trip to chinatown

yesterday, instead of waiting at leng kee where the yaris was being serviced, i took the train to outram and walked to chinatown. actually, i walked to maxwell market to buy the famous tapioca cake.

one of the landmarks of chinatown which will disappear soon is the pearl bank apartments. this tall, horse-shoe shape residential apartment building sits atop pearl's hill. it has been sold en bloc; this means that the building will be demolished and be replaced by a new structure.

the new trishaws were lined up outside the new buddha's tooth temple. there were other trishaws but they were not parked so orderly. i have stepped into the newly built temple some weeks ago. it is unlike the burmese temple along balestier road; very chinese and the atmosphere is not as serene.

keong saik street still has some brothels. the malaysian girls used to set up their business here but these days, the younger malaysian girls have made geylang their base. there are a few boutique hotels here, like the keong saik and hotel 1929.

good food and red light district seem to have some close relationship. the food raved about at keong saik includes prawn noodles, nasi padang, beijing food, zhi char food like spare ribs and prawn paste chicken at kok seng coffeeshop.