In search of cheaper hotels, spicy food, and a less antiseptic experience, we stayed in Singapore's Little India neighborhood. There, traditional Chinese shophouses (like those we saw in Malaysia and in Phuket, Thailand) have been brightly painted and repurposed to serve the thousands of southern Indian and Sri Lankan workers who live in the neighborhood or who flood into it from the rest of the city on the weekends to socialize, eat, and pray at the many colorful temples. Much of the rest of Singapore consists of apartment blocks, skyscrapers, parks, shopping malls, and old British colonial-style buildings.
