Little India Is Officially Singapore’s Coolest Neighbourhood
Singapore is well-known for its cultural enclaves like Kampong Gelam, Chinatown, and Little India.
With splendid food coupled with iconic architecture, each spot has its own unique offerings for visitors.
While there are many worthy contenders for the title of Singapore’s coolest neighbourhood, a poll by TimeOut lists Little India as this year’s numero uno.
Source: Maurus Loeffel on Flickr
The district ranks 19th worldwide, beating out the likes of Hong Kong’s Wan Chai and Melbourne’s Fitzroy.
Little India is Singapore’s coolest neighbourhood for its quaint charm
To come up with their list of the 51 coolest neighbourhoods in the world, TimeOut polled 20,000 city-dwellers and spoke to local experts.
While they acknowledged that “cool” may be subjective, TimeOut said that the places on the list have the following qualities:
- Have accessible, cutting-edge culture and nightlife
- Offer brilliant and affordable food and drink
- Boast lively street life and big community vibes
They are also “distinctive districts where people can walk across in half an hour or less, but could spend a whole day or more exploring” and “mix up the best of the old and new schools”.
Little India is a neighbourhood that certainly fulfils many of those criteria. As such, it has taken the crown from Katong, which was dubbed the coolest neighbourhood in Singapore last year.
Source: tjabeljan on Flickr
Little India’s stark contrast to the polished Orchard streets or Marina Bay waterfront has its own charms, TimeOut notes.
The “no-frills district” is also seemingly full of life no matter what time of the day it is, be it the buzz over at Tekka Centre or the ever-busy floors of Mustafa Centre.
There’s also great accommodation for travellers or staycation aficionados in the many conservation shophouses.
Little India ranks 19th globally for coolest neighbourhood
Out of the 51 neighbourhoods worldwide that made the cool list, Little India came in at number 19.
For comparison, the only other Southeast Asian representations in the list are Cambodia’s Wat Bo Village, which ranked third, Bali’s Ubud at number 42, and Bangkok’s Thonglor at number 46.
Colonia Americana in Guadalajara, Mexico took the number one spot.
Boasting a booming underground scene, the neighbourhood has bustling music venues, chill spots for people-watching, and even hosts a weekend handicrafts market.
Be a tourist in your own backyard for a change
Although many neighbourhoods have been around for decades, some Singaporeans would admit that they rarely explore them.
So, in case you run out of ideas on where to spend your weekends, why not turn into a tourist in your own country and drop by Little India soon?
Who knows, it might become your new favourite haunt.
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Featured image adapted from Maurus Loeffel on Flickr.
