From the airport, the taxi makes its way along a deserted road, under a thick curtain of acacia trees. It's only seven o'clock in the morning, but the light is already strong and the air is heavy, fragrant and humid. On either side of the carriageway, the thick grass is tamed, as short as a golf course. Everything is impeccable, perfect. Right down to the nape of the hot man's neck, where barely a drop of sweat beads. Singapore is a hot city, but it's smooth, clean and safe. Even the famous prohibitions - no chewing gum, no gambling... - have been toned down, and this 'permissiveness' has succeeded in attracting more visitors.
A miracle? No, a real tourism strategy! The City-State's drawing power has also been strengthened by new architectural icons. In fact, no sooner has the taxi left the dual carriageway than you come face to face with one of them, and not the least emblematic: the gigantic three-towered dolmen of Marina Bays Sands, a huge 57-storey, 2,561-room hotel complex featuring, among other things, the world's largest infinity pool, a luxury mall, a casino, a lotus-shaped museum, 120,000 m2 of meeting space... Behind this tripartite silhouette, a 101-hectare botanical garden, the Gardens by the Bay, was installed in 2012. It's actually a nursery of metal trees, the 'Supertrees', that look like something out of a science fiction film. There are 18 of them in all, big pink trees with vegetation that is still in its infancy. Thanks to the water tanks and solar panels hidden in their 'trunks', every evening they organise an amazing 100% recycled energy sound and light show, complete with imitation storms and thunderclaps!
City-state and urban jungle
Along the way, the car slows down. Traffic is heavy on the outskirts of the Central Business District, a jungle of new buildings, each taller and more gleaming than the last. We enter the heart of the action. On the pavements, young professionals walk at a steady pace, all disciplined and well-dressed; the girls especially, like porcelain dolls in smart dresses, carrying in one hand their small Vuitton bags and in the other their morning coffee, which they sip while leaving their lipstick on. Whether Chinese, Malay or Indian - the three main ethnic groups that make up Singapore's population - or Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim, they rub shoulders on their way to work or along the famous Orchard Street during their shopping sprees.
1 - Singapore is growing all the timewith new residents arriving every year. This growth reinforces the multicultural atmosphere of the City-State.
2 - As long as three Olympic swimming pools and perched 200 metres above the ground, the infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands is over the top.
3 - Amid the skyscrapers In the Central Business District, a former market dating from the late 19th century houses the Lau Pau Sat food court in a Victorian-inspired metal structure.
Long confined to its role as a business hub, Singapore is broadening its range of economic activities with a focus on tourism. Marina Bay and Sentosa Island are the focus of this strategy, with the opening of Las Vegas-style hotel-casino complexes and new leisure and cultural venues.
Culinary melting pot
There's a sort of vibrancy to it: tolerance is the glue that binds the City-State together. You only have to stroll through the old quarter - now hip! - Chinatown to find out for yourself. Between the colonial houses with their colourful shutters and arcades that used to provide protection from the sun as well as the heavy monsoon rains, there is a temple, a mosque, an evangelical church or a Taoist sanctuary. If we needed any further proof of this well-oiled tolerance, it's the shared passion for good food, which means that people steal from their neighbours' recipes and plates. This is especially true of the very popular "food courts", these open-air halls with a simple roof over them where the food is bubbling away. Ethnic groups mingle over chicken rice, green curry or satay skewers, sipping freshly squeezed sugar cane juice.
Discovered in 1819 by the Englishman Raffles, whose name still echoes around the city, particularly within the walls of the famous eponymous palace, this small territory at the tip of the Malay peninsula was then just a fishing village. In 2005, it was a metropolis of three and a half million inhabitants. Today, it's a megalopolis of over five million, still in the making. "In less than ten years, the city has literally metamorphosed," says Martine Janssens, a South African guide who has lived in Singapore for almost 20 years.
To gauge the scale of this development, we climb into the gleaming cabins of the Singapore Flyer. You don't need to be an expert to understand: the future is literally staring you in the face. "Groups love the dinners in the ultra VIP cabins at sunset"explains Martine Janssens. Indeed, at 165 metres high, who wouldn't love to overlook the bay and its emerald green waters, bustling with the noria of container ships. In the distance, beyond the dome of the former Supreme Court, are the hills of Malaysia. On the other side, Indonesia. Which makes you want to go even further afield, to Bali, for example. But a little patience...
"In Singapore, we have one of the finest night safaris in Asia, if not the world.The Singapore Zoo is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world", explains Kelvin Lee, Director of Singapore Inbound, a major incoming agency. Located on the Malaysian border, Singapore Zoo offers not only night-time excursions, but also boat trips to discover rare species and gala dinners on the edge of a vast lake in the middle of the jungle. "Today, water sports activities and cruises are increasingly popular."he explains. To get there, you take the cable car to Sentosa. From Mont Faber and its luxuriant forest, you can reach the 'island of fun' by flying over a water park where swimmers in flashy Martin Parr-style swimming costumes frolic. In these gondolas, some with leather interiors, champagne dinners are organised to the delight of incentive groups. But more than in the air, it's on the sea that everything happens. One 15 Marina, the City-State's most exclusive yacht club, offers a choice of top-of-the-range team-building activities, including cookery classes and knot-tying competitions. "On yachts for 8 to 45 people, you can enjoy treasure hunts, sailing competitions or brainstorming sessions... All, of course, over cocktails..."says Asrina Riduan, Senior Manager of One 15 Marina. It was an opportunity to enjoy some last delicious moments before flying off to Indonesia.
In less than a decade, Singapore's skyline has been enhanced by iconic buildings such as the Marina Bay Sands, designed by architect Moshe Shafdie, and the Singapore Flyer, which until the end of March was the world's tallest Ferris wheel, but has since been overtaken by the Las Vegas High Roller.
Inspired by the skyscrapers of ManhattanParkview Square was built in the purest Art Deco style in the early 2000s. Its lobby, decorated with frescoes evoking the early days of jazz and filled with fine gold detailing, is home to a very popular bar, the Divine Wine Extraordinaire.
1 - The kingdom of Klungkung is no longer in existenceThe last bulwark against the Dutch invasion, which fell in 1908, was a small floating palace, the Taman Gili, and a court, the Kertha Gosa, decorated with Wayang-style painted ceilings, a reminder of the severity of divine justice.
2 - For the Balinese, Bathing in the Tirta Empul springs is sacred because of their medicinal and purifying properties.
3 and 4 - Bali, a little corner of paradise? A number of hotels still add to the island's charms, reinterpreting traditional architecture in idyllic settings, like the Royal Pitamaha here, nestling in a valley where the River Agung flows.
Bali, theislande of the gods
We arrive in Bali late in the evening, in Denpasar, the capital of the aptly-named Island of the Gods. As we leave the outskirts of the city along a winding road, the headlights shine as bright as day on a line of women in sarongs, carrying baskets of fruit on their heads like crowns. "They are going to the temple to bring offerings for the new moon festival", explains Astina, a tourist guide. Here, every day is a celebration, an opportunity to thank the gods. The next morning, in the early hours, on a hotel balcony in Ubud, in the centre of Bali, this is confirmed. In the malachite green of the rice fields that stretch as far as the eye can see, you can see countless capitals covering miniature altars, small stone pagodas.
At their feet, offerings. Just like you'll find just about anywhere else in Bali, in front of houses, shops and restaurants... Often it's a banana leaf filled with flowers, a stick of incense, a sweet for sweetness, or a cigarette to represent the element of fire.
And so each Balinese day begins, with the recognition of the sacred, the greeting of statues with the faces of dragons or century-old ficus trees, born, according to legend, from the seed of Shiva. These living spirits incarnated in stone, these venerable trees, are wrapped in cloth so that they are not naked. Do we dare walk around without clothes?
Their black and white chequered dress symbolises the marriage of good and evil, pure and impure, splendour and evil. In Balinese cosmology, this antagonism is the foundation of the universe, born of the fertile opposition of opposites. In the same vein, people superimpose their sarongs: one colourful and evil, the other simpler and more beneficent.
5 - Daily offerings to greet the gods and appease the demons, or majestic fruit arrangements to celebrate a temple festival: these gifts are an important part of Balinese life.
6 - Gamelan harmoniesThis music, played by traditional orchestras, accompanied dance performances and shadow theatres. Debussy was struck by the discovery of the polyphonic complexity of this music at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1889. He went so far as to write: "If one listens, without any European bias, to the charm of their 'percussion', one is forced to admit that ours is nothing but the barbaric noise of a fairground circus.
Early in the morning, as the countryside is already burning, we set off on a tour of the centre of the island in a bright red Volkswagen convertible that looks like a pacifist Jeep. There's nothing like driving along the narrow forest roads and discovering the villages where young and old work wood and carve stone. With your hair blowing in the wind, you're spared the unpleasant impression of visiting a country behind tinted windows in the air-conditioned cold, of watching a landscape unfold like a technicolour film. No, here, in this old-fashioned machine, which coughs a bit on the uphills, you're in the right place, you're in the reality of the people.
In open-air stalls, some of them fashion Buddhas and Garudas, the frightening but beneficial bird that serves as the mount of the god Vishnu. They smile as the car passes. Because here, smiling is a matter of course. Just like the almost always radiant sky, the sweet, milky fragrance of the frangipani trees, the intense green of the magnificent tabular acacias that line the rice fields. And then there's something peaceful about Bali, far removed from the usual chaos of the crowded cities of the rest of Asia. So much peace and serenity. "Incentive groups love rallies in convertible Volkswagens, which give them a chance to meet the local population while bringing their teams together."says Nabil Abderrahmani, Bali representative for Phoenix Voyages.
Temperate climate, volcanic soils and abundant rainfall: nature has provided Bali with everything it needs to develop rice cultivation. Near Ubud, in the centre of the island, rice terraces carpet the hills, encouraged to grow by regular rituals dedicated to the fertility goddess Dewi Sri.
The first stop on the tour is the temple of Gunung Kawi, with its royal cenotaphs carved out of the rock, itself overgrown with vegetation. To reach the bottom of the tiny valley, where a river quivering in the shade of banyan trees, you have to descend an old staircase along which roosters cackle nervously in bamboo cages. "They are deprived of food and sex to fuel their aggression and make them more ferocious in battle."continues Astina. Again, good and evil. "Cockfights are often held in temples, as they are linked to the blood ritual and the expulsion of negativity."she adds.
Bali's postcards, the rice paddies cover the island in an intense green. UNESCO has enshrined these landscapes, based on a thousand-year-old irrigation system, the subak, which forms a harmonious link between the owners, nature and the gods.
1 - Ultra chic resorts have set down on the edge of Nusa Dua's fine sandy beach, like the Laguna, part of the Starwood Group's Luxury Collection, which offers villas with private pool and garden.
2 - Hindu sanctuary dating from the 11th century, Goa Gajah, the "elephant cave", a cave whose entrance is formed by the monstrous figure of a forest god carved into the rock.
Purifying elements
After the blood, it's the purifying water from the Tirta Empul spring, literally "the sacred water that gushes forth". In the heart of a Hindu temple dating back to the 10th century, in a long rectangular basin where flowers of tiare, ylang-ylang and marigolds float as offerings, and where the liquid flows from numerous stone mouths, people cleanse themselves, their bodies and their souls. Sometimes after a bereavement, sometimes after an illness, and most often just for the well-being that this aquatic ritual provides. Everyone performs ablutions. Even tourists sometimes take part.
This is why the most fervent Balinese prefer to come in the evening, or even at night, to ablute themselves out of sight. Further on, under saffron yellow satin parasols, symbols of protection, a family in sarongs performs the rice ceremony. A priest dressed all in white places a few grains on each person's forehead, mouth and throat: for good thoughts, good words and good behaviour. This is why you feel so good in Bali... kindness is a real virtue here.
"On the Island of the Gods, we naturally organise gala dinners in temples, with traditional dances and religious processions."says Nabil Abderrahmani. At Taman Ayun, not far from Ubud, the immense lawn that leads to the famous narrow-roofed, dizzying pagodas of a sanctuary founded in the 17th century is privatised. "In the evening, when the place is lit by torches and the women in their gold headdresses and colourful costumes arrive, it's fabulous. It's almost like a dream. There's no risk of being disappointed by the weather: during the rainy season, people call on the "rain-stopper" who, with a few prayers, takes care of warding off the threatening clouds. The rain-stopper is used with the utmost seriousness, in the same way as shamans are consulted to resolve a health problem or annoyance.
1 and 2 - accompanied by the sound of gamelansPrepared by ritual offerings, the traditional dances depict messages sent to the gods or evil spirits, all enhanced by the grace of the dancers who have been practising this art since childhood.
3 - Presqu'île dedicated to luxury hotelsIn Nusa Dua, establishments such as the Sofitel, inaugurated at the end of 2013, are moving to the beachfront.
4 - In Tanjung Benoa, Taman Bhagawan can accommodate groups for lunch or dinner, intimate meetings of 10 to 30 people, cocktail parties for 1,000 guests or, better still, exclusive gala dinners on the beach.
The old man and the sea
But you have to be patient to come across the real thing, walking past balsam fields where women in Chinese hats are busy picking the pink and red petals, and along paths lined with tree ferns and black-fibre palms, which are used here as temple roofs. Finally, you come to one of the traditional dwellings dotting the centre of the island, one of these family enclosures made up of several pavilions and multiple domestic temples, where you have to enter at a snail's pace to avoid disturbing the holy man's prayers.
We wait for him, drinking the tea his wife is serving us - but above all without finishing it, which would be interpreted as supremely rude! The old man finally arrives, his faded eyes exuding infinite serenity. To meet such a gaze would be enough to calm the most nervous of Westerners. It's beautiful, a touch mysterious. This is Bali; a frontier between heaven and earth, a mystery set against the Indian Ocean.
And yet the ocean is very rough. Surfers from all over the world flock to the beaches of Kuta and Sanur in the south. Suddenly, with its foamy beaches and young people bobbing on the waves, its motorways and air-conditioned malls, its trendy bars and restaurants, it's as if you're back in a quasi-Western reality. Almost a shock, after such a trip. But the atmosphere is happy and relaxed. So you treat yourself to a massage, a cocktail on the beach, a dip in the waters around Nusa Dua, a pretty spot protected by the Straits of Badung where luxury hotels flourish. Take a stroll to the village of Kusamba, where fishermen line up their outrigger canoes on the black sand. Black volcanic sand, because Batur is not far away. Batur, the island's most active volcano, otherwise known as the home of the gods. Yes, the gods! Because wherever you go in Bali, the gods are everywhere.
Report: Cécile Balavoine - Photos: Alain Parinet
