On our trip to Singapore last year, we stayed at a charming hotel called the “South East Asia Hotel” in Bugis.

In my regular online booking site, it was in the right price range and was highly recommended.

For this particular hotel, there were 49 mostly positive reviews and it was the 75th most popular hotel amongst 219 Singapore hotels listed in TripAdvisor.

But it was this post (in Indonesian Malay) which finally clinched it for me.

What’s more, the old-fashioned facade (it is 56 years old – not sure if was the original building and site) and the fact that 2 temples are next to it – are too much for me to resist.

As suggested by the above post, I too asked for the front-facing room with an extra $10 when I made my reservation with the hotel directly.

This the perfect hotel if you don’t like giving out credit card number online (or have none) – because they won’t ask for it as they accept only CASH.

The only thing that could be a problem is the absence of a taxi drop off area.

The hotel block faces the Waterloo (pedestrian) Street and the nearest taxi drop off is about 150-200m away (Indian temple) – so pray for good weather when you are arriving or leaving. For regular taxi use, you can ask for drop-offs on the road next to the Fortune Centre, which is besides the hotel – if you have nothing to unload from the boot.

For our trip then, we mostly used the Bugis MRT which is about 600m away, past Bugis Street (get all kinds of herbal drinks at the front and fresh fruits at the back – and some kinky business in the middle) towards Bugis Junction (cheap sushi at Cold Storage).

The hotel is family run and you will find elderly ladies manning the reception. Like some small hotels, they keep your key when you go out.

Once my husband asked for the key, the lady scrutinized him and asked for the name the room was booked under (mine). Fortunately he gave the right name and it was a classic don’t-mess-around-with-old-ladies moment when she responded with a firm “Correct”.

Definitely a “clean” hotel.

Our room, on the first floor was spacious for me. The bathroom was large but the whole place is wet after use because there was no shower cubicle. Dangerous for kids. There is a fan in the room and the air-con switch was so high up that we struggled to turn it off.

The windows look out to the walkway where peddlers sell flowers and religious items. They came as early as 4 am  and despite some reviews I read on this, it was not noisy. Even if it was, that’s part of the charm!

Basic vegetarian breakfast was provided – fried noodles, dumpling among others. You can also opt for western toasts or walk to many eateries less than 200m away around the place. Having 2 temples here, vegetarian eateries are plentiful.

Speaking of temples, this area would be a photographer’s heaven. The Kwan Im Temple and the Sri Krishnan are next to each other and that makes this place busy every day. I noticed many Chinese and Indian who stopped at both temples to offer prayers – and that was something I have never seen before.

They have various room configuration and we will probably try out their family room on our next trip to Singapore with the kids. The only problem is, we’ll have to be ready for complains since there are no swimming pool and no bath tub.

Other than that, this is a charming hotel surrounding by with culture and history (my criteria) and the rates are very reasonable (my husband’s criteria).

*UPDATE*

In March 2011, we transited for an overnight in Singapore en route to Bali and decided to stay in South East Asia Hotel.

With the kids, we opted for the FAMILY ROOM (2 queen beds and 1 single bed) which cost $140 nett and an additional $20 for a baby cot.

Our room was on the first floor and was the last room before the exit/emergency door and balcony that looked towards Ibis Hotel Bencoolen. The room was adequately sized and the window faced the wall of the next building which was not an issue as we were there late and left early the next day.

Still a place we will recommend for no-nonsense place to stay when in Singapore that is cheap and clean.

Definitely our kind of hotel!

When a family member told me that he’ll be staying at the Naumi Hotel during his business trip to Singapore, you can just imagine me turning green with envy.

It is not one of the more popular hotel in Singapore and apparently some taxi drivers don’t even know where this hotel is located.

And I only knew about it because I read (and dream) hotels and Naumi is one of the latest boutique hotel in town.

But since the cheapest room is already S$350++, it is not a place I could see myself ever staying at. Because even if my husband would like to indulge me, I think I’d rather go for the St. Regis – another new boutique hotel of a much dreamier standard for a cool S$7++…

The building that housed Naumi Hotel used to be another popular business hotel in the past called the Metropole and as a taxi driver informed my relative, it went from a S$60 per night to a S$400 per night.

Of course, that price comes with extra bits of things.

A kitchenette complete with microwave, toaster and hot plate and full set of cultery (for the Deluxe Room).

An interesting range of toiletries from premium Australian brand called Aesop with intriguing bottles such as “Geranium Leaf Body Cleanser” and ” Rind Aromatique Body Balm” and “Revitalizing Hair Sealing Conditioner” and etc.

An iPod dock by the very comfortable bedside which having no iPod nor ever used one, my relative was quite unimpressed with.

The fridge is big (double the height of the usual hotel fridges) and stocked with at least 14 cans of drinks (juices, water and 2 cans of beers) – all complimentary.

Coffee lovers will definitely love this hotel for it’s Nespresso machine to brew espresso in your own room. Unfortunately, my relative is a non-coffee drinker so the novelty of this machine is lost on him too.

I know kids will love the free plate of chestnuts biscuits and sweet corn – a treat I’ve never seen at any other hotels.

He did not manage to check out the rooftop infinity pool or the gym and thinks that the breakfast will not suit the typical Asian – as there no “no fried mee” and “no salmon sashimi”.

But if you really can’t live without “fried kuey tiaw”, the shoplots outside the hotel is full of coffee shops and the food court besides Allson Hotel is only about 300m away.

Location wise, it’s tucked along a small street flanked by the National Library and Raffles Hotel.

 

The shopping places of Bugis and Raffles City (and the MRT station) is less than 500m away.

In this picture, Naumi Hotel is the building in grey as seen from Shaw Tower.

*Check out my other memorable hotel stay in Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and counting!*

2 weeks before our trip to Singapore last week, I decided on the Royal @ Queens Hotel at Queen Street, which recently underwent major renovation work and was offering a special rate for their Executive Room.

The funny thing about the name of this hotel is that, with taxi drivers you must call it as “Royal Queens” and omit the “@”.

We took a lot of taxi on this trip and one or two were not familiar with this hotel so the best landmark guide are Singapore Art Museum, St. Joseph’s Church or Sts. Peter & Paul’s Church as this hotel is along a quiet street.

On the morning of our flight, I called the hotel to re-confirm our late check-in and tried my luck at asking for a baby cot for Qi. When I told the staff that Qi is 2 years old (usually too old for a cot), she said that if the bed gets broken, we’d have to pay – I wonder if this means that if she’s below 2 and she broke the bed, she doesn’t have to pay?

We were happy that we checked-in at 10 pm with no problem and the baby cot was waiting in the room.

Our room was surprisingly small – for an Executive – so I can only imagine how the standard room size would be. But as claimed, our room was definitely recently refurbished because I could smell a little glue on the drawers.

The room featured touch-screen system for all its lights switches and although the idea is very novel, I prefer the ordinary flip switches. Besides having only one location from where most the switches is controlled is not convenient.

In the bathroom, I didn’t quite like the glass countertop as the sink bowl was too high even for me (what more for the kids) and the water pressure was too strong that I got water splashes a few times.

The bathtub was great for the kids and they enjoyed it more than the swimming pool which was tiny.

Allson Hotel was connected to our building via the 2nd Floor and is a short cut to the Victoria Street, a 24hrs food court on one side and a 7-11 store on the other side.

From our window, we could see part of the Allson Hotel, Singapore Management University, the Carlton Hotel and in the far distance, the Suntec Convention Centre and the Singapore Flyer!

The nearest MRT (City Hall) is about 10 mins walk away but a new Bras Basah MRT station is under construction and is practically outside the hotel.

Besides the open air food court outside Allson Hotel, there is an air-conditioned food court a block away after the Singapore Art Museum called Kopi Tiam.

We had breakfast here for 2 mornings because our hotel decided to charge Eu $17 , their rate for kids 3 years and above – but was not worth it.

When I booked this hotel, free broadband connection was supposed to be included in the rate but the Front Office staffs told me that it’s chargeable at $6 for an hour, $10 for 6 hrs and $21 for 24 hrs (quite reasonable). Since my booking email did not include that particular remark, I could not argue on my case. However, when we checked out, we were not charged at all!

For the first 3 days, we had a musician as our next door neighbour . So we’d hear him practise on his instrument which sounded like violin. Once, however, he had friends over and they had a practice sessions. After 20 mins of an orchestra (lovely music if we were not trying to nap), I complained to the Front Office and they were immediately dealt with.

Basically, the wall was a little too thin and having an adjoining door made the matter worse.

One of the bellman took a liking to Qi and looked forward to meeting us whenever we return to the hotel. The Front Office staffs were helpful and friendly – and I’m pleased with how efficiently they handled my complaint about our neighbour. Our housekeeper was good.

In short, we enjoyed our stay here.

*Check out my other MEMORABLE HOTEL STAY*

**See also : Where devout Catholics must stay when in Singapore as this hotel is right in the middle of this area.