Aside from the local Singaporeans, Singapore has two main cultural groups. The Chinese and the Indians. They come to Singapore for the same reason anyone might migrate somewhere else. Economic opportunity. Of course this has been going on so long that most now were born and have lived in Singapore their entire lives. But they have retained their cultural heritage. The Indians and Chinese are groups who hold onto that no matter where they are and its easy to see why.
They have very rich and vibrant cultures which they take great pride in, and personally I would find it a great shame if they didn't. One of the things that make this world so interesting and vibrant is the mix of different cultures. It's something that should be embraced and celebrated, not feared and vilified like many like to do.
So we arrived at little India. It is very easy to get to as it has it's own metro stop called... you guessed it.. Little India.
Coming off the metro and heading into the area you immediate notice one thing about the place. How colourful it is. It seemed to me the whole place was a kind of tribute to the Holi Festival (the hindu festival of colours). That's the one where they throw powdered paint around. Messy but awesome.
Now, I lived in India when I was in High School (I had a rather international upbringing, I believe the term used is - "expat brat" or "multicultural kid"). Specifically I live in New Delhi for 2 years - the first 2 years of my high school life. And as I stepped into Little India I could definitely fell the familiar atmosphere of India.
You know it's weird.. I've looked at this picture so many times yet I only just noticed the pidgeon! lol! Ok back to the story - I immediately felt like I was back in Delhi with the statues, the colours, fountains and of course locals!
The amazing murals painted on the side of buildings was unique to Singapore though, i never really saw that in India. They're impressive though but you can tell they are organised and commissioned by an artist, not random grafitti (that's super-illegal in singapore).
This took me back to nostalgia lane though, the street market with stalls selling all the typical Indian stuff, pashminas. saris, incense burners, bags and other such things.
This truly reminded me of what it was like in Delhi as a kid wandering the markets, except here i wasn't getting harassed to buy something, which in Delhi happened about every 5 seconds lol!
As we continued on things became a bit more Singaporean as most shops were in their own buildings instead of market stalls, and they were all still in the older style colonial buildings of the early 19th century. I really do love the style, and if I won the lottery i'd probably try and get a house built out there somewhere in that style.. not in Singapore though, that's impossible these days, the place is so built up now that the only thing you can buy is apartments.
During our walk we encountered a small field/park in between all the buildings that was filled with little (and large) Elephant statues that were painted in bright vibrant colours and intricate patterns, they were a beautiful sight. I don't know what they were there for, if it was for a specific purpose, exhibition or for an event or just for overall decor.. but i liked it.
This squatting one was really cute i thought.
Although from this angle it kind of looks like he's having a poo which is not so cute. Lets pretend its not that.
Look at how awesome and intricately painted this one is. It looks a little weird sitting on a metal frame like that but all the big ones are. I guess due to their size they'd fall over without the added support.
Another amazing mural covering the entire side of a building. They really did an amazing job with this.
Look at this, even the innocuous boring plain buildings have some form of bright colours painted on:
More street art:
At this point we've pretty much come full circle and returned to the building where the statue with the Pidgeon perched on it was. I haven't mentioned it yet, but it was an absolutely scorching morning, the sun was super bright and for most of our walk we were getting cooked in the sun So we were starting to look into returning to the hotel at this point... just to cool down a bit!
I wonder how long it took to paint that building.. it takes me long enough just to paint one wall a single colour! Oh and of course, no Indian place is complete without a nice statue of Ganesh.. probably the most well known and most recognised hindu god.
Finally, as we were returning to the metro station to head back to our hotel for a refreshing dip in the pool and some lunch we encountered this wonderfully colourful mural just outside the station. I'm sure you all know how the Cow is regarding in hinduism (if you don't, they're considered sacred) so it should come as no surprise to see at least some kind of tribute to cows somewhere.
Notice the little instagram icon for likes over the cows? I thought that was so random.. I was guessing that it was an encouragement to take pictures.. like "take a pic of this and get lots of likes on instagram".
There are also a lot of restaurants in the area and if you want a really authentic Indian cuisine experience, this is probably the place in Singapore to do it. We weren't really interested in food though, we were interested in air conditioning and perhaps a dip in the pool at the hotel, especially in the heat, which you can't really convey in these pictures, but rest assured.. we were dripping in sweat. yuck.
If you ever go to Singapore, then you need to add Little India to your itinerary, even it if is just for a morning wander about the place.
!steemitworldmap 1.3069145 lat 103.8518281 long The vibrant colours of Little India - Singapore D3SCR
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