Little India on a Working Morning

Come out of Little India MRT, follow the signs for Tekka and Buffalo Road, and three minutes later you're at Tekka Centre, with marigolds on one side and mutton on the other. Get there around 10am, while the market is still loud. The first choice is whether you want company. If you can follow a smell, you'll do fine on your own.

If you'd like the stories that sit between the shops, about the old cattle trade and the Chettiar moneylending families, join the spice trail. It meets at Tekka's main entrance at 10am and starts by grinding masala at a stall that's been going for 50 years. After that there's a garland stall and a sari-draping corner, then a banana-leaf lunch at noon with a host who'll gently correct your right hand. On a first visit we'd book it.

Little India is a working neighbourhood before it's anything else. People come here for gold and tailoring, and the wet market still feeds the families who live around it. So give the shops room and treat the street as somebody's workplace, because it is.

Tekka's wet market

The wet market, where the neighbourhood buys its fish and vegetables, fills the ground floor, and the hawker stalls, small counters selling cheap cooked food, wrap around it. The spice sellers stack their sacks so close together that the smell stays in your clothes for the rest of the day. We count that as the souvenir. Tekka still runs on cash more than you'd expect, so carry small notes.

Fresh sugar-cane juice from the market is the pause you'll want before the temples. If you'd rather eat your way round than wander Tekka hungry, the food tour spends three hours doing exactly that.

Temples along Serangoon Road

From Tekka it's a short walk along Serangoon Road to Sri Veeramakaliamman at number 141. If you only go inside one temple, we'd make it this one. The gopuram, the sculpted tower over the entrance, does the talking from the street. It typically opens from 5.30am to noon and again from 5pm to 9pm, resting in between, so go in before you eat and check the hours on the day, since they can shift.

Shoes come off at the door, and shoulders and knees stay covered. Dress for temples even if you think you're only going for lunch, because somewhere along Serangoon Road you'll pass a door you'll want to go through. If you'd like the temples explained, the walking tour runs later in the day and mixes market tastings with temple etiquette. Save henna for after the temples. It takes 20 minutes and leaves you with a stained palm.

A few blocks north, Sri Srinivasa Perumal is a National Monument and the start of Thaipusam, the procession that fills this road in January or February. Outside the festival it's calm inside, and it closes over midday too. Further up Serangoon Road, Sri Vadapathira is another temple to Kali, like Veeramakaliamman, and worth the walk if you still have a temple in you.

Banana leaf for lunch

Lunch is banana leaf: rice and curries served on a leaf instead of a plate, and the meal the whole morning has been leading to. Eat with your right hand and fold the leaf when you've finished. Komala Vilas, Banana Leaf Apolo and Muthu's Curry are the names you'll hear, and we'd pick whichever room is loudest with families. The rooms around Race Course Road fill from 11.30am, and by about 1.15pm you're eating what's been sitting in the steam trays, so aim to sit down close to noon.

If there's room for a second lunch, look for murtabak, pan-fried bread folded round spiced meat, at the stall with the longest queue of people on their lunch break.

Campbell Lane and Dunlop Street

Campbell Lane and Dunlop Street run between the market and the mosque, lined with goldsmiths and garland stalls. There's even a tailor who'll still take a same-week job if you're not fussy. The five-foot ways, the covered walkways along the shopfronts, are working space here, with stock stacked out front and incense at the doorways, so keep to the side and let the shops get on with their day. At the Dunlop Street end, Abdul Gafoor Mosque has a sundial in its courtyard and hardly ever a queue.

The Indian Heritage Centre at 5 Campbell Lane has five galleries on the Indian diaspora behind a glass facade that lights up after dark. Go after the market, when you'll have questions for it. It's open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, with last admission at 5.30pm, and closed every Monday, public holidays included unless it posts otherwise. Take Exit E at Little India MRT for the centre. With the museum shut and some stalls resting, Monday works best as a market-and-temple morning.

English docent tours run at 11am from Tuesday to Friday, with an extra one at 2pm on Fridays, and at 2pm on weekends and public holidays. There's a Tamil tour at 11am on the first Saturday of the month and a Mandarin one at 11am on the second. Schedules change, so ask at the front desk.

The Gem Museum on Perak Road

For an indoor hour that belongs to this neighbourhood, walk down to The Gem Museum at 9 Perak Road, a shophouse that follows stones from the mine to the market. By train, it's right beside Rochor MRT: take Exit B and turn right. Some ride-hailing apps still show its old Kandahar Street address, so type in Perak Road. Admission is free, but register a timeslot online before you go, because there are no walk-ins. It opens Tuesday to Saturday and closes on Sundays and Mondays, with guided tours on some Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It's a good hour if you like rocks, and it pairs better with Tekka than with a banana leaf and three temples.

If the market has worn you out, an hour of Ayurveda swaps the museum for warm oil. With more time, the Indian cooking class spends three hours on spices and a curry, and a morning at Tekka first shows you where the ingredients come from.

Deepavali and Thaipusam

Two festivals change the look of the street. The Deepavali light-up strings Serangoon Road with lights, typically in October or November depending on the moon, and it's worth planning an evening around if your dates line up. Thaipusam's procession runs from Sri Srinivasa Perumal down to Sri Thendayuthapani, the Chettiar temple on Tank Road near Fort Canning where it ends. Outside the festival, both are calm places to visit.

Evenings towards Farrer Park

Farrer Park MRT is closer than Little India for the northern end of Serangoon Road, including Sri Vadapathira and Mustafa. Up here there are fewer visitors and more textile shops, and after dark the street turns to neon and a second dinner. Mustafa Centre at 145 Syed Alwi Road is a 24-hour warren of gold and luggage above a grocery basement, handy at 11pm and a distraction at 10am, when you should be at Tekka. The gold dome of the Central Sikh Temple is on Towner Road, nearer Farrer Park or Boon Keng than Little India. Cover your head and take off your shoes, and join the langar, the free communal meal, if you're invited.

The Temple of 1,000 Lights is further up Race Course Road, and the Burmese Buddhist Temple is further north again on Tai Gin Road, if you still have incense in you.

If you'd like to keep walking, Kampong Gelam (Kampong Glam) is 15 minutes away down Jalan Besar and feels like another city entirely. Do both in a day if your legs allow, and take the smell of Tekka's spices with you.