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Great neighborhoods await in ethnically diverse Singapore
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MEMBERS of the tour group are still wondering how an entire shopping mall can smell of patchouli when their guide, a young man named Daniel, is hustling them along to the next attraction.
“Over there,” he said, with a broad sweep of his hand pointing in the direction of a traffic jam, “the moment you cross that intersection, is where ‘Little India’ starts.” Those skeptical of the statement are quickly convinced, when they see a huge elephant consisting of thousands of rainbow-colored blinking light bulbs across the way.
And quickly, the group is immersed in another world, one of stalls selling pashmina scarves, gold jewelry and cushions as they proceed to a small museum. There, a collection of black-and-white photographs show the beginnings of Little India.
This section of Singapore is one of several attesting to the melting-pot ambience of Southeast Asia’s sparkling city-state, with a history going back almost two centuries. “Life began on the Singapore River,” Daniel said, noting how Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in 1819 to set up a trading post. The British colonial is considered to be the founder of today’s modern metropolis.
“We are all immigrants,” Daniel said with a smile about his fellow-Singaporeans. In fact, about three-quarters of the city’s 5 million inhabitants are ethnic Chinese, followed by 14 percent of Malay origin, 9 percent Indian, and the remaining few percent of many diverse ethnic backgrounds. There is scarcely a city in the world where one can experience such a diversity of cultures in such a small area as Singapore.
In the shop windows of the Little India section, there are numerous devotional objects, indicating a temple is nearby. Visitors carrying a chain of flowers as an offering for the gods enter the temple. Nearby, there are mosques and churches. With its densely populated 715 square kilometers, Singapore affords little space for religious animosities.
The group proceeds to Kampong Glam, the district of the Muslims. Slowly, the music of Bollywood films fades away, and women in saris give way to women wearing head scarves. Tailor shops and wellness spas give way to cafes where men sit smoking water pipes and the air is scented with peppermint tea. At the end of Arab Street, the Sultan Mosque rises up with its golden dome and is surrounded by shining minarets.
After the Muslim neighbourhood, the tour of Singapore’s various villages heads to Chinatown, replete with an intoxicating scent of coriander. A golden cat with a waving arm greets visitors at a restaurant. Amid a decor of deep-red walls, gold-framed mirrors, pink orchids and lanterns hanging from the ceilings.
Still dizzy from so many sensations, the group now boards a water taxi heading to Marina Bay, where the banks are lined with buildings from the British colonial era hailing back to the time when Singapore’s multicultural history started.
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