Check out the spice mill along Serangoon Road for ready-made packets of spices for fish, meat or vegetable curries that slip easily into a suitcase. The jeweller next door sells silver amulets, spears for the Thaipusam festival, and a host of temple offerings. Other shops in the area stock jewelled bridal ornaments as well as cheap but colourful bangles, ankle chains and other adornments. Look too for luggage of every description, Indian bedspreads, pop-art posters of Hindu gods and giant photographs of Indian movie stars. Chella's Gallery, specialises in papier mache boxes and other collectibles from Kashmir.

No visit to Little India would be complete without seeing two of the area's institutions, the Zhu Jiao Centre and Mohammed Mustaffa & Samsuddin Company. The Zhu Jiao Centre is on Buffalo Road by the Bukit Timah end of Serangoon Road. Known as KK Market to the locals, it is a bustling wet market full of fresh vegetables, fish, meat, spices and flowers. For small souvenir items at very reasonable prices, try the well-known brassware shop or one of the other small shops.

At the other end of Serangoon Road, in Serangoon Plaza just before Kitchener Road, is the emporium cum department store cum Aladdin's cave of the Moham med Mustaffa & Samsuddin Company. Don't be deceived by the relatively modest exterior - inside you'll find floor after floor extending in all directions and selling every conceivab