Raffles Hotel Singapore

Raffles Hotel Singapore
THE RAFFLES HOTEL, Probably the world’s most famous hotel.

In September 1887, a short article in the local press announced the intention of the Sarkies Brothers, proprietors of the Eastern & Oriental in Penang, to open a hotel in Singapore and name it after Singapore’s founder Sir Stamford Raffles.
The location: the old bungalow at the corner of Beach and Bras Basah Roads owned by the Arab trader, Mohamed Alsagoff.
On 1 December, Raffles Hotel opened to the public as a 10-room hotel. Over the next few years, a pair of wings flanking the bungalow are added.
This is how the world most famous hotel started in 1887.

Everyone from Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jackson to Queen Elizabeth and Queen Beatrix has stayed at the historic Hotel, as well as many other famous people.
The first barrier is to get passed the Sikh Doorman Sarawan.
The hotel is famous for many things:
One the writers bar, immortalized by writers including William Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Hemingway and Alfred Hitchcock who wrote great books in this bar.

Second for the famous Long Bar, home of the Singapore Sling.
The Singapore Sling was created at Raffles Hotel at the turn of the century by Hainanese – Chinese Bartender, Mr. Ngiam Tong Boon.
The Receipt, 30 ml Gin, 15 ml Cherry Brandy, 120 ml Pineapple Juice, 15 ml Lime Juice, 7.5 ml Cointreau, 7.5 ml DOM Benedictine, 10 ml Grenadine and a dash of Angostura Bitters, Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry.
The management from the Raffles Hotel encourages patrons to drop their peanut shells on the floor, the way Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and his contemporaries may have done in the early 20th century.
If you leave it on the shells on the table, the barmen will wipe your shells from the table on to the floor.
The shells make a satisfactory crunch beneath your feet

 
The full report about how the Singapore Sling is made can be found on here

This time I had to stay for a few days in Singapore, so I asked my wife if she would like to stay at the Raffles Hotel this time.
As we have visited Singapore many times, she knew it was the best known hotel in Singapore and all over the rest of the world.
Great she told me, I always would like to stay once in my lifetime at this iconic hotel, so the hotel was booked.

We arrived late in the afternoon at Changi Airport and the limo was already waiting for us.
The ride takes about 25 minutes to get to the Raffles Hotel at Beach Road.

Sikh Doorman Sarawan was already waiting for us, Hello Mr and Mrs Smulders, welcome to the Raffles Hotel.
We take care of all your luggage, please follow me to the reception.

We where offered a welcome drink and just sitting in the lobby, which looked like your own living room, they arranged everything.

 
My wife is a big fan from William Somerset Maugham, so I had to suprise here with a stay in the William Somerset Maugham suite 102.
In this particlulair suite, William Somerset Maugham stayed here when he was in Singapore.
We would sleep in the same room, as the famous William Somerset Maugham slept.

Our private butler helped us out and we walked through the courtyard to see our suite.

My wife was very happy to see, that we stayed at the famous William Somerset Maugham Suite.

As soon as you enter the suite, you feel that enter the colonial time.
With all the details still here, from the buttons to the curtains and bathroom.

The suite is very spacious and the bed was really great.
What do you have to say more if you see the photo’s.
Your private butler helps you 24/7 and just one call to the butler and within a few minutes he will be serving you.

It was time to relax and she what the hotel offers more for their guests.

The Bar And Billiard Room

In August 1902, the last tiger to be killed in Singapore was pursued at Raffles Hotel and was finally shot while cowering under the Bar & Billiard Room.
At that time it was an elevated building, but in 1907 the two-table Bar & Billiard Room was enlarged and remodeled to hold six tables.
The building, which was transformed into guest rooms a decade later.

The Long Bar, Home for the Original Singapore Sling

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