Musings from Singapore: my 'hood

The street next to mine, decked
out for Mid-Autumn Festival

My neighborhood is named Geylang. It is NOT a neighborhood that caters to ex-pats. There is no Swensen’s or Mexican restaurant. I’m pretty sure you’d be hard pressed to get a hamburger, a milkshake or a decent martini anywhere around here. But totally authentic, delicious Chinese food? Yes. Ditto for Malaysian food, Paranakan food and Thai food.

In fact, it’s so authentic, that one night The BF and I were wandering around my neighborhood checking things out and scoping dinner options. We wandered for about an hour and only found a handful of restaurants (not counting hawker centers) that had menus with English words. We then started looking for restaurants that had menus with pictures. Even if there’s no English, we can pick things by pictures.

Which is kind of a fun adventure.

The street next to mine, decked out for Mid-Autumn Festival

Most days I take the bus to and from work. It’s a quick ride (maybe 8-10 minutes) as my office is in the neighborhood just adjacent to where I live. However, this means that most days I am the ONLY white person on the bus. I’m also usually the tallest. Couple this with the fact that Singaporeans like to stare at people anyway and I pretty much get stared at a lot.*

Within one block of my apartment, there is a mosque, a Buddhist cultural center/temple, several chandelier stores (Other appliance stores, too, but MULTIPLE high-end, shiny, sparkly chandelier light fixture stores. Why does one neighborhood need more than one of those?) and a hawker center food court on EVERY corner. They advertise everything from fresh Fish Head Bee Hoon (this is the one nearest my apartment) to Hokkien Mee (popular Malaysian food) to Frog Porridge (no clue what this is or where it comes from. I'll check it out and report back.)

Hawker center food court with sidewalk tables

These little spots are always bustling and busy even late. With some indoor seating, but mostly sidewalk tables, the busy hawker center food stops make the neighborhood lively. The food is very good and fresh. So fresh, in fact, that the place advertising Fish Head Bee Hoon keeps a giant fish tank in the store and I have seen them scoop a fish from the tank and take it to the kitchen for cooking. I mean, that's fresh.

The view from my front gate. On the left side of the pic
is the hawker center that serves fresh fish head bee hoon.

It's a fun and lively little neighborhood. I love how close and convenient it is to work. And I love that I am getting an AUTHENTIC Asian experience and not living in ex-pat central. But it's VERY different than my 'hood in Seattle. Toto, we're not in Lower Queen Anne anymore.

*I mentioned to people at work that I got stared at on the bus and they said "oh yeah. of course. Singapore people like to stare. We just stare at people all the time. It's a thing."