Singapore is famous for many things, all good. It is a democratic society composed of myriads of ethnic and religious groups, all of whom live nonviolently together in harmony. No one lives in abject poverty. Everyone has housing, food, and probably a job. The economy is in overdrive. And what do people in a thriving capitalist economy do when they are relatively well off? We all know the answer to that question.
They go shopping.
Singapore is a shopper’s paradise. I don’t know the statistics, but I’d be willing to wager that Singapore has more retail space per capita than any country on Earth.
The place to go, of course is Orchard Road, which is jammed with block after block of shopping mall after mall. It’s number one on every list of Singapore tourist attractions, and so naturally, with only two days in the country, I avoided it. I figured I can go to malls at home any time I want. Dan, who has been to Orchard Road, tells me I made a mistake.
Maybe so. But I like to learn a place by walking the neighborhoods, and this is what I did.
Day One: Bugis and the surrounding areas, including the Muslim District, Kampong Glam, and Little India.
But this is Singapore. There is no avoiding shopping.
On the way from our hotel to Bugis and in the surrounding area there were numerous malls, both upscale and otherwise.
There was also a really nifty zone of pedestrian streets around Waterloo and Bencoolen Streets.
But that’s not all! I stumbled upon a blocks-long seemingly ad-hoc flea market.
And of course, all this is in addition to Singapore’s famous shop houses, two- or three-story townhouses with retail on the first and sometimes second floor, and housing above. These may originally have housed a shop and its owner’s family, but now there’s not necessarily a relationship. Shop houses are the old urbanism, and a model for the New Urbanism as well. They can be funky or upscale.
With their exterior stairs, the backs can be as charming as the facades.
And what do they sell in these retail spaces on the street, you might ask?
Anything from groceries to gold.
