Nothing beats Arab Street for bazaar-style shopping with true ethnic character! Here, you can browse in delightful hole-in-the-wall shops, haggle to your hearts’ content and come away with the most enchanting trinkets and keepsakes at bargain prices.
The most visible items for sale are the baskets and other cane, straw, rattan and pandan leaf goods spilling out onto the pavements - from baby cradles to floor mats, hanging chairs to serving trays. These shops also stock interesting camel skin bags, cloisonne boxes, sewing kits, and fishing tackle items for both the amateur and the professional angler.
Arab Street is the centre of the Muslim community where it used to be the main selling place of Muslim men’s headgear (or songkok), the holy Quran, prayer mats and textiles. Today, the real glory of Kampong Glam and Arab Street is the textiles. Bales of gorgeous chiffon, silk, cotton georgette and other luxurious fabrics crowd the pavements, in rainbow hues and intensities. The area is also renowned for batiks from Indonesia and Malaysia, exquisitely hand-made by the wax-resist dye method and typically sold in sarong lengths. Machine-printed batik with traditional designs is also available by the metre or in ready-made shorts, sundresses, ties, table linen and more.
# back to home page #