![]() |
City Guide - Singapore - Nightlife | ||
![]() |
||
Nightlife Singapore may have a squeaky clean image, but that does not mean there is no fun to be had after the sun goes down. After-hours entertainment is either distinctly ex-pat or distinctly Singaporean, and there are plenty of venues where visitors can enjoy both Eastern and Western nightlife in style. Boat Quay is a classic ex-pat experience. A row of shophouses converted into bars, restaurants and clubs, it overlooks the bumboats taking trippers up and down the Singapore River. Harry's Bar, immortalised by Rogue Trader, the book and biopic of Barings bank fraudster, Nick Leeson, is on the corner with UOB Plaza, and epitomises the ex-pat end of the spectrum. It is from this direction that bankers and traders come streaming at lunchtimes and well into the evening. Boat Quay becomes progressively more local as it approaches Elgin Bridge, at the opposite end. The East Coast bars are also renowned as something of an ex-pat enclave, while a more 'creative' clientele hangs out in Tanjong Pagar, where many of Singapore's advertising and PR agencies are based. For a local feel, the Riverside area is the clubbing heart of Singapore, while the clubs and bars on and around Orchard Road cater more for tourists. Emerald Hill, lined with Singapore's most exquisitely converted shophouses, is especially popular. Further to the west, Holland Village is eternally busy, with younger Singaporeans filling its wine bars and retro coffee lounges. Most clubs are open 2200-0100 Sunday to Thursday and 2200-0300 Friday and Saturday. Dress code is generally smart-casual. Bars: Singapore has a bar to cater for every taste, from the refined colonial grandeur of Raffles Hotel's Bar & Billiard and the Long Bar, to tabletop dancing at the Elvis bar on Duxton Hill. Built at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Peranakan shophouses on Emerald Hill house a row of bars including No. 5, Ice Cold and Que Pasa, which offers a wide variety of wines, brandy, port, sherry, tapas and cigars. In and among the clubs on Mohamed Sultan Road, Next Page has a rustic Chinese interior while its sister bar Front Page is decorated in Peranakan style. The Wala Wala bar and restaurant, 31 Lorong Mambond, Holland Vilage, is a popular meeting place for young Singaporeans and Tanjong Pagar's media types unwind at the new Bisoux, on Tras Street, or the more established Beaujolais, 1 Ann Siang Hill. Casinos: The various lotteries, and on-course betting on horse races at Singapore Turf Club are the only authorised forms of gambling in Singapore. Casinos and all other gambling activities are illegal. Clubs: Sugar, on Mohamed Sultan Road, reinvents itself every six months to keep ahead of the competition. It is a remarkably successful formula and, with its camp decor and sought-after DJs, Sugar has become a hit with Singapore's beautiful people. Zouk, 17 Jiak Kim Street, is hugely popular with both ex-pats and Singaporeans and the main dance floor features house music, with a retro night on Wednesdays. Attached is Velvet Underground, a wine bar which attracts a more mature crowd and offers a mellower brand of hip. In the Orchard Road area, Neo Pharaoh's has acid jazz, mambo, house and garage music on three levels, and Top Ten, 4th Floor, Orchard Tower, plays chart hits for a predominantly tourist and business clientele. With a sushi bar and chill-out box upstairs, Venom, Pacific Plaza, 9 Scotts Road, is a very gay night out, with muscle-bound go-go guys and a cabaret drag show. A big hit with ex-pats, Anywhere, at Tanglin Shopping Centre, also features a Singaporean drag act. Karaoke: As in the rest of Asia, karaoke remains an inordinately popular evening's entertainment. Sparks, 7th Floor, Tower B, Ngee Ann City, is South East Asia's largest nightspot with 18 karaoke rooms. At the Lava Lounge, Grange Road, you can sing along against the backdrop of its 70s space age disco lounge and retro music. Kabuki, 15 Cairnhill Road, Europa Ridley's, 16 Nassim Hill, and Fire, 5th Floor, Orchard Plaza, Orchard Road, all provide karaoke facilities while Singsation, at the Plaza Parkroyal, has themed karaoke rooms. Live music: Situated in the basement of the Marriott Hotel on Orchard Road, Fabrice features music from Africa, Spain, South America, India, Japan and Russia as well as a live band, Latin dance sessions and music workshops. Harry's Bar, 28 Boat Quay, features a live jazz band and jam session every Sunday night, while at Crazy Elephant, further along on Clarke Quay, rhythm and blues bands alternate with classic rock'n'roll and alternative underground music. Bernie's, East Coast Road, features performances by local band Shyne, and local Chinese bands are the house speciality at Dallas Theatre Lounge and Nite-Club, at the Amara Hotel, Tanjong Pagar Road. |