At the dinner, my friend asked me about the most memorable place that I had among all my travel experience. My answer for her question is only a not-so-famous street among the Indonesian tourists’ ears that often traveled to Singapore.
There are many numbers of Indonesian who choose Singapore as their holiday destination. Beside it’s so close from Jakarta and you could get the cheap airfares easily, Singapore is like a paradise for the shopaholics. Many of them spent their money along the Orchard Road or even just taking lots of photos in Universal Studios. However, I found that Singapore is not only a good place to shop. It is also a good escape to relax through the middle of big city atmosphere.
There is one spot in Singapore where you could read book quietly while having a cup of teh tarik. If you just got bored, you could move into another comfortable public space like Fort Canning Park, CHIJMES, or National Library of Singapore. There are numbers of restaurants with a friendly price if you want to taste the local culinary, or just spend the day by chit-chatting with your friends. Need to experience an educating entertainment? Take the three days pass to museums that spread in this area. There are also Sim Lim Square, Bugis Junction, Albert Complex, and Plaza Singapura if you still need to shop.
I always stay in this area every time I go to Singapore. You can find anything here, and it's bringing you closer to many public places. The place that I’m talking about is, Bencoolen Road which just a step from Orchard Road.
Just FYI, Bencoolen is just another name of a province in Indonesia: Bengkulu. A province located in Sumatra Island where Sir Stamford Raffles was the governor at the 18s century. Actually, Bengkulu is far enough from Singapore. However, this area has the same name with that province because at 1819 Raffles came to this island (Singapore) and many of Bencoolen Malays came and settled to this area. Until now, you could find many Malays who live around here.
From this road I could enjoy the real atmosphere of Singapore quietly in a rather simple way, far from the big city’s crowd. It’s a lovely spot in the middle of shimmering Singapore that I always missing. Bencoolen, it’s the most memorable place that I have.
