Did you know that the ethnic quarters of Little India was not assigned to the Indian Community in Stamford Raffles’ town plan? It was only when Chinatown became overcrowded that Little India became populated with Indians. So the first Indians that came to Singapore resided in the areas of Chinatown, and not in Little India.

There were many other snippets of facts about the place that Pauline and I learnt along with our kids as we took our walking tour down the streets of Little India.

While walking through the Tekka Market towards Buffalo and Kerbau Roads, we came across many goldsmith shops. Gold is symbolic to the Indian community, and is never worn on their feet or toes.

Not considering to get any gold?Then how about these pretty glittery bangles for a couple of dollars?

If your budget allows,  take your pick from the bright colors and luxurious fabrics to make a sari for yourself.

Amid the rich colors of fabrics , pungent fragrances of spices, we spotted blooms of jasmine, roses, chrysanthemums strung together in flower garlands. These flower garlands have a traditional role in every Hindu festival, where the Indians will use to worship their Hindu gods.

The kids were fascinated with the garish and intricate details on the buildings at the side of Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, where they spotted images of the HIndu goddess Kali, with her many hands (who is known as the destroyer of evil in the Hindu religion) spearing her foes and a lion feasting on her enemy.

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple is one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore built by Tamil laborers. Apparently the interior of the temple has various scenes of goddess Kali in vicious acts of punishments, so we figured looking at the details outside the temple was more than enough for the kids to take in.

A trip to little India is not complete without a visit to Tekka Centre, which is located at the junction of Serangoon Road and Rochor Road. We had our lunch of local fare and got a set of Indian costumes for the kids to be decked up for their next Racial Harmony Day to be celebrated in their schools.

And what was the other souvenir the kids got from Little India?

A temporary Henna tattoo!

Henna is a paste made out of crushed leaves and twigs of henna plant, the paste is drawn on the skin by the henna artist, left on for about 10 minutes to dry and then washed off with hot water. What’s left on the skin is a orangey, dark maroon stain which fades away in about 1 week.

We got the henna art for the kids at about $5 each, a steal, considering how thrilled the kids were with their temporary tattoo.

We completed our walkabout of Little India, including lunch and shopping at Tekka market in about 4 hours. If you are bored of the run of the mill play-gyms or shopping malls, Little India is  highly recommended for a cultural experience for kids above 4 years of age.

Chinatown holds many stories of the first chinese migrants who lived there.

Looking past the tourist kitsch and knick knacks from the Souvenier shops, therein lies a treasure trove of stories of old. Memories of a past Chinatown and her people who resided there, a time where Chinatown has been.

What will all of that mean to a preschooler?

An experiential tour of a place from the past provides the opportunity to learn about a time where modern sanitation, water supply and electricity did not exist. The time when the first immigrants to Singapore lived in dark, sordid cubicles, ate and slept on a wooden boards, which were their beds at night.

Where the common areas in their homes consisted of dark and dirty kitchens, shared by close to 70 people living in a shop house. Their toilets were holes in concrete and night soil were collected in buckets and was carried through the front door of their five-foot way shop-houses.

A group of women with their trademark red headgear lived in this room. They wore black samfu, a tunic and trouser suit, together with an apron. These Samsui women worked hard daily at the construction sites carrying building materials in the baskets hung on a wooden pole, carried across their shoulders.

After work. they took home a few pieces of wood to use for their cooking and they ate simple meals with rice daily, followed with a cigarette of Chinese tobacco.

The other group of women who lived in the same shophouse, 8 of them in a room, were Majie. Domestic servants that took the vow of celibacy and lived in the employers’ home. They returned to this room twice a month to read letters from their families and to catch up with their friends. Only one of them lived here, with an adopted daughter.

The cubicle at the end of the hallway, lived a group of men known as coolies. These did back-breaking work daily and carried gunny sacks filled with spices and sugar near the Singapore River. Some others worked as rickshaw pullers, trishaw riders and farmers. When they retired to their cramped cubicles after a day of hard work, most sought relief in opium smoking.

How about the occupants that lived in these other cubicles? What were their stories?

• A carpenter and his family

• A hawker and his family

• A seamstress

Traipsing down the steep steps of the shophouse, the children ventured to the ground floor of the shophouse which belong to the tailor’s quarters.

• The Tailor’s Quarters

He was more affluent that the rest of the occupants in the shophouse as he and his family members had their own rooms.

The Tailor’s family had exclusive use of the kitchen on the ground floor and an air well to dry their clothes.

• The Tailor’s shop

Intrigued by what you see in these photos? I am sure you have seen that there is more to the touristy kitsch that most of us experience on Chinatown. The children were totally intrigued by what they saw and were entranced by the stories we shared of the occupants that once lived in this shophouse.

Now’s a good time to visit Chinatown to experience the gaiety of the Chinese New Year festivities, so be sure to check out the heritage centre with your kids while u are there!

Chinatown Heritage Centre

48 Pagoda Street. Singapore 059207

Admission Charges

Adult  $10

Child (3-12yr) $6

牛车水, or otherwise known as ‘Bullock Carts Water’ (direct translation). The chinese name for Singapore’s Chinatown came about when people living in Chinatown in the past, depended on bullock carts for the transportation of water.

Chinatown these days, hardly retained any glimpses of the ‘old Chinatown’ that our grandparents could have remembered of the place.

What the children saw when were walked down the streets of Chinatown were brightly colored shophouses, plenty of stalls selling generic-looking china-made souvenirs, affordable Cheong Sums and Samfoos. And ‘I love Singapore’ and ‘Singapore is a ‘Fine’ City’ T-shirts and porcelain mugs depicting the things that you will be fined for in Singapore.

The closest view that the children got to the medical shops in Chinatown were the pre-package chinese medicine and herbs drying outside the shops. The strong smelling whiff of herbs, spices and other exotic ingredients which emitted from the medical shops was enough to turn them off the interest of further exploring the medical shops.

Walking down the streets of Chinatown will bring out the consumerism in any child . The kids were enamored by the gaudy tacky looking wind chimes, touristy magnets and little knick knacks and was looking out for the moment that the moms will say “Yes, we can buy this for you!.”

We continued our walkabout down Temple Street, passed the Sri Mariamman Temple, walked towards South Bridge Road to view the architecture and exterior aesthetics of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

We experienced a not-so-authentic glimpse of our chinese culture in Singapore walking down the streets of Chinatown. Nevertheless, from our same visit, we found a place hidden in a nook of a restored shop-house which uncovered many stories of old Chinatown that we could share with our children.

What was it? Read on to next part of this post.