Friday, September 30, 2011

Sculptures Trail along Singapore River - Cavenagh Bridge and Kucinta


Cavenagh Bridge, named after Sir Lieutenant General William Orfeur Cavenagh, the last Governor of the Straits Settlements (1859 - 1867) under British India control. It was built in 1868 and is today the oldest bridge across the Singapore River. It was the last major work of the Indian convicts based in Singapore. Now it serves as a foot-bridge for pedestrian traffic only. You can read more from source.


A very old signboard during the olden days of Singapore where cattle and horses roam around the streets. But nowadays horses are found in the zoo, turf club and polo club only.

Proof of how old this bridge is.

Located at the side of the bridge are these cat sculptures. Known as Singapura or kucinta. Kucinta (Kuchinta) a hybrid of two Malay words: Kuching (cat) and cinta (love).
The Singapura Cat a.k.a. Kucinta (Kuchinta) is regarded as Singapore's Tourism Board's mascot, although claims of it having originated from Singapore remain questionable. Read more from source to find out the real origins of the cats.


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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sculptures Trail along Singapore River

As I walked along Singapore River, I saw more sculptures. They were very interesting.

First Generation by Chong Fah Cheong.

The sculpture of five boys jumping happily into the river just like in the past. Those days, the lifestyle was very simple and happy and no stress. The location of these sculptures is beside fullerton building and Cavenagh Bridge.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sculptures Trail along Singapore River - The River Merchants

The River Merchant Sculpture was located infront of Maybank Tower Singapore along Singapore River. Maybank is the sponsor of these sculptures. The sculptor was Aw Tee Hong.

The sitting sculpture is one of Singapore's earliest merchants, Mr Alexander Laurie Johnston, interacting with the local merchants.


The sculpture of these coolies(workers) loading goods onto a bullock cart, a common sight during the earlier days of Singapore.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

My World Tuesday - Sculptures Trail along Singapore River - Sir Stamford Raffles

I am starting a new series on sculptures/statues found along Singapore River.

This is the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles.

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles is famously known as the founder of modern Singapore.

Besides signing the treaty with Sultan Hussein on 6 February 1819 and thus placing Singapore as a British settlement, Raffles made several contributions that helped establish Singapore as a thriving settlement.

In December 1818, Raffles left Calcutta in search of a new British settlement to replace Malacca. Raffles arrived in Singapore on board a ship called Indiana on 28 January 1819.

The statue marked the landing site of Sir Stamford Raffles. You can read more from about him and his achievement from source.


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Monday, September 26, 2011

The Ice Cream Man and The Cat


Before making our way home after a very happy trip to Pulau Ubin, we had ice cream even though it was raining.

Of course mine was durian flavour ice cream sandwiched between two waffle biscuits.

Snugging comfortably in a corner is this very cute cat.

The cat followed us from the ferry terminal to the car park hahaha.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Pulau Ubin - Jetty

The rain spoilt our plan to continue our walk on Pulau Ubin. Since our group consists of senior folks, we decided to go back and come back another day.

Headed to the jetty where all the bum boats are. Same thing as when we arrived, they needed 12 passengers to depart from the island. But it is no problem, being a weekend, the boat soon filled in no time.

The sky is very gloomy although the rain had finally stop.

Once in the boat, the rain fell heavily again.


A view of the end of the boat, looked as if the boat is almost same level as the sea.


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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Pulau Ubin - Food


The best part of the visit on Pulau Ubin must be food hahaha. We had lunch at the above restaurant. The food is superb and the portion is big. We called medium size but is like large size on mainland Singapore.

Sambal Kangkong - so good

Kampong Chicken - wow I still can remember the taste and smell. This is really very delicious. The chicken are reared on Pulau Ubin. Next visit, I will order this dish again.

Sweet and Sour pork - also so good

Claypot tofu and assorted vegetables - a real huge pot - delicious

Omelette with onion

After lunch, we planned to walk around the island and stay for seafood dinner. But suddenly it was raining so heavily and we had to seek shelter in one of the villager's compound.

We plan to have seafood dinner at this restaurant but the rain came pouring, we could not go round the island so we decided to go back and come back another day to look for another temple on the island.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pulau Ubin - scenery

My goodness this is the first time I step onto Pulau Ubin. Really surprised that I like it so much. So full of nature and good food too. :)

An abandoned granite quarry - it looked like a very beautiful lake now.

Granite quarrying was once a major industry on Ubin. The first quarry was started in the 1800's. Ubin's granite was used to build the Horsburgh Lighthouse and Raffles Lighthouse, the two extreme points of Singapore. And, by some accounts, the Causeway linking Singapore to Malaysia as well. Read more from source

Walking around the village and we saw some nice houses.


An abandoned house

This is one of the most grand malay house on the island.

Besides wild boars, there are also many wild monkeys on the island. Please dont feed them.

I guess this is the one and only post box on Pulau Ubin near the jetty.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

My World Tuesday - Pulau Ubin - Wild Boar


After touring Chek Jawa, we made our way out to meet out Van driver. We called him via the name card he gave us earlier when he drop us at the entrance of Chek Jawa. But suddenly we were all excited at the sight of wild boars near the entrance of Chek Jawa.

We saw three of them. The Van driver told us that there are more of them but some are hidden in the bushes.

The van driver waiting for us at the pick up point just at the gate of Chek Jawa.



A short video of the wild boar eating some food left by the van driver. Seems like the wild boar recognized the villagers very well hahaha.

Lots of bicycles at the entrance of Chek Jawa.

For photos on other parts of the world, please visit Our World Tuesday Meme. Thanks to the team of Our World for giving us the opportunity to share my world with the rest of the world.