Sunday, September 13, 2009

Geylang Road

Walking along Geylang Road and looking at the interesting facades of the rows of shophouses on either side, you might think you have travelled back in time or else you might think you are in another Asian country. I found the forms of the buildings intriguing but the substance of the area rather unsavoury.

Curious tourists have asked taxi drivers to take them to this place to see a seedy side of Singapore; we went there in search of a particular porridge stall. So we walked the length of Geylang Road up to the point where it became Geylang Serai and then took a bus back for we had walked a long way from where we had parked our car. We never located that elusive porridge stall and settled for claypot rice which was a great choice because the claypot rice was cooked over charcoal fire and the chicken meat was so tender and tasty that the long wait for it to be prepared was worth every second that ticked by so slowly.

This set of slides tracks the beginning of our walk at Lorong 11 up till Paya Lebar. You see the change in lighting from daylight to night, numerous food stalls, shops selling groceries run by Chinese on one side of the road and Indians on the other side. Interspersed amongst them you will see Tibetan prayer houses, a Buddhist association and a mosque. I did not like the crowd and there would be no reason for me to return to this area. The buildings are old but judging by the preservation efforts that have taken place so far, more renewal work might be in store. In future, parts of this place could well look like the refurbished shophouses in Chinatown. My favourite shots are those taken of the mosque in the twilight.

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