If what they say about history repeating itself is true, then there must have been a time when the streets of Chinatown were as quiet as what it were during the days of the circuit breaker.
Whichever time it was, it must have been beyond my years- because, not once, not at least to the best of my memory, have I ever seen the streets of Pagoda, Smith, Trengganu and Temple fall into a silence as deafening as this.
Truth be told, is not a pretty sight.
We all know how popular Chinatown is.
We all know how crowded this place can be.
Always it has been that there will be that one tourist who stops in the middle of the path with his or her camera panned high to capture the length of the street and the lanterns above in one frame.
Always it has been that there will be the tourist, and tourists stopping in the middle of nowhere to take a selfie with a) the street b) the shop behind c) the mobile ice cream man or d) the bak kwa.
We have seen them; the hot and bothered Caucasian tourist stopping for a bucket of Tiger beers at the corner coffee shop whilst he works through a plate of (tourist-priced) chili crab.
We have seen them; the dressed-up tourists in their sun hats, sunglasses and sunscreen who stand waiting by the side of a souvenir shop and fan themselves eagerly.
There are the tourists who make a feast of our local cuisine at Smith Street and upload it straight to social media.
There are the tourists who wander from one street to another armed with plastic bags (from purchases bought elsewhere), more plastic bags (from Universal Studios Singapore), their battery-operated fans, their phones, their crossbody bags, and their drawstring bags.
We have seen them.
The tourists, the visitors, the workers, the locals.
Yet, hardly a soul did I see on this day that I passed through the area from Eu Tong Sen Street to South Bridge Road on the other side.
There was nobody.
The streets were silent.
The shops were shut.
And even the eateries- open as they might be with their tables stacked up and chairs pushed aside- were lonely.
It was a little sad (I'm an introvert and so when I say it felt a little sad, it IS sad) but- but- if there was something interesting that existed within the empty streets and the deafening silence, it is that I (finally) got to see Chinatown for what it could be- without the crowds, without the clutter of footfall flow, without the cacophony of sounds.
And, my goodness, was she really so beautiful.