Shanti
Bhattacharya
- A Guide About Town
ABOUT ME
Singapore Tourist Board Licensed Tourist Guide
The name on my passport says Shanti Bhattachary Mrs Tauvy Jean Louis. No, we don’t have to be on full-name basis if you’d rather not . (‘phew’ I hear your relief).
When I was teaching, the kids couldn’t manage the tongue twister either so feeling sorry for them, told them to call me Ms Bata - which was’t really a great idea because every one of them had me under their feet! Yeah, they were wearing Singapore’s favourite school-approved canvas shoes, Bata (their tagline here is “first to Bata, then to school).
Strangers address me Ms Shanti here - they decided it was not worth figuring out how to pronounce all 14 syllableses of it.
New friends call me Shanti, old ones, Shan. People in my inner-circle just shout out - “hey you”. However, my favourite is certainly “Mom”.
As for you, take your pick! (except Mom - that is exclusively for only 1 person)
How do I put so many years of my life into a bio-data of a few words? My name alone took 4 paragraphs!
I lived the first 30 years of my life in Singapore and the rest in various places around the world but returned home several times a year for work and family visits.
Coming from a minority ethnic group in this country, I had to learn 3 languages; one at home (Bengali), English and a second language (Malay). My fascination with Bollywood movies let me acquire another language (Hindi) and my time in France and Russia allowed me to study their native languages too.
I know how daunting it must be when a traveller arrives in a foreign land, even when armed with all the research material from tripadvisor - having to wade through information and deciding on the most relevant. Some travels are a once-in-a-lifetime affair and you want the most reliable advice.
That’s where I come in. Let us chat for a few minutes for me to know what it is you are looking for and I can come up with a visit-plan. In the section “tours” I have listed the run-of-the-mill tours so if you are happy with that selection, good. If you want to mix-and-match, fine also but do know that travel time and opening hours of attractions must be taken into consideration.
But perhaps you want something different?
Like taking a fishing boat into the sea or island-hopping with a barbecue on a beach, or wake-boarding in calm waters
Like hitting few golf balls at the driving range or find a tennis partner
Like wanting to do a one-stop-shop for everything
Like how to buy spices and then make a chicken curry
Like learning to dance the sensous Malay Ronggeng or an energetic Bollywood number
Like spending a evening bar-hopping or clubbing, do some salsa, living it up (literally) at our roof-top sky-bars
Like going into a high-end Chinese sit-down dinner and letting someone else decipher their menu or eating spicy Indian fare with your hand on a banana leaf for a plate
And should you tire of all things “local” we have world-class restaurants serving up Michelin-star quality food where you can head on down to.
Someone once said, “The world is your oyster” I say “That pearl is in Singapore”. Let me show you where.