Friday, August 23rd to Tuesday, August 27th, 2024 - Singapore - City of the Past

A Hint of Days Past - Ellison Building, Selegie Road, Near Little India

It is hard to find buildings like this one any more in Singapore. It is called the Ellison Building and was built in 1924 by Isaac Ellison, a prominent member of the Jewish Community. While there are other buildings of similar, or older, vintage it is more common for them to have been restored and 'touched up'. The characteristics that I found noteworthy were the uniform, and pastel, colors of the shutters and the basic off-white for the walls. It is currently closed and appears to be in the process of being 'fixed up'.

Little India Arcade, Serangoon and Hastings Road

Just a short distance from the Ellison Building was the Little India Arcade - which announced that I had arrived at my destination.

While there was much more of modern Singapore to explore, I wanted to search for signs of the old world that emerged after the British established a trading colony here in 1819. Perhaps the origins of Little India followed from Indians being employed in the nearby lime pits and brick kilns that were established in the early days, to develop Serangoon Road, which was an important thoroughfare. I began with this area, as it was within walking distance of our hotel.

Exotic Shopping

As you can see here, gone are the traditional muted colors you saw on the Ellison Building - the the colors pop - both from the buildings and the wares.

Silk Shoes

Many come here to buy clothing, exotic jewelry, textiles, souvenirs and street food. The colors are bright and sparkly. I was not in shopping, or eating mode, but enjoyed wandering through.

Money Changing Was A 'Thing', Too

Money changing was also a service that was touted loudly - at least in color. I didn't think the signage was nearly as attractive as the traditional look!

This is Much Nicer

Other than the open market style as shown earlier, many of the businesses, like these restaurants, had their own distinctive storefronts.

A Whimsical Mural

As we were not in India, there were no sacred cows wandering around, so I was amused by this wall art, which suggested that they are missed! (The two pedestrians are not part of the mural!)

It's Near Racecourse Road

Serangoon Road is just one block away from the racecourse, so this mural brings the racing horses into the neighborhood. In fact the colonial 'big-wigs' used to come to the Ellison Building roof (the first photo) to watch the races.

A Colorful Back Alley

I like to poke my nose into the back alleys of the places I visit as a way to check out how the less public tasks of life are treated. Often they have trash and junk piled up. I was very impressed with this one, which was very clean and even had colorful walls and murals. In the background you can see the type of high rise building that was typical for housing here.

Flower Offerings Mural From the Past

There was also a long mural depicting scenes of the markets in the past. This woman was stringing flowers which people buy for offerings in the temples.

Flower Offerings Today

Although I didn't see anyone stringing them on the sidewalk, there were still plenty of flower offerings available for the nearby temple.

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple

As you see here, this Hindu temple is quite different from the ones we saw in Bali. Not only is it colorful, it depicts many gods and Hindu characters. It was built first as a shrine dedicated to the goddesses Kali and Pavarti in 1855, then Bengali laborers created the temple in 1881. It is very elaborate, as you see.

Tea House in Chinatown

My next historic destination was Chinatown, a short bus ride for me. My purpose was to find a tea house to buy an indulgence for myself - pu'er tea.

Video of my pu'er tea tasting. There was a 'tea' lesson going on behind us - that's the low talking you can hear.

I discovered Pu'er tea in Yunnan, China some years ago, and when I'm able to get to a Chinatown somewhere, I like to stock up on a pu'er cake, which is a pressed disc of black tea, which has been fermented after it has been pressed into the cake. Much like wine, it can be stored for long periods of time and there is a big following of interest in certain years and locations which enhance its value. 

When I brew it at home, I just make it like regular tea, but I envy the tea tables the Chinese use to make it, where they splosh tea everywhere. Many of the tables I've seen are much more elaborate than this little one. As shown in the video, I do discard the first brew and as he recommended, can get many additional brews before I discard the leaves.

My Pu'er Cake from Bangkok

You can see here what a pu'er tea cake cake looks like. The tools shown are needed to break it open and create leaves small enough to fit in a pot. A cake like this lasts me many months - this one from Bangkok will see me well into 2025 before I break into the new Singapore cake. It's fun and the Chinese attribute many health qualities to the tea.

Tanjong Pagar Road

Here, you can start to get a sense what the old Chinatown must have looked like. Similar to little India, the shuttered upper windows secure the living space over the street level shops. Called shophouses, the oldest might date back to the 1820's, at the very beginnings of Singapore's colonial history. As you see, the roads are fairly wide, maybe due to the fact that the water was pulled here by bullock carts, which needed wide turning circles.

 

Shophouses 

Although many were painted in bright colors, there were also shophouses that retained the traditional colonial 'white', with a single muted color highlighting the details of the shutters above. This more closely matches the way I remember Singapore during my visit here as a teenager in the 1960s, although it was not quite as clean or stylish then. I also remember deep storm water gutters, but I don't find any references or photos to support my memories. 

I read that the task of renovating the buildings, while still keeping the historical characteristics, was started in the 1980's, inspired by a visit to a traditional tea house by Queen Elizabeth.

Wall Art

Like Little India, the streets were very clean and wall art showed up in a number of places. I liked the clean lines and bright colors of this one.

Nostalgia - Sitting In The Past!

As I had seen in Little India, there were murals that depicted scenes from the past. This couple did a great job of blending themselves into the calligrapher's studio on the painted chairs. An older couple followed them and discovered - as I would have - that their knees didn't do quite as good a job of integrating them into the scene!

Smith Street Near Chinatown MRT

I found myself wandering through street markets near Smith Street, which was a major thoroughfare in the past and is now a covered walking and shopping street. 

You might have figured out by now that I'm somewhat of a peripatetic traveler. I set a destination that gives me a direction, but then I just wander once I arrive. Sometimes this allows me to find places that appeal to me as I follow my nose, but it also means that I might miss destinations that have been defined by others as worth visiting. Happily for me, I usually don't know that I've missed something and I generally enjoy what I do find.

Pagoda Street at the end of Trengganu Street

I wandered down Trengganu Street, with lots of stalls on either side, where I completed a second shopping desire of  mine for a pair of pearl earrings at a jewelry store. I ended up thinking that I probably need to learn better bargaining skills!

Paper Lanterns

One way of knowing that you are in a Chinatown anywhere in the world is seeing the colorful paper lanterns. Sure enough, they were here, but there were many more options than the standard red ones that one could rely on in the past.

Paper fans

Paper fans are another iconic staple of Chinese markets. I enjoy sticking my camera into these colorful displays - but the store owners might not appreciate that I don't purchase their goods. 

Pagoda Street at Night

Sarah, Chuck, Robyn and I returned to Chinatown at night and found that it was very colorful and lively.

Sultan Mosque, Kampong Glam

My third exploration into an ethnic neighborhood was an area called Kampong Glam, which is the Malay Muslim quarter of the city. The dominant feature of the area is the Sultan Mosque with its dominant golden domes that date back to 1929. It was built to replace an older mosque that was originally on the site since 1825.

Arab Street

Once I arrived at the Mosque (which had been my destination), you know I was thrilled to discover the incredible vibrancy and muraling I saw around me. Some of the murals, as you see above, were extremely colorful.

Cendol Maker, Corner Arab and Muscat Street

The nostalgia for the past was also conveyed at this shop, however, this time the color was in the cendol store, while the shadows of the past hovered in the colorless mural that has preserved the images of a newsagent and money changer - perhaps prior owners. I especially liked the contrast between the colorful cendol store and the mural.

(Cendol is an iced dessert that popular in south-east Asia and is made of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk and palm sugar syrup.) 

Turkish Carpet Store

Arab Street was right up my alley, with fabric and carpet stores, along with many others. I picked up some fabrics while here and relished in the colors and textures I found myself surrounded by.

Muskat Street Murals

Here were the most magnificent of the murals that I saw while in Singapore - they were everywhere - and as had been the case in Little India, the main theme had been to keep images of the past before our eyes. Perhaps this is a historical representation of a previous owner, or it is fiction, but I liked the fact that this important work was represented.

Inserting Oneself Into the Picture

As we saw in Chinatown, the integration of the present day person into the street seller from the past offered an Instagram opportunity for this family. The little girl was trying to fit a bag of snacks into her mouth!

Back to Arab Street - Restaurant

We leave Kampong Glam with this frontage of a restaurant on Arab street. I could probably spend weeks here and still fail to capture all the murals that surround the area.

Raffles Hotel (Photo by Robyn Lamp)

I do not want to neglect the history with which I was most familiar, that of the British colonization of this region, during which Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles established the British presence here. Thus, Robyn, Sarah and I visited the Raffles hotel, which is named after him, one day.

 Historical references to Singapore date back to the third century. As you might imagine it gets complicated through the next century and a half. It was destroyed in the 16th century at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese and there was little activity following that, until Raffles arrived to find a very small Malay settlement at the mouth of the Singapore River. He had been the Lieutenant Governor of a British colony on Sumatra, where struggles with both the Dutch and Portuguese were limiting trade. He saw the location at the end of the Malay Peninsula as offering good access to both East and West and in 1819 negotiated a treaty with the Johor Sultanate, which allowed the British to establish a trading port which ultimately led to to the creation of the Crown Colony of Singapore 1867.

Cool, White, Tall Colonnades at Raffles Hotel

The Raffles Hotel is a wonderful colonial remnant that remains more or less untouched in its character. It began as a beach house in the early 1830's and was transformed in the 1880's by Armenian brothers, who named it after Raffles. It has hosted many famous people through the years and evokes a luxurious and relaxing environment throughout its cool, white structures.

Liveried Sikh Doorman (Photo by Robyn Lamp)

One can rely on being greeted by a liveried Sikh doorman, and Sarah and I decided to ask to pose with him and were most pleased when he agreed. The continued presence of Sikh doormen through the years, serves as a reminder of the expansive reach of British colonialism.

Tiffin Boxes in the Tiffin Room

The Indian influence is also apparent in the famed Tiffin Room, which offers North Indian cuisine. Originally I had thought to enjoy the sumptuous High Tea that is offered at Raffles, but Robyn, Sarah and I decided instead to follow the recommendation of a friend, to have a curry in the Tiffin Room - that sounded a little more sophisticated to me than High Tea! (And a lot fewer calories and gluten temptations!)

As I am a fan of Chinoiserie, I loved the décor of the tiffin boxes in the restaurant. (They are Indian lunch or snack boxes.)

Singapore Slings (Photo by Robyn Lamp)

In addition to the naan, aloo gobi and paneer butter masala that we ordered, we decided that we must also have Singapore Slings, a drink that was invented here in 1915. We felt very exotic and I could imagine all the dignitaries that might have also enjoyed them - writers, movie stars and other muckety-mucks! We thoroughly enjoyed ours!

More Chinoiserie in the Tiffin Room

  It was one of those outings that we will always remember, as it was cemented in our limbic brains when we got the bill! It was worth every penny to enjoy the most expensive aloo gobi and masala I'll probably ever have. We had leftovers and they came back to the hotel with me where I faithfully ate every pricey morsel over the next few days!

Cannon at Fort Canning

When I was waiting to photograph this cannon at Fort Canning, this group of women were taking a selfie. I offered to take their photo for them and then asked if they would pose around the cannon for me, to improve its appearance. They happily agreed. 

It takes a military presence to maintain a hold on foreign territory like this, and it was the cost of these defenses that ended up being a big part of Britain's decision to withdraw from Singapore in 1976. Fort Canning was one of the sites that had been critical in this task, especially during the Second World War, when the Japanese threatened. Their efforts failed and the Japanese eventually occupied the island from 1942 to 1945. It was a terrible time for the population, marked by malnutrition, black markets, persecution, POW and internment camps for foreigners. Many left, if they could.

Riverside Point From Fort Canning

I leave you with this final view over the Singapore River toward Riverside Point. I had enjoyed the freedom of movement I found in Singapore. While the heat was challenging, if I stayed out of the middle of the day, it was very negotiable. I could have enjoyed more time here to see more sights and enjoy more of the diverse and wonderful food here. It is not an inexpensive Asian city, but is a place I would be happy to return to again.

Next, we moved on to Thailand for a couple of days. Just a few more blogs to go and we will all be home again!