Elvie's Year in Photos 2011: Day 333 Exploring Singapore, Chinatown

Tuesday 29 November

What an amazing city this is! Our hotel is in the area known as Little India, an apt description. The streets are packed with small open fronted shops selling everything from soap to saris. Taylors sat in front of the shops working away on their old treadle sewing machines and people are everywhere, mostly Indian in this area but also Chinese, Malay, European & who knows what else. Vibrant is the clichéd but accurate description.

This morning we walked down to the bus stop for the Hop on Hop off bus we have tickets for. Belatedly we realised it wasn't due for over an hour so caught a normal bus, along with another British couple, Reg who was blind and Barbara. First stop was Raffles hotel, just to say we'd seen it then, having parted company with R & B finally caught our HoHo Bus to Chinatown. we took lunch in the Maxwell Hawker Centre, a food hall with numerous small booths either side of a central aisle filled with chair and tables. The stalls had a great variety of meals and drinks & the food was freshly cooked and delicious. When we left we realised there were 3 or 4 aisles not just the one we ate in.

While wandering around Chinatown we were enticed into a camera shop and bought some odds and ends. The salesman recommended seeing the Chinese Buddhist Temple of the Tooth which we'd walked right passed. We called in as a service was in progress. The chanting of the monks was quite hypnotic, we stood and listened until they had finished. The hall itself was magnificent

We got back on the bus just as the rain started. They seem to have a downpour every afternoon. We were feeling quite smug that we were in the dry when the bus driver told us we'd have to get off and another bus would come in 10 minutes. fortunately there was a shelter there so I spent the time photographing drips and rain.

Back to the hotel for a rest then this evening we had a meal in the Banana Leaf Restaurant. The gimmick is that your food is eaten off a banana leave but the important point is that it was beautifully cooked and very tasty.