Singapore: Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings along Jalan Besar

Jalan Besar is a street in Singapore that has been gazetted as a conservation area. I actually enjoyed walking along Jalan Basar from my hostel along Lavender Street, admiring the old but colorfully-painted buildings that have been adaptively reused for modern needs.

Here are some photos from Jalan Besar showing the many things you can do with a heritage building. As can be seen from the photos, old buildings need not be torn down to be economically viable. Despite the scarcity of land in Singapore, they have strong heritage conservation rules, especially since their preserved ethnic neighborhoods bring in the tourists.

Many of the buildings have restaurants, hawker stalls or even KTVs and night clubs.

I noticed there were also many hardware stores, stores that specialize in home fixtures and interior design including lighting and paint shops. One even had an Internet shop.

Regardless of what businesses are there today, the important thing is that these buildings will continue to survive because of strong heritage laws in Singapore and the new lease to life these new enterprises have brought to these buildings. And note that this is just one street. Singapore has many conservation areas. Those in Manila who say land is too expensive for heritage conservation should make a trip to land-scarce Singapore and see how its done.

United Kingdom: England, Scotland and Wales

The United Kingdom has four component countries. And I visited three of them a few weeks ago, namely England, Scotland and Wales. My two week journey across the island of Great Britain began in London, England, through the university town of Oxford and the historic city of York, finally arriving in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

From there, we proceeded further north to the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye, then back south to Glasgow. We then returned to England through the picturesque Lake District, visiting Liverpool and Manchester, Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, Chipping Norton in the Cotsworlds, Bath and Stonehenge, then back to London. After touring London, we made a day trip to Cardiff, Wales. Here are photos from that really great trip!

March 28 - London, England
March 29 - Oxford, England
March 30 - York, England
March 31 - Edinburgh, Scotland
April 1 - Highland Region, Scotland
April 2 - Isle of Skye, Scotland
April 3 - Highland, Glasgow and Gretna Green, Scotland
April 4 - Lake District, England
April 5 - Liverpool, England and Manchester, England
April 6 - Stratford-upon-Avon and Cotswolds, England
April 7 - Bath and Stonehenge, England
April 8-9 - London, England
April 10 - Cardiff, Wales

Scotland
Part 1: Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, Harry Potter and more from the Scottish capital
Part 2: Eilean Donan Castle and Loch Ness
Part 3: Exploring the Isle of Skye
Part 4: Glencoe, Glenfinnan, spectacular scenery of the Scottish Highlands
Part 5: Glasgow's George Square at night

Singapore: Little India is Singapore's Tamil neighborhood

One reason I love visiting Singapore is because they have preserved significant cultural quarters within the modern city. These include Chinatown, Arab Street and Haji Lane, and Little India which was quite close to the hostel I was staying at along Lavender Street. So from the Little Red Dot, I walked along Jalan Besar (which also has some creative examples of adaptive reuse of old shop houses) to the Tamil ethnic neighborhood of Little India.

It's was quite an interesting walk around Little India which the local Tamils call Tekka. You get to see, smell, taste, hear and feel Tamil culture as you explore the preserved shop houses that line its streets.

Little India Arcade offers visitors a convenient concentration of crafts and souvenir shops. Of course, Little India is also a place where you can get really good Tamil food.

Just like in Singapore's culturally rich neighborhoods, there is a mix of cultures in Little India. It's major places of worship (and attractions) includes the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple and the Abdul Gaffoor Mosque.

The main deity of the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is the Hindu goddess Kali who is associated with empowerment. Bengali workers built the temple in 1881 which might explain why the temple was dedicated to Kali, with devotion to goddess being popular in Bengal. While the Abdul Gafoor Mosque, built in 1859, features Arabian and Renaissance-style architecture.

How to get to Little India
Take the MRT to Little India or Farrer Park

Check out more photos of Little India in the Ivan About Town Facebook page.