Raffles redux
When it opened in 1887, Raffes was a 10-room bungalow hotel on the Singapore waterfront. One hundred and thirty-two years later, that modest bungalow is inarguably the most famous hotel in Asia, a rare colonial-era gem and listed National Monument that survived the Japanese invasion of World War II and the city’s massive modernisation in the following decades.
Even so, the hotel limped into the 21st century a bit faded, despite a restoration in 1989 that
