It was tough to wake up today, after a tiring day yesterday. The fatigue gave way to lethargy in getting ready... and I did not realise that I would be in for a rude shock...
After a quick breakfast at Toast Box, I boarded a SMRT bus to take me to Novena from where I was scheduled to head to Tenah Merah and onward to Changi Ferry Terminal to board a ferry to an idyllic island, Pulau Ubin!
I intently watched reflections of clouds on the glass facades of the Hiap Hoe Building and Ramada Singapore, as I waited for the bus to take me to Novena...
A good one hour later, I reached the Changi Ferry Terminal to head to an idyllic island, Pulau Ubin, which is reminiscent of what Singapore was a century back...
Pulau Ubin, or Granite Island, with an area of 10.19 square kilometres is situated in the north east of Singapore. Granite quarrying supported a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about a hundred villagers live there today. Today the island is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore, with an abundance of natural flora and fauna. That attracts adventure-seekers and and nature-lovers who head to Pulau Ubin on holidays...
Oh gosh! I should have realised that and been here early... With the ongoing Chinese New Year holidays, the terminal was teeming with people escaping the concrete jungle of Singapore...
There were at least 500 people queued up for the ferry...
In frustration, and not wanting to stand in a queue long, I decided to park the idea of visiting Pulau Ubin for my next trip and moved back towards Tenah Merah!
On the way to Tenah Merah, and just before the Changi Museum, I stopped to see the Johore Battery, a set of three large naval guns installed in Changi by the British in the second half of the 1930s, to defend the approaches to the Sembawang Naval Base...
Johore Battery consists of a labyrinth of tunnels which were used to store ammunition to support three large guns that could fire 15-inch shells. The guns were the largest installed outside Britain during the SecondWorld War. They were destroyed before the surrender of the British army and the tunnels were sealed up after the war. The location remained a secret until the Singapore Prisons Department rediscovered them in April 1991...
The site was called the Johore Battery because the Sultan of Johore gifted King George V GBP500,000 for his Silver Jubilee in 1935. The British used GBP400,000 of the gift to install to guns in Changi, which in 1942 was used to defend Johor Bahru, when it was being taken over by the invading Japanese forces...
Today a replica of the gun has been reconstructed on the site. But being a restricted military area, I refrained from photography...
The ride back to Tenah Merah was interesting - the bungalows in Changi were quaint and idyllic, far from from the frenetic pace of Downtown...
Television antennas - who uses them today? I haven't seen them in India for ages, but they are here, in Singapore...
Waiting for my train to Bugis...
After getting off at Bugis, I walked towards Kampong Glam, passing by the legendary I.M. Pei's creation - The Gateway... and I was instantly reminded of the walking tour of Kampong Glam with Geraldine last August!
Oh God! It shouldn't rain today!
Aztec murals in the Arab Street!
The guy was very tamely posing for a pic... Had it been a girl, she would have spontaneously posed with a "V" victory sign...
Now this is indeed intriguing... Why do the East Asian girls always pose for photographs with a "V" sign?
On the Internet, I came across an article in the Time magazine that attributed this spontaneous phenomena to Janet Lynn, an American figure skater who lost the gold medal in the 1972 Olympics in Japan, but won many hearts there...
Interesting indeed!
"This is NOT your practice life, THIS IS ALL THERE IS"
Indeed a profound thought!
Finally a clear view of the Aztec mural...
Heading to Kampong Glam...
And finally I spot the golden dome of the Sultan Mosque...
Behind the mosque was my destination, the Malay Heritage Centre...
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