A very long time it has been since I last stayed here at Mandarin Oriental in Marina Bay Downtown, but if there be impressions that I still remember after all these years, it'd be their in-house spa music playing over the in-room channel, and their swimming pool.
There's something about their pool that fosters a spa-like ambience.
Be it the planters surrounding the circumference of the outdoor pool area, be it the potted ferns that they've strategically placed here and there, be it even, the flowers, the vines and the leaves that guide you as you make your way through the glass doors of the pool area towards the rest area at the back.
I'd been curious about Oriental's swimming pool for quite a while.
Especially since they'd just undergone an extensive half-year renovation and I wanted to see if they'd kept the pool same.
So one evening after a lovely buffet dinner at new International restaurant EMBU, I went upstairs to take a peek.
Thankfully nothing's changed.
I couldn't see the little 'huts' that charmed me all those years ago- too focused was I trying to settle myself down at the back where this cozy, intimate, yet windy built-in patio was- but I'm pretty sure they were there.
I mean, it wouldn't have made much sense to remove them away.
They were really popular.
I'm not kidding.
So coveted were they that guests would come up straight after an early breakfast (like the 630am to 7am slot), chope the huts for themselves, and stay right there- sometimes for the entire day.
You knew who they were.
They were the guests who came down armed with a swimming bag and floats and all kinds of swim paraphernalia.
They were the guests who had two swim towels for everyone, slippers askew right under the huts, cushions left astray over the mattress of the hut, and water bottles brought down from the room.
On occasion you might find a hut with a cocktail on the table beside it, or a Coke ordered from the poolside bar.
On other occasions however there were huts which had little plastic bags hidden surreptitiously here and there behind the small cushions, or little Ziploc bags stuffed between the casually laid out towels.
There were the families who had procured their own snacks and drinks- maybe even sandwiches and packed lunches- from (somewhere, perhaps the shopping mall downstairs) and brought them along so they didn't have to leave the hut for lunch and could spend the entire day lounging on the comfortable mattress in the hut, hopping in and out of the pool, drying out in the sun as much as they wanted.
It wasn't that surprising a plan, really.
The pool here at Mandarin Oriental does, after all, boast one of the best views for a Downtown Bay hotel where, over the shimmering blue of the pool water, you get a view of the skyscrapers on the other side of the water, a view of the skyscrapers on the Marina Bay Financial Center side, a view of Esplanade's famous 'durian' roof, a view of Marina Bay Sands, and a view of this gorgeous, Romanesque-looking architecture that once housed the General Post Office, and which now houses the Fullerton Hotel.
Best of all is the wind.
With nothing to obstruct the breezes coming in from the sea, the pool is refreshing, calming, relaxing even, under the hot tropical sun.
Me, I would have loved to chope one of those huts for myself to stone in for the entire day.
In fact, a long while ago, when I did stay here for a day or two, I actually had a similar plan, or two.
i would come here as early as I could- after breakfast, that is, around 930am because I can't do 630am brekkies- and if I'd managed to chope one of those huts, I'd bring along a stack of fiction paperbacks, a huge bottle of iced tea, a bagful of my favorite snacks, shut those fluttery white shade drapes around the hut, and, with my ears plugged in, spend the entire day reading away.