RETURN TO CHINATOWN

It's been almost a year since I've toured around Singapore's CHINATOWN, while Michelle has taken guests there or gone shopping on a few occasions, I really haven't been back to that area much (other than looking at apartments when we were moving). Anyway with Michelle Dall here for a visit, we decided to do a day in Chinatown.

We started with Dim Sum as it had been a while since we've had it and Michelle is a fan so we went to our usual haunt, ASIA GRAND on North Bridge Road, pretty reliable and tasty. After that we hopped the MRT to Chinatown and the stop lets you off right at the market. It's an open air market selling clothes, tourist trinkets, bags, toys, statues, food, you name it, you can find it here. It's pretty busy and congested but if you are patient and willing to work, you can find some good deals.

We then went to a new place for me, THE CHINATOWN HERITAGE MUSEUM, a look back at the rich history of this section of Singapore. Built inside a three story shophouse, this is actually quite a cool museum filled with pictures, videos and actual pieces from back in the day. Seems like Chinatown has had a lot of highs and lows in its time and it's all pictured at this museum. Very interesting stuff and I will definitely go back next time we have a guest in town.

The next stop was THE BUDDHA TOOTH RELIC TEMPLE, a beautiful, modern (opened in 2007) and fully operational Buddha Temple and Museum. Why is it called Buddha Tooth? Cause on the top floor, adorned in a room of 24 carat gold sits an actual buddha's tooth. Pretty amazing, all this gold and in the middle of it, a tiny tooth. The other floors of the museum are filled with relics and art from the history of Buddhism which is quite interesting but on the main floor is the worship chamber filled with chanting monks, buddhists and tons and tons of statues, a very cool space...

After that we had a fantastic coffee and toured the shops on CLUB STREET before calling it a day. I'm glad we decided to go back to CHINATOWN and visit these two museums as I had never been to either of them, they were great and the Michelles enjoyed them as well. Big Trouble in Little China this was not!