A multi-generational family trip to Singapore reveals many surprising connections between people separated by years and united by blood. By Sumeet Keswani
It was late 2018. We were a motley bunch of seven travellers, antithetic in everything but our shared last name. The youngest one in the troupe was struggling to keep her thumb out of her mouth, and the eldest one had little patience for that kind of thing after nine decades on the planet. We were embarking together—for the first time ever—to Singapore.
You can discover plenty about your own flesh and blood when you travel with them. It started before we even landed in the Lion City. As my wife and I filled the immigration forms of the family, it dawned on us that this was my parents’ first international trip. It had taken them over 60 years! My grandmother’s passport threw up another revelation Place of Birth: Sind, United India. We had all heard the Partition stories, but to see that mythical united land acknowledged on an official document drove our ancestral history home.
In Singapore, my sister and I—separated by just five years—differed on nearly everything. She had to catch all the scheduled bird shows in Jurong Bird Park; I preferred to explore at ease. But my grandmother and niece, with over eight decades between them, delighted in the same things. The marine life at S.E.A. Aquarium in Resorts World Sentosa left the nonagenarian bewildered; the toddler revelled in finding ‘Nemo’ among them.
My mother and sister, twins in their life philosophies and haircuts, were fascinated to see people diving in shark tanks. As an engineer who had rebelled to become a travel journalist, I smugly narrated my own dives. Overwhelmed by the scale of things that she had only seen on TV until then, the paranoid mother finally seemed to realise why I did what I did. But the visual memory I shall treasure most from that singular family trip was that of my hard-to-impress, reticent father left slack-jawed at the sight of glowing jellyfish, an expression I haven’t seen him wear before or since Singapore.
#mythrowbacktrip
“Singapore is sure to entertain and educate every generation of the family, and bring them all closer together.” – Sumeet Keswani, Deputy Editor, T+L India & South Asia.
WHERE TO STAY
The building of The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a grand neoclassical landmark built in 1928 and gazetted as a National Monument. The Suite Special offer ensures a luxurious stay with up to 50 per cent discount, Straits Club access, daily Chandon breakfast, and other benefits.
After an extensive restoration, Raffles Singapore reopened in October last year. The colonial-style hotel, dating back to 1887, is a Lion City icon. In the Raffles Suite Getaway package, arrive in style in a complimentary one-way Raffles Limousine, stay in one of their newly restored suites, and enjoy your fourth night free.
Related: #TNLVirtualTour: Singapore
