Singapore Sojourn Day 6: "From India to the Middle East to China in about Six Hours"

Little India, Singapore

Arab Street, Singapore

Chinatown, Singapore

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tuesday morning dawned early for us--6 A.M. no less, and yet as was our habit, we actually got started with the main event of the day--visiting three of the key ethnic districts of Singapore to experience the culture and shop around noon.

We rose early because we had to be out of our rooms at the Southeast Asia Union Mission by 8:00 A.M. to make room for the next guests. Even after we got out of the rooms it took time for us to get ourselves organized, call taxis, make the journey over to the Fragrance Hotel where we would spend our last two nights. And, because Barbara had taken Holly and Micronesian Queen to run some errands, The Treasurer, Korea and I ended up waiting at the hotel for an hour or so for them to arrive before we could head out.

Babs poses with the students to the entrance to the Union Headquarters where we stayed for our first four nights.

For lunch we ate at an indoor hawker stand on the fringes of Little India, and there I had possibly the best meal of the entire trip. I've often found that I'm usually not totally "in love" with the food in foreign countries, even when I normally like that type of food. It's not I hate the food. I don't. But it's merely tolerable, rather than delicious. Sometimes, it's the pungent smell of the primary ingredient--kimchi in Korea last year, fish sauce in Thailand the year before that--that tends to overpower my appetite. The same had proved true in Singapore, thus far where most of the meals were okay at best, and sometimes a little less than okay. This is not a criticism of Singaporean culinary skills (after all Singapore is almost as famous for it's food as for it's shopping) but more a statement about my unadventerous American palate. But. Today was the exception. I found a stand specializing in Indian food, and had an absolutely delicious meal. I ordered up a Roti John (which is nothing like the Caribbean roti I grew up with--it's a piece of bread cooked with egg and seasonings and served with a side of red curry for dipping), two pieces of fried banana, and some vegetables. I liked it so much I went back and got an order of Roti prata (which is flat roti bread with, again, a side of red curry for dipping). Delicious!

Like the Indian food, Little India turned out to be, perhaps my favorite place in Singapore. But before we plunged into our Indian adventure after lunch, we browsed a stand selling CD's for only $3.00 SD each! They had collections that didn't officially exist (collections like "U2 Gold" and such) and "Greatest Hits" albums by artists who hadn't released greatest hits albums. Obviously they were pirated, and I warned the kids that they really didn't know what they were getting. The kids (and I) ignored my warnings and the voices of concience and went ahead anyway. A couple of kids took advantage of a special offer by the solicitious proprieter where they could buy 10 CDs and get one free. As for me, I decided to forgo the special U2 collections and stick with a Beatles collection and Micheal Learns to Rock greatest hits.

It turned out that the CDs were not pirated after all. Not really anyway. They were songs done by other un-named and unknown artists. The artist might have not been talented enough but still, that lady singing Beyonce's songs was NOT Beyonce. I haven't listened to my CDs yet, but I expect I'll find four lads from Singapore singing "Hey Jude" instead of the original Fab 4.

Having been snowed by the CD seller, we headed into Little India.

I loved Little India--everything about it, the latest Bollywood hits booming from the stores, the multitude of shops selling brilliant fabrics and colorful saris, wood carvings, CDs, fruits & vegetables, the ubiquitous garlands of bright orange & yellow flowers. It felt like we were India (except maybe cleaner and less crowded? I don't know, not having actually been there) and I loved it. Below some pictures of our Indian adventures:

A Hindu temple in Little India


The ladies show off their "bindi's" (the little jewled dot in the center of their foreheads). The proprietor, the Indian woman on the right, was very warm and informative. She provided us an impromtu lesson in Indian culture. Among other things, she explained to the girls the traditional meaning of the bindis but assured the girls that today most young people just wear whatever color and design looks good with their outfit. A couple of the girls bought several packets of bindis from the lady, plus some stick-on nose studs, and some bangles which they then wore with pride throughout much of the rest of the trip.

One really fun thing we did in Little India was get henna "tattoos" done. The kids were sort of nervous about doing it at first. Would it really come off? Would it hurt? I decided to forge ahead and go first, and after I took the plunge, Holly, The Treasurer, KoreaX, Y, & Z quickly followed suit. For readers who don't know, the way henna works, is they apply the paint, which looks like dark brown almost black mud. The paint is applied quite thickly. You let it dry for 30 minutes or more, and then scrape off the hardened, dried paint. Underneath is a lighter colored "tattoo" that will last for 1-2 weeks before it eventually fades. In the picture below, I'm showing off my newly applied "scorpion" tattoo before I scraped off the henna paint. The actual tattoo wasn't as distinct due to the lightness of the henna against my darker skin:

KoreaZ getting his henna tattoo applied.

Holly's freshly applied henna tattoo before removing the henna. . .

. . . and the henna stain tattoo left after the paint was scraped off.


After spending a couple of hours browsing the stalls and shops of Little India we a few blocks over to Arab Street, a collection of Arab and Muslim-owned stores anchored by two large mosques. This was probably Barbara's favorite place. She loved the Middle Eastern ambiance--the carpet merchants, shops full of rattan goods and leather products, and gorgeous fabrics.

Around sunset, as I was waiting outside a shopping center, where the rest of the group had gone to use the bathroom, I had the Muslim call to prayer, a hauntingily beautiful almost melancholic chant echoing through the streets, coming from some minaret in the nearby mosque. It was a truly sublime moment.


KoreaX and KoreaZ in the heart of the Arab district. The Sultan Mosque is in the background.


Arab Street at dusk.


The little shop in the Arab district where Barbara bargained down a gorgeous tapestry to hang in our stairwell. You can actually see the tapestry itself in this picture. It's the red fabric hanging from a hanger by itself to the immediate left of the entrance.

Another shot of the Sultan Mosque

The sun had just set by the time we searched out the closest MRT station and took the train down to Chinatown. We ate supper first--Barbara and I at a Swenson's restaurant, while the kids dined two doors down at a Japanese restaurant. I think the kids were grateful for a change from the usual hawker's fare.

After eating we ventured in to Chinatown. Despite the tourist brochure's promise of the Chinatown Night Market many of the stalls and shops were already closed. Still, there was enough still open that we were able to shop for two hours or so, and KoreaZ managed to buy a very loud Chinese drum, while I got a nice shirt.

By 10:00 P.M. we were on a bus back to our the Fragrance Hotel where we checked into our rooms. The rooms were tiny, with only the basic necessities, but they were clean. The bathrooms were interesting in that the toilet, sink, and shower were all in a single room. There was no tub, no curtain, or door--just a shower head jutting out of the wall. So basically almost the entire room got wet when you took a shower. If felt very strange, and I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take a picture of it.

This picture is from the Fragrance Hotel's website showing an example of a "superior" room. The photo is quite accurate actually. This pretty much exactly what our room looked like. Very basic. Very small.

Despite our spartan accomodations, we slept well--tired from a long day. After all we'd traveled all across Asia in just a few hours!

. . .Okay actually, I understand the kids didn't go to sleep right away at all. Excited to be "on their own"--the three girls in one room, the three boys in another, and Barbara and I sharing a third room--I guess they all stayed up half the night. To be honest, Babs and I were pretty happy to finally have a room to ourselves too!