Some of the most colorful streets in Singapore lie a short way north of the downtown towers, and this walk strings two of them together. It starts at a painted temple tower on Serangoon Road, the main street of Little India, and works its way south past a vast department store, a temple to the goddess Kali, and arcades hung with jasmine garlands and sacks of spice. Then it crosses into Kampong Glam, the old Malay and Arab quarter, to the golden domes of the Sultan Mosque, and finishes among the murals and small shops of Haji Lane, a few minutes from Bugis station. It is about two and a half kilometers on flat ground, and if you like self-guided walking tours that are as much about smells and sounds as sights, this is one of the best in the city.

Before you set off

The walking takes around forty minutes, but plan on two or three hours so you can step inside the temples and mosques, browse, and stop to eat, because eating is a large part of the point here. Singapore is hot and humid all year and the sun is strong from late morning, so start early, around eight or nine, when the temples are busy with morning prayers and the flower sellers are setting out. Another good plan is to start around four and finish on Haji Lane in the evening, when the cafes and bars fill up. Sudden heavy showers are common, especially in the afternoon, but the covered five foot walkways in front of the shophouses keep you dry, so carry a small umbrella and wait them out. Four stops are places of worship. Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, and wear shoes you can slip off easily, because you will leave them at the door. Hindu temples often close for a few hours around midday, and the mosques close to visitors during prayers and for longer on Fridays; visiting hours vary, so check before you go. Little India is at its most crowded on Sunday evenings, which is lively but slow going.

Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple

Stand across Serangoon Road and look up at the gopuram, the tall gateway tower over the entrance, crowded tier upon tier with brightly painted figures. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu, the preserver among the great Hindu gods, known in Tamil as Perumal, and many of the figures on the tower show him in his different forms: as the hero Rama, as the cowherd Krishna, as a boar and as a man-lion. The temple dates back to the 1850s, which makes it one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore, and the gopuram was added in the 1960s. It is now a national monument. Once a year it becomes the starting point of Thaipusam, the festival of the god Murugan that falls in January or February. Starting the night before and going on all day, devotees who have fasted and prayed for weeks set out from here carrying kavadis, great arched frames decorated with peacock feathers, some of them held in place by hooks and skewers through the skin, and walk several kilometers through the city to a temple on Tank Road, with family and friends singing and drumming alongside. If the gate is open, leave your shoes outside and step into the cool hall to hear the bells and smell the camphor and jasmine. Then walk southwest down Serangoon Road for a few blocks and turn left onto Syed Alwi Road. The big store is about six minutes away.

Mustafa Centre

The huge building in front of you, wrapped in signs and spilling shoppers onto the street, is Mustafa Centre, and there is nothing quite like it anywhere else in Singapore. It began as a small shop run by Mustaq Ahmad and his family in the 1970s, and it grew and grew until it filled most of a block. For years it stayed open around the clock, and it still keeps very long hours. Inside are several floors of almost everything you can imagine: gold jewelry, phones and cameras, suitcases, saris, medicines, rice in giant sacks, a whole wall of spices and enough chocolate to stock a small town. The aisles are narrow, the crowd never stops, and it feels nothing like the cool, quiet malls of Orchard Road. That is exactly why people love it. Travelers come to stock up before flights home, and workers from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka come for familiar brands and to send things back to their families. It shows a side of Little India that has never been only about the past: this is still where South Asian Singapore, old and new, comes to shop. Wander one floor if you have time, then walk back along Syed Alwi Road to Serangoon Road and turn left, continuing southwest. The next temple tower rises over the street about six minutes on.

Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple

In front of you is the temple of Kali the Courageous, which is what Veeramakaliamman means. Look at the figures on the gopuram and you will find the goddess in her fiercest forms, dark skinned and many armed, with a tongue thrust out and weapons in her hands. Kali can look alarming to newcomers, but to her devotees she is a protecting mother, the power that destroys evil, and she was especially dear to the Indian laborers who worked here far from home in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the temple was founded. In those days this district was a place of lime kilns, brick works and cattle pens rather than shops, and the temple was known by a Tamil name that pointed to the kilns. The building has been rebuilt and enlarged several times since. Inside, if you go in, Kali sits in the main shrine flanked by her two sons, Ganesha with his elephant head and Murugan with his spear. Prayers happen several times a day with drums, bells and a flame passed among the worshippers, and visitors are welcome to watch quietly from the side. Leave your shoes at the entrance, keep your voice down, and ask before taking photographs of people. When you come out, continue southwest down Serangoon Road for about four minutes, with Tekka Centre ahead on the right. The arcade stands on your left at Campbell Lane.