Red Bus Route
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Red Bus Route, Singapore Hop On Hop Off
  We jumped up and headed to the happily coloured dining room of our hotel. Bear, all ready to dive into the best buffet breakfast we
have ever seen - curry, chips, cereals, fruit, yoghurts, macaroni, muffins,
juices, salad, and a chef to conjure up anything that can be fried, poached or
thrust into a wok. The toaster was one of those you post the bread and it goes
on a slow ride, flinging itself out from below and then there was a choice of
spreads, jams, marmalades – the list was endless and all washed down with
countless types of tea and coffee. Fortified we headed to the hotel shuttle
which took us to Novena – a Metro station below a posh shopping
mall.
  A few stops on the underground and we
surfaced in Little India, well, colour me happy –
a mini.
   Decorations were up as the Festival of Light (here known as
Deepawali) is in a few days. A real carnival atmosphere as we waited for our Hop
On Hop Off bus, then it began to pour but that didn’t dent the tourist need in
us.
 A digger, a
decoration and a high rise, a great start.
            Little India and
beyond, it was great to be on a bus, earphones chatting our
information.
 It bucketed down, we are however the
Great British abroad, so up went the umbrella as the wind was blowing rain under
the shelter at the back of the bus and on we went. The voice in our ear told us
to go to the Sim Lim Tower for all thing
electrickery.
  We passed Raffles
Hospital and crossed a waterway.
   Art Deco
sits near modern and then we were in Arab Street, located within the conservation
area of Kampong Glam.
   Alsacoff Arab
School (established in 1912) and on Muscat Street, the Masjid Sultan gazetted as a national monument on the 8th of
March 1975.
  Our first glimpse of the Raffles Hotel
was of the hotels Mall.
  A little look at St Andrew’s Cathedral and a Government
building.
  Into the city
centre and across the river where we saw boat races
going on.
  A neatly preserved
facade and a happy block of
flats.
 We passed the Sri Srinivasa Perumal
Temple or Sri Perumal Temple, one of the oldest
temples in Singapore, not long after
we started the red route but it was on our second passing we got decent
pictures. It is located in Little
India on
Serangoon Road, where its tall Gopuram (tower) shows the different
incarnations of Lord Vishnu. This large
complex, dedicated to Vishnu, dates from 1855, but the 20-metres-tall Gopuram is a relatively recent addition, built
in 1966 at a cost of S$300,000. The temple's five-tier Gopuram was a donation from Indian migrants who made good. He ultimately
set up a chain of popular general goods stores in Little India and was known for
his philanthropic works, a legacy continued by his sons
today.
The area around the Perumal Temple was once filled with ponds and vegetable gardens. A stream used to lead into the temple and was an important source for devotees to ritually cleanse themselves before beginning worship. This temple is the starting point for devotees during the annual Thaipusam festival. Devotees, their tongues and cheeks pierced by great metal skewers supporting kavadi (cage-like constructions decorated with wire and peacock feathers), make their way to the Chettiar Hindu Temple on Tank Road in this colourful procession. This is done in gratitude or supplication to Lord Murugan. The temple was gazetted as a national monument in 1978.
ALL IN ALL SUCH COLOUR – EVEN IN THE RAIN REALLY GOOD TO SEE LITTLE INDIA AND ALL |
