Chinatown with the boys

We needed to get out of  the house yesterday evening, so we made our way to Chinatown...one of my favorite places, and totally over-stimulating and exciting for the boys. We have been wanting to try the famous Chicken Rice place (Tian Tian Hainanese) at Maxwell's Hawker Center and it finally re-opened after renovations. Anthony Bourdain raved about this place on his show, No Reservations, so we wanted to try it out for ourselves. It was definitely the best chicken rice I've had in Singapore - but it's hard to count my vote when I've only had it at 4 places. Chicken Rice is EVERYWHERE here. Tian Tian definitely does it well though!

Quite possibly my favorite MRT exit - Chinatown! 

Front of the Food Center

Line at Tian Tian - it was the ONLY food stall with a line. Make that the only stall with more than 2 people.  Some have said they wait for over an hour there. Hard to believe something like that only costs S$3.50! 

Chicken rice doesn't excite Luke so he ordered up some noodles :)

Drew loves noodles too...our entire family ate for S$10...can't beat that! (Many stall doors were closed because it was Sunday)

After dinner I wanted to visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It was established in 2005 (I thought it was way older) and is such a remarkable place. It cost S$62 million dollars to build...wow! After wrapping a shawl around my shoulders (bare arms/shoulders are not allowed), Luke and I entered the temple. There were many Buddhists there praying to the Buddha, incense being waved around for the spirits and people lighting candles for loved ones who have passed. Very cool to experience a place like that with Luke. He was in awe. Right up until I was asked to leave for having bare legs. Oops. Forgot the sarong! At least we got some pictures before then. :)

It's hard to see but in the front and center is what Buddhist leaders regard  as the "Sacred  Buddha Tooth Relic" created with 320kg of donated gold. It's so bright - you can see it from the outside. We watched as many people walked by. In mid-conversation they would stop in front of the doors, say a quick prayer with clasped hands, and continue on. 

Had I not been asked to leave, Luke would have just kept staring. So much to take in. 

I have a larger panoramic picture of this and the modern background buildings framed in our house. 

Looking in from the sidewalk. There's a large courtyard area, then the incense area, and the main doors. 

Didn't do much else down there, but it was fun to do a few new things with the boys. Of course they came home with a list of junk, I mean toys, they want from Chinatown. If ever in need of $2 items...Chinatown is your place! Among some other very cool and worthy items I might add. :)