Another month, another interesting hotel opening up in ever-changing Singapore. This time it’s in Little India, an area which so far has been generally ignored for the well-heeled, design-orientated travellers, who have been congregating in the boutique hotels of Chinatown. Wanderlust is the latest baby of hotelier Loh Lik Peng of the Majestic Hotel and 1929, and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. His new hotel oozes design and originality. Four different design agencies haven been given an entire floor each. My favourite is by far the top floor, with the ‘Creature Comforts’ room by fFruious team, that transports travellers into fairytale-like lands, be it in space with little aliens or in an enchanted forest, where mostly benevolent monsters rest. For a journalist, the most striking room is the “typewriter", it includes a couch designed as an old typewriter with a giant metal installation of angry keys looming over it…A sure way of reminding me to stick to my deadlines!
I also like the trompe l’oeil rooms on the third floor with giant 'pop-up furniture' by DP Architects. With such an imaginative array, the Patone rooms on the second floor, which are much smaller, are visually less interesting. All in all, a very nice boutique hotel for those in search of something different.