The building above is the Former Hill Street Police station on the northern side of the Singapore river bank. Further along is the Asian Civilisations Museum (shown below). You can see the dome of the Supreme Court in the background. And the smaller Arts House to the left with a white statue of Sir Stamford Raffles in front. There are many interesting sights on this part of the river bank, but we would have had a lot of extra walking to do to get to them.
So, we continued along towards the Merlion; a must-see sight for tourists!
This area of Singapore was getting busier and busier with people coming to the entrance gates for the F1 races.
We worked our way back towards Chinatown via Telok Ayer St. and came across the Nagore Dargah, which is the Indian Muslim Heritage Centre. This shrine was built by Muslims from southern India between 1828 and 1830 at a time when this area was a sandy beach!
Next was the Chian Hock Heng Temple, which is the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore. It is dedicated to Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea. The external doors and ceilings were ornately decorated, so I look forward to visiting inside this temple on my next visit.
And, just a few steps further along Telok Ayer St. was the Masjid Al-Abrar, a functioning mosque for the Tamil Muslims of Singapore.
We walked up an alley beside the Siang Cho Siang Temple to Ann Siang Road, and then discovered some rather grand old buildings, some of which were restaurants and boutique hotels.
Finally, we found the back entrance into the Maxwell Food Centre and spent quite some time deciding what to eat! I had some delicious Hainanese boneless chicken, with rice, vegetables, and chicken soup, all for SGD5.
We left the food court by the front entrance and found ourselves at the Chinese Heritage Centre; another place I did not know existed!
Since it was the Mid-Autumn Festival (Lantern Festival) in a few weeks time, the market streets near Chinatown MRT were decorated with lanterns and shops were busy trying to sell mooncakes.
And finally, back to where we started in Clarke Quay.
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