Take you down to Chinatown!

We actually went with the kids, all 3 of them, to Chinatown on Saturday night! Gosh it was crowded, and loud, and really exciting! We got out of the MRT at People's Park side, and were immediately engulfed by the rowdy sights and sounds as we came off the top of the escalators. We passed by stalls exploding with magnificent displays of fake flowers, a man painting calligraphy backwards on the floor, vats of all kinds and textures of nuts and tidbits, another man playing a sort of modern lively pipa accompanying a woman singing cantonese opera - all before we finally crossed the overhead bridge and plunged right into the heart of Chinatown. That stretch was packed! At one point we escaped into the oasis of a gallery right in the middle of the chaos. The simple clean lines of solid Chinese furniture, in their subdued neutrals and exquisitely finished smooth dark woods, were blissfully soothing after all the crazy flashing golds and reds and noisy everything people in your face experience outside in the street! Matthew loved the massive lion dance head hanging outside one of the shops where we did most of our shopping. We got the kids a little string puppet lion - it moves very like the real thing in a lion dance! I'm very pleased with our purchases. We didn't get all that much, mostly nice things for the house, and some trinkets here and there. The selection of merchandise was staggering! There were all sorts of cute strange things, like little mini Chinese jackets or cheongsams for your softdrink PET bottles! The whole place was fantastic. It seemed like we could hardly moved for the mountains of people, but little by little everyone made a slow wave of it all amidst the riotous stalls and stands, overhung with all kinds of fantastic things you can buy. When we had spent one and a half hours seeing and shopping and soaking up the heady atmosphere, and were finally ready to head home, we found we hadn't gotten beyond 50 metres into the busiest stretch! It was a blast.

ps Thanks, J, for the recommendation! We'd normally not have gone otherwise, crowd averse as we are, but this was one experience well worth the train rides there and back - which the kids also enjoyed.