A new stay on the edge of the CBD which is equal parts garden and hotel.
This contemporary new hotel in Singapore is just as much a garden as it is a place to kip. The PARKROYAL on Pickering opened recently and has 15,000 square metres of gardens hanging off the walls and in the grounds. The gardens are more than just pretty, they give the hotel incredible energy efficiency and have earned it the highest green rating.
The rooms
The 360-plus-room hotel is on the edge of the Singapore CBD, Chinatown and near the river for some relaxation at Clarke Quay. The PARKROYAL on Pickering is a place where you don’t have to sacrifice comfort for your budget. With a heap of affordable options and deals around, you’ll be living the high life soon. Book into either a Superior, Deluxe, Premier or Junior Suite. All designed with modern furnishings and decor, it all seems like a dream. If you’re feeling a little fancier, there are the Orchid Club Rooms and Suites up for booking. These include the presidential and executive suites, which both have sweeping views of the city.
Incredible views from your modern hotel suite.
The amenities
Like many hotels, the PARKROYAL on Pickering has a spa, pool and fitness centre. But their pool is infinity styled and comes along with poolside cabanas that’ll give you unobstructed views of the city skyline. Once you’ve finished tanning, walk alongside the gardens in this 300-metre garden walk or, you can pop into the jacuzzi and then steam room. But if you’re wanting to have a ‘treat yourself’ kind of day, the St. Gregory Spa within the hotel will do the trick. Using the top-skincare brands around the world for their treatments, Elemis and Thalion, each only contain natural active ingredients that extremely effective. With Elemis well-being massages, Oriental therapy and Thalion oxygen and radiance facials on offer, your body will feel as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
The infinity pool is definitely a stand-out attraction.
The food
At the PARKROYAL on Pickering, they pride themselves on a well-cooked meal. They a dine-in restaurant inside the hotel and also offer 24-hour room service. You might think, room service? What’s new? Well, this food is entirely fresh and unlike any other room service you’ve had before. If you’re feeling peckish at one in the morning, order the Char Kway Teow (wok-fried flat rice noodles with seafood and Chinese pork sausage), Nasi Goreng Kampung (seafood and chicken satay fried rice) or the Australian Black Angus Beef Burger to satisfy any of your major cravings.
Dine in at Lime for an incredible eating experience.
But if you’re around the hotel during the day and want to dine into their iconic restaurant Lime, you’ve made a good choice. Serving a buffet breakfast in the mornings and then dishes a la carte until late, you can chomp down on the freshest food in the area. And for our plant-based friends, they have an entirely vegan-friendly menu as well. Feel like the beyond burger or the fishless fish & chips? Otherwise, if you’re more carnivore than herbivore, the menu is swimming with the best in Singapore. Try their Singapore luxe-sa (laksa) with Maine lobster or the lobster risotto with blue swimmer crab meat and broad beans with citrus mascarpone.
What to do around the area
Gardens by the Bay
We’ve all seen images of the Gardens by the Bay and it has given us serious wanderlust. And now is the time to actually hop on a plane and head straight over. This iconic location is a national garden and a showpiece of horticulture and garden artistry in Singapore. Walk your way through Bay South, East and Central to see all of the beauty that is located inside. And if you start to get a little hungry while ahhing and oohing, The Gardens offer a heap of food establishments to fill you up. With the Hong Kong Sheng Kee Noodle House, Pho Street, and Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant amongst the mix, you aren’t strapped for choices. Heck, there’s even a McDonald’s in the area.
Gardens by the Bay.
Cloud Forest
Another area of Gardens by the Bay, the Cloud Forest is a once-in-a-lifetime view for residents and tourists alike. With exotic plants and diverse vegetations, this mist-covered mountain is over 35-metres tall. It’s also surrounded by the world’s tallest waterfall and takes up 153,000 cubic metres. But just a warning, the humidity inside is around 80-90%.
Orchard Road
Orchard Road is renowned amongst locals for shopping, restaurants and hotels. Located only a 10-minute drive away from the hotel, you can find some epic eats and amazing boutique buys. There are over 5,000 retail, dining and entertainment establishments all on this road. Find anything that’ll suit your style, from small boutique stores to high-end brands and street food sellers to expensive restaurants. You’ll be occupied for days here.
Orchard Road Singapore.
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Universal Studios Singapore
Feel like the biggest kidult in the world and head down to Universal Studios in Singapore. As the only theme park in Southeast Asia, this place has 24 blood-rushing rides and attractions in seven differently themed zones. Try your hand at the Transformers Ultimate 3D Battle Ride or the Revenge of the Mummy, where you plunge into total darkness for that thrill. When you need a little break between each ride, hop over to any of the shows like WaterWorld, Shrek 4D Adventure (trust us, this is a must-do) and Lights Camera Action by Steven Spielberg (a special effects show).
After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?
In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.
Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?
Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?
How tourism is changing in Nepal
Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.
Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.
“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.
Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”
Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”
CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.
A new generation demanding more
Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”
We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”
Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…
Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.
Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.
A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.
Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.
Life unfiltered in the Terai region
Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.
Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.
Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.
Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.
On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.
A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.
The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.
In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.
Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.
The power of community homestays
Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.
“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”
The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.
An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.
Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.
CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.
“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.
Elephant watch. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.
Gathering greens. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”
Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”
Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.
