Katong & Joo Chiat

Katong is the old seaside name for this corner of the east, and Joo Chiat Road is the street that runs through it, so you'll drift between the two without noticing. Start on Koon Seng Road, where conserved Peranakan terraces in pastel paint show off ceramic tiles and phoenix plasterwork. Joo Chiat Road is a street of shophouses, terraces built for a business at street level and a family on the floor above. It still has its provision shops and kopitiams, the old-style coffee shops the neighbourhood runs on. Walk down to East Coast Road for kaya toast at Chin Mee Chin Confectionery, where the tiled floor is half the reason to go, then pick up kueh, bite-sized Peranakan cakes, at Kim Choo Kueh Chang. The tourist board runs a visitor centre upstairs.

Two stops need a little planning. Sri Senpaga Vinayagar on Ceylon Road is the Ceylon Tamil community's Ganesha temple, a working place of worship that rests in the middle of the day like most South Indian temples, so go in the morning. The Intan on Joo Chiat Terrace is Alvin Yapp's Peranakan home, opened as a house museum that you visit by appointment. For lunch, 328 Katong Laksa on East Coast Road cuts its noodles short so the whole bowl goes down with a spoon. If its queue wraps the block, eat where the neighbourhood does at Marine Parade Central. It's a hawker centre, which here means a big covered hall of small cooked-food stalls.

Then head down to the sea. East Coast Park runs 13km along the shore across 180 hectares and is open 24 hours. Swim in the lagoon or cycle the shore, then eat BBQ stingray at East Coast Lagoon Food Village as the light goes. With one day, we'd do the shophouses in the morning and the lagoon at sunset, and save Geylang for another night. Come hungry, and leave with a box of kueh and sand on your ankles.

Where to eat

• 328 Katong Laksa, 51 East Coast Road: the laksa with cut noodles and a spoon, open daily 9.30am–9.30pm
• Chin Mee Chin Confectionery, 204 East Coast Road: kaya toast on a tiled floor, daily 8am–4pm, last orders 3.45pm or when it sells out
• Kim Choo Kueh Chang, 111 East Coast Road: kueh to take home, usually open daily 9am–9pm, with the visitor centre upstairs
• East Coast Lagoon Food Village, 1220 East Coast Parkway: BBQ stingray by the sand, best in the evening, with stalls on their own hours