Shopping in Singapore's Kampong Glam

Filed in archive Destination: Asia & the Pacific on December 27, 2009

© yeowatzup


I spent a couple of years in Singapore. The city had everything. And more than anything else, it had shopping.

I came across a piece this week in the NY Times travel section that reminded me of my time in the Merlion City. Shopping there could be pretty much whatever you wanted it to be. If you wanted glitzy new malls, they had it. If you wanted department stores that made you feel like you were in Manhattan or Tokyo, you could take your pick. But you could also pick your way through mom-and-pop stores in large plazas where every store on the fourth floor was a jewelry store and every store on the sixth floor was a tailor.

Or you could wind through the streets of historic neighborhoods where the store fronts had been owned and operated by the same family for 150 years or more. Gisela Williams describes something like that with her account of a visit to Haji Lane in Singapore Kampong Glam. New meets old. Makes me want satay and peanut sauce...