Kampong Lorong Buangkok

I love making last-minute plans. Exciting enough.

I had enough of reading my notes and having just read a blog of a girl visiting a kampong, my itchy brain starts to plan a visit there too.

As it was a long weekend and a very reason for us to wake up naturally, we did so and found ourselves awake at only 1230. =.=
Quickly wash up and biked to Jalan Kayu to have our brunch. We ordered 2 kosong pratas and 2 thosai to share.
The pratas were all right but the thosai was bad. I mean real bad. Like some dried skin. Never going to have this again.

Getting there:
Located Off Sengkang East Avenue near Yio Chu Kang Road
By Bus: Take SBS bus no. 88 and alight at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 and Yio Chu Kang Road. Walk towards Gerald Drive.

The kampong was built in 1956 and is now the last surviving kampong in mainland Singapore (Pulau Ubin still have kampong houses), and now housed 28 families. They each pay a rental of only around $13 per month to the landlady, Ms Sng. The rental includes everything from the normal utilities to garbage collection.
Opposite the kampong is the old site of the SILRA (Singapore Leprosy Relief Association) and all that remains is this piece of wall plus an old gate.

The new SILRA is nearby as I remember passing by while on our way home.

Entrance to the kampong is a house belonging to a Chinese family.

I assume that the staircase in front of the main door is to prevent flooding. The kampong is prone to floods.

I have a collection of different letterboxes which I will put up later. This is so old-school. We all have only boring metal letterboxes at our void decks now.

This sight is not unfamiliar to me. I have seen it everywhere in Malaysia. But it feels so different seeing it in urban Singapore.

A two-storey house. But it seems unoccupied.

There is a surau here for the 10 or so Malay families.

This dog is not to be messed with! It is a true kampong dog, meant to protect its owner and house! Before we step foot into the kampong, we biked in and this dog chased us all the way to the intersection road, barking furiously at us.

When we stepped in on foot, he (I assumed) looked at us questioningly, and when B wanted to touch him, he barked and shunned him! Oh my tian, DO NOT provoke him if you ever visit!

Decorated with an arch of fake flowers, it is like welcoming you to their house.

This house belongs to the landlady, Ms Sng!

The other entrance to Ms Sng’s house.

Abandoned sofa.

Pot of flower on a trolley.

Another Chinese house. It looks like there’s no one at home.

Papaya trees

Jackfruits.

This seems like the Survivor torch.

One thing I love about not staying in HDB is that you get to hang your clothes under the sun and on flat ground. I dislike hanging my clothes out when I’m staying at my rented room, because it’s the eighth floor and my hands tremble like mad.

An idea of a garden?

A hand print to commemorate something? This was done on 30th December 2008.

Lovely hisbiscus.

This lorong dates back to 1954! It’s as old as my Mom!

The man with the sign

Banana trees

This nice little garden here belongs to a Malay family right at the end of the village.

As they are outside doing their own things, we do not dare to take too many photos (although they are used to it by now). We heard kids laughing loudly outside while sitting on a hammock. Very different from our urban kids who play iPads and iPhones.

A plant plagued by bugs?

Clothes: “I <3 the sun!”

A contrast between the modern living and the olden living.

A string of love

Huge leaves. Reminds me of the MTV of a song by Jimmy Lin (林志颖). xD

Found at the entrance of a house.

My frustrated man.

Did some no-feel vintagey shots.

The house alongside the main road.

Overall, it is a great experience to be able to visit this last kampong of Singapore.

We don’t even know when there will be the next time as it might be bought back by the government anytime.

But visitors like us must have brought them much inconvenience and lost of privacy as most of the doors were closed even though we hear voices and sounds of televisions inside.

So, please keep your noise to the minimum when you visit the kampong.
Of course, we would have like to strike a conversation with the people but as mentioned, majority of them weren’t even out there.

Visit it while it’s still there!

Southern Ridges

Have not met my kakis for so long.

And today, it’s full strength.

I brought my D7000 with me, together with a 18-105mm and 50mm lens. I used 50mm throughout though. It’s such a hassle having to change lens (especially when you are walking! But I know I have to get used to it sooner or later) but the 50mm gives me really good photos. Love it.

I still did not managed to get the grip on the right aperture setting, which is rather saddening as most of the photos turned out over-exposed.

But I just realised that we don’t have a group photo for this outing.

I have not heard of Southern Ridges. Not until my kakis mentioned it to me a few months ago. Here is what I got from Nparks’ website:

The Southern Ridges comprise a 9-kilometre chain of green, open spaces spanning the rolling hills of Mount Faber Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park before ending at West Coast Park. It is an area steeped in history and is home to some of nature’s greatest gifts of flora and fauna. It is also one of the best spots in Singapore to catch panoramic views of the city, harbour and the Southern Islands.

We started from Kent Ridge Park and planned to finish our walk at Mount Faber.
Our meeting point was at McDonald’s Clementi Mall. Had out breakfast before we changed plan to start our walk from Kent Ridge Park instead. So we proceeded to Kent Ridge station. It was a good 15-minutes walk from Kent Ridge station to Kent Ridge Park but we take pictures and chit-chatted along the way.

Alongside the road is all buildings. It is quiet on a Saturday morning.

Saw an uncle washing his bus. Kind of nostalgic.

At last, we reached Kent Ridge Park!

I was already sweating by this time.

We continued walking further in and realised many people walking in opposite direction. We were wondering why they are so many people walking out of a park and not in sports or casual attire.

Our question was answered after awhile.

Normanton Park! They are actually residents of Normanton Park and there’s a back door. I presume is for their convenience to walk to the bus stop or MRT stations.

And look what we saw! Two goldens!

Walked further in again…

These two kakis of mine really like photography. You can see them snapping away throughout the walk.

And here’s Miss Hermes, who is the tardy queen. LOLS! It’s a miracle she joined us for the walk. See her plastic bag? That’s her bag. LOLS! Ok. I am only laughing jokingly ok. Not meant to be rude.

The interesting signages around the park.

The Japanese lady brought her Golden out for a walk!
This female Golden Retriever is named Ella. Managed to take a photo with her. She is soooo skinny, unlike Scuba.

We keep walking upwards. Lots of staircases that I felt like I am climbing Mount Kinabalu. I did not realise that we are so high up.

A man photographing a car. Supposedly for sale.

Flora around the park

And nice view

Rows of benches to sit and enjoy the sceneries.

A real-sized cable car!

All kinds of birds you can see in the park.

We walked towards the Canopy Walk.

This is a 280-metre long boardwalk that links Kent Ridge Park to the museum “Reflections of Bukit Chandu”.

Kinda spooked me out as it is so high up. @.@

There’s a nursery below.

Lotsa plants growing. Wild cinnamon was one of them. I took Wild Rubber too but there weren’t any nice flower growing behind the signage so I did not upload.

There’s an apartment nearby Bukit Chandu. I think it’s damn secluded and you have to have your own transport – there’s no public transport nearby!

But staying here must be real good. You get to hear birds chirping and all the rustling of the trees. Greenery overload.

While Winnie was asking for directions at Reflections of Bukit Chandu, we rested at the roadside and I took these photos. I thought it was so nicely taken.

Long beans?

After getting directions, we walked downwards, towards Hort Park. It was dark and gloomy which can only mean one thing – it’s going to rain!

Pencil-like building!

All the pretty floras along the way.

Humongous tree.

Around Hort Park…

Oh. My favourite grass jelly. In TCM (traditional chinese medicine), it is believed to have cooling properties.

We stopped at the visitor centre to ask for directions to the Henderson Waves. Unfortunately, part of the walk is closed until further notice and it began to drizzle. The customer service officer suggest we take a cab to Henderson Waves instead of walking.

We heed her advice and flagged a cab on the road side.

Bye bye HortPark! We will be here again!

We separated into two cabs, and Miss Luo, Winnie and shared one. Barely five minutes after we got in, it started pouring. =.=

We changed to Plan B, which is to head to Vivocity to chill instead.
The kakis wanna catch a movie but I can’t make it as I need to go back to Tampines to get my passport for the trip to JB the next day.

With time to spare before the movie starts, we went to Starbucks to chill.
We chatted and joked and made plans for our next meet-up.
It’s nice to have a session like this once awhile.

Presenting to you my kakis!

They are my kakis during poly days, where we ate together, do projects together (sometimes?), sit together in lectures and tutorials.

I really miss poly days. The days are so much better than my secondary school ones.

Love you guys and may our friendship be 长长久久！