217. STAYCAY VACAY ROUND 3

Interesting neighbourhood that has undergone tremendous changes from scruffy to trendy. The registered 'whore houses' are gone, so unique to this area - they were identified by a large number above their doorway...which is their street address but in a specific colour...

My favourite building in this entire neighbourhood. For ages it was a scruffy coffeeshop on the ground floor with cheap rental rooms above

In keeping with its red-light reputation of old, the colour of choice of the newer establishments is of course Red!

Watering holes...when the day businesses close for the day, the night businesses come alive and it's vibrant, as is the case in other nightlife areas...I like our bars for its clean and safe fun. You'll see small groups of young women having drinks and conversation and no men surround them to harass them...There are areas out of the city center where you'll see unsavoury characters hanging out in seedy nightspots...once in a while, the police will raid those areas and the women and men are rounded up for whatever...vice, drugs, brawls, immigration offences...

The elephant's in the room...!

The menu's on the wall...that window grill caught my eye...

There's lots of life along the 5-foot way - vibrant at night when diners and drinkers while away the evenings. I didn't hear any rowdy shouting or loud talking from my room, perhaps because the room was tucked away in a corner. In any case, it's a respectable crowd in this neighbourhood...

There are those old traditional coffeeshops serving beers interspersed with trendy cafes and the fancier restos - different price points - everybody's happy, everybody's catered to...!

Any legit business welcomed...

Old-style coffeeshop doing roaring business catering to the breakfast and office crowd...

...next door is this Kuan Yin temple, I asked her for blessings since I entered to look around...

There's a Ganesha temple a few doors away. Prayers were been offered in the inner sanctum so I joined the devotees for blessings - covered all my bases!

This Ganesha temple is the only Hindu temple that provides this ritual, if there's no changes in which other temples may be offering it now. After offering prayers, one buys any number of coconuts, smashes them onto these granite slabs and leave contented...

This location in Chinatown was picked for this staycay as it has lots of conservation heritage shophouses side by side with traditional businesses...making the place colourful, varied and interesting...

 

In the heart of Chinatown is this lone Indonesian eatery, the only Muslim joint for miles around...

Soup urns where my order of soup is double boiled...

While on a walkabout, came across this free clinic, a Chinese Traditional physician was in, popped in for a consultation and several acupuncture needles later, left feeling lighter ! There's a donation box, don't be a skinflint if you ever visit any free TCM clinics and you're not on welfare....such free clinics can be found in various areas of Singapore. This particular Kwan-in chain has 3 free clinics...

Another thing I notice and adore, spiral staircases - curvy, sexy...