* * * * * I poured myself a glass of red, California wine, and then strolled across my spacious room to its south wall composed entirely of glass. It was cool and dry that evening, prompting me to slide both of the huge glass doors open. Instantly my room opened up to an enormous balcony-veranda, containing a table, chairs and potted palms ringed with freshly picked coconuts from the hotel’s garden. I stood on the 14 th floor of the 18-storied Sea View Hotel, at 26 Amber Close. Originally the hotel began as a seaside bungalow, in 1906, at the village of Tanjon Katong, Singapore. With the decades that followed it grew to a respectable hotel, earning the title of: “The Jewel of Katong.” In the 1960s it was eventually torn down and rebuilt into it...