Jonathan and I finally braved a carpet shop in Singapore. These line Arab Street and are packed wall to wall with carpets. And I want a carpet - a carpet I bought in Singapore.

We had no idea what we were looking for, how much they might cost, or what we were doing. We just looked at the first few shops we past and then actually walked into a shop that already had a couple browsing in it. The floors were soft underfoot with handmade carpets piled upon each other.

The carpets are strewn on the floor to show customers, and the shop keepers just keep rolling carpet after carpet out, overlapping what was underneath to allow you to see the most carpets at once.

Our first concern was whether we should take our shoes off. We were told to keep them on. Rugs were folded in neat stacks along the wall to chest height and sorted by sizes, style and quality. The shopkeeper just needed to know which ones we liked to start pulling similar ones. We explained that we didn't know what we were looking for. He explained there were 3 main style of rugs and that a full sized rug started at about $1,000, but went up from there depending on weave, material, pattern, which all influence how long it takes to make by hand. I now feel the desire to go learn more about carpets.

We were first shown a intricate silk rug. $4,000. Too much for us. It was gorgeous, but we agreed that we would not hide that under our grey Ikea couch to have chips dropped on it while we watch TV. It belonged in a library with some lovely wing back chairs on it, maybe blue wing back chairs.

We said we had little kids, so next the shopkeeper showed us the wool rugs. These started about $1,000 for the large size we were looking at. He said you can clean them with soap and a brush. Yep, he understood us now. At this point we tried to leave, but somehow we were following him down the street and across the road to another storefront he had.

Here we admired another of these wool rugs. He ran off to another shop to appear a few minutes later with 2 more versions to lay out for us. All had the same colour tones, and style, but they're handmade so each was individual with different base colours, fringes and shapes used. The ones we were admiring were said to be $1,800. We didn't know if we should be trying to barter or not, and we weren't sure if we were ready to buy, so we didn't barter. When I did ask the price again, the shopkeeper said he could give it to us one for $1,400.

As we were leaving with his card, he offered to have a driver bring the 3 rugs to our house to try them out, no obligation. We declined, and he said, "Just What's App me if you change your mind."  

After we made our escape from the Arab street carpet shops, we explored more of Kampong Glam. First we rounded the corner to the Sultan Mosque. When I wandered by here a year ago with the girls, its rounded golden domes reminded the girls of the Palace in the movie Aladdin. This afternoon we were lucky enough to walk past just as the Call to Prayer sounded out.

Just behind the Mosque is Muscat Street. This street starts out selling food at bustling patios. There were a lot of Chai drinkers. But the street turns the corner to be a back alley to Arab Street where the dust bins (garbage cans) are kept for the shops out front. It's also home to an open air gallery of graffiti street art.

Jonathan noted the tiny doorways along here. The bottoms were 6 to 12 inches off the street, 1 or 2 steps. I wondered if it was to keep flooding from sudden rain out of the shop. That didn't explain why the doorways were also so short though.

Kampong Glam's heritage shop houses are now shops and open air restaurants. We saw glass lamps, ceramic bowls, brass lamps like one that might hold a Genie, and perfume shops full of blown glass bottles. We stopped into a bookshop for Muslim readers called Wardah Books. I bought a book called "Ramadan Around the World" by Ndaa Hassan for me to read with the girls in April. The month of fasting is celebrated by many people here in Singapore.

Kampong Glam has so much culture to explore. Just beyond these restaurants and shops of souvenirs, we found ones more targeted to daily life. Some of these routine places highlighted things, we hadn't even considered. The Beauty Salon had completely blacked out windows and "Ladies Only" on the door. We see many women in Singapore with their hair covered and sometimes their faces too. In a Salon like this, they can feel free to uncover their hair and face. The Herbal shop looked of interest too with it's glass bottles and wooden bowls.

We just scratched the surface by wandering around here for a few hours. As we left I pointed out that to our left was another street of restaurants we hadn't ventured down and to our right was the Malay Heritage Centre and we hadn't even seen a grocery shop yet. We agreed that we will need to venture to this area for dinner one night.