Back Alley 2 - Shophouses

Continued from yesterday's post.

This is the same alley as yesterday. Some of these shophouses are not restored and renovated yet and some are vacant.

The shophouse must be vacant long ago, even the creepers had climbed up to the upper floor.

Now I wondered if this plant has been grown by a bird...lol. The birds must have carry the seeds and drop into the cracks of the wall.


A very old and vacant shophouses waiting to be restored.

The alley is so narrow that I could not capture the three floors of this shophouse in my camera's screen. The highest addition of a small room reminded me of my late maternal grandparent's home. My grandparents used to stay in such a shophouse but bigger and they had an extra room added to their roof. We used to go up the extra room and climb out to the roof. My uncle is braver and he would walked on top of the roof and climb to the neighbour's shophouse to play with his neighbour...lol.

A contractor doing some renovation and restoration works to another shophouse. It looked so dangerous, I think he should wear a safety belt and a helmet. As these shophouses are protected and preserved, even the windows had to be changed to look like the original architectural designs of the old shophouse.

My World Tuesday - Back and Small Alley 1 - Graffiti

This is a back and small alley near Beach Road. Hubby and me decided to venture into this narrow alley to see what lies inside it.

The double yellow lines on both sides indicated no parking on both sides of the alley.

Most of the buildings are very old in here, long before I was born (could be as old as 100 years old). Most of them are vacant and undergoing conservation and redecoration.

It is interesting to see the colourful and creative graffiti works on the side of the buildings.

More artworks on the shophouses that were occupied right inside the alley.

The scaffoldings around are indication of the building that's still doing some redecoration and renovation.

Tomorrow I will show the original and unpainted and undecorated side of the shophouses before conservation. It is very interesting.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Skywatch Friday-Parkview Square

Parkview Square is one of the more expensive office buildings in Singapore. Besides commercial office space, Parkview Square also houses the embassies of Austria, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates. You can read more about this building from source.

The building looked so impressive. On zooming the top of the building, you can see four giant statues holding a ball each. This is the best my camera can zoom....sigh. I think I need to get a better camera that can zoom more than 10 times ....lol.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Shops along Arab Street

This is Arab Street which was named after a rich Arab Merchant who used to own a big land in here or it was a site of an Arab village/kampong during the earlier times.

This street is very colourful and interesting. There are many shops that not only sell clothes but also beads, costume jewelleries, baskets, etc. I sometimes come here to purchase beads for my beads jewellery crafts.

You can read more about Arab Street from Wikipedia.

This passage between the shop front and the road is known as a five foot way. Five foot? It means that the passage is about five foot wide but sometimes they are less than five feet.

You can read more about the five foot way from wikipedia.

Shopkeepers would always display their goods along the five foot way to attract customers.

I spotted some belly dancing costumes. Belly dancing is now very popular in Singapore among all the races. It is a great way to slim down too. But no, I dont do any belly dancing...lol

These are Ali Baba's Pants. Wondered why they are called Ali Baba's pants? Perhaps it was named after Ali Baba.

Shophouses along Muscat Street

Continued from yesterday's post. After visiting the Sultan Mosque, what about visiting some of the souvenir shops to get some souvenirs.

I like the windows above the shops. These are shophouses. The owner lived upstair the shop.