Peck Seah-Tanjong Pagar

Remember a while ago I wrote about taking a walk at Far East Square, Telok Ayer Street, Amoy Street, and the little park next to the Amoy Street Food Center where the roosters were? 

What I didn't tell you then was that I went ahead across the road to Wallich Tower, Tras, Peck Seah Street and Tanjong Pagar. 

It's not a very far walk from the park. 

It's literally across the road. 

I guess that's what makes this area interesting. 

It's like a hexagon (I think). 

On one side you have the business district of Shenton Way and Anson Road, on the other side you have the shop houses of Amoy Street housing creative agencies, offices, cafes, pubs and restaurants, One cannot miss out the MND Building on Maxwell Road, and, on the Tanjong Pagar side now there is Maxwell Chambers, and the former Registry of Vehicles.

I crossed over from the traffic light towards Wallich Tower past the entrance of Sofitel City Center. 

There my friend sat at Starbucks, and I did a roam around the area.

I'm familiar with Wallich Street, Peck Seah Street and Tras Street in a sort of roundabout third-party way. 

It's not an area I'm very familiar with. 

But it's an area I've heard plenty of stories about. 

Of course the place has changed greatly now.

You won't find the block of walk-up apartments on Peck Seah Street anymore. 

Instead you find this. 

You also won't find the block of walk-up apartments on Wallich Street anymore. 

It's been replaced by this. 

Tanjong Pagar has become  a space that combines both the professional, the leisure, and the personal. 

And they're almost right next to each other.

Like how the International Plaza looks over to Wallich Tower on one side but looks over to the flats of Tanjong Pagar at the corner. 

This is a place where you can get Kagoshima Ramen and cupcakes in one building and beer-battered fish and chips in  one of the housing blocks opposite. 

This is also a place where you can alternate a Tuna Mayonnaise bun from the neighborhood bakery on one day and go for a Mentaiko French Bread from Japanese bakery Pullman Bakery on the next. 

The buildings here are impressive. 

No one remembers what this used to be, but it's today a hotel. 

And I don't know what this is, either.

This place is a comfortable juxtaposition between the heartland and the downtown. 

You might live in the flat, for instance, but you can most certainly go to Starbucks for a latte or a Frappuccino or cross the road to the hotel for delicious fare. 

In the same way a person dwelling in the Wallich apartments might decide to cross the road for a good plate of nasi lemak or a delish plate of freshly-fried char kuay teow. 

It's the heritage of this place that gives this place her charm.

I don't just mean the 100-year old Seng Wong Beo Temple.

There's also Maxwell Chambers which has preserved its exteriors as well as, I believe, its interiors. 

And there's also the former Red Dot Building which (I think) is not red anymore. 

I don't know if its still red, because on this particular evening I chose to walk only at the back, not the front.  

The back of the buildings seemed more interesting to me.

After all that was where driving instructors used to park their cars, and everyone who needed to practice parking, reverse parking or beginner rounds would do so in the car park behind.