Saturday, December 13, 2014

Singapore

The statue of Islay shows a dog beggin above a wishing well.  There is a piece of stone from the Blarney Castle on the wishing well.  It's modelled after one of the Queen's sketches from 1843 and cost only 10,000.  There is also a poem explaining the life of Islay and 4 proverbs about givingLittle India is where the Tamils had to live while Singapore was a British colony.  Today it is a colorful, lively, wonderful aroma filled few blocks of gold stores, flower shops, sari shops and restaurants.

These are trinkets that Indians use to decorate their homes-



When these homes were built, a five foot easement was left in front to allow the shop keepers room to spread out their wares.  They lived above.  The architecture is very simple - usually two windows on a flat wall-


These store/homes are more fancy with Colonial architecture.  They are at least 100 years old-



This is one of the few newspaper shops still in existence-


He makes good use of his five feet-


Used electronics are refurbished and sold to Indonesians-


The Abdul Gafoor Mosque was first built in 1907 but has recently been renovated.  It's a combination of European, Arabic, Turkish and Moorish architecture.  It's built above ground to allow for air flow to help cool it on hot days-


The sundial above the front door has 25 arabic calligraphy names of prophets.  Jesus is at eleven o'clock.  It's the only sundial of its kind in the world-


Here are a couple of interesting signs at the mosque-



The Hindu Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is the first Hindu temple I've ever been able to enter!  They worship over 300 million gods and this one is dedicated to Ganesha.



This is the Gopuram, the entrance tower, in the Chola style with 5 tiers and 68 feet high-


They are really into statues-





The main altar also has a statue in the center.  People line up to see it-


This is a secondary altar where people chant-


These clay cups are filled with oil and lit in the temple-


Flowers can also be purchased and offered-


Saturdays and continuing until Monday mornings, construction workers came to Little India to drink their faces off.  December 8, 2013, a drunk construction worker was refused entry onto a city bus and consequently run over and killed.  There were riots with over 400 involved, 2 police cars and 1 ambulance burned.  Since that time, this is the law-



Lunch was aloo gobi (potatoes, cauliflower and spices) and of course tandoori chicken-


The Sim Lim Square is a five story building packed with technology stores.  If only I knew what I was looking for!



The Singapore Sling was created in 1915 by the Hainanese-Chinese bartender Ngian Tong Boon at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel-




The prices are outrageous.  One Singapore dollar is 88 cents Canadian!  



I couldn't resist!


Even though it cost....


or $30.10 Canadian!  Isn't that crazy!

Today was busy but very interesting.  Tomorrow is another day in Singapore!























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