Arab Street Tour

After touring Little India a couple weeks ago, we couldn't wait to sign up for another tour with Singapore Walks. This time we chose to do the highly acclaimed Arab Street tour! While I personally preferred the Little India tour over this one, it was still well worth the cost. Our tour guide was more than knowledgeable as she shared the history of Singapore's original sultans and spoke of the presence of muslims here today. My only complaint has nothing to do with the tour itself, but instead has everything to do with the fact that we picked an extremely hot and humid day to walk through Arab Street making it hard to concentrate on anything but the heat. Therefore, I'm afraid I have far less to say about Arab Street than I did about Little India. I hope the pictures below still give you a good feel for the things we saw as we walked through such a historic part of the city!

This is a map of Kampong Glam which is where the Arab Street tour takes place.

This building, often referred to by Singaporeans as the "Gotham City" (think Batman) building, is owned by a group of unidentified millionaires and was built fairly recently. There's actually a story behind the building, but again, the heat distracted me and I only caught half of it :-(

These sharp-edged buildings were designed by I.M. Pei, the same architect that designed the Louvre in Paris. Supposedly, the sharp edges were created to "cut into the fortunes of the other buildings surrounding it."

Nothing significant here. I just thought the cherry tree looked really cute against the yellow building! :-)

Shop houses around Arab Street. These are much more simplistic than the shop houses found in Little India (and Chinatown), but they are also original structures unlike the ones found elsewhere (they've been re-done several times).

The most narrow street in Singapore. A car can barely fit down this road!

This perfume shop can make any scent you want them to. The one we all sampled was their own version of Chanel No. 5 and it smelled exactly like the real deal...only it cost 1/10th of the price!

Sultan's Mosque, named after the first Sultan of Singapore, Sultan Hussein Shah. Originally built in 1824, it was reconstructed in 1925 and completed in 1924. While many muslims worship here today, its also an attraction for tourists.

This is the burial site for the royal descendants of the sultan. However, this is a completely unpublicized area and many people don't even know this grave yard exists. In fact, there are plans to build yet another mall over this exact spot.