A walk through Chinatown

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.

Walk this way

As I have mentioned before, we take the MRT when we are heading out to new territory sometimes, or going a little further afield, and it’s certainly handy when the heavy rains come in suddenly, but mostly we walk. It’s the best way for me to get my bearings and learn the city, and it’s just such a nice way to enjoy the sights and the people watching.

I also have a Fitbit (Flex, the bracelet type), which for those of you living under a stone, is a fancy pedometer. I have been using it for about a year and a half and I have to say that I have enjoyed it. It buzzes when I reach 10,000 steps for the day and I can set alarms on it as well. It syncs to my phone and until I moved to Singapore, it also synced to my computer. I have had no end of trouble getting it to talk to my computer since we have been here and Fitbit engineers still haven’t figured out why I can only see this very strange, script only, page instead of my usual ‘dashboard’ since I’ve been here. But, it still tracks my steps and is still a really nice boost at the end of the day to see how far my little legs have carried me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not as obsessed as some, and you know who you are, or as obsessed as David Sedaris, but having standards to live up to isn’t an all bad thing. And we have been racking up the steps.

But, it’s very warm here, and I’m told this is actually the cooler season because of the rains. So, walking in athletic shoes is sweaty, and I don’t know about you, but when my feet sweat a lot I start getting blisters. So, sandal type footwear is the obvious choice, but when you are regularly logging between 5-10 miles each day, on pavement, you want to be sure you aren’t wearing flip flops. Flip flops cause your toes to grip, gripping your toes for long periods isn’t very good for your long-term foot comfort or health. They aren’t that comfortable anyway. And since I sold or gave away nearly everything I owned and arrived here with 3 pairs of sneakers and one pair of flip flops and sandals, my options are limited.

Before I left I bought myself a pair of Sanuk Yoga Slings, I wore them mostly on short walks to start with, but lately I’ve been wearing them pretty much exclusively. I’m finding them very comfortable, and while they aren’t the most fashionable footwear, they stack up pretty well. They have a cushy little footbed made of recyled yoga mats, but also allow you to feel the terrain under you. They have a soft, stretchy band that fits around the heel, keeping your toes free to splay out as they should when you step, and a similar piece that attaches across the instep. Other than being a bit complicated to put on, as opposed to stepping into flip flops, they are pretty great.

My Sanuk’s. Super comfy. Maybe they will see this and send me a free pair!

 

I’m pretty sure that last year’s really popular foot wear here in Singapore were Fit Flops, you still see an awful lot of them on people’s feet, but I have yet to see any in stores. The really popular shoe right now, for men and women, is a pair of Birkenstock‘s. Yup, that’s right, they are HUGE here. You see all styles, and plenty of knock-off’s (Hirkenstock’s anyone?), but mostly you see this one. Everywhere. Men. Women. Children. Everywhere.

This one. Everywhere. On Everyone.

 

I’ve traveled a fair amount in Europe and the west coast of the United States, I’ve been to New York and Boston, and a handful of other places, and I don’t know that I’ve ever been anywhere so pedestrian friendly. Singapore is a very easy town to walk in, and given that the whole country is only about 30 miles across east/west and about 15 miles north/south you can make some pretty fair headway into neighborhoods on foot. There are lots of underground pass-throughs, some of which have little malls, and if it’s part of an MRT stop then there will also be food, and there are footpath overpasses over many busy streets, leading into air-conditioned malls, where there is also food.

Singapore seems to put a lot of emphasis on walkability, buzzword that it is, as well as numerous concessions to foot traffic, such as all of the bridge underpasses, allowing one to walk under the busy streets and stay along the river all the way down to the barrage. In addition, the ubiquity of the malls means that there is never very far between clean and safe bathrooms or, important to those of us who need to eat frequently, food choices. Streets are mostly well lighted and clean. Wandering alone for hours at a time I have never yet felt unsafe. In the 3 weeks since I’ve been here I’ve seen 3 walk/run races hosted by the city as well. Granted, they have pretty fine outdoorsy weather, certainly by PNW standards, but only if you don’t mind the humidity and the incredibly heavy rain that can strike at a moment’s notice. However, when the rain does hit, you can always go to the mall and walk there.

I’m off for a walk now, got to get my steps in!

 

 

Caught in the rain

Ted has been working nights the last few days, leaving around dinner time and arriving back sometime between 1-2am. That’s just how it is when you’re working in the simulators, you take the times that are doled out. So, I’ve been on my own in the afternoons while he is prepping for the session and after he leaves for work. It’s given me the opportunity to walk around the parts of the city that I’ve already been to and feel like I’m getting to know it, and explore a bit of new territory. I’ve ventured out for dinner by myself and enjoyed some awesome food, but I’ll be glad when we can have an evening meal together again.

Since he has been working at night we have had the early part of the day together and we’ve taken a number of walks, through Fort Canning park, and along the river, repeating the path in a few variations. Today, after a visit to One Visa for our Visa paperwork, we ventured a bit further afield, past the Marina Sands Hotel and into the Gardens by the Bay. I’ll take another trip down there soon, on a sunny day with my camera to share with you how truly amazing the gardens are and the views of downtown from the gardens. We didn’t go into the greenhouses, but I can’t wait to see them.

View from the Marina Barrage back towards the Gardens by the Bay, the Marina Sands and the financial district

The walk was further than either of us had planned to take and really we should have looked at the sky earlier and known what was awaiting us, but by the time we did notice we knew we were doomed to be caught out in the storm.

About the time we were nearly as far from our hotel as we could possibly get the heavens opened up and dumped rain on us. We escaped into the Marina Sands mall, which is still under construction, and wandered for a while waiting for the rain to let up. So, we waited, and we wandered, and we waited and we wandered. Neither of us had brought any money, or a credit card with us, so even though the mall is full of restaurants and I was getting very hungry indeed, all we could do was wait and enjoy the sights.

I wasn’t entirely oblivious to the dark clouds, but we knew we weren’t going to make it home before the rain hit anyway

We wandered up to the oculus during the heaviest part of the downpour to witness the funneling of the deluge down into the mall. You seriously have to see the oculus to believe it. It is essentially a giant acrylic basin that collects water and allows it to pour down into a central pool in the mall and then on into canals that have little bridges across them. This, in one of the toniest malls I’ve ever seen. Every high end brand you can think of has a presence here; Calvin Klein, Dior, Balenciaga, Mikimoto, the list goes on and on. It’s all part of a giant development, which if you follow the link above and here will allow you to read about it. It’s an amazing feat of architecture, engineering and money.

The oculus. It doesn’t look as impressive as it really is.

Eventually we got tired of waiting and made a run for it. Ted was already pretty wet and I had and umbrella, but we still both got soaked. By the time we made it back to our place it had slowed to a mere sprinkle.

Next time I’ll bring money so at least we can have lunch while we wait out the storm.