Snippets From My Recent Visit To Chinatown

I saw this fancy coloured car in Chinatown the other day.

A new hotel in Chinatown – Hotel 1888 Collection? What a name. There are quite a few of these shophouses converted to hotels already. Some of them are boutique hotels, some are basic hotels, and some are hostels for backpackers. Whether it is a boutique hotel or a basic hotel, being in the heart of Chinatown, they are costly to stay.

They can’t be doing well in these times of pandemic. During the first wave of the pandemic, when we were all caught unaware by the seriousness of the pandemic, the government reached out to theses hostels and hotels for help to house people under quarantine. I guess the reimbursement helped to defray some of their costs and expenses.

Shops in Chinatown who catered to the tourist trades are the hardest hit by the pandemic. There were many shops selling simple, affordable souvenir stuff. Business was already competitive before the pandemic. With hardly or no tourists at all, there have no business. There were some support from the government, and also the landlords to cover their rentals in the initial stages of the pandemic. I am not sure what is the situation in the way of help from the government like now. Many shops had no choice but to give up after a year, because rentals cost an arm and a leg.

Some shops in Chinatown. A medicinal shop, a souvenir shop, a porcelain shop and an arts shop. All very quiet, empty of customers.

Durians - the king of fruits, here in the tropics anyway. They are seasonal, and this is almost the end of the season now. When we were children and lived in the village, we had two durian trees. We all look forward to the durian seasons.

A hawker center in People’s Park Center, or was it People’s Park Plaza. I keep getting these two buildings mixed up. Pre-pandemic days, they were always busy, noisy and messy. Not my favourite place to eat. Now that Covid-19 restrictions here has eased and dining out is allowed again – albeit with a restriction in numbers allowed per table, it is still better than nothing. They were quite busy when my friend and went to have a drink to keep out of the rain. Very good crowd, I would say, for a weekday and a rainy day at that.

Saw this beautiful tree with flowers and fruits. I had meant to go back and take a proper picture of the tree when it stopped raining, but forgot all about it.

Beautiful bougainvillea. Most of our overhead bridges have beds of these. They liven up the place with their sweet colours.

An Indian Temple.

One side of the sky is clear, you can even see the moon. Another side of the sky, dark clouds were looming.

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