Day 7 - Chinatown

It is Saturday morning and I decided to sleep in and make a good old american breakfast and start out nice and slow. I was contemplating what to do with myself and decided it was a good day for a visit to Chinatown. Somewhere between the time I walked out of my hotel room and the time I got to the elevator in the lobby it decided to rain. Not just a sprinkle either but this time I was prepared and I whipped out my fresh umbrella. I am glad I had it but it was still raining so hard that I got a little wet around the edges. Off to take the MRT to Chinatown.

The nice thing about taking the MRT is that when you exit the train and take the escalator up to street level you are literally dropped right into the middle of Chinatown. The main part of Chinatown is about 2 blocks long and 4 blocks wide. It is closed off to cars and the streets are just lined with stores and people selling stuff. Ever see that little sticker on stuff that says made in China? I think they brought all of it here. Honestly, most of the stuff is little touristy crap. Cheap buddha statues, chopsticks, kimono's, singapore t shirts, shot glasses, magnets, you name it and it was here. The shop keepers were a little aggressive and several of them would try to make conversation and lure you into their stores. There was a number of tailors where you could get a shirt or a suit custom fit to you and I found them to be the worst. They would actually follow you along for a little bit pretending to be interested with where you were from and then try to steer you straight into their store. The majority though just let you wander.

The place was crowded and full of energy and it was fun to walk around. Lots of different sights and sounds that you don't see everyday. After I got out of the more touristy area it was fun to walk around and look at the shops that you would think the locals might go to. One of the places I was interested in seeing was the wet market. It is basically like a big farmers market with fruits and vegetable but they also had lots of different meats. I bought a couple of veggies and they were actually really cheap. Then I got to the meat area which smelled a little bad. The had lots of different kinds of fish, poultry, duck, and beef. If I could have figured out a good way to cook some beef here I would have definitely bought some. They had a couple of live animal stands. They had loads of really big frogs in cages, catfish and eels in big buckets. I snapped a couple of pictures and included one of the frogs in this blog. The people in the wet market for the most part acted like I wasn't even there. I felt a little weird taking pictures at first but they didn't seem to care what I was doing. I didn't really hear any english, all chinese. I have heard that many of them dont speak english at all and you have to point alot and then they will figure out the price on a calculator and show it to you. I wandered around there for a while and then went back into the neighborhood.

Low and behold I stumbled onto a spot I really wanted to check out while I was here, Maxwell Food Center. This is another hawker center where food is sold from little stands and everyone eats at tables in the middle. I had seen an episode of Anthony Bourdain's travel show where he went to Maxwell Food Center. A favorite local dish is called Chicken Rice. It is really pretty simple. It is boiled boneless chicken breast on a bed of rice that has been cooked in some sort of chicken broth. As I walked around looking for the stand I was pleasantly surprised that nobody bothered me to eat at their stand. It seemed a little less touristy and had real plates and silverware to use. Still no napkins. On a side note, I learned that when you say napkins here it means something entirely different. A napkin is a female sanitary item. That explains some of the strange looks I have received when I asked for napkin. Anyway, I wandered around looking for the famous chicken rice stand. It wasn't really hard to find because it was the only one with a line about 10 deep. I was the only white guy in line so I figured if the locals would wait then it must be good. It didn't disappoint. I thought it was very tasty and I am glad I had some. It was cheap too, only $2.80 for a small serving which was perfect for a little lunch. The cheapest meal I have had yet which was nice because nothing else in Chinatown had been cheap. Before I left Maxwell FC I stopped at the drink stand and got a wonderful Mango drink. It was basically a smoothy but the fruit looked like it just had come off of the tree and it was delicious.

After lunch I decided to wander back in the general direction of the MRT. On my way back I stumbled onto a very large Buddhist Temple. It was 4 stories high and on the upper floors they had some exhibits on the history of Chinatown and the history of Buddha. On the ground floor there was an actual Buddhist service going on and I found it facinating. Everything inside was brightly colored and the Buddhist Monks leading the service were chanting. I have no idea how long the service went on but they chanted without a break the entire time I was there.On the walls of the temple there were 100 different buddha statues that all represented something different. It was a little weird that they didn't care if tourists wandered around while they were having their service. I guess they saw it as an opportunity to enlighten you about their religion. After watching the service for a bit I decided to look around up stairs. On the 2nd and 3rd floor there were exhibits and it was pretty much set up like a museum. On the 4th floor there was a big meditation room. Nobody was in there but to enter you couldn't take pictures or wear your shoes. I went in and found a HUGE shrine to Buddha. It was made out of solid gold and was probably as big as about half of my house. There were tiles on the floor (that you couldn't walk on) that were made of solid gold. On the ceiling there were lots of little gold statues and I gathered that if you were a member of the church for a mere $5000 you could purchase one and it would bring your family luck and prosperity. When I say purchase I don't mean you could take it home. I mean they would hang one inside the temple in your honor.

By the time I was finished in the temply my feet had done enough walking for one day. I took the train home and hung out in my room and watched a little TV. I really enjoyed my visit to Chinatown though. I think I want to try and go back at night because I have a feeling it is really beautiful with all the lights I saw overhead.