The Eve of Chinese New Year and where else but to Chinatown. Part of my search was for a decorative (preferably soft toy rabbit). It is the year of the rabbit and two of my family members are rabbits. However, all of what I found was gaudy red badly made ones that looked more like cats. And yes, I do know it is the year of the cat in the Vietnamese calendar but Singapore does not follow that animal switch. The weather was rainy and, as it had been for most of the days there. I think Singapore is possibly under perpetual rainfall. However, it's warm and as the droplets hit you it's more about relief from the heat than a chill on your skin. What is lovely is that the small area is very much a chinatown where not everyone speaks English and some of the items you can buy there are not tourist tat but really beautiful works of art. Exiting the Chinatown BRT station is, in itself, a destination to aim for - the sterile underground convenient modern world takes you on an escalator ride to the heart of bustling, colorful past.
A statue honoring or reminding or depicting the area where Chinese migrant workers flooded the island state bringing their labour as exchange for survival.
I wasn't the only one taking pictures of the restored buildings of chinatown that many were known as the 'death houses' places to go to in readiness to die.
A lot of the shops were not open yet but waiting for the night time rush of shoppers.
Parts of Chinatown also boasts Hindu, Tamil and Muslim places of worship. I stumbled upon part of the Sri Mariamam hindu temple. the rest of it (the more ornate parts) were being restored.
I opted for a serving of Nasi Lemak for lunch. I know I should have picked Chinese but I've been trying to avoid MSG. Nasi Lemak is a Malay dish consisting of coconut rice, a veg - in this case long bean, peanuts and ikan bilis (tiny fish) and often served with chicken (in this case, chicken wing).
