Shelter For Shoppers Needed On Rainy Days In Singapore

Problem
Shelter from rain and sun is not a new idea. Raffles introduced the five foot way. Five foot wide, wide enough for two people to pass without forcing somebody out into the rain, the sun, the gutter.

I walk along the pavement and a pram, bicycle or scooter forces me against the wall which ladders my clothes, or out into the road and passing cars. I bump people with my bag or get bumbped by their when i walk along. A husband and wife with two children block the entire pavement. I am passing in the corridor. I reach the ladies toilet and there is a queue at the ladies toilet, no room to enter and exit and get to the wash basins. The idea of the five foot way was great.\

Waiting for a bus or a taxi, where are the benches with backs, and the shelter. Even the long shelters for bus passengers fill up fast.

Covered ways are being built between the stations of the MRT (mass transit railway) and the nearby housing estates and schools. That is excellent.

 But what about Orchard Road. Between the Paragon shopping mall (with Metro department store  and lots of upmarket shops), local people and foreign visitors are stranded or drenched.

I came out of Paragon and along with many tourists was stranded. Waited twenty minutes. Yes, if you can afford it you can get a taxi - but then you would be leaving the Orchard Road shops and denying them purchases of clothes, souvenirs, food and drinks. I eventually got drenched going back towards Orchard MRT via Tangs department store. Yes, Tangs is linked to the MRT. But the shoppers here at the Paragon are cut off from Tangs.

I thought: How about crossing the road from the Paragon to Ngee Ann City opposite? On second thoughts: I am not dashing across a busy road in the wet. Yes, there's an underpass from the next mall to Ngee Ann City. But how do I get from the Paragon to the next mall?

 Am I going to cross to Ngee Ann City to visit the Kinokunia boostore? No. My bags and clothes are soaking wet. I am not buying books to get soaking wet.

To attract shoppers from one end of Orchard Road to the other, and from one side to the other, the street needs covered ways all the way along.

The same applies to other cities. Pedestrian ways in London's Oxford Street,or Windsor, are no use in the rain. Shopkeepers know that on rainy days shoppers don't come out. Do they realize that shoppers who are already out won't stay out?

Come on, business associations,city planners, councils and governments. Do a favour to the shops, shoppers, tourists, economy, and the ordinary citizens. You only have to look at a rainfall calendar to see that cities worldwide need shelter for shoppers.

In England we say, if you want different weather, wait five minutes. If you want to visit England or Singapore, here are some useful websites:

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com (Singapore airlines)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Covered Walkways Encourage Walking To Stations In Singapore - please copy worldwide

Problem
I am about to go about but it's pouring with rain. If I'm feeling flush, I phone for a taxi. They are all busy. Uber provided a cheaper alternative. Now the private car alternatives to taxis have started pricing according to demand. Should I stay at home?

Answers
The nice thing about a good government is that it thinks ahead to what the citizens need and want and how they act and supplies their needs for the benefit of all. Sir Stamford Raffles famously built the 'five foot way', covered areas over pavements alongside the shop houses, as you can still see in parts of little India and Duxton Hill.

In those days many people walked or worked in the five foot way. Even today the shopkeepers put their trays of goods between the pillars and an old man with a sewing machine sets up shop out of the sun under the covered way.

Along came cars and careless city planners. Up go high rise buildings with no shelter for pedestrians, just cliffs of concrete and brick. In England Sough has roads like tunnels which pedestrians have no shelter from rain or sun, no ground floor shops, no refuge from heavy vehicles exhausts or splashing from big buses ploughing through dirty puddles splashing the payments (Americans say sidewalks).

However, the good news is that the planners in Singapore have considered how to get people out of cars and back into the new railway stations being built all over the city.

Last Spring 2017 I saw the covered way being built from the new Cashew station up the hill. A local resident told me it was to protect children from the local school walking to the station. Now I can see that the programme is extending to help adults and with a different purpose, not just to protect pedestrians from rain, but to change habits and to make walking to the station an easier option.

Reports say that the good results are:
1 More use of trains
2 Less use of cars - less pollution from road traffic, fewer traffic jams, faster road journeys for cars, and buses (and delivery vehicles and tourist buses)
3 Less use of buses means the same effect - plus fewer delays as people board and alight so quicker journey times.

I hope that the planners in Harrow will change their minds about are allowing giant towers of concrete alongside narrow pavements.

Disadvantages of Narrow Pavements
Cuts down the chance of expanding the road width later.
Claustrophobic
Exposes pedestrians to pollution
Pavements so narrow you cannot use a pram or bicycle without forcing pedestrians out into the road and preventing parents from holding the hands of children or the elderly.

Advantages of cover
Pleasanter to walk, run, or jog.
Shelter from both sun (exhaustion and melanoma cancer).
Shelter from and rain inconvenience and damage (wet clothes, dye running onto clothes and white paperwork, and wet shoes, soaked newspapers, and spoiled school books).
Shelter for sellers of food and drinks and protection from spoilage of food on sale and your snack pack lunch. (Shop signs in Takashimaya department store's basement food court deli stalls warned as yet uncooked and to be eaten raw fish and cooked fish (such as sushi) must reach home within an hour.)

Summary
Well done Singapore for the new (2017-8) covered ways.
England and other countries please copy.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Singapore's Storm Drain and Shelter From Rain

Singapore is a tropical country. It rains in rainy season. It rains every season. We are glad of the rain when it drives away the haze. Rain also waters the unattended aloe vera plant on the balcony.
Water prices are going up. Will this drive up prices of other goods, such as coffee in a cafe?

Problem
How do you avoid or divert unwanted rain in Singapore?
What could go wrong?
1 Swimming: You leave swimming until the afternoon and then it rains.

2 Taxis: You postpone calling a taxi until it rains, then taxis are unobtainable.

3 Rain Through Your Windows. All over your computer screen, laptop, mobile phone, office chair, newspapers, right the way from under the window to the far side of the room!

4 Storms trips the electricity. Food such as fish in the freezer, fresh milk in the fridge ...

5 Wet pavements when walking

Answers
1 Swimming Time
Swim in the morning.

2 Taxi Demand
That should change soon with variable pricing which increases costs when demand is high, so only those prepared to pay more take a taxi.

3 Rain: Leave a notice on the back of the front door: Take umbrella; shut windows.

4 Tell everybody how to turn the circuit breaker back on again.

5 Raffles built the five foot ways along the fronts of shops, covering the pavement (Americans say sidewalk).

Finally, some good news: All over Singapore shelters are built along streets between station.
Photo of storm drain Cashew Road, Singapore by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Books on Lulu.com and Amazon. Please share my posts.

What to look for in old Singapore

Problem
Where can you see old Singapore?
What architectural features should you look for?

Answer
Chinatown
Little India
If you look carefully at my photos, or blow them up using full screen and zoom, you will be able to see the pillars on the outside of the pedestrian ways.
Plot your route from the MRT (railway station) to a shop, restaurant, temple or museum.

Story
Sir Stamford Raffles planned out the city of Singapore with covered walkways to shield people from the sun and rain. These walk ways are known as the five foot ways. I learned about them at a talk given to a sub-group of Friends of The Museum in Singapore. You can still see the old five foot ways in front of the shophouses. The shop houses had shops below at the front bordering the five food way, with accommodation for the shop owner and family and their servants or employees at the back and overhead.

Tip
Plot your journey from an MRT station such as Little India or Chinatown. Both are on the Downtown line (6 stops), but also connected by the North East line (3 stops).

Photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright 2017.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.

Starbucks in the station at Baker Street; for quick coffee and souvenirs

Returning from an event at London Business school,after drinks at the crowded The Windsor Castle pub, we were looking for a coffee bar. We ran through the pouring rain and puddles. I wished that London had the covered ways which Raffles built in Singapore.

Dreaming of Covered Ways
Raffles organised the famous (famous in Singapore) five foot ways. I can't remember whether their main purpose was shelter from the sun or rain, probably more from the sun, as in many hot countries, but equally effective in rain.

Dreaming of Colonnades
London is such a rainy city. We should be building colonnades and soft, rubbery or bouncy awnings which could double as safety nets. These barriers protect those underneath from items dropped out of windows. Awnings could help protect flat dwellers and window cleaners or other outside workers from impact falling accidentally, or to escape fire, all the way to the ground or landing on concrete.

Starbucks
(Safety announcement over, let me return to the subject of coffee at the station.) Our last chance for coffee before boarding the train was at the Starbucks inside the station. My first impression was lukewarm, but I gradually warmed to the location.

Seating
My first thought was, no proper tables and seats, no toilets. The latter problem was soon solved. Ladies toilet nearby. Lots of cubicles.

I return. Back to Starbucks. Seating? No comfy sofas. Not the usual creature comforts. Stools at a central island. I have no choice. My two friends are already seated.

My friends are drinking their coffee. Now, what about the coffee?

What kind of coffee? A poster on the wall tells you about the coffees and the history of the company.

Now that my eyes have raised to the story of Starbucks, I look along the wall at the shelves of souvenirs above. I could buy a Starbucks theme mug, or a souvenir of London mug, large or small.

I must have passed through Baker Street station hundreds of times. I know London Transport's Lost and Found up on Baker street, the Sherlock Holmes museum opposite the Lost and Found. The museum has a shop with souvenirs of Sherlock and London. I know the statue of Sherlock Holmes outside the other station entrance, and Madame Tussauds and The Planetarium. I have passed the souvenir shop upstairs near the Sherlock Holmes statue. I didn't know the station, toilets, the Starbucks coffee shop or the Starbucks souvenirs.

If you are passing through London, and don't want to spend time, because you are catching the train on to home or Heathrow, a handy stop.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, English tutor and speaker.

Top Restaurants in Singapore - Try the Tippling Club

The Tippling  Club in Tiong Bahru was listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in Asia and one of the top ten in Singapore, a friend told us when we needed a place for a business meeting. Afterwards we went back for a lunch with family and friends. The price was 46 Singaporean dollars for two courses, 60 for three, plus 21 Singapore dollars or more for a long or short cocktail, and extra for coffee. But that included three appetisers and there teeny sweetmeats per person with the coffee.

It would be hard to describe the food because nothing was recognisable from any other menu I've had elsewhere. I am allergic to shellfish to my first free appetiser was swiftly changed to what looked like a prawn cracker, but it was not shellfish although it was salty.

Then on a different shaped plate is what looks like blackened pepper, but succulent with a thick sauce like a cross between tomato sauce and soy sauce. Delicious.

Along came a tiny flat shaped glass with what appeared to be a thimble ful of tomato juice. The serving person added what seemed to be oil and the result was a very tasty yet refreshing little drink.

My starter course was a kind of fish soup. It looked like a potato soup with lots of cubes of colour and flavours.

The main course was equally odd shaped, odd coloured and a mix of ingredients.

The sweetmeats were behind cute. Cutissimo.

My coffee was served on a metal saucer which I liked so much I asked for the supplier. The brown sugar oblong was placed over the white sugar oblong, so simple yet so visually effective. Lovely presentation.

Service was solicitous. When I stood up a lady stepped forward to escort me all the way to the door of the toilets. The two toilet cubicle doors reached the floor fro maximum privacy. The washbasin was in what looked like a tall vase. At the bottom of the base was inserted a conventional rise and fall plug.

Bar stools with a view of the kitchen were supplied with solid looking backs.

They seem to be open Monday to Friday for lunch, Saturday evening for a la carte dinner only, closed on Sunday. If you are looking a good value midweek lunch, this is the place.

The street is full of restaurants and bars. Duxton Hill for years has been famous for some of the few remaining historic shophouses,  two or three storey buildings, with shops and ground level, connected by a covered 'five foot way' named after the width, installed by Raffles when he founded the city's layout and architecture (in the days before air conditioned shopping malls). Not just a delightful restaurant, but a detour into old Singapore.

Tippling Club
38 Tanjong Pagar Road
Singapore 088461
teL +65 6475 2217
enquiries@tipplingclub.com
www.tipplingclub.com


Glossary
Bahru is Malay for new as in Johor Bahru in Malaysia.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.