Took the MRT to Chinatown, emerging on Pagoda Street - right at the heart, and on the eve of Chinese New Year! Lots of people and colourful stalls, yet the area was still very clean. Quite a contrast to Little India (of which more later).
A little way down the road, we stopped by the Chinatown Heritage Centre, which was free with our Sentosa ticket. This is an excellent and informative museum of Chinatown's history and development, with very authentic looking mock-ups of bedrooms, shops and even whole alley-ways. I’m glad the toilets in Chinatown are much improved from the turn of last century.
After exploring the touristy kitsch in the stalls, and buying a refreshing coconut (with straw), we reached South Bridge Road where we had a look at the local mosque, and went inside the Sri Mariamman Temple. Taking off one’s shoes (I stashed mine in my bag, because I wasn’t comfortable leaving them out in the street!), you enter past the intricately carved gopuram (gate statuary) above the entrance and the nonchalant cow statues perched on the roofs. It was pretty quiet, but we enjoyed the colourful artwork.
Afterwards, Anna got a henna tattoo, and we walked by the Chinese herbal medicine shops and through the food markets, looking for the Tea Chapter, which was unfortunately closed for New Years.
After sweltering in the heat, we MRT’d to Orchard Road and retreated into the humongous air-conditioned shopping centre, Ngee Ann City (also known as Takashimaya). Unlike America's malls, which occupy acres and acres of land, Singapore's scarcity of land forces its malls to develop skywards, as you can see from the photo of the escalators. Poked around the mostly high-end boutiques (Tiffany, Cartier, Louis Vuitton etc – all my favourites, of course) before having a dim sum lunch at Singaporean-Chinese chain Crystal Jade.
Made an effort to look in a few more malls, but neither of us were interested (Lisa and Andy would love it!) so we MRT’d to Little India. Wow. After spending the afternoon here, neither of us are sure we could handle India proper. Dirty, crowded, and everything for sale being mostly crap, it was a far cry from the rest of Singapore. Still, it was very interesting…Started in the Tekka Centre, a large wet market that sells all sorts of fresh meat (from NZ too!), fish, fruits, vegetables. There are also a lot of cloth merchants on the upper level. Headed next into Tekka Mall, Little India's first and only air-con mall.
More interesting was the Little India Arcade next door, with its collection of small shops and stalls. Started walking the long way back to our hotel via Serangoon Road, the central artery of Little India. Endless little shops selling gold bangles and Bollywood music. Also saw Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, which dates back to 1881, and went inside the crazy-busy Mustafa Centre. Managed to avoid buying anything (nobody in Singapore sells the GP2X!).Gratefully returned to our hotel, and went to the bar for several tasty and refreshing G&Ts. Were rather embarrassed when they brought out a band, and we were the only people there!
FYI: Our flight back to the UK was on a British Airways plane, and it was horrible.
