So recently, the madegg duo (yes, us together again) finally got down to exploring the Ann Siang Hill district. The shopping guide from fashionisspinach.com was pretty helpful. Though I would have much preferred if it came with clearcut maps and pictures...hmm..you know what? It'd be an interesting new project to work on! The Illustrated Guide to ____(insert cool place)___ in Singapore.
Rather than taking a gazillion majillion photos of touristy landmarks or nonsensical candid shots, we decided to have a photo-theme! As you might have already guessed from the image below, our theme was Patterns! So we set off on our little tour of this mysterious neighbourhood (well, mysterious to us goondus anyway), scanning up and down for eyecatching patterns to snap pictures of.
Enjoy the visual feast... We found patterns everywhere! On vegetation, building designs, wall-tiles, floor-tiles, posters, notebook covers, drain covers, furniture, door grills...etc. ! It certainly gave our aimless tour much more meaning and some short-lived excitement, haha.
We managed to find all the suggested places, like
The Asylum,
Style:Nordic, Front Row, Vanilla Home and even had sparetime to drop by the much publicised independent bookstore
BooksActually at Telok Ayer Street. There's something very special about being in these places and just soaking up the atmosphere. It's like an open invitation into the enigmatic mind of the owner. A quick glance would leave you wondering why the heck all these random objects are being sold in the same store (e.g. local literature and polaroid cameras in BooksActually, vintage children's books and apple corers in The Asylum). But once you start to soak up the atmosphere, you begin to realise that there's a very personal and unique invisible thread linking up every item in each store.
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Eggy: Which is not to say we didn't take any touristy/nonsensical candid photos at all =) But most of the places we visited were no-cameras-allowed, so this isn't quite the comprehensive guide we were hoping for =(
At Starbucks, pre-exploration, where Chan and Maddy engaged in yet more origami. Unfortunately Chan had to go off to a secret rendezvous, so no exploring for her.
Ixoras along the way to Red Dot Museum below. An attempt at more 'zine-worthy photos, haha.
I really like how Red Dot has such a great colour. Eye-catching, but not headache-inducing bright and flashy.
But after all that, we are still nowhere near Ann Siang Road -_- I don't really get that 'winner only!' thing. Spot reserved for winners to stand in?
Big temple along the way that looked really new and impressive.
Halfway there! Some Chinatown-looking place.
Ann Siang Road! Actually, not really. This was taken at the end of our journey, at some other road. But you know, a row of shophouses looks like another haha =) What made the Ann Siang shophouses different from the rest, in my opinion at least, was that they all had very Peranakan-looking tiles decorated on the outside. Okay, i don't know if Peranakan's the word i'm looking for, but you know what i mean, you've seen the collage. And they had such a variety of designs and were really well preserved. I thought that was pretty cool, a slice of historical Singapore in a way =)
The cafe on the first level of Front Row. They have these boxes of cute candies, I thought the lego ones were very cute. They sell a lot of English-looking jams and teas prettily packaged too, but the guy noticed us at this point and told us no-pictures =( I guess we didn't pass off as tourists. It's a boutique on the second and third level, expensive clothes and interesting accessories.
Part of the second floor of Style:Nordic. I think this is his interior decorating office. He has swatches of fabrics and carpets, as well as different setups on the same floor. I wish there were pictures to show, but we were afraid he had hidden cameras around, haha. It'd be cool to be able to live an an apartment like this though, all 3 floors included, the decor felt cosy yet spacious. It's pretty cool cos he leaves you entirely alone even as you browse through the upper floors. A little unfriendly, but less embarrassing to ooh and ahh over his stuff. Clothes, accessories and kitchenware on the first floor, all imported from Scandinavian countries, but definitely feels different from Ikea.
I've never seen a guild before!
And that draws a close to the Ann Siang Road journey =) One major spot we missed was The Patissier though! It's been strongly recommended for its cakes. Definitely a must-visit for the next time!
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