Lotte LIMA (:

AHHAAAAA ONE OF MY FAVOURITEST SPOTS! I got high here (: Climbing up and down too! haaaa what an exercise, really!





















THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS!!! :D :D :D

Especially loveee the Swiss School! I mean, just look at that play place. :P
I loved the red-white coolness. And the long slide that replaced the stairs! And creative classroooms. They even made CNY lanterns and stuff if i'm not wrong (:

In my wildest dreams whereby i wouldn't send my kids to govt schools... I'd send them to this Swiss School! Looks goood. Of course if i'd really consider that, i'll research even more! :PP




















Oh but look at the winding stairs we had to take to get to the German European school... seriously...

We sweated buckets. And Sarah was walking up and down with her major blisters on her heels ): It was bleeeding! But she was tough, man.






It was super tiring after checking out the entire cluster. We made rounds around the Swiss club, too. And we apparently accidentally unknowingly "Trespassed", unnoticed by the guard until we came out /: Sheesh.. And last but not the least... the Hollandse! (: Had a more difficult time finding this... but nevertheless! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (:















It was fun though.... even on the way back... we climbed the slope, passing by the houses..which really made the whole place look like an entirely diff attachment from Singapore! skipping along, and Amantha decided to risk it and she took a funshot in the middle of the road :P Ha!


Guess that concluded our International School Cluster time ): Ha... but memory stays, photographs taken, time passed (:

Till then,
Love,
Charlotte :D :D

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Lotte EMPAT (:

THEN. Lunch called us. :D Must be the fries we koped from Nisha that triggered our hunger. tsk tsk.








Wandered around and decided to try the Thai food! It was a Thai lady that tended the stall by herself (: Chatted with her while she served other ppl and cooked my foood... It looked nice! (: Hmmmmm but maybe I should have tried like TOM YUM or something. Chose Pineapple rice and it was so-so only /: Oh well!!



Koped Amantha's drink (: Thanks girl. THIRST-QUENCHER GRASS JELLY DRINK! Hahahaha. We ended up forcing food into our mouths, for the most of us. I think Zenn was the only one who ate her food happily and quickly :P The rest of us...were prolly full from our ice cream (Sarah and I) and Amantha? 's got a smaller appetite. :P That's my conclusion.





What's next chronologically? I kinda forgot. But i do remember this place...


I remember skipping my way in (: Was excited, you see. I feel too young for my age, hmm.


The whole group was ready to leave at some point but...I SAW A DESERTED AREA AT THE BACK that looked so cool. And I inched my way there. Thank God Amantha saw me (: ANDDD she was like "okay okay okay, you wanna take photo righttttttt" :P saw right through me!

Then I saw THE log (: Must be affinity. I like logs. grins-


Eventually we came to OLD FORD FACTORY!!! The name itself sounds cool enough to get me interested.




Turned out to be nothing but old. Looks newly revamped as some tourist spot. Sadly. I never liked the idea of revamping a historically significant place into a tourist site. Though it looks nice and all... but it looks too nice...so nice it's too fake to actually potray the realness of history.
Ah, but either way. Kudos to the decorators. I enjoyed the HUGE (it really IS huge) Snakes and Ladders board drawn on the ground. Apparently by some students (:


And the posters, the flowers and twisted trees, and in the centre itself... the exhibitions were lovely, and in dim-ish lighting that suited the whole World War II theme.



Spent my time on the quizzy thing they made up. WHICH WAS PRETTY COOL! This quiz tests your content knowledge. Recommended for every interested history student out there :P It's funky and you shld play against yr friends. Laughter-inducing. Though i laughed to myself then. Zenn Sarah Amantha Nisha all had their cams and were snapping away. And snapping me :P hahahah.

And i bet our entire group agrees on this: we LOVE the outside-toilet walls. :P LOVE. hahahahaha! Look at Zenn! :D CUTE MONKEYYYY.


And more cute photos... We really had a caming spree here :D It's worth it in that sense.

Note to self: upload the other cute photos soon. blogger is real slow. need sleep now... ((:


After this was Turf City I think! (: And then.............muahahahahaha my favouritest site is coming up! Next episode. :P


Love,
Charlotte:D

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Lotte TIGA (:

Third entry (: hmmmmm i'm gonnna get out of the chronological order of the previous post and here..... wanna share some of my favourite moments (: more memorable ones. Shall not bore anyone with details of EVERY stop!

YESSSSSSA MACDONALD'S! Where Nisha got her lunch! And the rest of us koped like half of it :X Oh generous friend!! Aha and Sarah and I shared a McFlurry :D :D Which dripped on me here and there in the car...

hahaha! Hmm. But seriously speaking huh, what intrigued me about King Albert Park was how...I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED THAT THIS PLACE HELD HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EARLY SINGAPORE! Dude. Nothing tells of the Chinese bus company history thingy. Zero. Zilch. Zip. /:

But i could guess that King Albert Park Macs is the headquarters of Macs (: I mean, "king"! Must be a reason why King Alber Park wasn't prince or princess. It was King so it RULED the place :P Macs rule the fast food chain, and the ruler of alllll Macs is here :P PRETTY COOL LINK. If my guesses were true :P

Ok. Moving on..

OOH and eventually, in the car, we spotted the bridge! If my memory did not fail me, we squealed at the sight of it (: Or at least I think I did (: YAY we were on our way to the Railway Station!



Took a funshot here (((: CAN-CAN DANCE!



Really enjoyed the Railway Station stop. It's ancient beauty to me (: It's not polished or actually working or anything but... I love the stone-grey-ness and the dustiness, roughness of the scenary/place. If only a train would have passed us by then (: That would be SWEET.
CHOO CHOOOOOO.

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Lotte DUA (:

FIRST STOP! Botanical Gardens (:

OUR FIRST GROUP PHOTO was taken hereeee! Thank you young man (:

Chinese New Year was around the corner then... so the visitor's centre there was decorated with red flowers and all (: But i was more interested in the huge clock thingy (: Looked like a tower and very cool! I was lucky that the rest of the group had cameras so....turns out i had more photos since i was being taken and not taking HAHAHA.



Our journey continued... next was the temple and mosque at Upper Bukit Timah road...

DUDE...was this tough or what :P We met our "best friend". The traffic jam. A friend you can really do without on weekends out with real human friends. Really.

I commented, "Upper Bukit Timah road. Small (expensive) roads for big cars" Sigh. We missed the turning into the place once or twice so poor Amantha had to U-turn a couple of times. Thanks for the patience, dear! (:

Visiting/ walking round the temple was pretty interesting. When we went in, the "owner" wasn't around so it kinda felt like we were trespassing...but he eventually returned (: But by that time...we were ready to leave! haha.

Mosque was quiet, and we parked under the hot sun. Wanted to visit the interior and maybe say hi (: But we were worried if we were intruding upon something. Looked like there was some activity going on inside to me! Pity we didn't get to go into the mosque but we stayed outside, kinda peering in, looking at the surroundings and stuff...

And we hopped on the grass patch and took a photo at the entrance anyhow :D


But i guess, what i liked about these two places was their "real-ness". Yes, they were pretty run-down. But there was a significance in that.... It was significant that people of those religions were the ones taking care off the places. Not some security guard who could care less about the culture, religious significance of the temple and mosque. I could even call it, authentic. (:

...


Back into the car and off to our next stop! haha!
That's it for now here though!

Love, Charlotte:D

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Lotte SATU (:

HEY! :D In this little space I shall attempt to pen down the experiences my group and I had on our BUKIT TIMAH HERITAGE TRAIL! :D

Once upon a time, Dr Ivy Lim called out for representatives from every little history group of… 5 I think, I forgot if there were any who had more or less than 5… to pick out a destination for their heritage trails!

AND…..I went up and fished out “Bukit Timah”. Honestly, I wasn’t that excited about it. UNTIL I saw the list of sites at Bukit Timah we had to check out. Dude… I always thought Bukit Timah was “the rich man place” but apparently, there was more to it than that. Duh huh. :P

30 Jan, Saturday morning… We met up Newton MRT station, supposedly at 11am. I WAS SO LATE! Thank God my group mates were nice and patient with me and they welcomed me into Amantha’s family’s car- THE silver Toyota Altis. :D Just a side note, we really appreciate Amantha for offering to drive us around the whole day, spending her energy driving and paying attention on the road each time we got back in the car, her money on petrol… (: YAY WE LOVE YOU AMANTHA AND PARENTS WHO ALLOWED HER TO TAKE THE CAR!

Sneak peek at our driver of the day :D All decked in pink. (i was surprised NISHA wasn't in pink!!! she's my other pink friend heeee)

Okay! Before the trip, we actually did some self-directed learning and collaborative learning (sorry man, I just had AED107 ICT on yesterday, the terms are fresh in my head) by taking up allocated parts of the list of sites at Bukit Timah and doing our individual research on them. Then, we sent each other the research and compiled into a longgggg Word Doc for everyone to refer to before and during the Heritage Trail.

At first, it seemed like mundane task but when I looked at the fruit of our research on Bukit Timah, it got me thinking about the history there. It got me more interested to know about what happened there at Bukit Timah Old Ford Factory, the Railway Station, Botanical Gardens, even King Albert’s Park! And more, of course :D Not only that, I wanted to look for myself if there were actually physical remnants of history left for us to pour over. Unfortunately, many of these sites, for example the Botanical Gardens, King Albert’s Park, Old Ford Factory, the Fire Station…got renovated and revamped for either recreational purposes, or into some modern-day history site. Though it’s said all this was done for the sake of the advancement of society, I feel a pinch of loss for the culture of early Singapore. Sad that I couldn’t really “revisit” history physically.

BUTTTT i had fun anyway (: with my funky group (: without them i think it'd have been abit more mundane, more colourless, more boring, more quiet, more..................................oh well i had them (:

MUAHAHA this was an overview! shall look into the memorable stops I had with my groupie next post :D

Love, CHARLOTTE:D

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All in All

Hi folks, I kind of wrote a chunk so I'm dividing it into 3 posts. :)
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My group embarked on the Bukit Timah heritage trail on 30^th January 2010. Prior to the day of the trail, each of us did research on the history of the various historical sites and road names. I would say that reading the compiled research heightens my interest and excitement to go on the trail. (definitely not a PC response!!!) This is because it is amazing to realize that an area of Singapore where I once frequent (Bukit Timah) actually holds so much significance and importance in the past. On the whole, the trail definitely increased my knowledge of the history of Bukit Timah region and the significant people whom many of the road names were named after. It provided a background and awareness that Singapore do have its own story, its own history to narrate. Most importantly, it prompted me to want to find out more about the history of other places in Singapore instead of taking for granted and being ignorant like before.

I thought the trail was more like a bonding session for my group members and I. Though the traffic was pretty bad but I was glad and relieved that we manage to complete it within 5 hours. Am thankful for the great weather (though it was a little too hot at times) and the great company! Also, we manage to tour around the few international schools. It was interesting to see how these international schools differ in their classroom layouts and decoration from the local schools. It is indeed a memorable and fruitful outing! :D
A group photo at Old Ford Factory.

A collage of the different schools we visited.

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Amantha's Sharing Part III

As for the conservation of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Bukit Timah Railway Station, Masjid Al-Hud (Mosque), Hoon San Temple and Bukit Brown Cemetery, each differ it is among of historical heritage being successfully preserved. In my opinion, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is probably quite successful because there are information and a series of casemates created by the Japanese to hold their ammunition can be found at the site. Thus, it informs visitors and so create a better awareness of its history. I feel the preservation of Bukit Brown Cemetery, Masjid Al-Hud and Hoon San Temple built in the early 1900s holds a significant value. This is because old buildings in Singapore are often demolished to make way for new ones or being re-constructed with a modern architectural design. The preservation of these historical buildings allows some bits of Singapore’s early buildings to be left untouched. Personally, I feel that it is an amazing experience to be able to see, feel and be awed by how these old buildings have withstand through the years, to think about the number of pioneers whom had once been in the same place.

The Bukit Timah Railway Station was hidden deep inside a narrow, one-way street. Equipped with our knowledge gathered from our research, it allows my group mates and I to appreciate the visit to the place. However, it does not seem to be significant to one who does not know its history. I think that the younger generation might not be even aware of its existence!

Most of the road names in these areas are named after people who once contributed to Singapore's society in one way or another. More about the road names in the area

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nisha's Reflections Part 12

FINALLY ONTO MY LAST POST WHEN EVERYTHING WAS OVER Charlotte and Amantha decided to post in some empty tunnel near the cemetery. Look at the difference in their posts! One choose a happy jump shot while the other decided to be emo! =p

After which we went to Island Creamery! For ice creams and that marked the end of our heritage trail! so I shall end off with my final pictures! GOODBYE!

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Nisha's Reflections Part 11

Our last stop was Bukit Brown Cemetery which has also been discussed but any I didn't take any pics here to give respect to the dead souls just incase I get possessed or something but I should say that am not happy with the way this place is kept. Its really messy. Anyways about the cemetery it apparently holds the largest tombs in Singapore =/ I should say the houses beside the cemetery were really nice and I have pics of that below. The houses have a passage way that leads from the cemetery to their houses which is so weird because its like inviting the spirits to their houses =/ See the pic carefully and you'll notice the passage way.

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Amantha's Sharing Part II

The Old Ford Factory unveils information of Singapore’s history which I was once unaware of. Although it has been preserved and converted to a museum today, I thought that its inaccessibility (in comparison to the other museums in Singapore) puts it in a less popular choice among tourists and the locals. It is a pity as the museum indeed informs of a significant part of Singapore’s history during the Japanese Occupation which many people are unaware about. Therefore, the place might have preserved our historical heritage, it might have captured a point in our history but its success in terms of spreading this awareness could be improved further.

Upon entering Singapore Botanic Garden on a Saturday morning, I thought that it seems like a popular place where families spent their weekend morning at. The garden at its current site (Cluny Road) was relocated from Fortcanning Hill. I would consider this site to have been reused for commercial purpose as it is now a tourist attraction and some section do require visitors to pay a nominal entrance fee. I feel that among all the historical sites mentioned thus far, the conservation and commercial reuse of the Singapore Botanic Garden is most successful in preserving our historical heritage. Much information found on boards and signs are placed alongside with the plants and other displays. This as compared to the other places mentioned above provides background knowledge and more information about the history of the place to its visitors. However, I think it must be acknowledged that this success is due to the nature of the ‘business’. More about Singapore Botanic Garden

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Amantha's Sharing Part I

On our trail, some historical sites such as, the Old Ford Factory, former Bukit Timah Fire Station, Beauty World Food Centre, King Albert Park, former Turf Club and the Singapore Botanic Gardens, have been reused for commercial purposes. Among these listed sites, I think that the former Turf Club is the most successful commercial reuse of historical sites in the Bukit Timah area. Seafood restaurants, Giant Supermarket, and car dealers’ company now stands in the former Turf Club with ample parking lots for its visitors. The spectators’ stand remains intact, very little of its structure has been changed but the place, from my point of view, has been reused to its capacity by the current businesses that operate there.

Likewise, Beauty World Food Centre and King Albert Park have also been revamped for commercial use. Visitors can find a whole range of different food at the Beauty World Food Centre, and a MacDonald’s with a 24-hour drive through at King Albert Park. However, although these two places and the former Turf Club are successful in its commercial usage presently, I feel that it failed to preserve our historical heritage to a large extent. Most people who visit these places probably do not know of its history and origins. Thus, the sites might be preserved for its historical value and reuse for commercial purposes (perhaps to maximize land usage) but they do not pass on the historical heritage to a large extent.

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My Thoughts

My group went on our Heritage Trail on a random Saturday morning on the last day of January as most of us are free that day and we did not want to push it any further because CNY is coming. We met at 11am at Newton MRT station where Amantha fetched us in her little family car.

Off we went to the places that we have planned beforehand. As we had meticulously planned the route way before that day, it was a much less difficult journey for us. However, the main roads along Bukit Timah areas are mostly one way. And when you miss a certain place, you will have to find a U-turning area to turn. It had proven a rather grueling trip for us. It was really not an easy drive around that area especially when we missed the place and have to U-turn to find the roads again. The turns were horrible as all of us felt like we were “flying”. I found this quite interesting as it’s not really wise to have such roads when the traffic there is always very heavy as the places leads to town (Dunearn Road) and Jurong area (Upper Bukit Timah Road). 

We combed the entire trail within 5 hours. One of the places that I was looking forward to before our trail was that of the Former Bukit Timah Fire Station. This place enumerates a very fascinating aura to me because it was being rebuilt into an Artsy place for people who are into Arts. Companies/agencies like the “Ministry of Faceabook” and “Ministry of Literature” could be found there.

When we arrived at that place, I was still amazed at how the “red-colour inspired” design of the fire station was still there. However, the area has been commercialized into a small little Arts hub for people who are interested in the Arts. It was mainly taken over by this company called “Spectra”. There were no exhibits of even the slightest equipment and memoirs of a fire station except the letter box, the significant doors and the ladder.

I felt that the conservation of this former fire station could have been better. Maybe they could build some exhibits that resembles that of a fire station, for eg fire engines, hose etc, instead of completely removing what makes it the place it was before thus commercializing it for the sole purpose of profits. I found this point pretty sad because this place also used to be a battle ground site during the World War Two. There should be much more efforts in making this place more memorable for the Singaporeans of tomorrow, instead of just merely getting rid of everything that makes the place what it used to be. This to me is a Heritage.

A heritage’s antiquity could be derived from the stuff that used to denote the place, people and culture. For the case of this fire station, it was more of preserving the materials of the place but commercializing this land, in order to generate profits.

This is mostly true in the case of Singapore, where most heritage places were being rebuilt into some money-making places for the purpose of attracting tourists, where the ultimate motive is to earn profits from such visits. Henceforth, the essence/ true flavour of these heritage are usually gone but has been rebuilt into something which some of us might consider more artificial. Even if this place may not bring along with it some cultural values of our multi-racial society, it still brought with it some history for us to appreciate. Moreover, as we all have already known, Bukit Timah was one of the main site for the Battle of Singapore during WWII. Thus in my opinion, it is considered a "lost" heritage. (a lost heritage means almost losing our roots.) 


Speaking of which, where do our (Singaporean) roots actually come from? What do you think? And why?

A group picture at the aforementioned place.

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Reflection on a Fascinating Trail

I am very excited to share with you what my group and I had discovered during our fruitful journey in Bukit Timah. It was a warm Saturday morning on 30 January 2010, when we embarked on a trail to heighten our knowledge on the sites and places of historical value in Bukit Timah. I found the entire trail easier to navigate as we had conducted some background research pertaining to our proposed destinations and was disseminated among ourselves prior to the trip.

I was glad that we planned our route meticulously before heading for the trail and ended on time. Moreover, it was a true blessing as one of our peers, has generously offered her family car as our mode of transportation for that memorable trip. We visited many destinations and captured lots of pictures to be kept as reminiscences. Of those visited places, I was most interested in our last stop, Bukit Brown Cemetery at Kheam Road.

It caught my attention since it has been recognized as one the oldest Chinese cemeteries in Singapore and I am a Chinese. Moreover, it heightened my curiosity when I realized the relationship between my family name (Ong) and the history of the place. I recollected during my secondary school days, I heard little about the Hokkien Ong clan from my father until my sisters and I were awarded the scholarships from the clan. To my surprise, this clan of mine used to own such a large piece of land for more than half a century. I find it really touching to know that regardless of one being rich or poor, all were given equal access to burial plots.

Upon visiting to the cemetery, I was rather disappointed with how the cemetery has been conserved. Honest speaking, the effort in preserving this historical heritage was unsuccessful to a large extend. My first impression of it was more like a jungle than a cemetery. There was the absence of a signboard indicating the name of the cemetery except for a yellow notice plate stating the operating days and time. The main gates of the cemetery were old and rusty. I reckoned if I could safely lock the gates. Moreover, I recalled there were many bulky construction materials along the way towards the cemetery so I supposed there was some sort of construction activities around the area but certainly not for the preservation of the cemetery!

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Nisha's Reflections Part 10

Our Second last stop was the International School Cluster! This place is apparently private and we are not allowed in but due to the security guard's negligence we drove in =p We only realized that we were not allowed in when we drove out and ya he questioned us! BOOO if he doesn't do his job its in no way our fault. Anyway we came across plenty of schools but we entered 2 schools and they are the Swiss School and the German European school! Sadly the schools were closed as there were no sight of the students. The swiss school teaches from little kids to secondary school which explains the mini playground that greeted us! As you can see from the pics below Sarah and Amantha hopped onto the see-saw and Charlotte was posing with that thing I don't know the name of. Everything in the Swiss school has its name imprinted on it! Like as if we are going to steal it and an evidence of that is the picture of the litter bin below =p Also I found it interesting how there's a slide side by side, next to the stairs which allows the kids to slide their way down instead of walking down the stairs. I've a picture of that below. As for the German school their basketball court looks quite nice and they have like all the international flags hanging which is quite inviting. =p As usual you can see the 3 of them posing at the court! The school even has a PV system to track down their electricity usage! What happened to our schools! The other picture is just a nice art piece and thus I took it (: There are also pictures of the canteen in the German school! Unlike Singapore schools these schools are not one bit health conscious because they serve ICE CREAMS! LIKE TUBS AND TUBS OF THEM PLUS HUGE FRIDGES THAT CONTAIN COCA COLA! NOW I WANT THAT =P The rest of the pictures are just the exterior pictures of the schools that we came across like the Canadian international school, Hollandse and so on :) As usual I shall end off with pics!

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