied by a riot of drums and gongs. This is followed by the Chingay Procession a week or so later, with floats (chingay) accompanying the dances, to mark the end of the New Year Festival. In June there is the Dragon Boat Race, famous (and emulated) throughout the world, attracting top international teams of longboat oarsmen and drummers, plus the biennial Singapore Festival of the Arts, the biggest in South-East Asia, attracting international performers both to the festival and to its contemporary 'fringe' counterpart.

Singapore Dining

Singaporeans adore eating and it is no surprise that the island has a reputation as the food capital of Asia for its huge variety of superb restaurants. Although the cuisine of virtually every country is on display (including eight regional Chinese styles and three Indian), the best way to get a taste of real Singapore is from a hawker stall. These have been relocated from the streets of the city into a number of hawker centres, and they serve an enormous selection of traditional dishes. Official public health controls in Singapore are very strictly enforced, ensuring that food in a restaurant or from a stall is of the highest standard. Typical menu items include chicken rice (a casserole of chicken, Chinese sausage, Chinese mushrooms and rice), carrot cake or chye tow kway (a type of vegetable omelette with chilli) and laksa (spicy coconut soup with quail's eggs, prawns, chicken, bean curd, bean sprouts and noodles).

Singapore Tipping Advice

Tipping is not usual in Singapore, although it is becoming more prevalent. The more expensive restaurants and hotels add a 10% service charge and may actively discourage any additional gratuity, but if none is added, leave 10%. Service personnel in the larger hotels can be offered around SGD 1.00 for good service, and taxi fares should be rounded up to the nearest dollar. Tipping is prohibited at the airport.