05 March, 2013

Out

I wanted to share all the things I saw on yesterdays walk/ run, but I didn't have a camera with me.  I went past a Burmese Temple (and had to ask one of the monks for directions to Toa Payoh- I usually go there the long way but had seen that there was a different way to get across the freeway on google maps), found a lovely park which I ran a few laps around, discovered a proper swimming pool (bit of a hike to walk to, but only $1 to get in) and passed two chinese temples on the way home.

This morning I took my camera.

My friend Angela is lucky enough to live in a gorgeous house that is part of a condo that backs onto an old Chinese graveyard.  We went through her gate and suddenly we are in the jungle surrounded by so many amazing graves.

The name of the cemetery is Bukit Brown (Bukit just means hill) and there is an interesting little BBC article about it here as many of the graves are being exhumed so that a road can be built through it. Such a shame as it's a fantastic place with a small road that meanders throughout.  We saw this learner horse rider out, dogs being walked, and even had to step out of the way for a young girl being taught to drive by her grandfather on that road.
 Gasp! Peranakan tiles!  This is an old grave.
 I love the guarding monsters? dogs? standing either side.


 This one must have been one of the newest there.  See the big ring around the back?  All of them have that.  I wonder if that is the actual ground where the burial takes place?


 This was a huge one...must be a family plot with little sentinels either side that were quite different from each other.

 

In these last two photo you can see the numbered markers sticking up out of the ground for relatives to find their loved ones' graves to exhume.  Sad to think that special places like this are disappearing in Singapore.  The park across the road from Kit and Ella's school where we had our fun run on the weekend is about to be turned into HDB flats, and that was packed with people out walking, jogging and walking their dogs.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for that...is somewhat amazing and just so important that there are still places like that in Singapore or any big, growing city.

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  2. and an additional comment...who can afford the space as well as well as money to keep horses in Singapore?
    love
    Dad

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  3. How lovely to see this Singapore - precious.
    Maggie XXXX

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  4. Hi Georgia,

    Check out this website bukitbrown.com for more info on the cemetery and free public weekend tours conducted by passionate volunteers who called themselves brownies. Exhumation of graves to make way for an 8 lane highway is slated to start after April 15th.

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  5. Wow that's an interesting part of Singapore! Let's hope some of it escapes the 8 Lane highway. I can't believe there is horse-riding either - where do they keep the horse I wonder? mum xxx

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