I visit my homeland Singapore every year during the winter period in Europe. I look at her with fresh eyes again, re-discovering her just like a visitor from afar.

 

There were so many places I had not visited in my twenty plus years of living in Singapore. 

She is so beautiful in many ways. Even though we are a modern city with skyscrapers, there are hidden gems if we know where to look.

 

My love for shophouses, traditional low lying buildings concentrated in Joo Chiat, Tiong Bahru, Chinatown and Emerald Hill behind the busy Orchard Road, brought me back again and again to these areas to admire the designs of these buildings. Some have the Peranakan characteristics, many with retro elements.