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A tour around Little India , just fifteen minutes from the colonial district, amounts to an all-out assault on the senses. Indian pop music blares out from gargantuan speakers and the air is heavily perfumed with sweet incense, curry powder and jasmine garlands. Hindu women promenade in bright sarees; and a wealth of "hole-in-the-wall" restaurants serve up superior curries. The enclave grew when a number of cattle and buffalo yards opened in the area in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and more Hindus were drawn in search of work. Indians featured prominently in the development of Singapore, though not always out of choice: from 1825 onwards, convicts were transported from the subcontinent and by the 1840s there were over a thousand Indian prisoners labouring on buildings such as St Andrew's Cathedral and the istana. The district's backbone is the north-south Serangoon Road , whose southern end is alive with shops, restaurants and fortune-tellers. To the east, stretching as far as Jalan Besar, is a tight knot of roads that's ripe for exploration, while parallel to Serangoon Road, Race Course Road boasts a clutch of fine restaurants and some temples. Little India is only a fifteen-minute walk from Bencoolen Street and Beach Road. From Orchard Road, take bus #65 or #111 and ask for Serangoon Road. Alternatively, take the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut, hop on bus #65 or #111 and, again, get off at Serangoon Road.
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