A Sunday stroll through Little India

Gill's notebook:

am.cloudier than yesterday, humid. Took metro to Little India stop - 'Tekka Market'.  mainly food and clothes stalls. Walked up Serangoon St. visited 2 temples and Mustafa Centre, then Canal Rd. onto Zam Zams - delicious murtabak - chatted to family, Englishman from Southampton, wife and in-laws Malaysian. Evening walked past Fullerton Bay - view of Marina Bay at night, sound and light show - more satay for supper.

Compared with Chinatown yesterday, 'Little India' feels like an authentic ethnic enclave, a place where people from the sub-continent live, not some pastiche developed for food tourism. It was Sunday, so the place was thronged with families shopping, taking a stroll or eating out and lots of young men simply 'hanging out' on their one day off.. Though this ambience was instantly recognisible from Asian areas of British cities - like Manchester's Curry Mile, there were distinct differences; whereas the the population from the Indian subcontinent in the  UK is clustered around particular places - Hindi in Leicester, Muslim in East Lancs, West Yorkshire and Luton, Sikh in Wolverhampton for example, because Singapore is compact, then 'Little India' lives up to its name, reflecting all the cultural and religious diversity of the mother country concentrated into a couple of square kilometers. It gives the area a strikingly different vibe to the calm and measured atmosphere elsewhere in the city, traffic is somewhat chaotic, life is lived on the doorstep and streets, it is colouful to the point of garish, and whereas Singapore in general contents itself with inconspicuous consumption, Little India's sari shops, gold merchants and jewellers overtly celebrate the joy of bling. 

Food shops outside Tegga Market

You can capture the colour, but not the heady, spicy scents.

Cane sugar

Oriental vegetable of mysterious nomenclature

The basement of the market is a food court

we had just had a substantial breakfast at the hotel so decided not to join the feast

Freshly cooked on the spot - it was probably delicious

Upstairs the market specialises in Indian fashion - the brighter the better

We spent a couple of hours exploring the backstreets of  Little India. There are a number of Temples and Mosques, perhaps the most striking is the Sri Veeramakalaiamman temple dedicated to Kai - the Divine Mother. Though the temple looks ancient, in fact it was constructed as recently as 1983 by craftsmen brought in from India.

The Hidi 'pantheon' is celebrated on the roof.

 Hindi temples are exuberant, very different to the quietness you find in a church

The colours of Little India

Finally, after getting slightly lost and somewhat damp from the noon downpour, we made our way to Zam Zams a famous but inexpensive restaurant specialising in Muslim cuisine. Its especially renowned for its murtabak - a spicy stuffed pancake from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, South India and Malaysia. They were delicious.

It is a Muslim dish, the question is, was the Mosque opposite built to serve the restaurant's customers - or the other way around...

What we did later in the afternoon is a complete blank. I suspect we suffered a jet-lag related slump - or as we term it - a 'Dougie moment' - which only makes sense if you happen to be a David Lynch fan, which we are. When we came too, later that evening we walked to Boat Quay, an area of bars and restaurants a few hundred metres from our hotel.

Early evening in Singapore is the best time, a little cooler and fresher and the light is magical.

The warm evening air and glittering lights on the water - classic allure of the Orient stuff.

The Marina Bay Resort stages a laser show weekend evenings at 8.00pm.

Smile!

The Fulleton Hotel's old rowing club building is now an up-market restaurant - but retains its 30s 'cocktail hour' charm.

I took some video of the laser show. I guess the snippet shown here gives the idea, but it went on for 20 minutes or so in the same vein. There is only so much you can do with a beam of coloured light....