Back Alleys in Singapore

Whenever I find the pristineness of Singapore too much for me, I make sure to nip down a back alley or two amongst the rows of old pre-war shophouses in Chinatown. Here I find a less sterile and cleaned-up reality. Where the front of these shops is neat and tidy with smiling staff doing their best to invite you in, the back is where the effort to be presentable falters. The back alleys are where you are allowed to be a messy mortal. 

Tired staff sit on makeshift chairs to take a breather. A plant growing in an old plastic bucket thrives next to the trash bin. Sometimes a whole garden has been created, likely the work of an employee with green fingers attempting to make a small haven of plants to relax in. 

Some stray pieces of laundry are hung out here: a row of hand towels or a T-shirt. Unsightly cleaning equipment—mops, buckets, brooms—are left here to dry or stored in this location far from prying eyes. 

These are human spaces to me, and there is an uncommon beauty and curious humour to them. I like how someone has tried their best to neaten this back-alley space, tucking stools under a steel shelf and placing a potted plant on the top left corner of the shelf, almost as if to create a counterpoint to the stools. 

I am amused that an arrangement of mops and pails looks as deliberate as an art installation. 

Or how some miscellaneous wood crating has been left poised at an angle on a concrete ballast, raising the question why so much care has been taken with something unwanted.

Someone has saved two red-stained wooden chairs and placed them side by side, as if awaiting two friends who need a quiet place to converse.

A jumble of chairs beneath a large umbrella hints at informal gatherings in the shade.

And then, there are the wonderfully befuddling surprises. 

Why is there an umbrella tucked behind the water meter? Why is there a plastic bottle there too? Do they all belong to one person? Or did someone, too lazy to dispose of the bottle in a bin, decide to take advantage of this random umbrella (presumably abandoned) and create an impromptu rubbish hub? 

And why is there a lone crab shell in this water meter box?

The air here is thick with untold stories.