The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary
art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry

A sculpture of metal balls. This is Anish Kapoor’s High Tree and eyes, 2009

Opened in 1997, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was an instant hit among
locals and tourists due to its unique design. It was hailed as the most
important building of its time 

Sited in the port town of Bilbao, the museum is intended to resemble a ship

The museum is a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone.
Titanium was used probably cos it’s corrosion-resistant since it is located
next to river Nervión. This same metal is commonly used in aeroplanes…

The reflective titanium panels resemble fish scales, echoing the other organic
life forms that recur commonly in Gehry’s designs, as well as the river Nervión 

I always wonder how these masters managed to persuade their client to
accept their radical design…Well, I guess that’s why they are masters…
Despite being an architectural and construction challenge, the museum
was delivered on time and on budget…

Close up of the titanium facade. Looks like copper sheets! :p Though it
is supposed to be corrosion-resistant, but there seem to be rain water stains
forming on some parts…

Catch the interesting reflection at different angles…

This huge spider sculpture was an attention grabber! Titled, Maman (1999)
the spider sculpture is the work of artist Louise Bourgeois. Maman is the
familiar French word for Mother

At over 30 feet high and over 33 feet wide, the spider has a sac containing
26 marble eggs. Looks quite gross when you stand underneath the body…

Another look at the giant arachnid 

We decided to walk to the end to take in the view of the whole museum
before it starts to rain again

View from the highway…Such an impressive architectural work of art!

You can get a clear perfect reflection of the museum across the river…

Itchyfingers are so jealous of the people of Spain. Not only they have their native master Antoni Gaudi producing architectural wonders like the world-renowned Sagrada Família and Casa Mila, they also have masters from overseas designing an iconic building like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Do you know that we nearly get a Frank Gehry’s masterpiece in Singapore? In case you didn’t know or have forgotten, when our Government opened its tender to build an Integrated Resort in Sentosa island, Frank Gehry was one of the architects who was invited to conceptualise and submit his design. I was really hoping that his design would be accepted so that Singapore can boast to have a Frank Gehry’s work. Unfortunately, for god-knows reason, our dear Government chose to award the project to the ugly and boring-looking design by Resort World. Maybe they cannot stomach something so radical and got a shock of their life? But see for yourself here to compare the two design. If thousands of tourists visit Bilbao just to experience and marvel at the unconventional and creative design of Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry, I think they would also visit Singapore for the same reason. I don’t think anyone has visited Singapore purely for its architectures…Just imagine what a great difference the waterfront will look like at Sentosa, especially at night! What a shame!

This side is the entrance to the museum with the signage which is too small
here to see…It was already drizzling…

This gigantic flower doggy sculpture has become so famous that it is a must-see
landmark when you visit the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. This is Puppy
by Jeff Koons

Closer look at some of the flowers. These look familiar…We saw similar ones
at one of the Sentosa Flower Festival…

The interior is very interesting with plenty of curve lines. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed. We managed to snap this before we realised it is strictly prohibited.

Because of the numerous wavy design, Computer Aided Three Dimensional
Interactive Application (CATIA) and visualizations were used heavily in the
structure’s design

One of the exhibit, The Matter of Time by Richard Serrain. These are
huge permanent installation of eight bent steel sculptures. Visitors
are free to explore around and within the mazelike structure. Ooops…we
forgot we are not supposed to take photos… :p

Tulips by Jeff Koons

We were curious about the design of the loos…Unfortunately, there is
nothing to shout about

Overall, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a masterpiece definitely worth a visit. However, Itchyfingers discovered something unusual on our way out…

These are steps leading to the main entrance of the gallery. Do you see
anything wrong here? 

The steps are leading up underneath this piece of titanium structure! So 
if someone were to walk at this end mindlessly without noticing, he might
just hit his head! Hahah!!! Wonder who made this blunder! Was it an oversight
by the master himself or his assistant? Apparently they realised this mistake
and added the railing to stop people walking here, but being Itchyfingers,
we had to illustrate our point by doing a demonstration…hahaha…

Also see related posts:
> House of Bones – Barcelona, Spain Trip #6
> The Quarry – Barcelona, Spain Trip #5
> A Visit to the Market – Barcelona, Spain Trip #4
> A Bird’s Eye View – Barcelona, Spain Trip #3 
> Inside the Construction Site- Barcelona, Spain Trip #2 
> The World’s Most Beautiful Construction Site – Barcelona, Spain Trip #1 

Meet Itchyfingers’ latest creation, Longan (龙眼) the Baby Dragon. Wishing all a happier and
healthier Year of the Majestic Dragon!

PS: Longan is available for adoption in our shop.

Since there are so many of them, Itchyfingers can only showcase some of those which we like or are unique…

Isn’t this beautiful? This is Ele Fun-Asia by Ye Ruoshi. Although she has 
a chinese opera make-up face, the body is painted with four different fabric
patterns representing the major ethnic groups in Singapore. The orchids
accessories symbolise Singapore 

This is Miss India by Nut Thamrongpittayanan. Elephant is a sacred 
animal in India, so I supposed it is apt to paint one in the traditional
costume 

This is Miss China by the same artist. No wonder the style is similar

This is Miss Malaysia, again by the same artist, Nut Thamrongpittayanan.
Hmm…wonder why the same artist is commissioned to do three elephants
instead of giving other artists a chance to showcase their talent? Er, why no
Miss Singapore??

Instead of dolling up the elephants into pretty ladies, some artists prefer to transform their elephants into another animal…

White Tiger by Sakchai Pengprakhon! Striking! There were two other 
elephants being transformed into normal tigers at Elephant Parades held in 
other countries. One was Tiger by the same artist, while Tigerphant was by
Dominique Salm. Great minds seem to really think alike!

Coincidentally, we also have another animal transformation by our local artist…

Zelda Zelliphant by Dick Lee 

Some of the elephants are used as advertisement for their brand or product…

Paul Frank by Mike Smith 

One look and you know this is from the Singapore Zoo…This is the
Rainforest Zoo-Phant

An ang moh kid was able to recognise this graphics as the zoo’s. These same
graphic appear in the zoo’s promotional items

Coincidentally, again, another elephant also spotted a rainforest theme.

Titled, Amazon by Thiti Suwan, this is supposed to show “the lushness and
diversity of Thailand’s rainforests.”

A lot of elephants have a theme based on nature. Most carry a conservation message…

Safari by Sirinapha Sauepthong. “Nature is best when left untouched.” 

I love the cheerful colours and graphics! 

Love Song by Jane Veveris Callan. Itchyfingers like this cos there are a lot
of birds! The illustration style and finishing are also quite good, so Tisu Boy
chose this elephant as his favourite… 

Some called for a better and greener world with more love for people and animals…

Pink Paradise by Opas Chomchean 

Free Spirit by Leona Lewis the singer 

Jimmy by Cristiano Cascelli

Nong Mai by Attasit Aniwatchon 

Volumn by Gwon Osang offers an interesting way of executing photo montages
onto the animals to achieve more photorealism. But hor, I dun understand why
the artist chose to put animals from different continents together…heee…

Many elephants were made into beautiful decorative pieces, with not much concept or thoughts, in my opinion…

Princess Ellie by Matthew Campbell Laurenza. Bling bling!

Pavonia by Rebecca Sutherland. But at least both peacocks and elephants are 
found in India…

Abril by Eva Armisen. At first look I thought it belongs to Taiwanese
illustrator Jimmy Liao 几米!

Flower of Love by Kesorn Mueanpang. This looks so sweet

Franny by Emma Kemp. The paintings are quite nice…

eleFISH! by PSA Group HR & Corporate Affairs Team 

Flower backside from Worth to be Dutch by Hollandsche Waaren 屁股开花!!!!

The Naughty and the Elephant by Carrie Chau, one of my favourite Hong
Kong illustrators! When we saw this elephant at Orchard Road at night
during the Christmas season, the little character on the elephant was not
there! Was it being taken out for fear of theft or vandalism or was it really
stolen? Didn’t see this side of the body with the girl painted on the leg so
I didn’t realise it was her work…

Carrie Chau’s character, Blind Fly…I love her work! 

But at least these elephants are pretty. There are some which don’t even look pleasant…Others, while they may not look pretty at first, do offer interesting details in their execution…

Interesting collage work on Revenge of the Animals by Mojoko 

Cute little illustration of bird skeleton on Gajah by Nadya Hutagalung, Ann
Healy & Edo Hutabarat

Dada, the Surrealist Elephant by Rosihan Dahim paid homage to a few
masters of the art movement…

Siegfried by Andre Tempel…looks like he has toothpaste squeezed all over…

Some are designed with a festive feel…

Red Hapinez by Rasamee Kongchan. Feel so ‘chinese new year’

Singapore Ele-Dragon by Jamie Paul welcomes 2012, the Year of the Dragon.
But it looks very fierce huh…This elephant was placed at such an obscure
location in Orchard Road that I think not many people may have seen it… 

It has playful, child-like drawings on it…

Some are really “uniquely Singapore” as they have a strong Singapore theme…

Temasek by Ratchakrit Wichaiyo features the iconic Merlion…

One Degree North by Diana Francis is the most tourist-friendly as they 
can find various places of interest on the map…

The zoo and the Botanic Gardens on its backside…Er…the map gives
wrong direction though…hahah

Er, I think nobody will miss this seemingly plain-looking white elephant
cos the chinese characters were written by the immediate past President
of Singapore…I think The Calligraphic Elephant by Mr. S. R. Nathan
may just get the highest bid at the auction since it is done by the most famous
person in Singapore

There are some elephants which are adorned with one of my favourite animals…meow….!

Singacat by Sakchai Pengprakhon. Gorgeous!

I thought they are the Singapura Cats, but the artist said they are Siamese.
Actually I can’t tell their differences…hahah 

There were smaller sized elephant sculptures for purchase but the miniature
ones for this elephant were not as nicely painted… 

The Elephant and the Cat by Paul Koh 

The other side… 

Cats from Lives to Share, Lives to Spare by Laura Seeleys

Some elephants are rather “heavy metal”…

Nature Sound by Luka Boonkerd Kaewdee. Wow…need to cut out the
strips…

Nuts Over Elephants by Max Kong. We all are…aren’t we?

Elephants are supposed to have very good memory, hence the title of this piece…

Elephant Memory by Sonny Liew, our local comic artist

I like his work

“Elephant Memory Man has so much on his mind. His sidekick Ele looks
on and wonders what is to be done.”

Some artists highlight the plight of wild elephants through their art…

Leather Trunk by Amy Thng & Laura Tang is painted to resemble a luggage
passing through countries that have participated in the Elephant Parade.
Fun stickers are also stuck on “to remind us that elephants should not be
forcibly removed from their natural habitat thereby threatening their extinction.”

Swampy Jane by Joss Stone. “All animals should be respected in their own
environment.” 

This must be the saddest looking elephant! Damaged Dumbo by Renato L.
Barja Jr. 

The artist wants to highlight “the disturbing and inhumane acts of people
towards the largest land animal….no amount of riches can justify the killing
of our beloved elephants.”

So poor thing, even the backside is also “damaged”…

There is a tiny baby elephant among all. This is We Love Mosha by Diana
Francis. Baby elephant Mosha has become sort of ambassador to the
Elephant Parade as she has been to every city and country the Parade visits.
She is the source of the parade’s commitment to help her and other elephants
which are becoming endangered in Asia

Some itchy fingers vandalised her bandage with their awful names. Maybe
the organiser should put up more signs to ask people not to touch or climb
on the elephants as they are art pieces to be auctioned for fund-raising

A few elephants were damaged so artists had to do some touch up on
the spot in time for the auction. This is Stop Asians Ahead by Ketna Patel 

Then there is this rather unusual piece…I bet some people have missed it or just dismissed it as a work-in-progress or damaged work…

This is aptly named White Elephant by Allan Balisi! According to the artist,
he was inspired by David Lynch’s movie, The Elephant Man. Hence he covered
it with a white canvas. “It is more like a shy or terrified elephant. It also
represents the anonymity and sense of helplessness of the elephant when it is
slaughtered for its ivory. The all-white cloth covers the elephant’s identity; his
right to live is taken away from him because of the greed of mankind.” Well, if
you think the rationale behind this work is too much to stomach, just think of
it as depicting something left unused, hence a white elephant! Hahah…But
hor, this work is a bit slack huh…? Hahah…just paint the elephant inside
white and cover with a white cloth…Maybe it wasn’t even properly painted? 
Haha…I felt like flipping the cloth over to check what’s inside…hahahah!!! 

So, out of so many elephants, which is Itchyfingers‘ favourite? Ahhhh….you must be thinking it has to be this one…

…because it has a turtle on it! This is Turtlefan by Opas Chomchean 

But nope…it is not my favourite…It kinda surprised me also, cos when I first saw the photo, I thought it looked odd and funny…But after seeing all the elephants, this one really stands out the most in terms of colour, shape, execution and its sense of humour. It has transformed the elephant into something so unexpected….It really grows onto you…

A durian! The artist has cleverly turned his elephant into the thorny, pungent
smelling fruit of the tropic, a favourite among many Singaporeans! This is
Delightful Durian by Nat Posila & Ed Robinson. I am not a durian fan, but
if I have to choose, I prefer durians with this kinda bright orangey-yellow
meat as they are sweeter…  

Look at the durian shell! So funnily cute! The artists say, “Everyone knows
Singaporeans love durian! And since we wanted to create an elephant that
would touch and surprise the visitors of Elephant Parade in Singapore,
a huge elephant durian is the perfect piece. We hope this makes everyone
who sees him feel our happiness in helping Asian Elephants.” I think they
had achieved this, looking at the number of visitors waiting for their turns
to take photos with the huge durian…An ang moh kid was heard exclaiming
“so smelly! so smelly!” while looking at it… Hilarious!

Again, great minds think alike…

Gajah Tidur by Hamir Bin Soib. Another durian, but in terms of execution,
it is less interesting than the other more three-dimensional one…

Another fruity-themed elephant…Orangephant by Nat Posila

Itchyfingers had a great time admiring the 162 elephants and we hope all of them will find a new home at the auction and raise funds for the conservation of the majestic Asian Elephants! Certainly looking forward for the next Elephant Parade!

Also see related posts:
> Wow Cow! Holy Cow! So Many Cows! – CowParade @ Taipei, Taiwan Trip #5
> Holy Cow! – CowParade @ Taipei, Taiwan Trip #3
> Wow Cow! – CowParade @ Taipei, Taiwan Trip #2
> Mooooooooo……!

Hmm…our result is far from ideal…We will try to work harder this year!

People found us mostly through these sources…

Wow…seems like we have more overseas readers…

Here’s the breakdown….

Top of the list for 2011 

Itchyfingers would like to thank all our friends and readers for all the support and feedback!

Also see related post:
> Itchyfingers’ 2010 Report Card 

The first Dragon playground we visited was this one at Toa Payoh. When we spotted in from the car, I was so excited as it was the first time I saw it as I have never played in it before…

The big brother of all mosaic playgrounds…龙头老大…

I thought the design was great!! This had the original sandpit too! The
rainbow-coloured body made the playground look so cheerful!

龙马精神…Dragon is an auspicious creature in many cultures. To design a
slide using the dragon as the theme was simply brilliant. Most of the old
playgrounds were much more interesting as they encouraged children’s
imagination. They are unique as they were all locally designed by Mr Khor
Ean Ghee, who worked in the HDB during the 70s. Even the choice of the
“side-kick” springy animal ride (the seahorse) was well-thought of, as both
of them reside in the sea…

In his own words, Mr Khor said, “We wanted to create something that was distinctive. My boss said to me that all the buildings along Orchard Road were not designed locally. So at least, our playgrounds should be.” Coincidentally, Mr Khor happened to be my tutor at LaSalle College of the Arts and it’s a pity that I didn’t know he was the one who designed the many wonderful old mosaic playgrounds then…

The gaps in between the metal bars of the body made it challenging for
children to run or walk fast but they were also made narrow enough so that
no children will fall down from there. With the many twists and turns, ups
and down, you almost won’t get tired of climbing and running through it! 

The swing was missing… 

Glad to see young children still playing with it! The Dragon playground is
such a unique landmark that should be kept, just like the Pelican! 

Another big Dragon playground resides at Ang Moh Kio…this one I haven’t visited yet…Tisu Boy secretly went to play alone…

This Dragon is only duotone in colour, so not as colourful and attractive…
It looks like a more mature dragon…hahhaah..The sandpit had been
replaced by those synthetic rubber foam…

The body is so much duller in colour

They didn’t paint the metal steps here too… 

Mosaic tiles were plastered over the entire slide for this Dragon, unlike the
previous one which left it plain in the original stone (?) material. I prefer
the plain one cos your bum felt much cooler and it was smoother sliding
through it…hahah… 

These people with itchy fingers can vandalise on anywhere and everywhere!
And if you have to write and love two persons at the same time, at least
get your grammar correct! 

This older Dragon has two stairs on its body…ideal for playing catching
around the body where you can run up and down easily to escape…

Itchyfingers also visited two other mini Dragons….

A much simpler design probably for younger children as you don’t have
the uneven metal-barred body to negotiate…Itchyfingers tried this slide,
and it was really fun!

Sand covered the spiral stairs…I supposed spiral stairs were rarer in
those days so it must be such a thrilling experience for children then 

The old playground and the newer fitness area 

Peeping through the Dragon’s eye 

A second mini Dragon on a rubber foam mat 

Most of the old playgrounds had this kinda notice…Made it sound so scary
and dangerous to play  

Rubber foam mat are used now probably cos of safety concerns and easier
to maintain…But somehow it just lacks certain character…

Old versus new…Ok, let’s vote…which would you prefer to play with?
Would you choose a majestic Dragon slide….ok, maybe not as majestic
since it is a mini one…hahah…

Or a boring, run-of-the-mill and straight-forward new slide that doesn’t
encourage imagination?

The old mosaic playgrounds had been part of our collective memories. Many children of the 70s and 80s, even to the 90s, grew up playing at these old playgrounds. It would be a shame to let them be a thing of the past when new development calls for their demolition. Help to preserve these unique landmarks by simply visiting and playing with them if you have children, or if you are still a kid at heart. At least when people use them, then there will be more reasons for them to be kept for future generation to enjoy and appreciate.

For now, it’s Play Time! Let’s welcome the Year of the Dragon!

Also see related posts:
> Row, Row, Row Your Boat – It’s Play Time! #5
> Quench Thy Thirst – It’s Play Time! #4
> Critically Endangered Species – The Last Pelican in Singapore
> It’s Play Time! #3 
> It’s Play Time! #2
> It’s Play Time! #1  

The Elephants…I think this is the only one in Singapore. Have never
seen or played with one before. It comes with a separate unit of swings
and a cluster of cylindrical structures for playing catching at the side 

Pushing the elephants…

I wanted to slide down but I think these should be the highest and steepest
old slide I have seen so far…and it was wet with sand, so I didn’t try it
out…

I was surprised to see it so near the chalet that my office rented some time
ago! In fact it was just around the corner! I did go out to explore a bit but
I didn’t walk to the other side…Otherwise, I would have found this long ago!

With so many chalets around, hopefully this unique elephant playground will be put to good use and not turned into a white elephant.

The last mosaic playground that Itchyfingers visited was the bum boat nearby at Elias Mall.

Another unique design with the old bum boat that used to be a common
sight at Singapore River. This one is just next to a food court, so we were
shy to play at it…hahah… 

But actually even if we wanted to play, there isn’t much to do except climb
up this rather straight-forward stair and slide down from this end…Of
course the upright stairs is a bit challenging to climb for kids. You can
climb around the tyres too…Then you can run up the steps at the opposite
end and go down via the tyres…Repeat the workout a few times and you
may be able to lose some fats…hahah 

The short and gently sloped slide…This playground must be designed
for younger children…

A nice mosaic abstract art!

Also see related posts:
> Quench Thy Thirst – It’s Play Time! #4
> Critically Endangered Species – The Last Pelican in Singapore
> It’s Play Time! #3 
> It’s Play Time! #2
> It’s Play Time! #1 

Season Greeting with Itchyfingers’ latest creation 

Also see related post:
> Itchyfingers‘ Creation Up for Adoption 

Watermelon playground! There was also a ‘bite’ on the fruit! 

Even the see-saws were made into slices of watermelons! How cute!

Although watermelon is not a tropical fruit, but it is easily available here
and is a great thirst-quencher! 

Look at the details! 

I like the “seeds”! You can peep at your friends through them! Haha… 

Climb up the steps here and slide down from the other end!

Itchyfingers also visited another similar watermelon playground. This one
had the sandpit replaced by the soft foams for safety reason. The rubber
tyre swing was missing

This watermelon had a bigger “bite” The colour was also brighter and 
more cheerful…But in place of the watermelon see-saws were these springy
animal rides 

Even the foam mat had a slice of watermelon printed on it

Nice cheerful colours!

The slide hidden between the two slices! 

Just less than five minutes’ walk away, we also managed to find the mangosteen playground! Never seen and heard of this until we did some search online!

Somehow, with the palm trees in the background, these felt more like
coconuts than mangosteens to me! Hahahah! The swings were gone…

A mangosteen cartoon on the soft foam ground… 

I think these mangosteen playground is not as fun cos you can only run 
around and pretend to hide inside the shell. The design was much simpler
compared to other old mosaic playgrounds. Strangely, since they used
mangosteen which is the “queen” of all fruit, why didn’t they used the “king”?
I think the durian may make an interesting playground too…haha…Maybe
too spiky so not so safe for children? Hahaha…I think a lot of work to
make durian playground too…hahah 

 
Graffiti were on every inch inside the fruit…

Yes, I wish I can go back time…and start afresh….

Interestingly on our way out, we found this beautiful sculpture in the park…

One look at it, we knew it was the work of Dr Ng Eng Teng. Entitled 
“Mother and Child”, it depicts the intimate, caring and warm love of the 
mother towards the child. Another piece with similar title can be found outside
Orchard Parade Hotel. More of his work can be found in the NUS Museum

It made me start thinking…If a sculpture can be placed in a park with
children playgrounds, can’t we have a piece of old playground in a park with
other arty sculptures or even in a public area alongside buildings or museums?
As mentioned in our earlier post, the Pelican playground is one such old
mosaic playground which is slated to be demolished to give way for newer
development just like the many other older things and buildings which we
were once so familiar with …Maybe we can help to save it? Will you?

Also see related posts:
> Critically Endangered Species – The Last Pelican in Singapore
> It’s Play Time! #3 
> It’s Play Time! #2
> It’s Play Time! #1 

Itchyfingers previously assumed that all traditional mosaic playgrounds in Singapore had long given way to waves of progress and re-development of our nation; but when we accidentally chanced upon the Dover Road Pelican playground more than three years ago, we were really surprised and excited to see it! Itchyfingers visited it back then with our cameras to document it. We had such a great time reliving the memories of our childhood, and that also prompted Itchyfingers to start the series of “It’s Play Time!” to showcase other old and surviving playgrounds scattered throughout Singapore.

This was taken earlier this year (3 years have passed since our initial visit)
…with the surrounding apartment blocked vacated. Obviously not much
care and maintenance have been given to the estate, not to mention the
unused playground…The pelican has ‘aged’ so much…. :(

I remembered having a pelican playground with sandpit just beneath my old apartment at the Queenstown area. I used to play with it a lot; there was also a slide, a see saw and swings too. Like our last visit, Itchyfingers couldn’t help but start to behave like little kids, climbing and posing around the Pelican…

Oooo…holding the moon in the hand?  Or is it Dragonball?!   

Ha! I can also reach out to the moon! Hahah….The last visit I couldn’t
climb up the pelican’s mouth cos of my clumsiness. This time round, perhaps
knowing that it could be my last chance to do so, I struggled a little and
finally got up… 

Itchyfingers with the Pelican. Will this be a memory of the past?

The turtle and rabbit…I got a few insect bites here…not sure if they were
mossies or sandflies as mentioned in other blogs…

Couldn’t help but feel sad…The Pelican and other old playgrounds were part of our growing up lives…They gave us their friendship and witnessed our youthful laughter and our tears. They tolerated our abuses when we threw our little tantrums, kicking and leaving little marks on them. Now the generation that grew up playing with these mosaic playgrounds are all busy with their own adult lives; their children no longer have a chance to play with these locally designed playgrounds…Most of the mosaic playgrounds have to make way for their newer, plastic and metal, counterparts…. due to some unfounded safety reasons. Many people have forgotten about their old friends.

Last week, when I looked at the photos of our last visit to the Pelican, I was shocked to realise it was almost four months ago in August! I have planned to share the plight of the Pelican on our blog after our last visit, but somehow work and other commitments made it slip my mind! I have let the Pelican down! Not wanting to waste more time, Itchyfingers braved the heavy downpour yesterday and went to check out on our friend again. I was so relieved to see that it is still there… albeit in a sorrier state….

The rain couldn’t wash away the green algae growth on the pelican’s body…
It was sitting lonely in the rain…as if crying…”Why have all the children
abandoned me?”

I remembered during the General Election in May this year, one of the MPs mentioned about residents asking her if she can help to keep the ‘ducks’ in their area as they were memories of their childhood.

Remember these?

After visiting the Pelican, Itchyfingers went searching for the other old
playgrounds. I was thrilled to hear on tv that the MP had promised to keep
the ducks. It was only then that I realised these also survived the passing
of time…I used to sit on the duck when I was even younger…

Together with the highly stylised elephants and horses, the ducks are the
only surviving animal stools left now. It is good to know that these will be
kept and not give way to newer playgrounds

MP Josephine Teo has made a promise on national tv during the GE that
the ducks would be kept, kudos to her!

So, if the ducks can be kept for the future generation, why can’t the Pelican be preserved too? Surely it is worth keeping given its unique and iconic design, its significance to the lives of many children who had spent their childhood with it? In fact, it is even more aesthetically appealing compared to the ducks, elephants and horses and does not take up  as much space. Will it be possible to move it to somewhere else and made into a modern piece of public art instead?

The Pelican is part of the living heritage of Singapore, part of the collective
memories of many children growing up in the 70s and 80s, and maybe even
up to the early 90s. It is definitely a great loss to see it go. Will the voices
of concerned citizen be able to save the last Pelican of Singapore?

If you feel as strongly as Itchyfingers that the Pelican playground ought to be preserved for posterity, please leave your comments here. Better still, go to the “Save the Last Pelican Playground in Singapore!” Facebook page and post photos of you posing with the Pelican or other older playgrounds. We would be glad to consolidate your feedback and comments and have them forwarded to the MP, HDB and NHB. Hurry up! Time is running out!

Also see related posts:
> It’s Play Time! #3
> It’s Play Time! #2
> It’s Play Time! #1 

Wow!!! So beautiful! Look at the cute skull balconies! They look like masks too!
Do the pillars look like bones? In fact, the local name for the building is
Casa dels ossos, or House of Bones, due to this skeletal organic quality!

One of the first things at the stairway that welcomed visitors once we stepped in.
The entrance hall used to be the private access to the Batlló family residence

This modernistic staircase stood out due to its organic appearance,
like the backbone of some huge animal

The Noble Floor, the largest apartment in the building, was the former
residence of the Batlló family. I love the mushroom-shaped fireplace! 

An ergonomically designed doorknob 

The Batlló family

The beautiful window with spectacular views onto Passeig de Gràcia

The stained glass looked like shells… 

Ventilation on the window

I found the effect of light on the ceiling particularly intriguing here. In line
with the oceanic theme of the building, the ceiling was swirled like a whirlpool

The side window and the grand chandelier

Another lovely, glowing lamp

A lovely private courtyard with direct access from the Noble Floor. Too bad
it was still drizzling…If you have not noticed it yet, the windows got smaller
the higher they go. Lower floors tend to get lesser light penetration, hence they
were made bigger

Mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles. These were also found on the facade
of Casa Batlló

Nice! 

A cute model of the Casa Batlló 

As usual, Itchyfingers left our marks whenever there was a guest book
around…. 8) It was there where we saw an old but working lift

The light well at the inner courtyard was the core of the house, and the space
which allowed light and air to pervade the entire building

It was decorated with more than 15,000 tiles of different shades of blue,
which drew inspiration from the sea. I felt like I was inside a submarine!

The old lift. You need to manually open the metal gate and the wooden
door in order to use it…

Time for a ride! I took it twice!

Finally we got to the roof top with the colourful chimneys and the dragon’s
back

It was still drizzling….

The arched roof looked like the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common
theory about the building is that “the rounded feature to the left of centre,
terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the lance of Saint George 
(patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudi’s home), which has been plunged into the
back of the dragon.”

A closer look at the tiles

The other side of the dragon’s back with scales…

The loft is a service area constructed from catenary arches. The structure is
rather unusual in that it is independent from the rest of the house

Taking the stairs down…Felt as though you were in an underwater palace…

Another look up the light well…. 

Take a look again at the facade to appreciate its beauty one more time. 
This was where we were at the big window of the Noble Floor

While you are there, don’t forget to look to your left for Casa Amatller, another
modernist building. It is privately owned so its interior cannot be visited
but there are temporary exhibitions at the main entrance 

The admission charge (including audio guide) of €18,15  (about SGD$31) to Casa Batlló is higher than Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera, especially when it is much smaller. But Casa Batlló is self-financing and does not benefit from any public or private subsidies. With its unique design, Itchyfingers will still recommend a visit to Casa Batlló! Do try to come earlier to avoid the queue.

Also see related posts:
> The Quarry – Barcelona, Spain Trip #5
> A Visit to the Market – Barcelona, Spain Trip #4
> A Bird’s Eye View – Barcelona, Spain Trip #3 
> Inside the Construction Site- Barcelona, Spain Trip #2 
> The World’s Most Beautiful Construction Site – Barcelona, Spain Trip #1 

It was the first time we had to ballot for a time slot to collect the race pack, or the Race Entry Pack Collection (REPC). This was supposed to facilitate speedier collection, after which the next two days would be opened to the rest of runners. But when we went during our allocated time slot at the Marina Bay Sand, a rather inconvenient venue, we had to queue more than an hour for the pack. We found out later that people on the next two days had a much better experience. I suspect some people turned up even when they didn’t ballot for a time and somehow got through. Collection only started three days before the actual race day, leaving not much time to try out the new gear to check for any chafing and abrasion problems.

I was not sure if I could join the run especially when the doctor advised strongly against it, in case the virus attacks the heart. I had high fever, was coughing phlegm and suffered from runny nose for 10 days and it was only until last Saturday after finishing my last dose of anti-biotic that I finally decided that I would want to go ahead with the race. But I would just walk…All 21.1 km to the finishing line if that’s what it would take me.

This year, our transport folks at SMRT and SBS Transit were kind enough to provide overnight train services. So we took the train from Chinatown to Vivocity. It was such a sight to see full train of runners…

So many runners! Wow, a lot of them were in the official tee…By the way,
the ladies’ tee looked much nicer than the guys’, which had too much green and
the white slash that cut across in the middle looked odd. But I think it can be a
bit longer….

Those not using the baggage deposit service proceeded towards Vivocity. I heard
that there was a long queue which caused major delay in their starting times.
Maybe runners can consider bringing minimal valuables in a waist pouch? 

Despite taking my usual pre-race brekky of a red bean bun, my tummy started
grunting…I was getting hungry even before the race! Goodness! I didn’t
prepare any energy gel as I thought walking would burn calories slower
and I could pick up one at one of the water points later… 

6.30am and the horn sounded! But we were so far behind that I could not
even see the starting line…So Tisu Boy took this picture for me to see…
We waited for the crowd in front to slowly disperse…

Finally could see the start point! I was feeling ok so thought I shall slowly
jog across the line so as not to block others behind…

The blue sky matched the official tee! It was a great day!

I was jogging so slowly that I wasn’t feeling any strain on the heart or lungs…Maybe I could just keep at this slow pace all the way?

But barely 2 kms into the run after some up slopes and turns, we were all stucked in a narrow path!

Life’s a b*tch when you were just steps away from the starting line. We were
at a total standstill for at least 3 – 5 minutes here… It was a cool but
humid morning, so when you suddenly stopped running and stood so
close to so many sticky bodies, the air felt horrible. I started coughing here…. 

After watching the Official Half Marathon Route Video, I already had the feeling that bottlenecks would be formed as most of the roads were narrow, but I didn’t expect the first one to come so soon!!! At certain stretch, the other lane was opened up but that was for runners running in opposite directions. Few more bottlenecks followed…we were again forced to slow down, walk or stop completely for the path to clear…

Getting to 3 km took so long with the bottlenecks and my painfully slow 
pace. It was already past half an hour! How nice if we could get “sng bao”
(ice popsicle) here…The first water point was supposed to be after 4 km…
A bit too far…

Passed Siloso Beach. Too early for bikini babes…

Running towards Rasa Sentosa. Didn’t manage to catch the logo on the 
building…I was running too “fast”…hahah

Finally saw the first water point at 4 km…My stomach felt empty and I was hoping to get a 100plus for some sugary perk. But the water point was crowded, and the volunteers were only pouring water into the cups…Didn’t smell any 100plus…Since I had my own bottled water, I just moved on…Still a long way to go….

Discarded cups all over….

More upslopes ahead… 

There was no 100plus also at the next water point at about 7 km. I switched between walking and jogging as I didn’t wanna be too complacent and push too hard…

Then from far far away, I could see that finally we have reached the land
of “Far Far Away”….Many runners started to stop for photos at the entrance

It was my first visit to the Universal Studio, but I have seen so many photos
of it

Gloria! My favourite character in the movie Madagascar besides the four
neurotic penguins! I wanna go hug her! But there were people waiting for 
their turns…

There was no queue here since these were further inside… 

I wanna move it move it! I wanna…MOVE IT!

Huge crowd around the lovable Kungfu Panda, Po! No way to go nearer!

No choice, gotta DIY! Hahaha…. 

Was expecting to see Shrek or Puss in Boots but they were not around…
Shouldn’t Puss come out to promote his new movie?

But they were fast to put up this in time! The Transformer Ride was opened
only last Saturday, a day before the run…So it was one of the hottest spot
for photography

 
Since I was already so slow, might as well spend some time taking photos
as I will never pay to come in here. Too expensive and no way am I gonna
queue so long for rides!

I’m not into roller coasters as I have a weak stomach…Ok lah!! I’m a coward!

From “Far Far Away”, we ran into the exotic Egypt…

Only 8km in the run. The official video put here as 9km…

Water point outside here was cramp as the two narrow lanes were spilt for runners in the two directions. Again, no 100 plus… At this point I saw a very old uncle in a bright yellow cap slowly jogging along. That inspired me to continue moving my tired legs slowly to catch up…

Running into this car park… 

Was this about 300 metres long or more? It was a bit stuffy and hot with big buses
and cars driving in. Felt like stopping to visit the proper toilet but looking
at the queue, I think it would be a better idea to get out of here quickly…
Setting up muscle rub station here was a bad idea as the smell of the rub was
a bit choking…Didn’t notice my GPS watch lost its satellite signal momentarily
here…It was already 1:40 hour… 

Finally out! But the path was narrow again…A lot of people started to walk
from here… 

Half way there. I knew at this rate I would take more than three hours to
finish. But my aim was to finish the race safely…

I can’t remember now where exactly was the water point where we could pick up energy gel. It was supposed to be at around 11km mark before we hit the highway. There was only one table for gel and I was not sure if there were any more left for the slower runners as it was so crowded that I couldn’t even get close! But I didn’t see anyone squeezed out there with any gel, so I reckoned they must had run out of it. Still no 100plus. Saw a middle age runner lying on the ground while some other runners attended to him. I think he had some muscle cramp.

When I saw Vivocity, I was thinking of running to the shop to buy some
100 plus! Hahaha! But of course we didn’t run there. We made a u-turn
here into the highway…

Wow! I was walking and running with an empty tummy now…Value meal
sounded good…hahahah

One of the up slopes along the highway towards Marina Bay Sands. There
were so many walkers that it felt more like a walkathon…Actually it was
a bit depressing especially when there was lack of distance markers and water.
Then we had to make way for an ambulance to zoom past… 

The Flyer. Everyone was walking…Many had to stop to stretch the muscles…

It was a long stretch along the highway with many up slopes. Many people were walking but they were walking all over the place. I was also walking, but was mindful to keep to the side, if not always on my left, cos sometimes even if you were walking or jogging slowly on the left, there would be people behind pushing and bashing through. Only got to drink 100plus at the next water point, more than half way into the run. But it was complete chaos with so many runners crowding around and few volunteers to pour the drinks. I took one cup and came back to refill cos I needed the sugar.

Die die must run…Er, but she was walking leh…This year there wasn’t this
extra blank bib in the race pack for us to write encouraging words to
fellow runners… 

I can’t believe I had walked so far….Could see some full marathoners here

It was another stretch of walking and jogging until I felt strange in my tummy. Maybe it was empty too soon and for too long and the sudden feeding of isotonic drinks made it angry…Felt a bit bloated and started burping. The cough and runny nose also acted up. I felt terrible and it was here that I received a sms from Tisu Boy. Was surprised that he had just finished not too long ago…Must have been delayed by the bottlenecks…I had just crossed the 18km distance marker…Another ambulance sped pass us…At this point I was so worried that I would start to throw up and get a free ride in the ambulance…

I think this was the last water point before the finishing line. Chaotic…
More water was being poured on the table and on the road than into the cups.
We were running on wet road littered with paper cups along water points.
Runners should really try to throw the cups into designated areas! I think we
should also try to bring our own water to minimise the use of paper cups…

I was running out of water and was still feeling terrible. It was getting hot and after drinking two cups of water and resting at the side for a while, I continued walking…The last 3km was really a struggle!

The only band cheering us along the way. Maybe we were too slow and others
had already called it a day… 

It was a welcoming sight to see these familiar buildings along the highway…
We were at the last kilometre…but couldn’t see the last and most important
distance marker to perk us up…People were still walking…I called Tisu
Boy to tell him I was coming back…and started jogging again. Didn’t know
there were already official photographers ambushing there and later I saw
photos of me walking while talking on the phone! Hahahaha!!!!! Caught
in the act! 

Finally reached the old Supreme Court! I wanted to speed up but I didn’t
want to risk collapsing at the finishing line…

In any case, the path was narrow and the walkers were still strolling towards
the finishing line, blocking others…

I have finally finished the run, my second Half Marathon! Never mind about the lousy timing, cos I was so glad I didn’t have to trouble the medics!

A mountain of paper cartons welcomed us while we walked to collect our 
drinks and medal

While waiting for me, Tisu Boy took some photos with his phone. This lady,
a regular runner who often dressed up for runs, was seen in her video game
character, Chun Li’s outfit

We saw a similar fiery red wig at the department store and joked that maybe
I should wear one for the run to prepare myself to show up on the next day’s
paper as the last walker of the day! Hahah…Didn’t know I was beaten to
it by this pacer!

Well, I didn’t managed to be the last walker of the day despite walking for most of the distances. But it was just as bad, as I was among the last 10% to finish! Hahahaha!!! Took slightly over 4 hours to complete 21.1km! The last 3 km took more than 45 minutes! A relatively fast runner would have finished a full marathon in this time! Hahaha…But now looking back, I think it was stubborn of me to insist on carrying on with the race when I was still sick. I think I was lucky that my flu was at the recovering stage and I managed to calm my cramping stomach with water and a long rest, and not to push myself too hard just to have a better timing. Was shocked to read later online that a fellow half marathoner had collapsed after crossing the finishing line, and died an hour later in the hospital.

It was the last race of the year for Itchyfingers, but it was the worse one in
terms of running experience and personal performance…hahaha…. 

But the medal was nice… 

The back 

Here’s a useful guide on how to survive the Half Marathon! :p

Also see related posts:
> Keeping it Real for Real Runners
> A Refreshing Run – Safra Bay Run and Army Half Marathon 2011
> Keeping in Shape
> Men Don’t Get It – Great Eastern Women 10K
> Running Alone
> Sleep Can Wait. Beat the Sunrise
> The Fox Legacy Runs On
> The Ultimate X-Terrain Challenge – New Balance Real Run 2010
> First Marathon

In real life, Itchyfingers has also found a cat that looks exactly like the tom cat in the movie. Ginger-coloured, wide-eyed, and best of all, sweet-nature at all time. But the Puss in real life, is a girl… :p

Meet Puss, the community cat a few blocks away from mine

The people staying at her block called her ”Kitty”, but I still prefer to call her
“Puss”, which she seems to respond better when I tried both names for
testing…hahah….But she is a bit camera-shy despite being so photogenic…
hahah…so it was tough to get her to stare wide-eye straight into the camera
like the Puss in the movie…

Puss is a super sweet-nature cat! I would love to bring her home if not
because of the fact that I already have my shelled, four-legged babies! 

Yawn~

Also see related posts:
> Odd Encounter
> Working out with a Pussy Cat – Useless Invention #2
> Visiting an Old Friend

On 20.11.2011, Itchyfingers had a taste of the sweetest bottled water again after climbing 73 storey, 1,336 steps up to the helipad of Swissotel the Stamford. Like last year, Itchyfingers joined the Lovebirds Challenge for the Swissotel Vertical Marathon.

The goodie bag for the climb. Last year’s bag was better and the contents
were better too…hahah…Was expecting to get another pair of bears for
our category but was a bit disappointed to find none…Would be nice to be
able to collect one series of bears for the climb….

As usual, we reached earlier to kaypoh around…Boy, the weather was hot!

Like last year, drinks were abundant…They gave out these Vitamin Water
this time…First time to try these, we had this orange and the other clear
one. Tasted a bit like diluted sugared water…

Results were already out for those categories that started earlier… 

Remember this uncle? He’s the oldest participant for the previous few years.
What was he looking at?

Ah, uncle was looking at these photos! It was a nice gesture of the hotel
to take and print these complimentary photos for us!

No more chocolates and chicken essence hampers for this year’s prizes!

There seemed to be some delay for the Men’s Open category. Either they were waiting for the stairways to clear before starting or the VIP was late…So this was what happened….

The guys in the first line seemed to be protesting in silence by sitting down
doing their stretching…They looked like Nepalese…

Itchyfingers near the starting line  

We spotted one guy with soiled tee, shoes and compression socks. I think
he might have just done another run earlier in the morning before rushing
down for this climb. As it was a day with a rather unique date, there were
a couple of other races held today…

When the elites were climbing, there were a lot of people crowding around
waiting to see who would emerge as the champion. This year the screen
only showed one angle at the final steps to the helipad. Last year was better
as we could see more action at the stairs

Finally it was the Lovebirds’ turn!

Many had already assembled around the waiting area. This tee the guy
was wearing was for another vertical marathon, which we didn’t participate…

We din managed to get to the front of the queue this time. It was already very hot as it was close to noon. Wonder why the Lovebird category always has to start so late…We had drank so much water and visited the loo three times while waiting!

Then, finally it was our turn! My heart raced as we waited to be flagged off. Due to work and time constraint, we only did two practises before the race. But from last year’s experience, I know I must really control my pace properly…Though I tried to take it slow and steady, my heart soon started pounding harder and harder, same with my breathing. Had to fight not to look at the number of storeys climbed. At a few points we were blocked by some couples..was too exhausted to say ‘excuse me’ and maybe my body wanted the excuse to slow down too. We eventually overtook them and a few others. I started to slow down at about 45 floors…It was a mistake to take a peep at the floor numbers!

Finally, Itchyfingers saw the end of the last flight of stairs! Wanted to speed up but the legs did not do as I commanded…Claps from staffs welcomed us as we approached the finishing line! We were then presented our medals and a bottle of water. I remembered the familiar taste of this water. Someone once commented that rather than spend so much money, so much effort to climb up, we are better off taking a lift up to the highest level and spending that money for a drink at comfort. But I think it is just different when you get things so easily…Will you remember the taste of that drink you bought years later? I know I will remember my bottled water that I exchanged with sweat after climbing 1,336 steps.

But the bonus was the clear and fine sky up at the helipad! The view was even better than last year!

Beautiful weather!

Hotels and offices… 

See those colourful blocks? These are the blocks at Rocher Centre which would
be torn down to give way to the North-South Expressway soon

Can you see the Chinatown and Singapore River area? Where else can
you recognise? 

Time to try out the lomo-effect on iphone!

A picture at the finishing line! 

One more! 

Medals! Same design as last year but no more die-cut…Save cost?

The good thing about starting so late is that we were given more time to spend on the helipad since there was only the Corporate Challenge category behind us. No one even asked us to make a move this time round. Would love to stay even longer if not because it was so hot and we needed to fill our tummies!

More couples finishing…

The defending champion for the Women’s Open, Ms Suzanne Walsham, 
an Australian resident here. Her time was 8.23min! 

The defending champion for Men’s Open, Mr Thomas Dold, couldn’t make
it this year for the climb. So it was Mr Matthias Jahn who won with a time
of 7.16 min

Tokens of appreciation were presented also to the physically challenged
participants. The double amputee, Mr Mr Fernandes Dwayne, was also here
last year. We saw the gentleman in red during the Terry Fox Run early this
year 

We also found our photo on the board! Too bad it was taken while queuing
for our turn and not the one at the helipad. The polaroid was taken by
another couple who wanted to clear the last shot from his camera

It was later when the full results were out that Itchyfingers found that we were among the top 15 in our category! Hahaha…it was slow even though we had more than a minute of improvement from last year…Maybe next year we should really train harder to squeeze into the top 10? Hahaha…Then the bottle of water will taste even sweeter!

Also see related posts:
> Scaling New Height
> Taking Baby Steps
> Stepping Up @ NLB

Then suddenly the bird swooped down and started attacking at something. A look through the binos showed a big spider web, but we couldn’t see any spider except some dried leaves hanging on it. The oriole continued raiding the web but it must be quite a strong and sticky one cos the bird seemed to be having some difficulty getting passed to its prey.

The persistent Black-naped Oriole raiding at the web…

We couldn’t see any spider so Tisu Boy had a tough time taking all the actions
as we didn’t know where the Oriole was aiming for. But it seemed like he was
going for the dried leaves! A pity we couldn’t get the whole bird in the frame…
Everything happened so fast, like a flash! 

We didn’t witness the oriole with any catch from the web. He must be exhausted and didn’t want to risk being stuck by the spider web as he eventually gave up after a few more failed attempts and flew off in search of easier prey

It was only then that we could go slightly nearer to take a closer look. The web was hidden among the thick bush and there was no way we could bash in to examine closer. Looking through the binos, we finally saw the spider!

So it was a Red-tent Spider (Cyrtophora unicolor)! Itchyfingers has
read about this spider but this was the first one I ever saw it in the wild!
Red-tent Spider is a kind of Orb-Web Spider that builds what appears
to be a three-dimensional irregular web

Then on another day, Itchyfingers were at Pasir Ris Park walking on the mangrove boardwalk when we chanced upon this one at eye-level…Finally we could take a better look at the Red-tent Spider!

Wow! It was huge! I think the body must be about 20 mm long. Females are
bigger at 17 – 20 mm. This site suggests that males are rarer to find possibly 
because they are smaller and less conspicuous compared to the females.
The web of the Red-tent Spider usually has one or two curled up dried leaves
in the centre where the spider would be hiding inside 

We were totally unprepared for this find as we only had our long lens for taking birds. Imagine Tisu Boy having to step as far as possible to the edge of the boardwalk in order to focus and photograph this spider! Hahah…

Although the Red-tent Spiders are supposed to be quite common, but I think you will still have to be quite observant and lucky to find one, especially when they are found in dense vegetation in mangrove swamps. So certainly Itchyfingers didn’t expect to be third time lucky! This time we saw one at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve…and boy, what a beauty!

Look at the red colour on her body! This time we had macro lens but the
three-dimensional web got into the way so that was the closest we could go.
The spider was having her packed lunch of what looked like a silk-bundled
beetle meal! 

Also see related posts:
> Jaws – Spidey Galore #1
> Eating Its Own Kind? – Spidey Galore #2 

The government has already made plan to open up roads there and some tombs will have to make way soon. The remaining tombs will also have to be exhumed for yet another condominium projects in a few years’ time. So we were expecting to see researchers, photos and history enthusiasts racing against time to document the thousands of famous as well as unknown tombs here. But surprisingly this time there weren’t many visitors.

As we drove in, something caught our eyes…

Oh my goodness! Whose head was this?? Hahaha…Dun worry, it was 
just a rubber mask with wig laid here by some prankster…But it happened to
be Halloween when we visited…Haha…who said Singaporeans have no
sense of humour?

Soon we were at the prominent tomb with these Sikh soldiers. There was
now a paper behind one of them. So this tomb belonged to a Mr Chew
Geok Leong, a Chinese physician who died in 1939. He prepared his own coffin,
tomb and the Sikh statutes when he was still alive and kept them in one of
the servants rooms 

Even with the map, we failed to locate the largest tomb belonging to Mr Ong Sam Leong. We couldn’t find those red-and-white plastic tape left on trees by the API as markings leading to the prominent tomb. So we reckoned we were in the wrong way as we had seen on tv how the API founder, Mr Raymond Goh, brought reporter to the tomb and it seemed like a rather straight forward route. So Tisu Boy studied the map again and went into the woods to check out one more time. He came back to say he saw a huge one but it seemed to be blocked by a fallen tree. It was indeed quite tough to locate cos we had to bash through long knee-height grass before bending down to pass the fallen tree. Maybe the recent heavy rainfalls had caused the path to be obstructed by the fallen tree?

But it was well worth the effort! Not too far away from the fallen tree was a big tomb….

This was another big double tomb, but it was not the one we were looking
for. Tisu Boy, being taller, could peep behind the fallen tree and see the
much bigger tomb. So he was very sure that must be the one!

There were a pair of Sikh soldiers too! Will check out this tomb again later….
cos I was really anxious to see just how big is the largest tomb in Singapore!

Meanwhile Tisu Boy was already at the tomb waiting for me…

Oh my goodness!!! Really such a huge tomb!!!! 

This was from the back of the tomb, at the top of the hill…This site said  the
tomb is “comparable to the size of 10 typical three-room flats in Singapore” or
600 square metres!

I’m not sure about the exact size…but it was BIG!

There were patched up work with ugly white tiles among these original
ones. Obviously it is not easy to find similar substitutes today… 

In front of the tomb was this long, huge and deep ditch for drainage…
It was almost to my hip…and supposed to be 15 metres long!

A Sikh soldier by the left…

Another on the right…this one was missing part of his rifle…Ok, Itchyfingers
was not fooling around…This was for size comparison! I think the soldier
should be about 1.5 m tall… Oh by the way, if you like my tee-shirt,
you can get it from the SPCA!  8)

Tomb of Mr Ong Sam Leong (1857-1918), a prominent Straits Chinese 
businessman. He was the sole supplier of mining workers to phosphate rich
Christmas Island. Sam Leong Road in Jalan Besar was named after him

Wife of Mr Ong Sam Leong, Madam Yeo Yean Neo

Relief depicting Chinese deities lined the walls of the tomb

Besides the Sikh guards, there were other statues guarding the tomb….

I think this should be the 金童 (translates as Golden Boy)

This should be the 玉女 (or Jade Maiden)

There were a pair of these lions…

On the moat were yet another pair of lions in this different style… Can you
see the tomb behind?

From far this looked like another big tomb of some rich people, though
compared to Mr Leong’s tomb, this is quite modest. But when we went
closer to look, we realised it was actually for the 福神 which we reckoned
should be the 土地公 or the Earth Deity! Many of the bigger tombs we saw
at Bukit Brown had their own Earth Deity Shrines which were normally
about the size of a brick. But this one is as big as a typical tomb! And yes,
this is also part of Mr Ong Sam Leong tomb! 

It even has its own pair of lion statues. This style is rather uncommon…I
dun think we saw any of these anywhere here. Quite cute with two buck teeth…
hahahaha 

We went back to take more photos of the large tomb and it was only then we noticed this sign…

A small laminated namecard size card was stapled with the red-and-white tape 
on a trunk. Ong Boon Tat? So Boon Tat Street in the Central Business
Distinct was named after him? 

So the double tombs Itchyfingers saw before that of Mr Ong Sam Leong’s 
belonged to his son Mr Ong Boon Tat (1888-1941) and his wife! Together with
his brother Ong Peng Hock, they started the New World Amusement Park at
Jalan Besar before selling it to the Shaw Organisation in the 1930s

As we made our way down, we stopped by these two nearby tombs. They looked rather modern and modest…Again, there was a small sign referring this tomb to that of a Mr Ong Peng Hock…As there was no description hung on the tomb like those we saw on the previous trip, we didn’t know the relation of these two tombs to that of Mr Ong Sam Leong. But since they were all of the same family name, we guessed that they should be related.

It was only after I did some research that I realised that Mr Ong Peng
Hock was the other son. He died in 1968. Both his and his wife’s tombs were
erected by their Granddaughter according to the English inscription. As to
why the tombs were not as elaborate as his father and brother, we also
do not know

The Earth Deity shrine at Mr Ong Hock Peng’s tomb

Luckily we decided not to turn back the same way we came from but looked
for alternative way out! From Mr Ong Peng Hock’s tomb were a few steps
made of bricks, and from there we saw this well-trodden track!

Follow this path and soon we were out! This was the path I saw on tv where
the report took! How did we end up at the other unused track??

This was what we saw when we were finally out at the main road. A clear
path could be seen here and if you see this tomb circled here, you will be on
the right track

The circled tomb belonged to this Madam Tay Tam Neo

Still cannot find or cannot read map? Then look for the caretaker’s tentage 
at the left of this picture. Guarantee you wouldn’t be lost! Now, Itchyfingers
must had read the map wrongly!

Another interesting find was these four tombs near the main road not that far from the main gate. Somehow we never noticed them…

The design of these tombs was unique with a roof over them. I think these
belonged to two brothers and their wives. Only the last one at the far right
had English inscription below. According to it, it belonged to a Dr Ho Siu
Khan (1886 – 1958)

See, from the back who could have imagined they are tombs?

I was walking far behind Tisu Boy after taking photos of these tombs. Chatted with an elderly man who came in his jeep with his indian workers, carrying big boxes of paper offerings for his grandfather. Then as I walked alone leisurely, a simple tomb at a distance caught my attention. I don’t think I have seen another other tomb with a black slab of marble (?) here at Bukit Brown. There was a gentleman cleaning the tomb. A lady was waiting at the car by the roadside and I found out that the tomb belonged to the man’s grandfather. The gentleman returned after finishing his cleaning and asked if I know about the story behind this tomb. I was totally surprised when he asked if I know of Dr Sun Yat Sen and then said this was the man who helped Dr Sun with his revolutionary work in Singapore. Immediately I looked through my bino at the tomb. Oh my goodness! I was looking at the tomb of Mr Tan Chor Nam and talking to his grandson!

Tomb of Mr Tan Chor Nam 陈楚楠 (1884-1971). According to the grandson,
Mr Tan, like Dr Sun, was a forward-thinking man of his time and so he
preferred to have a simple and modern-looking tomb

The freshly cleaned-up tomb. Mr Tan had five children and the guy is
one of his two grandsons…

People in the olden days had two names…

Luckily Itchyfingers had been watching the news and also visited the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall recently when it reopened after renovation so we had heard of Mr Tan Chor Nam. According to the grandson, there weren’t much historical record about the elder Mr Tan as he preferred to have a low-profile life after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. He wouldn’t have shared with me stories about his grandfather if he didn’t think that I had already knew about the tomb from the recent Chinese newspaper report. In fact, earlier on there was a professor who came specially to look for the tomb. He was also looking for the 12 other founding members of the Singapore branch of the Tong Meng Hui, or the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, all buried in Bukit Brown. Though he was only seven years old when Mr Tan Chor Nam passed away, the younger Mr Tan was obviously very proud of his grandfather as a selfless person who, like Dr Sun, wanted the best for China and the Chinese people at that time.

Itchyfingers were lucky to have met and talked to the younger Mr Tan. I think like many younger Singaporeans who aren’t too familiar with the Chinese history, we didn’t understand the significance behind the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall and the work done by Dr Sun and his compatriots. We actually thought we were forcing the connection just because Dr Sun had three brief stay at the villa here. But after talking to someone who is closer to the man who helped with the revolution and had close ties with Dr Sun, I couldn’t help but feel that we chinese people from all over the world really owed it to Dr Sun and his friends. Without them, the men may still be wearing pigtails on their half-shaven heads and the women may still have to bind their feet, and lived under the Feudal System. Mr Tan was not sure if his grandfather’s tomb would have to give way to the road. It would really be a pity if it has to go as Itchyfingers feel that Mr Tan Chor Nam deserved to be recogonised for the contribution he had made. And what better way than to have something physical for people to come and learn more about the man rather than read about him on books?

Itchyfingers really hope that Bukit Brown can be preserved and not be exhumed for future development. Not only it is full of life with mature trees, birds and insects, there are also so many stories and histories behind the numerous tombs there, waiting for us to discover. If you have not visited Bukit Brown Cemetery, do make a trip down. If more people are aware of its beauty, historical and cultural values, maybe we can save Bukit Brown with our collective voices to the government. Singapore has already lost so much of its rich history in the name of development. Take action before it is too late!

Also see related post:
> Saving the Old Residents at Coffee Hill

When we saw this building with the unusual facade and distinctive
rooftop figures, we knew we had finally found it!

Itchyfingers were looking for Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, which
means “The Quarry” because of its stone-like appearance. It was designed 
by Gaudi and built during the years 1905-1910, and considered officially
completed in 1912

A closer look at the wrought-iron balustrades on the balconies. Each of them
is different and the undulating balconies look like a series of waves

At 9 plus in the morning, the queue for tickets was already forming. Besides the €14 adult ticket, I also paid for an audio guide as a friend who had visited not too long before us strongly recommended getting one.

The inside…

Beautiful lamp

Looking up from the atrium where natural light shone through…

Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926)

Originally built to house apartments and offices, La Pedrera is now a museum
showcasing Gaudi’s work. We took the lift up to the attic here

Once you stepped in, you would be attracted by these series of catenary 
arches that make up the attic and support the terrace… 

One of the main attractions – a model of La Pedrera

The terrace….I couldn’t wait to see this!

The model was quite well-made and detailed. Just look at these mini 
wrought-iron balustrade!

The iron gate which we din get a chance to take a clean picture cos there
were always people blocking in front of it waiting for their turns to enter
the building

Model study of the catenary arches. Does this look like those trays in
slide projectors?

Remember the hanging model in Sagrada Família? This was another example.
Under this model was a mirror to reflect its image the right-way up.
Was glad that I had the audio guide to explain more clearly on the idea

Application of the hanging model on the construction of Sagrada Família

I love this building the first time I saw this! The balconies looked like little
skulls, which reminded me of Jack the Pumpkin King in Tim Burton‘s
classic stop-motion animated film, “A Nightmare Before Christmas“.
Tisu Boy said the building was in the vicinity…I must visit this! So cute! :O

I was too distracted by the exhibition gallery and forgotten that we should have check out the rooftop terrace first before the rain came, since it was a cloudy day. Tisu Boy kept hurrying me to go up first and come back to the exhibition later. As it turned out, he was right…When we went up, it was already drizzling and it seemed to be getting heavier…

The beautiful chimneys…spoilt by the ugly railing to prevent people from
falling and the gloomy weather and bad lighting condition…. 

The staircase entrances were made to look like sculptural houses (the one
with a door at the right). Even the ventilator shafts and chimneys were 
made like sculptures of warriors. But they were generally monochromatic
compared to those more striking-coloured sculptures in Gaudi’s other works

Another staircase entrance. There were two large curvilinear internal 
courtyards providing light to the central interior 

This one should be where we looked up earlier at the ground floor

This cluster of warrior-like chimneys had this green-coloured mosaic tiles
on them which made them look like dirty mouldy mushrooms from far…
hahahah 

Luckily the rain wasn’t that heavy to block the view of Sagrada Família!

Yeah! Could see the “cucumber” from here too!

You might not be able to tell here, but the rain was really getting heavier
and it was quite chilly. Had to cut short the stay at the terrace and retreat
back to the warm interior below

I continued at the exhibition gallery to finish off what I had missed. Besides the models of buildings designed by Gaudi, there was also a section showing animal and plant specimens as Gaudi often drew his inspiration from nature.

A goat skull

An ergonomically designed door handle with an organic shape…looked
like a bean pod…hahha 

Then we proceeded to view the apartment that was decorated with early 20th century furnishings.

The dining room

The bedroom with a baby cot

There were many nice lamps in the apartment…

Old-fashioned iron and sewing machine…

Singer brand! Some people still use this today!

Super old-fashion typewriter!

The bathroom. Visitors were not allowed to go in here…maybe someone 
had tried to pee here before? :p I like the old-fashioned bronze coloured
heater…Wait, why were there two toilet bowls? 

When I saw a similar one in our hotel room, I was puzzled why was there
another toilet bowl without the cover. The one on the right is actually called
a “bidet”, and it’s used to wash your bum after doing your big business!  
For a dummy guide on how to use the bidet, see this site…  

Beside the famous Sagrada Família, which is a must-see if you love Gaudi’s work, a visit to La Pedrera is also recommended. Besides being an interesting and beautiful work of architecture, the exhibition also gives you an overview of Gaudi – his ideas and what inspired him, by showing different models of his other works. I cannot helped but wondered how did he manage to convince his clients to approve his rather radical and new ideas at his time. Either he was a very good presenter or he was very lucky to have clients with very open minds. In any case, it is a blessing to all as otherwise we wouldn’t have such beautiful buildings to visit and admire now. :p

Next time when you visit La Pedrera, try flipping through the guest book and
look for Itchyfingers’ doodlings…hahah….Oops…this gave away the date
of our visit…Gotta try to write more often to cover more about Spain!

Also see related posts:
> A Visit to the Market – Barcelona, Spain Trip #4
> A Bird’s Eye View – Barcelona, Spain Trip #3 
> Inside the Construction Site- Barcelona, Spain Trip #2 
> The World’s Most Beautiful Construction Site – Barcelona, Spain Trip #1 

Luckily we were able to park just next to the Exhibition Centre and rested for a while in the car before proceeding to the loo. Though the race venue is the furthest we had to travel among the races we joined, I do appreciate the fact that the organiser rented the whole air-conditioned exhibition centre and hence we were privileged to have the use of proper toilets.

As most of the 21 km runners were already forming up at the starting point,
both queues for the male and female toilets were almost the same. But
surprisingly the female queue moved much faster than expected. I even had
to wait close to 15 minutes for Tisu Boy. It turned out that there were only
three cubicles in the male toilets, so for those who needed to do their big
business, they had to wait longer instead of just heading to the urinals…
and apparently a lot of the guys needed to clear their bowels before running…

Did a short warm up before joining the rest of the 10 km runners. This time I decided to bring along my small camera….

Got to catch a bit of the sunrise!

At 7 am, we were flagged off! But Itchyfingers were somewhere at the back
of the line. We only crossed the starting line two and a half minutes later…

From the starting point, we ran past these metal spectators’ stand for the
Air Show…

..before exiting the gate and started running into the trail. Somehow the
trail seemed to have less potholes this year. The small slope was also
absent. But there were slightly more stones

Running towards the first one kilometre….Can you see the moon and the
aeroplane here?  

It was about another one kilometre before we exited another gate and moved on to the road…

So many planes passed by us…Ironically I missed the one which was
closest to me along the way

The weather got super hot very soon. I missed the first water point and only managed to drink half a cup of isotonic drink at the next station before running towards Aviation Park Road. This year the route towards the beach was changed slightly, which was better as it was wider. But the sign pointing to the beach seemed to come too early…I remembered it was past 6 km before we reached the sand. So for a moment I was wondering if I was running much faster than last year! This year, there was no trial run a week before the race so we didn’t have the chance to practise running on the stretch of sand…But having gone through the route twice last year, at least I was mentally more prepared to face the challenge…

Finally hit the beach! This year the running area for the beach seemed to 
be flatter and wider…The slope down towards the sea was gentler also…

But that didn’t mean running on the sand was easy! Despite moving closer
to the shoreline, I still found my right foot running on an awkward slanting
position some of the time due to the evenness of the sand. The stretch also
seemed to be longer… As usual there were many people who had to stop and
walk for this stretch

I was glad to be able to still run at a slower but consistent pace. Can you
see the lady in cheong sam? Saw her on the way near the beach sign and
had wanted to catch up so I could take a photo but alas…! Despite being
in a cheong sam, she was still faster and I also couldn’t make my way through
the people in front. There was a group of guys who were so amused that they
hastened their pace to catch up with her, probably to snap a photo too!
Could see the 7 km sign here! End of the misery soon!

Then I finally caught up with this lady in cheong sam! The weather was
getting so unbearably hot! 

Unfortunately my second cup of isotonic drink was only less than one-third full. Almost died of thirst…The last part of road running back towards the exhibition centre was totally unsheltered. The hot sun burned mercilessly on the skin. My mouth was so dry…Finally slowed down a bit to have a full cup of water at the last water point…Slightly rejuvenated, I continued pounding the long straight road, until I finally saw the 9 km sign. It was always nice to see the last distance marker!

Picked up pace. Could see the exhibition centre and then this sign. From here
it was another last 500 metres or so…

Tried to run faster but my body wasn’t too cooperative…as usual, the hot weather wasn’t too much to my advantage…Last 100 metres!

Tisu Boy, who finished so much earlier, took this with his phone camera.
He had aimed at me before pushing the button but then this 9595 guy ran
into the picture suddenly. He didn’t manage to capture any subsequent
picture of me crossing the line as the phone camera was too slow….Er, 
so does it mean I was too FAST? Hahahahahah….. 

Well, it turned out I was indeed faster than my last year’s timing – three minutes faster at 1:14 hr, though it was not my personal best timing for 10k runs. Felt a bit frustrated at not being able to break through my own timing – it has always been hovering around 1:10 to 1:15 hr, with an occasional faster time. But I guess with a tougher terrain like this, I should be happy as long as I did my best.

It was great to be back in the air-conditioned exhibition centre! So much
cooler compared to the killer heat outside! Collected the goody bag, washed
up and lazed around enjoying the cool air here before heading back outside
to take photos….

Saw Ms Cheong Sam again! Was a bit surprised when told that she
finished before me…She must had caught up when I slowed down for water
and succumbed to the heat at the last stretch…

Here we were complaining about the sun, and then there was this crazy
ang moh apparently enjoying bathing under the fireball just next to the
finishing line!

The 21 km runners were still coming in. Luckily we didn’t sign up for the
longer distance! So hot!

Tisu Girl posing at the finishing line in the Real Run green armpit tee…hahah

The goody bag with just few discount vouchers and two product samples.
The bag and tee design are similar to last year. Now I have so many of
these bags that I don’t know what to do with them…

Don’t really like this medal cos it is in shiny gold and very thin, so looks
a bit cheap skate. The design looks too busy, probably the shiny material
makes it too complicated also

But I like that they added the distance of the different stretch of the route at
the back. So, we ran lesser of the trail this year (2 km vs last year’s 4 km) and
what??? We ran 1.5km of the sandy beach? Last year was only 600 metres!
Strange cos I thought it was the same! The map also showed a similar path
along the beach…

The routes

Also see related posts:
> A Refreshing Run – Safra Bay Run and Army Half Marathon 2011
> Keeping in Shape
> Men Don’t Get It – Great Eastern Women 10K
> Running Alone
> Sleep Can Wait. Beat the Sunrise
> The Fox Legacy Runs On
> The Ultimate X-Terrain Challenge – New Balance Real Run 2010

Terracotta Warriors exhibition at Asian Civilisation Museum

Once you go up the stairs, download the Apps if you have an iPhone. It is
good that museums are embracing technology to bring a better and more
interactive learning experience for visitors

A very interesting model showing the process of making the terracotta 
warriors and horses. Here the workers assembled different parts to
make a warrior, just like our modern-day assembling line in factories! Hahah…
Clay was formed into slabs or pressed into moulds, or it could also be
coiled into body parts before being joined together using wet clay, starting
with the base and lower legs. After the basic form of each figure was
completed, facial features would be sculpted and details such as fair
and armour were added. Reminded me of the painting of the making of
buddha statues by Yamaguchi Akira in the exhibition titled, Singa-planet

The process of making a horse. Here, a worker was being punished. There
should be a plain background behind these models so that the photo will
not look so messy with the windows behind…

Get the activity sheet from the counter so that you can emboss the print
on the correct answer…Good for kids and kid-at-hearts! Haha…

According to the introductory board, “The First Emperor, Shi Huangdi 秦始皇 (259 – 210 BCE), is one of the most controversial figure in China’s history. He unified China by conquering several smaller states and established a centralised government. But he was also remembered for his brutality and his suppression of Confucianism. The discovery in 1974 of thousands of figures buried near his tomb outside Xián added a surprising dimension to his reputation. These warriors and horses were made of terracotta (low-fired clay) and originally painted in brilliant colours. In addition to his militaristic reputation, the First Emperor commissioned objects of astonishing beauty and sophistication.”

Like some of them shown here…

Bell with intertwined dragons and phoenixes on the flanges

Incense burner topped by a phoenix with a ring in its beak. Four imaginary
creatures around the edge also hold rings. The sphere consists of interlaced
serpents that form a textile-like pattern, while the base is made up of small
warriors and tigers 

This bird-shaped finial was originally decorated on top of a dagger-axe.
The bird, said to be perhaps a turtle-dove, represented longevity and authority.
I thought it looked more like a flamingo without the long legs…hahah 

Gorgeous belt hook with several dragons and serpents elegantly twisted
around one another from the 6th century BCE, Spring and Autumn period

This golden tiger with a comical grin and scrolling patterns on the body was
a military tally used in the Warring States period

Two duck-shaped belt hooks from the Spring and Autumn period. All these
are pretty tiny, so you may have missed them if you merely take a quick look

The inscription on this bronze tiger-shaped military tally shows that the 
object was used to confirm orders from the emperor. The tiger is divided into
two halves – one half kept by a commander and the other by the emperor,
who would send his half to confirm the authenticity of his order 

These are replica of the two half life-size bronze chariots discovered on the 
west side of the First Emperor’s tomb mound

The original chariots have separately cast parts, with some components
inlaid with gold and silver, and are too fragile to travel and thus have never
left China 

The enclosed carriage is probably like the one used by the emperor on his
inspection tours 

Mould for banliang (半两) coins (top right), Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE).
The First Emperor enacted strict laws to standardise coinage. The circular-
shaped with a square hole coins may have symbolised heaven and earth.
This shape remained the model of Chinese currency for nearly 2000 years.
The wuzhu (五铢) coin mould (left) were introduced under the Han Dynasty
(118 BCE – 9 CE) to replace the banliang coins of the Qin Dynasty. It was
one of the most successful coins ever and continued to be used until 621,
being found in Korea, Vietnam and Central Asia as the Han empire expanded

Then finally Itchyfingers were standing in front of the Terracotta Warriors…

Just imagine the reaction of the people who first discovered the thousands 
of terracotta figures! It must have been such an impressive sight! Itchyfingers
hope to go visit the actual site one of these days…

At the front was this impressive looking figure from Pit 1 of the First
Emperor’s tomb complex. “The distinctive headdress and tassels on the
upper chest and back identify this figure as a general. He is taller and more
imposing than the other terracotta figures.”

This light infantry officer “can be identified by their moustaches and 
headdresses. They were taller than the average terracotta soldiers but not
as tall as the general. This figure probably held a lance or spear, and grasped
a shield with his other hand. The hair and headdress are finely detailed.”

We know this is a charioteer from “the position of his arms holding reins
and the loose sleeves. The remains of 126 chariots have been found in this
Pit 2. Each was drawn by four terracotta horses, driven by a charioteer,
and accompanied by one or two soldiers.” 

Standing archer wearing no armour and only a tunic for better mobility. 
“The position of his arms shows that he was using a bow. Standing archers
usually stood behind the kneeling archers.” 

The Armoured officer “wears a cap typical of the palace guard, and this
may be evidence that the figures are the personal guards of the emperor
rather than the regular army.”

The cavalryman needed to be mobile on their horses, hence he “wears 
trousers, boots and an armoured vest. In the pits, each rider stood holding
the reins of his horse…Military texts reveal that cavalry were often used as
scouts and as tactical warriors.”

Terracotta horse

Following the death of the First Emperor came the rapid fall of the Qin Dynasty. The Han Dynasty was established in 202 BCE by Liu Bang 刘邦. However, many of the reforms were retained – like the small seal script, standardised weight and measures and revised coinage etc. Han tombs, while retaining the long tradition of burying terracotta figures, wanted to separate themselves as much as possible from Shi Huangdi. Their tombs were much simpler and the terracotta figures were also much smaller and represented many aspects of life.

“The Yangjiawan 杨家湾  terracotta army near the Changling Mausoleum
of Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty) in the northeastern
Xianyang of Shaanxi was discovered in 1965. The occupants of the Yangjiawan
tomb were supposedly Zhou Bo and his son Zhou Yafu of the early Han Dynasty.
Both of them were high-ranking military officials. A total of 2,549 terracotta
figurines were unearthed from the funerary pit, including 583 cavalry ones,
1,965 infantry troops and music-playing ones, and one commanding figurine.
The total number of troops and horses was said to be over 3,000 at the
time of excavation.”

Pottery animals excavated at Yangling, the tomb of the fourth Han emperor,
comprised of both the males and females, like this hen and rooster shown here.
This ensured a continual supply of food for the emperor in the afterlife. Han
burials emphasised the ordinary aspects of life, especially agricultural
activities 

So you see, this exhibition “sets the First Emperor’s terracotta warriors in a wider context, by examining the period that led to the creation of a unified China, as well as the legacy of his tomb in the later Han Dynasty.” Even those relative new tombs in our own Bukit Brown have stone sikh soldiers guarding them! Quite an interesting exhibition indeed. So if you have not visited this blockbuster exhibition, please grab your last chance this weekend! Admission is FREE for all!

Also see related post:
> Come See! Come See! Come See Before it’s Too Late! – The Kangxi Emperor Exhibition

Itchyfingers were at Bukit Brown Cemetery, also known as Kopi Sua in Hokien, meaning the Coffee Hill.

It was the first time Itchyfingers bumped into people riding horses, though
we heard from friends that they saw them before. These riders should be
from the nearby Bukit Timah Saddle Club. Oooo….were those compression
socks for the legs?

Bukit Brown Cemetery was officially opened on 1st Jan 1922 until its closure in 1973. Itchyfingers always knew that some of the tombstones at Bukit Brown Cemetery were quite spectacular in terms of size after being introduced to the place when we started doing birdwatching.

One of the most prominent tombs with two Sikh soldiers guarding it.
You won’t miss it as it sits just next to the road

Wealthy businessmen used to hire Sikh guards in old Singapore. So it is no
surprise that they would like to be safeguarded by these brave soldiers in 
their after lives

The tomb belonging to a Mr Ong and his wife

But what we didn’t know is that there are so many well-known and prominent pioneers of early Singapore residing under the earth at Bukit Brown Cemetery. Besides this big tomb with Sikh guards, there are also many other big ones along the road. We used to only look at them from far, as most of the tombs are not that well-maintained and there are a lot of overgrown vegetation. The possibilities of mozzies attack also put us off from checking them out up close.

Besides the big tombs, there are also a lot of smaller and nameless ones…
This one actually has the shape of the coffin…

Another one. Strangely, most of the tombs at this side of the road face the
reverse direction from those at the opposite side…I thought in Chinese geomancy
they believe it is good feng shui to have tombs to be facing the south, or 坐北向南

A very simple grave

A more elaborate one with colourful tiles

Peacock tile at the side of the tomb

A boy’s tomb. Interesting cos this has the western angel figure as well as
the oriental dragon figure 

It was only after various media reports of the many famous residents there that we knew about them. It was also reported that the biggest tomb in Singapore can be found there. Recently there were more news reports on Bukit Brown Cemetery as the place has been designated to be exhumed to make way for future development. So Itchyfingers felt we had to go and take some photos before it is gone, just like many other historical places in Singapore.

Itchyfingers were walking and taking photos when we saw a paper hung on
one of the big tombs…

Oooo…? Who put this up? So this tomb belonged to Mr Hu Shien Nien, a
director of OCBC Bank when it opened in 1919

The tomb looked quite new and well maintained actually…Maybe the
descendents did some “upgrading” work…. 

Then some of the other visitors also joined in to check out the tomb. Then one guy in another group took out a big geomancy compass and put it near to the tomb before uttering something like, “this tomb (feng shui) is good until 2013 (or was it 2015?)”. I was kind of shocked actually. Then I saw one family with maps in hand discussing about which tomb they had visited. I asked them where did they get the map from, and they told me it was distributed by the organiser of this DIY walking tour, the API, and generously offered me one of their maps as they each had one.

So, thanks to them, Itchyfingers were able to follow the map for our search for these famous tombs cos some of them were located on higher ground and quite secluded.

So following the map, we looked for tombs with such temporary A4 size
information hung on it. This belonged to Mr Ang Seah Im 汪声音. A car park
and road were named after him 

But other than that, couldn’t find any more information about the man. The
tombs had been given a fresh coat of paint, possibly from the descendants
or maybe the founder of API, which has been actively looking and 
documenting tombs here 

His was one of the few which had english carvings. Maybe this was added
in later for the benefit of later generation as many people nowadays may
have difficulties reading the chinese inscription 

Tomb of Mr Cheang Hong Lim 章芳林 (1841-1893), a philanthropist and 
Chinese community leader. Places named after him include Hong Lim Park, 
Hong Lim Market, Cheang Wan Seng Place, Cheang Hong Lim Street 

His official Qing Dynasty Imperial Title, or the First Ranking Official, was
carved on the tombstone. The original graves of the family were exhumed
from the Hong Lim family burial ground off Alexandra Road, near to the
current Mei Ling Street. The area at that time was called Bo Beh Kang,
which meant “No Tail End” in hokien 

Tomb of Mr Gan Eng Seng 颜永成 (1844-1899), a philanthropist and Chinese 
leader. He founded Gan Eng Seng School and helped to start the Thong Chai
Medical Institution 

His Qing Dynasty Imperial Title was the Fifth Rank

His wife and son were buried next to him

Another big but simple, well-maintained tomb of Mr Tan Ean Kiam (1881-1943)
with his wife. He was a Chinese community leader, philanthropist and founding
member of OCBC and Tong An Association. He and his son Tan Tock San were
also on board management of Chinese Chamber of Commerce and other organisations.
Tan Tock San was also founding chairman of Tan Kah Kee foundation. Ean Kiam
Place in Katong and Tan Ean Kiam Building in Raffles Place were named after him

A statue at the tomb

Tomb of Mr Tan Kim Ching (1852-1892), son of Mr Tan Tock Seng. A
philanthropist and leading Chinese merchants in Singapore, he was also
Consul of Japan, Thailand and Russia, as well as a member of the Royal
Court of Siam. Kim Ching Street was named after him 

Triple tomb of the Lim Family. The mother’s tomb is at the centre. On the
left is the son and the right is the daughter-in-law

There are very intricate and well reserved carvings on the tombs…

The mother’s tomb

Another famous Lim Family. Mr Lim Chong Pang 林忠邦 (1904-1956) was
buried together with his wife, mother and brother. A Chinese community
leader, he was involved in the movie industry. His father is the Pineapple
King Lim Nee Soon 林义顺. The last male descendent of the family passed
away in 2009, thus ending the Lim’s family line

Tomb of Mr Lim Chong Pang’s brother, Mr Lim Chong Kuo (1902-1938)  
on the left and their mother, Mrs Lim Nee Soon (1884-1942) on the right.
He was married to the daughter of Tan Kah Kee, another philanthropist.
Chong Kuo Road was named after him while Peck Hay Road was named after
Mrs Lim 

As Itchyfingers were taking a break, we saw an elderly lady walked down from one of the trails with another lady. After the other lady left, she smiled to us and we exchanged morning greetings. Then out of the blue she told us, “By the way, I am Lee Kuan Yew’s niece.” We were still munching our rotis and were a bit taken back as to why would she wanna tell us that, so we didn’t give any expected or diplomatic responses. Hence there was this awkward moment of silence before she joined some other people. I think she must be thinking that we were so rude… :p

It was only later when we followed the map up the trail up the hill that we finally understood why the sudden introduction from the lady….

Tucked at a corner, this tomb is considered modestly small and simple
compared to the many bigger ones we saw. We might even missed it if not
for the red-and-white tape marking left by API

This is the tomb of Mr Lee Hoon Leong 李云龙 (1879-1942), grandfather
of Singapore’s longest-serving former Prime President, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
He helped to donate to school funds such as RI, ACS, SJI etc

No wonder the lady told us she is the niece of Mr Lee! She must have thought we had already visited this tomb! Wonder if the Lee Family still visits this tomb?

Just next to Mr Lee’s tomb was this tomb of the 72nd generation of
Confucius Family…API must have done a lot of research work to be able to
mark out all these famous people’s tombs!

Besides these famous people, there were also other tombs that we found interesting…

This one has a private gate leading to the tomb. At the entrance were two
stone benches for visitors to rest. It belongs to a Mr Gao’s wife

Must be from a rich family too. This was dated only 1942

On the map, there was a 5 Cats Tomb that really made Itchyfingers very curious and we were very eager to find it. Was it some rich family’s pets tomb? Did they really bury five cats underneath?

When we finally found it, we were puzzled initially as it had the name of
a husband and wife. Then we realised why it was called 5 Cats Tomb….

Because on the grave were five figures of lions. Lions are from the cats family,
that’s why they put it as 5 Cats Tomb…hahah….Can imagine the lions must
be quite pretty with all the colours 

Nearby we also saw another tomb with sikh soldiers…

Interesting how the plant climbed up this rifle to his hand…So whose
tomb was he guarding?

We walked in and found three of these tombs in a seemingly private area.
It was quite a big space and I wondered why these weren’t marked out
on the map. They were all covered with overgrown vegetation… 

Over at the ‘exit’ of this area was another sikh soldiers. They look different
from each other 

Closeup. You could still make out the faint carving of the pupils of the eyes…

We were trying to follow the map to the largest grave that belonged to Mr Ong Sam Leong, but somehow we missed a turn and couldn’t find it. But we found these big ones instead…

These three tombs caught our attention cos they had very big area in front
of each of them 

Look at the amount of space they had….who were these people and how
were they related? 

There were just so much interesting tombs to be discovered. While we followed the map in search of those rich and famous old residents, we were also intrigued by some other equally huge ones or others with interesting designs and figurines. Couldn’t help but felt a sense of sadness that these would soon be gone. Such a waste given the rich cultural and historical values behind these tombs. The government may have already decided and planned for the future use of this vast piece of land sitting in prime location, but if we the people think that Bukit Brown Cemetery is worth keeping for our future generation, maybe with our collective voices we can try to appeal to the government and make another Chek Jawa happen? Even if we don’t care about the dead, how about the living? There are a lot of old and beautiful trees around the cemetery, and with these come pretty birds and animals that made the cemetery their home. Do we want to take all these away from them like what we did to the many forested areas in Singapore? Where will they go then? Itchyfingers will be back again soon to look for the remaining famous tombs marked out by API that we didn’t manage to find, especially the huge tomb of Mr Ong Sam Leong. We will also be checking out the wildlife there again on our next visit. Do stay tuned!

Is this a Christian’s tomb?

Also see related post:
> Permanent Resident #1

With its entrance at La Rambla, it was almost impossible to miss this market

The Boqueria Market has its history dated back to 1217. But “it was not until 1826 that the market was legally recognised, and a convention held in 1835 decided to build an official structure. Construction began on 19 March 1840. The market officially opened in the same year, but the plans for the building were modified many times. The inauguration of the structure finally took place in 1853. A new fish market opened in 1911, and the metal roof that still exists today was constructed in 1914.”

We were first attracted by its colours – the rows of cured hams hanging high up the stalls; the hustle and bustle of the people activities there. Well, when La Bouqueria started, it was a meat market. So it was not surprising to be greeted with meat stalls when you were there. But this was too much for Itchyfingers…

Oh my goodness! Instead of the usual cut meat, they had the whole carcasses
of little piglets displayed in the fridge openly!!! 

My goodness! Dun they look like little babies? I think they only chopped them 
up when customers asked for the different parts…see the leftover hind legs
and some ribs and the piggy’s head! Gosh! Itchyfingers don’t take red meat
at all so looking at carcasses of these mammals always make me a bit sick…
what’s more these were cute and cuddly piglets just not too long ago... :O
Dared not go too near to see….

We quickly went inside to seek some comfort at the fruits and veggies stalls… :s

I have never seen such tomatoes before…look like pumpkins from far…hahah

But seemed like every corner we went to, there would be some ham stalls…

There were so many different flavours…We also saw how the owner sliced
them for customers using something that looked remotely like wood shaver…
hahah 

Say cheese!

Nice setting for the eggs…

Dried fruits…

..versus these that were soaked in syrup and coated with sugar…I can feel my
tooth aching…I think nothing beats the fresh ones! Bought some nice and
cheap strawberries…

Wow! Spanish instant noodles! 

Spain is famous for its seafood…

Most were so big…look at the big scallops…Too bad I am also selective
when it comes to seafood…so these were not tempting to me at all..hahah

All sorts of fish. There were stingrays too!

Big cuttlefish…compare their sizes with my itchyfingers!

Sole Fish! I just realised the chinese name is 比目鱼

Wonder what fish was this?

Besides fresh ones, there were dried fillets like these

(Warning: For those who love furry four-legged animals, the following photo may cause some discomfort.)

Then as Itchyfingers were happily munching the fresh fruits we bought, suddenly we saw something even more awful…This was the first time we ever saw these….

Rabbits! Skinned rabbit carcasses displayed in fridge! Initially we didn’t
know what were these until we saw the ears! My goodness…Even though
I know there are people who eat rabbits, but to see them in the flesh like this
was a big shock…Could see their toned thigh and buttock muscles so well!
And the sign had to be a cute furry rabbit in suit…

We started our visit to La Boqueria with a full view of piglet carcasses and ended it with these rabbit carcasses! Gosh! Itchyfingers had to get out of there!

Also see related posts:
> A Bird’s Eye View – Barcelona, Spain Trip #3 
> Inside the Construction Site- Barcelona, Spain Trip #2 
> The World’s Most Beautiful Construction Site – Barcelona, Spain Trip #1