BUGIS, A DIVERSE AREA OF SINGAPORE

Took a little trip one Wednesday afternoon to an area of Singapore called Bugis, as I had been told there was a great market.  This area turned out to be more than just a market but a diverse shopping area ranging from a local market to a modern showpiece mall.

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Conveniently located around the Bugis MRT station, it was easy to get there and not really that far from my apartment near Orchard road.  Bugis Village or "Bugis Street" is an indoor market on the corner of Rocher Road and Victoria Street. 

Just across Victoria Road between it and North Bridge Road, is Bugis Junction, an interesting shopping area where they have kept the shophouse frontages and covered them over with a glass roof and installed airconditioning.  From the Bugis Junction Mall you can walk through a walkway which effectively takes you over Victoria Road to the Iluma Mall, a modern showpiece mall which exits out onto Queen Street.

I started off in Bugis Village or as it is also known, Bugis Street.  Essentailly an indoor market it had to have been the busiest place I have ever been to in the time I have been in Singapore!  If it was this busy on a Wednesday afternoon, I would hate to think what it would be like on a weekend! It was a maze of stalls selling mostly clothes and cheap souvenirs, catering more to a younger Singaporian crowd. The building had a couple of stories and it was heaving with people. As I walked further down into the market I came across the inevitable food and drink vendors.  Snacking is major here in Singapore so I was not surprised in the least to see lots of juice and snack stalls, even a small "hawker" center.

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Coming out the back side of the market, onto Queen street there were fruit stalls along the street.  As we are in the middle of Durian Season the smell was intense as the "King of Fruits" as they are known, were for sale at quite a few stalls.  This particularly oderous fruit is very stinky indeed but the flesh is prized by many here in Singapore - (myself not being one of them).  For a particularly humerous description of Durian click the button below to be directed to blogger Tony Mortlock's take on the "King of Fruits".

DURIAN

Durian - King of the Fruits

After surviving the crush of eager Singaporian shoppers, I headed back across the road to explore the much more sedate Bugis Junction.  I especially loved seeing the Shophouse frontages with the glass roof covering them over, thus allowing wonderful light and more importantly, air conditioning! Got to love air conditioning here in Singapore!

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You can see from this picture how the Mall has been built up around and into the Shophouses, more or less saving the frontages or facades. This created a few levels of shops.

Down the middle were cart stalls giving you plenty of stuff to look at.  Bedazzled mobile (cell) phone covers seemed to be a big favorite lol!

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As you walked around the stores on the insides you could see the interesting way the buildings old and new came together. Here you can see the roof line on the top right and a little bit top left. 
On top of this roofline is the glass roof.  Inside became a modern mall with lots of great stores. Loved it!

By this time I was feeling a bit peckish myself so I headed up to the third floor to "Food Junction" which is the food court to get a snack.  Decided to get some Satay sticks and a Popiah roll which is a kind of spring roll.  A very thin wheat crepe is slathered with hoi sin and chilli sauce and filled with crushed peanuts, beansprouts, scallions, egg, boiled turnip with carrot and in my case some dried baby shrimp.  Cost for the two was S$7.20 which was not too bad.

The Temples on Waterloo Street

On the way home I walked down Waterloo Street and came upon another open air market with lots of vendors showcasing their wares.  It was late afternoon and it looked like the market was going to become a night market.

Further down the street were two temples. Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is a Buddhist Temple and the Hindu Sri Krishan Temple.  Outside the temples a few stalls selling flowers, offerings and joss sticks for temple goers.

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So to cap everything off for this post, I made a little movie of my afternoon jaunt.  Obviously I have way too much time on my hands!!  Hope you enjoy a little glimpse of Bugis Lah!  The other thing I love about these markets and malls in Singapore is the different music you hear as you move from section to section.  So many different styles.  I love it!!!

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MORE BUGIS PICTURES HERE

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