Raffles Hotel, Singapore

Declared a National Monument in 1987, the hotel has grown from strength to strength. With its restoration and reopening in 1991, Raffles Hotel today stands as a jewel in the crown of Singapore's hospitality industry, renowned and loved for its inimitable style and unsurpassed excellence in service and facilities.

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In multicultural Singapore it is not surprising that the visionary founders of Raffles Hotel were a quartet of enterprising Armenian brothers: Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak Sarkies.

http://singapore-raffles.raffles.com/

The hotel was founded by the four Armenian Sarkies Brothers (Martin, Tigran, Aviet, and Arshak Sarkies). They opened the ten-room colonial bungalow at Beach Road and Bras Basah Roads on December 1, 1887. The original location was by the seaside, although continued reclamation means that the site is presently some 500 m away from the shore.[1] No Asians were permitted as hotel guests until the 1930s.[1] The hotel continued to expand over the years with the addition of wings, the completion of the main building, the addition of a verandah, a ballroom, a bar and billiards room and further buildings and rooms.

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The Great Depression saw trouble for Raffles Hotel and in 1931 the hotel went into receivership. In 1933, however, the financial troubles were sorted out and a public company called Raffles Hotel Ltd. was established.

Upon the capture of Singapore by the Japanese on February 15, 1942, it is commonly said that the Japanese soldiers encountered the guests of the Raffles Hotel dancing one final waltz.[2] During World War II, the Raffles was renamed Syonan Ryokan (湘南旅館, shōnan ryokan?), incorporating Syonan ("Light of the South"), the Japanese name for occupied Singapore, and ryokan, the name for a traditional Japanese inn.[3]

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The hotel survived World War II despite the hardships Singapore faced and the use of the hotel at the end of the war as a transit camp for prisoners of war. In 1987 the government declared the hotel a National Monument.

In 1989, the hotel closed for an extensive renovation, at a cost of S$160 million.[3]

It reopened on September 16, 1991, after being restored to its state during its heyday in 1915. The hotel has built an extension with a similar design, for a shopping arcade and new rooms.

In announcing the July 18, 2005 sale of parent company Raffles Holdings, Colony Capital LLC chief executive Thomas J. Barrack said in part as the purchaser, "We deeply respect the historical significance of the Raffles Hotel Singapore and we consider it our responsibility to protect that legacy".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles_Hotel

We can't afford to stay in this hotel. But my husband love to visit the hotel's bar call Long Bar. He used to lived in Singapore during his childhood ... (my father in law worked for RAF and stationed in Singapore for few years in the 70's).

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What we normally do ... we will take MRT to Raffles ... and walked around the area and ended up in Long Bar for something to drink. It is very costly ... but hey ... when you are become a tourist you got to spend the money aren't u?

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The bar will serve you with peanut to company your drink. And you can throw the skin all over the floor (yes i am not kidding).

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My son like to feed the bird in the hotel veranda with the peanut ... and after 5 or 10 minutes the veranda will be covered with bird dropping everywhere. Then ... another half hours the housekeeping guy will tell my son off because he have to clean up the veranda lol.

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[img_assist|nid=23725|title=feeding the bird|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=135]

The hotel is very beautiful ... would like to stay there if we have some extra dosh !!! But then if my husband spending the budget on the hotel he will not let me go shopping in Singapore. And that would be disaster for me.