Joo Chiat: The Most Instagrammable Neighborhood in Singapore

Ever since the Myspace days, I have been obsessed with photography {if we could even call it that} and photo editing. Back then it was a sad attempt at what I thought to be creative, original editing styles. In fact, for the longest time {including just a couple of years ago} my photos were over saturated, poorly framed, and unoriginal. While it can still be a struggle to create original takes on popular destinations, it’s refreshing to stumble upon {fairly} ‘new’ territory and let the creative juices flow. And yet that’s exactly what happened in Singapore when I ventured into the neighborhood of Joo Chiat.

This colorful neighborhood is the governments’ attempt at preserving pre-war homes and shops. I can attest to the fact that they’ve done a great job at doing so. Joo Chiat is colorful, vibrant, and full of old-world charm. Chew Joo Chiat was actually a Chinese immigrant to Singapore, who built the land up in the early 1900’s.

It recently became quite a hip, trendy neighborhood, and tourists are slowly beginning to discover it. Upon doing some blog-stalking, I immediately packed up my camera and made my way to this charming destination.

There are plenty of fabulous articles out there explaining where to go and what to eat in Joo Chiat. That being said, I chose to get lost within the Peranakan shop houses and share my experience via my camera lens. There are few neighborhoods that I deem worthy of their own blog post, but this my friends, was one of them. In that past, I’ve highlighted Notting Hill in London, Plateau Mont Royal in Monteal, and Ikseon-dong in Seoul.

Sometimes a place just leaves a bit of magic in you, well after departing it’s confines.

Hopefully this will inspire you to head east whilst visiting Singapore. It can be a bit of a trek {I don’t recommend walking}, but upon arrival I promise it’s worth it.