go somewhere

Riverside Point

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:26:42 -0400

Riverside Point

The canals and rivers in the north-east of Singapore give the...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:40:00 -0400

The canals and rivers in the north-east of Singapore give the place a very serene feel, though I wonder if it can still maintain this characteristic when all the new housing blocks are up and occupied.

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Sat, 06 Apr 2013 11:46:11 -0400

Kranji Countryside

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:50:00 -0500

Barney, Grace, Daniel and I headed out to the not-so-rural suburbs of Singapore this afternoon to look around the farms in the Lim Chu Kang area. It felt good to get away from all the tall buildings, traffic jams, and hoards of people elsewhere on this island. Empty roads like the one we drove on next to Tengah airbase are becoming a rare sight nowadays.

Our first stop was Bollywood Veggies, the eco-tourism farm run by Ivy Singh-Lim, for lunch at the Poison Ivy bistro.

Cocoa pods hanging along the corridor to the bistro.

I like the feel of this place, it’s rather hippy with the hand-painted signs, chalkboard menus and giant potted greens for table decoration.

The food was pretty decent as well! We had Moringa Tempura, Thai Lemongrass Chicken, Spicy Kang Kong, Warrior’s Curry Chicken, and Sweet & Sour Fish. I liked the aloe vera drink too. In total, $12 per person.

Next, a stroll through the farm to walk off the very filling lunch. There are lots of quirky/philosophical signs around, which reminds me of Indian Creek Farm back in Ithaca, whose monthly newsletters always came with a photo-story where the characters were always personified and dressed-up veggies and fruits of the season. Maybe quirkiness is a trait of new-age farmers.

There’s quite a variety of different plants too.. but from the way they are displayed, I doubt most of the farm profits come from the sale of produce. Nevertheless, still a nice place to visit despite the sweltering hot weather.

Living in the Finger Lakes region for 4 years definitely cultivated my interest in farms. That’s not saying that I want to be a farmer, it’s really relaxing to be out in nature and feeling this sense of abundance among all the edible veggies and fruit. U-pick fruit farms were the best because you could eat as much as you liked in the strawberry/blueberry/cherry/raspberry/grape field, and then buy a lot more back home at a cheap price to make into jams and such. One year I joined in a Community Supported Agriculture program where a friend and I contributed about $500 to one of the local farms in exchange for a harvest season’s worth of fresh veggies. Then there were goat farms where the owners also made cheese, and of course all the wineries that the Finger Lakes is so well known for. Good times.

So perhaps the reason why I wanted to visit the farms in Singapore was to relive some of these experiences I had in Ithaca. The feel here is different due to the different climate, landscape, and produce; and somehow doesn’t really have the same draw as overseas farms. But I’m still glad that we still have land set aside for agriculture not only for food security purposes, but also for education and relaxation.

Oh yes that’s us.

Next highlight was Sky Greens vertical farm. Intensive farming on small plots of land ftw! The farm is not open to the public but you can still see the structures if you drive by. According to Daniel the veggie troughs are continuously rotated around the frame, like on a ferris wheel, so that all the plants get the same amount of sunlight. Pretty smart!

Next up, Hays Dairy goat farm. This is where we first got the hint that farming may actually be a pretty lucrative job..

The goats are milked from 9-11am so they were all back in their pens by the time we got there. Once upon a time back in primary school I may have had visited before on a field trip..

Besides veggie and livestock farms, there are also a couple of fish farms/aquariums in the Lim Chu Kang area.

Barney uses the Force to attract koi.

Nothing much here.. what would be better is to go for a weekend stay at one of the kelongs over the sea where all there is to do is go fishing, eat the fish that you catch, play mahjong, maybe watch DVDs and chill out with your friends. Sounds like a plan, ya?

Anyway, there are lots more farms to visit in the Kranji/Lim Chu Kang area, plus other non-food things to see such as the Dragon Kiln and Kranji War Memorial. Info and maps are available on the Kranji Countryside Association’s website. Make a trip down one weekend when you’re free!

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Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:46:38 -0500

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Sat, 15 Dec 2012 08:36:07 -0500

Wheelock Atrium

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:57:18 -0500

Wheelock Atrium

Visited Bishan Park for the first time since it’s...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 10:21:00 -0500

Visited Bishan Park for the first time since it’s makeover, and I love it! Here’s 10 things that made me smile:

1. Lots of people exercising and enjoying the park which gave it a good vibe and showed that the place is well used.

2. Lots of cute doggies (cus there’s a dog run)! Need to take some doggie photos next time when my golden retriever Lucie is not with me.

3. You can walk right up to the river and stand in the water. None of these typical Singapore-style barriers preventing you from wandering about. Good job PUB and NParks for removing the big ugly concrete canal that used to be there.

4. There are actually quite a lot of fish to see and catch in the river, implying that the water is really pretty clean! Also nice to see kids having the kind of fun their grandparents used to have.

5. You can see the sky beyond the trees and HDB flats, and this sense of space feels rather liberating.

6. There are food outlets where you can grab a bite if you’re hungry. Besides the Macs, there are also a couple of restaurants, which look pretty nice on the outside, but unfortunately their HungryGoWhere reviews are quite dismal.

7. There are places to SIT and seating even comes in a couple of different styles. (The lack of seating in parks is what annoys me most. I suspect it’s just me being sore about Singapore not having the kind of soft, mud-free, bug-free grass that I miss lazing on when I was overseas.)

8. Nice simple bridges for connectivity and a pretty pleasant view of the HDB flats. Plus there’s also public art!

9. Free parking. Woohoo. But dunno if it’s only for Sundays.

10. It’s near where I live! Yeahh I’ll be back really soon :D

I miss this view.

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 03:58:18 -0500

I miss this view.

There is an feeling of emptiness and plasticness in this...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:50:00 -0500

There is an feeling of emptiness and plasticness in this skyscraper city. Like a mix between the dream city that Cobb and Mal built together in Inception, and the Capitol from Hunger Games.

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Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:58:00 -0500

Mini town below Blackford Hill

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:12:39 -0500

Mini town below Blackford Hill

Bye Dubai

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:06:37 -0500

Bye Dubai

Flower Dome by night

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:06:00 -0500

Flower Dome by night

Emerald Hill is a beautifully conserved residential district...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:37:00 -0400

Emerald Hill is a beautifully conserved residential district just off the busy shopping belt of Orchard Road. I wonder how many people know about this hidden gem.. And how many other places like this are there around Singapore that I’ve yet to discover?

Let me share with you some thoughts on this matter of conservation. One of my colleagues recently shared with me that she was having la mian (Chinese hand-pulled noodles) somewhere in Jalan Besar. The old lady at the next table was commenting to her daughter that some of the shophouses further down the street were very lok kok (Hokkien dialect for shabby). “Why doesn’t the government do something about them?” she asked. Interestingly, at the same time, she noted some young shutterbugs on the opposite side of the street, enthusiastically taking photos of the same shophouses. They, on the other hand, must have found the old shophouses very charming and quaint instead. - SMS Tan Chuan-Jin at the URA Architecture Heritage Awards 2012

Charming and quaint, those are the words to describe old places like this.

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Sun, 30 Sep 2012 03:50:41 -0400

View from Ground Zero

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:26:52 -0400

View from Ground Zero

What would you do if you had the gift of time? Gift of Time...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 07:45:13 -0400

What would you do if you had the gift of time?

Gift of Time Exhibition @ Old Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

A physical reminder of history.

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 04:38:24 -0400

A physical reminder of history.

Happy 47th Birthday Singapore! I’m glad to be home!

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:46:00 -0400

Happy 47th Birthday Singapore! I’m glad to be home!