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| The Geylang Serai lightup adds to the atmosphere. |
The annual Geylang Serai Hari Raya bazaar is held throughout the month of Ramadhan in Singapore, and tends to draw crowds who shop for Eid and break their fast with traditional fair foods such as Ramly burgers and vadai.
The bazaar is the largest of its kind in Singapore, and is traditionally filled not only with stalls selling cooked food for breaking fast, but also henna artists, snacks for entertaining during Eid, as well as clothing and home decor - furniture, lamps, calligraphy, cushions and curtains.
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| Decorative cushions with a 'jewel' in the middle were going for about S$13 each. |
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| Curtainland opposite the One KM Mall. |
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| Khat in the kufic and tughra styles at this decal stall. |
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| Khat in the sini style which is rare here. Sini is more ribbon-like. The calligraphy was mounted on silk as is traditional for Chinese brush artwork or paired with Chinese paintings. They also had framed khat on porcelain which you can see in the background. |
The 2015 crowd seemed a bit sparser than usual for a Saturday, even after sunset. While there were queues for the food, some stalls were practically deserted and there were even empty spaces where stalls had not been taken up. To be fair this was the last weekend before the school holidays ended, so families may have wanted to stay home.
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| The queues grew longer for the food after sunset. |
Nevertheless, there is still a lot to see and sample.
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| This Muar sugarcane stall was quite popular. |
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| The bright orange Thai iced tea had made a name for itself - I heard visitors saying they had to try it, and a queue had already formed by late afternoon. They already have a news article on them (framed, bottom left). The iced tea is S$3. They also had a Nutella milkshake for sale, hence the jars of Nutella in the foreground. |
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| El 'Arabi is next to the Thai iced tea stall and along the road (Sims Drive), so quite easy to get to. It also attracted a long queue from late afternoon. The shawarma costs S$3. |
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| Another view of El 'Arabi, this time after sunset. The queue continues, though it had stopped for the Thai iced tea. |
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| The buns for Ramly burgers are spread with margarine and toasted on the grill. |
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| Ramly burgers are a mainstay at bazaars. This is mass production in action. |
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| Deep fried vadai are another traditional favourite. There were queues outside this stall as well. |
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| The Happy Rollies stall was doing a brisk business after sunset compared to the churros stall next to it. It claims to have savoury rolls of fried ice cream. The actual dish looked more like curls of normal ice cream. I couldn't get a good picture of it though. |
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| Freshly grilled dendeng sitting in its own juices. S$5 for 100g. Dendeng is the halal version of bak kwa, an Asian form of meat jerky. |
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| Drinks of different flavours on sale, from S$1 and upwards. Fruit punch, mango and lemon are featured here, with bird's nest just beyond. |
Several stalls focused on home-made cookies and snacks for entertainment during Eid. Many offer samples.
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| Snacks were typically three for S$10 but a box of cookies like this would range from S$8 for a small jar to S$25 for the more elaborate ones. Makmur at 6 o'clock, cat's tongues in rainbow colours at 9 o'clock. |
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| Marjan brand rose syrup on the left, and strawberry syrup with milk on the right. To be mixed for festive drinks at Eid rather than for breaking fast. |
Clothing stalls are very common, mostly for the ladies, but also for men and children.
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| Headgear of all kinds from as low as three for S$5. These near the MRT station are S$5 but generally they averaged S$10 each. |
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| These hangers are designed for separating scarves. S$6.90. |
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| Black velvet songkoks for the guys, complete with rhinestone brooches, and sampin with designs picked out in gold and silver thread. These are part of the baju Melayu traditional costume. |
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| Leather slippers for children and adults. |
Then there were the quirky types:
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| Posters painted on wooden boards. |
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| Emoji stuffed toys, anyone? |
And in keeping with the spirit of Ramadhan, there were donation boxes for worthy causes.
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| A donation box for a mosque building fund, this one for Khadijah Mosque which is in Geylang. |
Interested?
Get to the bazaar from Paya Lebar MRT station. Turn right once out of the Paya Lebar Square exit, and cross the road at the traffic lights, which are not working as this road has been closed. The bazaar is on the right. There is a smaller bazaar linked to the SingPost mall on the left.
Read the
Suroor Asia blog post about
Hungrygowhere's review of the food at the bazaar last year.
