Monday, September 14, 2009

Dairy Farm Nature Park

Fresh air and sunshine and a love for nature - that's how many Singaporeans enjoy their weekends. Today I saw a few 3-generation families taking strolls along the Wallace trail in the Dairy Farm Nature Park. This trail is well-kept and pleasant. It gives us a glimpse of the secondary forest where people once built their homes and lived there for many years. These houses have been torn down and the people have moved out of the forest. The trees are indication of the age of the forest and it was good to walk in the shade of such tall and aged trees. At the entrance to the park these flowers greeted us:

Once we stepped in, we saw many people like us who just wanted to breathe air that is fresher and to treat our eyes to some greenery.
A heliconia flower cradling a fallen leaf.Walking into the park. Wallace trail is a short distance to the left.
Look up sometimes at the sky to get a different view of nature.
Inside Wallace Trail - interesting roots.
Fruits of the fig tree.
Could this be the fruit of the Belimbing tree?
New beginnings for these leaves.
There were many fallen red flowers on the path - flowers of the African Tulip. A mother told her daughter it was an African "turnip" - Oops!
Giant leaves that you could use as fans perhaps.
Winged seeds that missed the earth. Yellow is the colour of the sun.
Mama spider going out for lunch.
Hanging your hearts for all to see.
African tulip at rest. Fern unfurling in slow motion.
A family of snails, together till the end.
A Bat Lily flower, the only one we saw.


A much photographed flower. I do not know its name.
Out of the Wallace trail, heading back to the car park.

Love those hats that can also double up as fans.
Can I go out mum?Moo, Nooooo!




Somewhere at the beginning of the Wallace Trail, we saw this snake that was more than a metre long. So, Why did the snake cross the road?Because there was a chicken on the other side.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Geylang Road

Walking along Geylang Road and looking at the interesting facades of the rows of shophouses on either side, you might think you have travelled back in time or else you might think you are in another Asian country. I found the forms of the buildings intriguing but the substance of the area rather unsavoury.

Curious tourists have asked taxi drivers to take them to this place to see a seedy side of Singapore; we went there in search of a particular porridge stall. So we walked the length of Geylang Road up to the point where it became Geylang Serai and then took a bus back for we had walked a long way from where we had parked our car. We never located that elusive porridge stall and settled for claypot rice which was a great choice because the claypot rice was cooked over charcoal fire and the chicken meat was so tender and tasty that the long wait for it to be prepared was worth every second that ticked by so slowly.

This set of slides tracks the beginning of our walk at Lorong 11 up till Paya Lebar. You see the change in lighting from daylight to night, numerous food stalls, shops selling groceries run by Chinese on one side of the road and Indians on the other side. Interspersed amongst them you will see Tibetan prayer houses, a Buddhist association and a mosque. I did not like the crowd and there would be no reason for me to return to this area. The buildings are old but judging by the preservation efforts that have taken place so far, more renewal work might be in store. In future, parts of this place could well look like the refurbished shophouses in Chinatown. My favourite shots are those taken of the mosque in the twilight.