Venturing into Chinatown today was a mixture of deja vu and self admonition. I guess it would've been much less so, if I'd imagined Chinatown in the context of this super-clean, manufactured and manicured Singapore! No offense meant to the city, if at all to my own romantic imagery of Chinatown in the places Kylie Kwong visits or the kind expected since my fascinated watching of the history of Singapore on the History Channel.
For lack of better knowledge of the place we asked the cabbie to take us to Chinatown central to see the cab almost pull-over at a super-mall like giant structure. Quickly taking over to explain myself (earlier Anabelle, my help had directed the driver), I elaborated our wish to be taken to the old shopping area, the older part of the town for browsing, seeing the old structures - kind of experience. Quick on the uptake, the cabbie confirmed that that would be Temple Street also adding that there are several such streets and lanes where we can absorb similar experience, lanes lined next to each other.
He dropped us off at Temple street (very much like the various streets in the Little India area here, bringing home the the 'manufactured' aspect to this oldest part of Singapore as well) Lined with hoards of massage- therapy parlors, Chinese hair & skin care salons, traditional Chinese medicine/ herbs shops - an optimum mix of traditional and what the modern tourist would look for. Why I say tourists is because this Chinatown completely lacked the humdrum of the local Chinese shopping, selling, hawking and bargaining. Absolutely devoid! Only seen were a smattering of tourists from western and eastern European countries, looking at trinkets and porcelain stuff, old chinese paintings, old embroidered panels, the chinese dragons and other figurines in Jade and other precious stones.
To my chagrin, the pricing wasn't any less than that at the chinese shops at the most expensive malls (Tanglin mall for example) and to my Anabelle's chagrin everything had changed!! She sorely missed showing her Ma'am the old structures, the wood paneled similarly- lined open shops where you could buy great bargains, the smell of food, condiments, spices, perfumes et all (or may be I was expecting a lot like this !!). Talking of antique shops, while some were still open air, many were air-conditioned and well displaying their not too antique-looking fares, pushing up the pricing with rightful automaticity. I still could not resist treating myself to a beautifully crafted chinese teapot in porcelain and silver, from one of the open-laid out shops. Price bargained down from $38 to $20 ( and carrying the all too familiar 'oh, could've quoted 15' thought with me till now as I write this post). Aadi too got himself one of those old 'dumru' like drums with long stick - quite beautifully made for a $2 piece.
We walked around quite a bit, almost tempted to sit-down and devour a good chinese meal at these row of food joints. The lack of the smell & sight of food almost made me miss that we were on Food street, lined with a host of restaurants and food joints offering Chinese, Vietnamese and some other Asian cuisine. Running to make it for Aadi's lunch back home, I made a mental note to come back with N and have food there.
The craving's still there as I write, and my chat with my maid to be encouraging whenever I ask her to try out some food with me outside, is only to make sure that I give-in to my cravings, sometimes. And whoever is there with me ought to encourage me, be it my tentative maid or my enthusiastic husband!! At least one of them would be reading this post, ah!!
