Bugis and Kampong Glam

 Not too far from where I am staying right now is Bugis street.  Definitely a street worth walking down if you are ever in Singpore.  It is well inside the central part of Singapore, better known for its shopping malls (as you will see later in the post) but you travel through time quite a bit walking down Bugis.

 Starting just a little off of Bugis, we have two temples side by side.  This one is Indian.  There is a gallery of statues on the front, each ornately painted.  There are a lot of these temples in Singapore, and this is far from the most ornate, but you can get up real nice and close to it.  And it is part of such a bustling street.

Here is a Chinese temple.  Quite a bit of commercialism out front, with flowers and incense to buy, for use inside the temple, I gather.

A better view of the front of the Chinese temple.

 As you go down the street, you have a lot of cool shops.  Bulk Chinese herbs.

 Religious statuary.  People kept coming up and rubbing Buddha, especially his belly.  There is a little donation container under him.  The store behind is full of little statuettes.

 This man is selling birds in the middle of the sidewalk (the roadways through this whole section are closed to traffic, making sort of a pedestrian mall)  The birds aren't actually sitting in the cage at all.

 There are at least 5 birds in this picture.

 Now I have made the turn onto Bugis Street.  The huge electronics mall, Sim Lim, is actually a block or two behind me at this point.  There are tons of shops set up in tents: toys, clothes, key makers and watch repair shops.  And a discount mall behind it with more herb sellers, and statuary, and some jewelry.

 Then as we cross the street from there, the entire street has been covered in a tent.  There is a big vegetable market to the right of the entrance.

 And in there it is jam packed with stalls selling all sorts of crap

 Cross the street again, and suddenly everything is much more upscale.  A glass top has been built over the roadway, and traditional mall stores are in the old store fronts.

 And then look at this crazy mall!

But just a few blocks away from the malls is a part of town, like little India, but this is where the muslim population lived under british colonialism.

 Despite what you might think about a neighborhood anchored by a giant mosque, it is quite hip, with cafes and bars lining the street.

Also lots of clothe sellers and carpet stores.

And yes, that is another mall in the distance.