Walking Trip - Part 2 - Henderson Waves

Continuing from my yesterday post. This is the famous and latest attraction of Singapore. The bridge is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore and the bridge link Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill. It is about 36 metres tall and 274 metre long.

I love the view from here and at night the bridge glows. You can view the night photo from Mable's Blog.

Do you think it look like the body of a dragon?

The bridge has a wave-form made up of seven undulating curved steel ribs that alternately rise over and under its deck. The curved ribs form alcoves that function as shelters with seats within. Slats of yellow balau wood, an all-weather timber found in South-East Asia, are used in the decking. The wave-forms are lit with LED light at night from 7pm to 2am daily. (Source from wikipedia. )

A short video of the street below from where I was standing at Henderson Waves.

At the end of the video, you could see and heard a group of university students (they are having school vacation now), they are participating in an amazing race. As we walked, we encountered many of them and it is fun to watch them in their activities. I will featured few more photos of them as I post on my walk.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Walking Trip - Part 1 - Climbing Up Henderson Waves

This will be a long series of posting on my walking trip on part of the southern ridge. The southern ridge walk is the latest attraction and pastime for Singaporeans.

The southern ridge is about 9 km trail that connects parks along the southern ridge of Singapore. The trail started from Marang Trail, (opposite Habour Front MRT Station), Faber Trail, (along Mount Faber), Henderson Waves (Henderson Road), Hill Top Walk, Forest Walk, Alexandra Arch, Hort Park and Canopy Walk.

So the three excited women started planning and getting all the maps. We did not do the complete trail as we dont have the stamina as we are not the sporting type. So from my googling and planning, I decided we start from Henderson Waves instead of Marang Trail cause we need to climb many steps and path up Mount Faber along Marang Trail and Faber Trail, it would be too tiring for us.

It took us just few minutes to climb these steps up Henderson Waves from Henderson Road. I look at my watch and it said 9.45 am.

The maps we printed are not that useful cause they are not so detailed but all the signboards and signs on the floor helps and make our walk so much easier. To make your walk much easier, do not carry too much stuff in your bag. Just a bottle of water (important), hat/cap(shade you from the sun), umbrella (in case it rain) and of course your camera.

After climbing those stairs, we saw this signboad and we walked in the direction where it pointed "Henderson Waves".

Then we are so happy and excited to see the Henderson Waves sign. It is the start of the walk from the Henderson Waves.

The posting continued tomorrow, come back and visit if you want to know how henderson waves look like. It is very beautiful, trust me.

Pink Saturday - ION Orchard

My pink contributiion must be these cute and branded mannequins outside ION Orchard. You can tell that these mannequins are wearing branded clothes. Yes, the whole mall is very posh and they sell mostly branded stuff. Even the toilets are very posh...lol. I need to visit the mall again to see how posh the interior look. :)

From this huge signboard you can see the branded stuff they sell. In Singapore you cant buy any fake or imation brands. So you are assured everything in here are real stuff.

So just bring your credit card when you visit this mall. :) For me, I will just bring my camera ...lol

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch Friday - ION Orchard

Finally ION Orchard opened this week but the below photos were taken last week before they are opened so you can see workers giving the shopping mall a final touch.

The whole mall is so amazing and beautifully built. I love the architectural design of it and at night it glow. You can view the night's photo in keropokman's blog. I will try to take a picture of ION Orchard at night.

The glass bubble you see in the centre leads to the Orchard MRT Station. It looked beautiful.

More of ION Orchard tomorrow in Pink Saturday.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Fond Memories - Part 3 - JTC Flatted Factory

Continuing from my walk around St. Michael's Estate, I found this flatted factory still standing. The factory was built so long ago and I remember my eldest sister worked here during her school vacation to earn some money to supplement the family's income.

This factory and many factories elsewhere were built in the early 70s to help Singapore's economy and having factories built nearer to where Singaporean stays, help the businessmen get workers easily so workers dont have to travel far to work.

This will be my last post about St. Michael's Estate and where I spend my childhood. I hope my little childhood's story is of interest to you all as it is for me. :)

Fond Memories (Part 2) - Jalan Bahagia

Continuing from my walk around the place where I used to stay during my childhood, these old flats (Block 21) still exists, they are at least my age...lol
But these flats are upgraded and maintained and looked so new. In Singapore, HDB flats need to be re-painted every five years.

Those staying on the ground floor has the advantage of sunning their mattress or laundries in the open area.

The above row of houses looked like private houses but they are actually HDB houses. They have a leasehold of 99 years but these houses are about my age (49 years) so they have about another 50 years life and they dont cheap anymore. They used to be rented houses but HDB has already sold them to the tenants long ago.

They are so beautifully decorated just like those private houses.

You might like to view this Blog (I happen to stumble onto this blog) which showcase the interior of these houses.

Fond Memories Part 1 - St. Michael's Estate

This is a very old photo of my childhood home. I stay there since I was born but shifted out when I got married (1983). The flat was one of the first few homes built in Singapore during the late 50s to early 60s by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT).

The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was a government organisation set up in 1927 by the British colonial government in Singapore in response to the housing needs of the population of Singapore. To read more about SIT, you can read from wikipedia. Now the Housing and Development Board take over the SIT.

So I was lucky to be able to live in a flat since the day I was born so I have flushing toilet system and I dont have to use the bucket type of toilet...lol. Most flats during the early days are rented but nowadays more than 90% of homeowners in Singapore own their own flats/houses. (I dont have the latest figure of homeownership...so the figure was based on what I read in the papers.)

The flat and the surrounding flats were all demolished and now new flats built by the HDB take over the place. There are only 3 or 4 new blocks replacing about 20 blocks of the old flats, most are vacant land, I guess there are more plans to built more new flats when there is a demand for it. I just couldn't recognize the place when I went back there last month to have a look at the estate.

The newer flats are much more expensive and higher. Each flat in this area can cost about S$300,000 or more depending how big the flat is.

This empty lot used to be a very big wet market selling poultry, fishes, vegetables, pork, etc and some stalls outside the wet market sell cooked food. I missed the market because it brought back fond memories of my childhood.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Whampoa Estate Part 5-Wet Market and Hawker Centre

My contribution for pink saturday are some interesting scenes in the market.

This is a hawker centre where they sold mostly local food and the prices are quite reasonable . This estate is so old and most of the hawkers are long timers and the food they sold are so good.

Just walked across the hawker centre is the wet and dry market. The wet part sold fishes, chicken, vegetables, etc , while the dry sold dry groceries , clothes, cloth, household items, etc. Did you spot the "P" in Whampoa as a contribution to Pink Saturday?

Did you spot any pink dress in the above photo?

Stalls selling dry groceries like curry powder, spices, pepper, mushroom, nuts, etc

Inside the market will be the wet part, where they sold poultry, fishes, etc

As it is near noon, the market is close for the day, so the stall holders has to wash and keep their stalls clean.

I hope you enjoy the introduction of the market and hawker centre. :)

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch Friday - Whampoa Part 3-Fishing

My skywatch is still in Whampoa Estate. This canal leads to the open sea.

Can you spot a man fishing in the above photo? He is at a corner. Look at the below photo for a closer look at the man. I wonder if he ever catch any fish?

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Please return tomorrow for interesting post on the market place in whampoa estate.

Whampoa Part 2-HDB Shophouses

Continuing from my post about Whampoa Estate, here are shophouses that been here for a long time, at least more than 20 years.

These shophouses are known as HDB Shophouses located in the heartland of Singapore where majority of Singaporeans lived. Most of the times you can bargain for your products for about 10 to 20% discount unless they are fixed price. Sometimes, you can find things you cannot find in big shopping malls. You have to return to visit my post on the market place in next few posts.

Most of the shopowners lived above their shops and these shophouses are not cheap, some are sold for about a million dollars and the owner would then rent out or use for their own. My sister had one shophouse just like the one on the right. She stay above her shop.

Please return for more interesting post on whampoa estate.

Community Club

This area used to be a sleepy small village with many attap houses. Attap houses are houses with attap leaves as their roof and the name attap is named after the tree.


I remember seeing cows and goats in here when I was a very young child. Now flats are spotted here. I used to stay around this area but shifted out when my brother bought a flat and my other sisters and myself got married and got our own home too. This area is very old at least more than 30 to 40 years old. The flat that I used to stay are all demolished, I will talk about it at later post. I will post a photo of my old home in later post.

This area is known as Whampoa named after a well known Chinese named Hoo Ah Kay, Whampoa (1816-1880). You can view his history from here.

This is Whampoa Community Club where residents can come here to meet up or join any activities that the CC organises. Noticed the name of the CC are in four different languages, Malay, Chinese Tamil and English. We are a multi racial country and the CC is for all races.



Some of the activities organised by the CC.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Singa the Courtesy Lion

This is our courtesy mascot, Singa the Courtesy Lion. Why Singa? Singa means Lion in Malay, we are called Lion City or Singapura.

The National Courtesy Campaign was a campaign launched in June 1979 by Singapore's Ministry of Culture as a means of encouraging Singaporeans to be more kind and considerate to each other, so as to create a pleasant social environment. You can read more about the campaign in here.

The campaign is very successful, now we are so used to queuing for our food, taxi, paying bills, banking, etc. Yet we do have inconsiderate and rude people too even though the campaign is successful.

But recently with the H1N1 affecting so many people and our lives, Singa has to remind people to wear the mask if they are unwell and also to see a doctor.

I find him so cute.

Ikea

What I did on a lazy Saturday Afternoon?

I went to Ikea to look at some home furnishings. Oh yes, I spotted a desk and cabinet for my son. So I took the measurements just to make sure it fitted the corner of son's room.

I might return another day to purchase them unless I found a better and cheaper desk at another place...lol.

Skywatch Friday

Time passes fast. It is Friday again. I seems to have luck seeing nice images in the sky. Last week, sky looked so heavenly and today, the image looked like an angel holding a book and singing. Looked like there's a halo above his head.

Not sure you can see what I see. Now what would I see next week. :)



For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.