North Island

We're trying to strike a balance between visiting the famous "big ticket" spots in Singapore and exploring places further afield. Today was one of those off the beaten track kind of days. We began at the 110 year old Lian Shan Shuang Monastery, one of Singapore's oldest and largest. From there, we went to the heart of nowhere in search of the Divine Realm Vegetarian Restaurant. Somehow, we managed to find it amongst an endless set of apartment towers and cookie cutter avenues.

Following that, we hunted down the very last remaining village in Singapore. Before independence in the '60s, Singapore was a much different place, a place of kampungs (villages) which consisted of simple homes along dirt roads. As Singapore developed at breakneck speed, these villages were quickly wiped out and redeveloped as apartment blocks were built. Progress left nobody behind, that is, except this single village, Kampung Lorong Buangkok. We were fortunate to meet the headman of the village, a lady who lives a strict Buddhist lifestyle. She owns this strip of land and maintains the trails, sewers, and other utilities for her village tenants. She charges the 27 families who have established homes on her land a monthly rent that  probably hasn't changed since the '50s, $10-$20 per month. Literally just on the periphery of this village's land, cranes and bulldozers build the apartment blocks that will soon completely surround this last village standing. Ash and I both felt at peace and home when in the village and left a bit heartbroken knowing that progress cannot but help to destroy places like this and  this way of life.

For the remainder of the day, we really needed to keep our distance from the city so we spent the rest of the afternoon at beautiful Pasir Ris Park and enjoyed sunset at the park beach. Even here we could see shipping vessels plying the Strait of Johor, but it did feel like a more peaceful and secluded spot than does East Coast Park on the south side of Singapore Island and, the Adventure Playground, well, that's a little bonus item that will certainly bring the boys back to this far side of Singapore Island!