Kampong Glam

After visiting Little India, I hopped on another open-top bus and got off about 5 minutes later at a neighborhood called Kampong Glam which is named after a type of eucalyptus tree. It started out as a village occupied by the Malay upper-class. It was assigned to the Malay and Arab communities – many of them merchants - in 1822 and part of it was set aside for the Sultan of Johor. Kampong Glam, sometimes referred as the ‘Muslim Quarter,’ remains a central place for Singapore’s Malay and Muslim communities and in recent years the place has become more ‘hip.’

Arab Street forms the heart of the area. Like Little India and Chinatown, the area has rows of conserved shop houses where I saw a lot of art galleries, crafts, and especially, carpet shops. There are quite a few restaurants and coffee shops around as well. One of the biggest tourist attractions is Sultan Mosque which is a major landmark and congregation point for Singapore’s Muslims. The original was built in 1826 by Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor but the building you see today was completed in 1928. It is one of Singapore’s oldest and most important mosques as well as its largest. You can pretty much use the Mosque as a reference point regarding direction due to its golden domes. I got there around noon and I couldn’t go inside the Mosque as the inside was closed for lunch-time. I liked this neighborhood a lot. It was very colorful and relaxed I thought. After walking around for a bit – this is the neighborhood where I also bought your postcards – I waited for another open-top bus to come (usually every 20-25 min) and headed for another ethnic enclave – Chinatown; as if I have not seen enough of China the past several months!!!