When traveling, sometimes you can learn and appreciate the local culture simply by observing the locals go about their daily lives and compare what you see with what you know from your own culture or background.

It was still quite early on Sunday morning in Chinatown Singapore when we walked around to explore the neighborhood. Many of the stores were still closed, but there were some people already walking around. Some were tourists as we could tell from their cameras and backpacks that they carried (just like us). But others you could tell were locals — some looked like they lived in the neighborhood and simply were going out for a walk in the neighborhood.

As I was waiting for Kristi to go to restroom at one place, I noticed several elderly Singaporeans sitting around on the bench in front of a shopping building. Some were dressed like they were out for exercising (in shorts, polo shirt, and wearing sneakers). Others were simply wearing casual clothes and sandals, very relaxed. This scenery reminded me to home in Indonesia, specifically to my late grandfather, my dad, and my uncle, who would go out for a morning walk in the neighborhood or get up early to join a group doing some exercise program. It’s partly to start the day right with some healthy activities, but it’s also to socialize and meet friends or neighbors. I thought it’s interesting to compare this to other cultures — elsewhere people would get together frequently to play games, having coffee or meal together, or simply just hanging out and watch life goes by; different activities, but with the common idea of sharing life with friends. In a way, it’s a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of living in cities.

Singapore’s Chinatown is different than a typical Chinatown area in other world’s cities. Usually Chinatown exists in a city where the Chinese community is the minority. In Singapore, that’s not the case; the Chinese ethnic group is among the major ethnic groups in Singapore. The Chinatown area near the CBD (known to locals as Kreta Ayer) is historically the area for the Chinese to live designated by the ruling government when Singapore was a British colony (similar areas were designated for other ethnic groups like the Malays, Indians, and Arabs). Today the Chinese live throughout the island of Singapore, but the Chinatown area remains to be the centre of Chinese culture activities. It is also a popular place to visit in Singapore for foreign tourists who want to experience and learn about Singapore’s Chinese heritage.

We walked around the streets of Chinatown after breakfast at the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre. It was still pretty early in a weekend morning, so many of the stores were still closed and the foot traffic was still pretty light. But we did get a glimpse of what the area was like — many buildings built in old architectural style, juxtaposed against tall skyscrapers in the background. Aside from the obvious tourists like us, there were also many locals who went about their normal weekend morning.

The photo below was taken from the corner section of the neighborhood. The big building in front is a Buddhist temple, and next to it is the start of the Chinatown neighborhood with its distinct architectural style. The neighborhood consists of several blocks with narrow streets and alleys that you can explore by foot.

After having our seafood dinner, we continued our night in Singapore with some sightseeing. When we got into a taxi cab, the driver asked us where we wanted to go. I told him that we wanted to go the Central Business District area, near where the Merlion Statue is located. He mentioned One Fullerton, and I said sure. I didn’t know where or what One Fullerton was, but I figured if it’s in the CBD area, it’s hopefully close enough that we could walk around and explore.

The taxi took us downtown, and when I saw The Fullerton Hotel on the right and the Merlion Statue on the left, I was glad that this time the taxi took us exactly where we wanted to go. The Merlion Statue that is the mascot of Singapore stood tall near the waterfront at the Merlion Park, facing the Marina Bay. It was a nice weekend night, and there were a good number of tourists at the Merlion Park taking photo of the illuminated statue. In the background there were the skyscrapers in the Central Business District area, and right behind the Merlion Statue there was The Fullerton Hotel, a five-star hotel that had earned recognition among the best hotels in Singapore and in Asia.

The name One Fullerton that the taxi driver mentioned referred to the two-story waterfront development right next to the Merlion Park. We walked there briefly to check out what’s there, and it looked like it was filled with restaurants, lounges, and clubs with a nice view of the Marina Bay. The patrons were mixed between locals and expats. That made sense given its location near the CBD and the touristy area of downtown Singapore. The view across the Marina Bay from there was very nice. In the eastern side you could see the Esplanade complex with its durian-shaped main building. The Esplanade is the main facility in Singapore for performance arts where you can attend concerts, theatre performances, operas, etc. It also had an outdoor pavilion, and that night we could hear the sound of music playing from there; it seemed that a concert was going on.

On the southeast part of the Marina Bay, we could see a newer landmark in Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands resort hotel. It’s shaped like a ship sitting on top of three towers. It was billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion (including the prime real estate where it is located). I remembered watching a special reality show on the Food Network a couple of years back about the preparation and opening of a restaurant / night club called Ku De Ta, which was located at the top of the Marina Bay Sands. It had amazing view of Singapore, but it also looked like a very expensive place and you need to be ready to shell out some cash to go there — not what we had in mind for our short trip in Singapore.

After spending time in the Marina Bay area, we decided to follow the map that we took from our hotel to walk towards our hotel. It would be quite a hike, but we thought we would just walk roughly close to the MRT route, so if we got tired, we could either take the MRT or get a taxi to finish the trip back to the hotel. We ended up walking all the way back to our hotel in the Lavender area. Along the way, we passed the historic Raffles Hotel, the Bugis area with its shopping malls and the Arab Street area that looked like an interesting neighborhood of Arab immigrant stores to check out during the day (it was pretty dead at night). We made it back to our hotel after about an hour or so strolling, ready to hit the sack after a long day that started in Hanoi.

The photo below was taken from the One Fullerton area. This is the Marina Bay Sands resort hotel, with its ship-like platform at the top supported by the three towers.