Asia Travel Guide

Singapore’s burgeoning bar and pub scene means there is now a wide range of drinking holes to choose from, with the Colonial District, Boat Quay and Orchard Road areas offering particularly good pub crawl potential. With competition hotting up, more and more bars are turning to live music to woo punters, though this is usually no more than cover versions performed by local bands. Clubs also do brisk business; glitzy yet unpretentious, they feature the latest imported pop, rock and dance music, though don’t expect anything like a rave scene - Ecstasy isn’t in the Singaporean dictionary.

Bars and pubs
It’s possible to buy a small glass of beer in most bars and pubs for around S$5, but prices can be double or treble that, especially in the Orchard Road district. During Happy Hour in the early evening, bars offer local beers and house wine either at half price, or “one for one” - you get two of whatever you order, but one is held back for later. Most places close around midnight (a bit later on Friday and Saturday nights).

Clubs
Unlike their London and New York counterparts, Singaporean clubs are refreshingly naive, their customers more intent on enjoying themselves than on posing. European and American dance music dominates, and many feature live cover bands. Clubs tend to open around 9pm, and most have a cover charge of S$10-30, at least on weekends. Singapore also has a plethora of extremely seedy, extortionately priced hostess clubs, worked by aged Chinese hostesses.

Traditional entertainment
If you walk around Singapore’s streets for long enough, you’re likely to come across some sort of streetside cultural event , most usually a wayang , or Chinese opera, played out on tumbledown outdoor stages that spring up overnight next to temples and markets, or just at the side of the road.

Wayangs are highly dramatic and stylized affairs, in which garishly made-up and costumed characters enact popular Chinese legends to the accompaniment of the crashes of cymbals and gongs. Wayangs take place throughout the year, but the best time to catch one is during the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts , when they are held to entertain passing spooks, or during the Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods.

The STB may also be able to help you track down a wayang, and as usual the local press is worth checking, or you could pop along to the Chinese Opera Teahouse, 5 Smith St (tel 323 4862), where S$15 buys you Chinese tea and an opera performance with English subtitles. Another fascinating traditional performance, lion dancing , takes to the streets during Chinese New Year, as do puppet theatres .