Our Week in Kampong Glam

Singapore proved the perfect backdrop as we chatted our way round the city, slowly filling in all those details of our lives we don’t get time to mention and reconnecting over our shared memories.

We stayed in Kampong Glam a neighbourhood of Malay heritage dominated by the Sultan Mosque in a street of Middle Eastern restaurants…

… where we spotted the first of many murals showing details of times past.

In complete contrast, round the corner Haji and Bali Lanes are full of brightly painted modern street art, hip cafes and boutiques which come alive at night.

Our first evening was spent here chatting over Aperol Spritz at Blu Jazz before moving to the Good Luck Beerhouse for a dim sum bundle and a carafe of sake. During the week we explored fully, loving the outside atmosphere. We sampled cocktails and shish kebabs, discovered pistachio cube croissants …

… and spent our last night here, this time Mexican with guacamole and tacos!

It was the perfect central location from which to explore the various neighbourhoods of the city, each with its own character.

Marina Bay surrounded by striking buildings was best viewed from a bumboat …

… or the Lantern Bar at The Fullerton Hotel with sundowners …

… before dinner dinner at Satay Street in Lau Pa Sat, just one of the several hawkers centres we visited.

Nearby are the Gardens by the Bay with the supertrees, inconveniently being converted to a Christmas market, so not especially photogenic …

… the cloud forest …

… complete with some lovely Dale Chihuly glass …

… and chrysanthemums in the Flower Dome …

Fortunately we were inside when the heavens opened, enjoying a delicious lunch of taramasalata and falafel in Hortus.

Little India and the surrounds had a mix of Hindu temples …

… and was decorated for Deepavali which was celebrated over the weekend.

Chinatown was certainly colourful …

… and highlights were the Buddhist Tooth Temple …

… the Thian Hock Keng Temple …

… and NUS Baba House, a heritage property which showcases Peranakan history and culture.

We checked out the Paranakan Museum to find out more about the various hybrid cultures created when merchants from China, India, the Middle East and Europe married into the local communities in Singapore …

… and we both fell in love with the striking colours used in tiling, ceramics and beading.

A video about Peranaken food inspired us to seek out The House of Peranakan for dinner one evening so we could try ayam buah keluak, a traditional dish of chicken and buah keluak nuts which give it a rich flavour of chocolate crossed with coffee. Later we discovered the raw nuts contain hydrogen cyanide and are poisonous until they are specially prepared so not only did we survive our dinner that evening, but also being completely drenched in a sudden downpour, and standing freezing in the air conditioned train on the way back!

Singapore is so diverse, a melting pot of cultures, religions and the juxtaposition of old and new. We’ve seen rows of shophouses in every neighbourhood with a variety of decoration, some run down and others well preserved and beautifully painted. In 1822, Sir Stamford Raffles defined the building type he wanted in the new city of Singapore and these shophouses continued to be built till 1960, based on the Chinese courtyard house with open stairwells and skylights, and an open verandah at the front called five-foot ways to protect pedestrians from the sun and rain.

Over time as the population increased, these neighbourhoods became cramped and less sanitary, so many areas of shophouses were demolished to make way for better transport links and modern and fresh apartment blocks. In 1936, the village of Tiong Bahru was redeveloped and the modern apartment blocks were built in the new art deco style …

… but the area has a number of nostalgic murals to remember times gone by …

… like when the old men used to meet with their bird cages so that the men and birds could each chat together.

Singapore is one of the greenest cities in the world and we visited the very formal botanic gardens with its fabulous collection of orchids …

… and also took a 10km hike along the MacRitchie trails …

to this treetop suspension bridge which gives a bird’s eye view the forest canopy …

… and came across several groups of monkeys along the way.

All in all we walked miles, only really got wet once although there was a shower most afternoons, ate food from all over the world and made lots of new memories of our time together.

Needless to say it was hard to say farewell at Changi, especially as we have no plans to meet again any time soon, but we still have our daily souvenir snaps … until sisters go off travelling together once more!

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