Understand
Strung along the North-South Line just north of Orchard Road, these four rather dissimilar districts serve to absorb Singapore's urban sprawl and house its inhabitants. None are particularly attractive from a tourist's point of view, but they are popular for short and longer-term stays in Singapore — quiet and reasonably priced, but close enough to be convenient.
Balestier offers one of Singapore's largest clusters of cheap hotels, second only to Geylang.
Newton and Novena are rapidly gentrifying suburbs just north of the city, housing a significant expat population and services geared to them. Just one MRT stop further north, though, is the canonical Singapore heartland suburb of Toa Payoh pron. "Tor Pah-yoh", housing well over 100,000 Singaporeans in HDB housing blocks.
