A look down the Orchard Road of the early 1970s
A photograph that would probably have been taken from the top of the Hilton in the early 1970s offers a view of that show how different Orchard Road was back then. The Mandarin Hotel, which was...
View ArticleRetracing the “Ice Ball” Trail
A guest post by Edmund Arozoo who takes us on a walk back 50 years in time on the ice-ball trail to his kampung at Jalan Hock Chye Your whole life flashes in front of you when you experience a near...
View ArticleA walk along the ridge: Commemorating the Battle of Pasir Panjang
Reblogged from The Long and Winding Road: I took a walk with a group of about 50 yesterday morning, along a part of Singapore that I frequent only because of visits I make from time-to-time to the...
View ArticleMore winds of change blowing through Queen Street
Besides the stretch of Queen Street at the Cathedral end, another section of the street in the midst of change is the stretch between Bras Basah and Middle Roads. It is one that although is already...
View ArticleThe lost world
With several friends that included some from the Nature Society (Singapore), I ventured into a lost world, one in which time and the urban world that surrounds us in Singapore seems to have well...
View ArticleWindows into Singapore: The grass is greener on the other side
A view over the fence from former barrack buildings belonging to the British forces in Singapore to the greens of Changi Golf Club, which has a history dating back to 1949 when it opened by the Royal...
View ArticleWindows into Singapore: A world we soon may forget
A view from a block of new housing over to colonial bungalows that had once served as the somewhat grand residences of the senior officers of the British Admiralty stationed at the Naval Base in the...
View ArticleRediscovering the romance of Chap Goh Mei
The fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year, Chap Goh Mei (Hokkien for 15th night) as it has been commonly referred to in Singapore, has traditionally been associated with romance. It was perhaps in the...
View ArticleThe Gateway into the Lost World
It is in a deserted and somewhat forgotten corner of Singapore, that you will find the Gateway into the Lost World. It stands alone – the space to which it opens into is one that nature has reclaimed,...
View ArticleA search for a lost countryside
Together with several jalan-jalan kaki, I set off on a Sunday morning from Khatib MRT Station in search of a lost countryside. The area in which we sought to find that lost world, is one, that in more...
View ArticleSilhouettes of a joy we have forgotten
Silhouettes of the morning in a place by the sea, the simple joy of which we have long forgotten. The place, Sembawang, is one that hangs on to one of the last stretches of natural beaches left in...
View ArticleLast impressions
Time can be a cruel thing in Singapore. The passage of time brings with it the change that seems inevitable in Singapore denying us many places that we may have developed an attachment to. The last day...
View ArticleSingapore Landscapes: the secret lake
While Singapore hasn’t quite been blessed with naturally beautiful landscapes, there are several areas in which the intervention of man, has created places that are a joy to behold. One such place is...
View ArticleColouring (and discolouring) the Rail Corridor
Take a walk down the Buona Vista stretch of the Rail Corridor, plans for which have not been announced as yet, and you can’t help but notice the graffiti like artwork that has recently come up on the...
View ArticleThe mystery of Bukit Gombak
An area of Singapore that does seem to have an air of mystery about it is Bukit Gombak. The location of what reputedly was one of Singapore’s most haunted places, Hillview Mansion, which once stood...
View ArticleSingapore Landscapes: A body of water named after a municipal engineer
Described in its early days as an area of picturesque loveliness, MacRitchie Reservoir and its surroundings, remains today an area in Singapore to find an escape in. Singapore’s first impounding...
View ArticleNew journeys to the west
Once a place in Singapore that drew in the crowds, the gory, somewhat gaudy but mystical gardens that a tiger built, Haw Par Villa or Tiger Balm Gardens, has worn the look of another discarded icon of...
View ArticleLight after dark: Twilight falls on West Hill
7.44 pm, Sunday 23 March 2014. Night falls on an area around where West Hill had once stood, at the end of extremely hot day in Singapore. The now forgotten West Hill was a relatively high point that...
View ArticleWindows into Singapore: juxtapositions of time
A view out of the window from the POD atop the National Library building, out towards what would once have been an almost clear view of the sea off the promenade that ran along Nicoll Highway. Part of...
View ArticleThe end of the Middle
Long abandoned, a reminder of a time we have well forgotten, the former Bras Basah Community Centre, lies crumbling as it awaits a fate that does seem almost inevitable. For the moment, it serves as a...
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