photos from the trip to Pulau Ubin, the the bumboat and on the bikes (do you notice me getting seriously dehydrated? Well I did! Yes another trip to a hospital for a check up this morning - amazing efficiency, check up including xray of my Indian insertion etc all done in two hours)
One of the great delights of our trip to Singapore has been meeting Chun See and his friends - including those friends who contribute to his blog. Our second trip with Chun See included his friend Peter who takes a great interest in old buildings (of which of course there are very few left here) and our first exploration was to the Opera Estate where I lived for a few months. Unlike the Changi house however there was no sign of it, there were a few old style houses but none anywhere near where I thought I lived. It was a day of torrential rain showers but in between we visited the two former barrack blocks which formed Changi Grammar School in my day and then south to the harbour area where we found that a new park, Labrado Park, has been created with a viewing platform providing an excellent view of Cliff House - the large prominent house (I would think occupying one of the prime sites on the island) in which Tessa's grandfather lived and for a while also her father and uncle who was born there. It was a great thrill to see it in the flesh.
The next day we made our way on the excellent MRT to Clementi near where Chun See lives. This is one of what they call 'the heartlands' - the areas of new housing in huge highrise blocks in which over 80% of Singapore's population live. It is typical of the positive spin on everything here that these are not called Suburbs but heartlands - and of course they like everything else look well maintained and sit amongst a lot of greenery. Singapore styles itself as a Garden City and that is what it looks like - everything well manicured and maintained.
Chun See had organised a get together with some of the bloggers, Victor and YG plus another old friend who joined us for lunch. Lunch was of course in one of the ubiquitous food courts - there is a problem for us with our vegetarian bent of course, this is not something the predominantly Chinese cuisine understands. They have also developed the (no doubt entirely admirable) tendency to value eating the entire animal -so stall boasts of offering head and feet, entrails etc. As you can imagine this has me scouring the stalls, all of which helpfully offer photos of the meals, making sure there are none of these 'bits' included! This is quite hard work and nerve wracking because all the names are unknown to us. But we had a great meal together and then took off to the north of the island to view the causeway across to Malaysia. As those of you who have checked Tessa's entry on Chun See's blog will know this was built practically single-handed by her grandfather! Not only did we view it from alongside the waterfront (alongwith a group of scrap metal merchants dealing with old ac units) but they took us one of the high rise blocks so we could view it from the 25th floor!
After that we went back to Chun See's house, met his wife who is from Malaya and his son who is just about to start his two years of National Service. They have a wonderful front garden full of pitcher plants, staghorn ferns, orchids and flycatching plants, and had a passion fruit picked from their vine for us to eat. It was a lovely day and both of us are very grateful to Chun See and friends for helping make this visit so enjoyable - and I should say the weather has changed now to blue sky and hot hot sun!
Brian
Today we have been out to Changi village again and over the sea to Pulau Ubin. It was about a 10 minute trip on a very old boat, called a bum boat, costing $5.00 for the two of us, 12 passengers only and no messing about with tying the boat up, just keep the engine reving and in reverse and the boat more or less stays against the dock. It's the nearest to dangerous that you are likely to get to in Singapore which is a very safety aware place.
Pulau Ubin (Granite Island) is the place Brian used to canoe to in his Singapore days and it is also the place that all the stone fro the Causeway was quarried. We hire bikes and cycled very slowly for an hour or two, through tropical rain forest. We heard chickens, I saw a small, unidentified rodent run across the road, we saw lots of colourful butterflys and a thing that was either an extreemly large bee or a very small bird buzzing about on wings that beat so fast they were a blur. The very best thing we saw was a very elegant, green snake, it made its way down a small tree slowly and carefully and then slithered away across the leaf litter below the tree. It was bright green, very slender and about two feet long.
After we sat and looked back at Singapore and the Officers Club, the place where Brian and Carol spent most of their afternoons at the swiming pool. It is now Changi Beach club and looks quite smart.
After a very hot journey back to the hotel (actually the buses and tube are wonderfully cool but any walking along pavements makes you realise that it is really, really hot and humid here) we had a little rest and then a walk down the road to Mr Wan, the dentist, to check out a problem tooth. His advice, 'its root canal treated, have it dealt with when you get home' and we happened across an internet cafe, not so common here as in India.
Tess
The next day we made our way on the excellent MRT to Clementi near where Chun See lives. This is one of what they call 'the heartlands' - the areas of new housing in huge highrise blocks in which over 80% of Singapore's population live. It is typical of the positive spin on everything here that these are not called Suburbs but heartlands - and of course they like everything else look well maintained and sit amongst a lot of greenery. Singapore styles itself as a Garden City and that is what it looks like - everything well manicured and maintained.
Chun See had organised a get together with some of the bloggers, Victor and YG plus another old friend who joined us for lunch. Lunch was of course in one of the ubiquitous food courts - there is a problem for us with our vegetarian bent of course, this is not something the predominantly Chinese cuisine understands. They have also developed the (no doubt entirely admirable) tendency to value eating the entire animal -so stall boasts of offering head and feet, entrails etc. As you can imagine this has me scouring the stalls, all of which helpfully offer photos of the meals, making sure there are none of these 'bits' included! This is quite hard work and nerve wracking because all the names are unknown to us. But we had a great meal together and then took off to the north of the island to view the causeway across to Malaysia. As those of you who have checked Tessa's entry on Chun See's blog will know this was built practically single-handed by her grandfather! Not only did we view it from alongside the waterfront (alongwith a group of scrap metal merchants dealing with old ac units) but they took us one of the high rise blocks so we could view it from the 25th floor!
After that we went back to Chun See's house, met his wife who is from Malaya and his son who is just about to start his two years of National Service. They have a wonderful front garden full of pitcher plants, staghorn ferns, orchids and flycatching plants, and had a passion fruit picked from their vine for us to eat. It was a lovely day and both of us are very grateful to Chun See and friends for helping make this visit so enjoyable - and I should say the weather has changed now to blue sky and hot hot sun!
Brian
Today we have been out to Changi village again and over the sea to Pulau Ubin. It was about a 10 minute trip on a very old boat, called a bum boat, costing $5.00 for the two of us, 12 passengers only and no messing about with tying the boat up, just keep the engine reving and in reverse and the boat more or less stays against the dock. It's the nearest to dangerous that you are likely to get to in Singapore which is a very safety aware place.
Pulau Ubin (Granite Island) is the place Brian used to canoe to in his Singapore days and it is also the place that all the stone fro the Causeway was quarried. We hire bikes and cycled very slowly for an hour or two, through tropical rain forest. We heard chickens, I saw a small, unidentified rodent run across the road, we saw lots of colourful butterflys and a thing that was either an extreemly large bee or a very small bird buzzing about on wings that beat so fast they were a blur. The very best thing we saw was a very elegant, green snake, it made its way down a small tree slowly and carefully and then slithered away across the leaf litter below the tree. It was bright green, very slender and about two feet long.
After we sat and looked back at Singapore and the Officers Club, the place where Brian and Carol spent most of their afternoons at the swiming pool. It is now Changi Beach club and looks quite smart.
After a very hot journey back to the hotel (actually the buses and tube are wonderfully cool but any walking along pavements makes you realise that it is really, really hot and humid here) we had a little rest and then a walk down the road to Mr Wan, the dentist, to check out a problem tooth. His advice, 'its root canal treated, have it dealt with when you get home' and we happened across an internet cafe, not so common here as in India.
Tess
3 comments:
hi brian and tessa, it was our pleasure and honour to show you around. i wish i had more time to take you to other nostalgic sites. the bumboat ride to pulau ubin used to cost 20 cts in the 60s. think the snake that you all encountered is the green snake. did it look like this did you all miss out on the visit to the botanic gardens? there was no mention of it in the post.
here, wishing both of you a safe and wonderful trip around the world.
yes yg that does look like the snake, it might have had some black on the underside however. Tessa got to the Botanical Gardens today - I rested up having got rather dehydrated yesterday
Brian, Tess. You put me to shame, having 'beat me to the blog'. Anyway for friends who have not visited my blog Good Morning Yesterday before, you can read articles written by Brian and Tess by clicking on the link titled Brian Mitchell in the Labels section on the right side of the blog.
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