Makan Place – Swee Choon Dim Sum

You will know of this place if you are an active clubber, that’s what all the blogs say. No wonder I didn’t know about it. Then again, most people here don’t look like they are clubbers… This is Swee Choon Dim Sum at Jalan Besar. Open from 6pm to 6am, Swee Choon is considered a…

Why do Sikhs cover their hair and other Questions at the Central Sikh Temple

Growing up I was taught that anyone with a last name Singh, Dhillon, Kaur or Khalsa was a Sikh*. As a young boy I knew that these were the only boys allowed to keep long flowing hair wrapped in a Turban, even during national service. But I didn’t know very much else about Sikhism. So…

The Life and Legacy of Lim Boon Keng

Type Lim Boon Keng into youtube and you will served up a hogepodge of political rally videos at Boon Keng Road, political interview videos on Lim Boon Heng and property videos of property located around Boon Keng Road. Try google-ing Lim Boon Keng, and the first few posts that show up are wikipedia, infopedia and…

Thian Seng Duck Rice, old school food stalls and their future

Singapore is today considered a “foodies paradise” but just as we celebrate our hawker culture with terms such as hawker hero and hawker culture, we should remember that for every hawker star there are many hawkers without a star. As we encourage the young to be hawkers, let’s not forget that there are average hawkers…

Burning for the Deceased, What You Should Know

We are a smart nation, a futuristic nation, a developed nation. We are a modern people, an educated people, an internet-savvy people. We believe in science, logic and material progress. Our universities are rising in the world rankings, our research gaining ground, this is the march of knowledge. Not for us the backward ways of…

Sri Lankans, Sri Lankan Buddhism and the Sri Lankaramaya Temple

Sri Lankan Buddhism is another important part of Buddhism, with the majority religion in Sri Lankan with 70 % of citizens adhering to the religion. The majority of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese and most Sinhalese are Buddhist. The Sinhalese are the descendants of a people who arrived from a city called Sinhapura (Lion City in…

Fu Lu Shou Complex, for Taoist, Buddhist and Folk Religion items

The Sanxing of traditional Chinese culture are Fu Lu and Shou. These deities manifest the three most important traits for the “good life” in Chinese culture – prosperity (Fu), status (Lu) and longevity (Shou). This belief goes very far back and most ancestral homes and folk temples have altars with the statues of these deities….

Makan Place – Whampoa Keng Fishhead Steamboat

People come to see the boss who has a happy family and two wives – how they ask in this day and age is that possible. They return because of the food. On the boss Keng and his two wives, you’d think there would be problems in the relationship. Turns out there isn’t, the bond…

Gray Ending to the Colourful Rochor Centre

We destroyed the popular national library to build a tunnel, soon we will destroy another part of our history. By the 30th of September this barrier to modernity will be empty and the wrecking ball of change will enter. Rochor Centre a block of 4 colourful Housing Development Board flats stands in the way of…

Burmese Buddhism at the Maha Sasana Ramsi

Some 89 % of the Burmese population follows Buddhism, here is an interesting CIA Fact File documentary on Buddhism, culture and politics in Burma in the 1950s. Buddhism is thought to have been in Burma for some 2000 years. Stories of its arrival on Burmese land vary. Among the various genesis stories include one in…

Albert Centre and Preserved Goods

Who is Albert and why does he have building named after him? Was he Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria? That’s a moot question, I was just looking a different way to open this post. What I want to really talk about is the Albert Centre Wholesale Market. Looking at it from the outside this…

Holi at Kerbau Road

Kerbau refers to buffalo in Malay. Cattle was kept near the area, next to the slaughterhouses at Jalan Besar and Syed Alwi Roads. There are almost no cattle in the whole of Little India today, in it’s place are hotels and restaurants. There is a beautiful colourful building, I call it Holi in concrete, the…

Makan Place – Bar Bar Black Sheep

Here’s the problem with drinking in Singapore, if you want to drink non-local beers (i.e. not Tiger, Guiness, Heinekan or Chang beer) you can’t go to the coffeeshops and kopitiams for a drink. Yet at the same time, places that sell craft and non-local beers almost always sell only expensive western fare, so no comfort…

Ramadan at Kampong Glam

While Geylang Serai is the largest Ramadaan bazaar site in Singapore, there are other bazaar sites too, for example in Kampong Glam. The small Ramadaan bazaar opens for business just outside the Sultan Mosque and its a draw for locals as well as tourist. There are certainly more tourist here than at Geylang Serai. Unlike…

Hong San See Temple at Md Sultan Road

While most of Asia practices Buddhism, Taoism is a less widespread religion confined to people of Chinese ancestry. Founded by Lao Tzu, Taoism is a practice of the Tao (or Dao), the main text is the Tao Te Jing. Taoism came to prominence in early China’s philosophical golden age. This period was characterised by six…