Arab Street

There are many different "ethnic districts" in Singapore, today we went to Arab Street for a wonderful family adventure. 

Victoria Street Wholesale Market is right across the street from Arab Street so we started off by going through the market.

You can buy multiple items in bulk at the market, and there are definite smells in this market as well some good and some not so good. 

We were thrilled when we came across this fresh coffee stall, coffee in the grocery stores here is expensive and we are almost out of the coffee we brought with us from the States.  We were able to pick out our coffee and have it ground for a great price.

We also found some dried fruit and some nuts, even peanuts which are surprisingly hard to find here.  This man is weighing out some seedless dates for us.

 Chinese New Year is in February so there are many different stalls selling decorations for the New Year celebration.

We bought a wok lid and some small clothes to carry with us to mop the sweat off our brow when we are out, it is what all the locals do.

One can also purchase cigarettes in the Victoria Street Market, in Singapore there is not just simply a "Surgeon General Warning" on the package but rather a very vivid picture of what may happen to you if you choose to smoke, these pictures are on every pack of cigarettes sold in Singapore.

After the market we headed on over to Arab street this is a delightful area of Singapore with lots of smells, sounds and sights that took us back to when we were in Istanbul. There are a lot of basket, and fabric shops. 

Side walk cafes are a plenty and as the night gets late, the crowd gets thick, we went early and are glad we did. 

Many of the cafes have these hookahs that you can pay to smoke while you dine, this man said "yes" when I asked him if I could take his picture for this blog and he was very pleased to show me how to use the hookah.

The shops on Arab Street are very colorful and interesting it makes for a really fun shopping experience

We even found some rice patty hats and while we did not buy one it was a fun photo op, I think we may purchase one the next time we are there, they are only $3.00 and I think it may look cool hanging on our wall upstairs not to mention it is a great missions fest decoration.

We love Turkish food and while there are a lot of different Arab countries represented in the food on Arab street we did find a Turkish cafe and I was thrilled that they had all of my favorite dishes on their menu.

The Istanbul Grill and Cafe is my new favorite restaurant in Singapore, ahhhhh the smell, the music, the flavor, the hot tea, it was just perfect.

oh and they have hookahs available if you desire, we did not desire.

By the time we finished our meal it was dark providing us with a pretty view of the Mosque on our way back to the car.