Arab Street & Chinatown

Arab Street

On Friday, I started out the day in Little India and meandered by Arab Street before heading to Chinatown. Arab street is a rather small neighbourhood with not only Arab street, but also other streets with names like Kandahar and Baghdad. As it was still raining, I mostly kept to the covered sidewalks such as this one. These types of sidewalk are in many places in the most central parts of town and rather convenient with the ever changing weather.

Seeing the Sultan Mosque also confirmed that this was the neighbourhood I was looking for. I walked along its side on Kandahar street and followed a group of school children into some kind of garden. It ended up being the Malay Heritage centre located inside what used to be the Malay palace. I didn't have time to go in, so I listened to the teacher that was with the students as she explained that it was a Sultan Hussein Shah who sold Singapore to the East India Company. While I kept on listening, I walked in a nearby plant garden and touched and smelled a curry leaf tree. It was quite fragrant. As time was starting to run short, I then made my way across to Chinatown. 

(One silly thing about the sidewalks here as some have some nice tiles that become very slippery when wet so it was sometimes a balancing act during my walk. I would walk along the sides where the surface was a bit more adherent.)

Chinatown

I made my way to Pagoda street to meet Roohi, a collegue of my friend Dave, who has just been transferred to the Singapore office. We ate some chili crab, though there wasn't enough chili but the Chinese bread to dip in the sauce was quite addictive. We shared some of our Singapore experiences and observations. 

Afterwards, we went for a foot massage next door at a spot she'd been a couple of times. Even though sometimes it was too intense for my poor little feet, it was still a nice treat to have.

We walked afterwards through the neighbourhood, went to smell some durian, a very fragrant fruit that you either love or hate. I'm still hesitant and not sure if I'll try it before I leave. I think that for now, I prefer jackfruit!