I don’t have a work Visa, so when Ted is working I’m a bit at loose ends. I no longer have a garden to tend to, work to go to, and very little in the way of housework to deal with; only laundry and whatever cooking we decide to do, housekeeping does the rest. I don’t yet have a social circle or really any commitments upon my time except for self-imposed tasks like laundry, a little food prep, working out, and keeping up this blog. So, my time is more or less my own. Being a bit of a loner and an introvert this is not an all bad thing, but it also makes it easy to just stay in, read, go upstairs to the gym and do introvert types of things. But I do sometimes kick myself out of our apartment and just go somewhere. So far I’ve been out to Orchard Street to see a couple of the malls there, I’ve wandered through Chinatown a bit and I walked up to Little India, venturing into Mustafa Centre for limes and lime juice, and walking home, after a short detour through Bugis street.
But I’ll share them all with you bit by bit. Today we are talking Chinatown. The day I wandered up there was a little iffy weather wise, as many days are, so I had my umbrella and my MRT card in case the rain became too much, but I was mostly lucky.
Chinatown streets, festooned in bright colors and packed with interesting shops
From where we are Chinatown is a very short walk down to Clarke Quay (just a few blocks from us) and then across the river on New Bridge Road and within a couple more blocks I was in Chinatown. I only wandered up and down about 6 blocks, but there was so much to see and so many people it was a several hour visit. There is plenty left for another day or two at least of exploring.
One of the first things I happened upon was at Temple street where the Sri Mariamman Temple sits, a Hindu temple in the midst of Chinatown. It’s a beautiful and colorful building where lots of families were having their pictures taken, and a drumming ceremony of some kind was going on inside.
Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple
The temple was originally built in 1823 and rebuilt in 1843, and has been drawing visitors and locals both ever since. Walking around the perimeter you could smell the incense, enjoy the drumming and the sounds of the crowds inside. Rain was beginning to come down at that point and it is necessary to remove your shoes to visit the inside of the temple so I saved that for another visit.
Temple
Sri Mariamman Temple
The rain became a bit heavier so I sought the shelter of the covered markets between Temple Street and Smith Street, eventually wandering into the New Bridge Chinatown Complex and wandering there for a bit as well.
I passed trinket stalls, veggie stalls, all manner of food stores stuffed with things I haven’t seen or eaten before but looked a lot like dried squid and dried shrimp and a host of interesting looking mushrooms.
I walked through a food center and a local mall filled with fabric shops, tailors, a huge basement grocery and more restaurants, obviously catering more to local tastes than to tourist tastes. I came across a persian restaurant at the edge of the business district and Chinatown and had some amazing kebab meat with sauteed spinach and gave my feet a rest, walking home after the rain abated. Another awesome seeing new things.
Libby Scofield 