Haw Par Villa Revisited (21st March 2014)

Here I am at Singapore's Haw Par Villa after 20-odd years!

This is the first trip here for my daughters and the last time I was here I was about their age!

Other names for Haw Par Villa are Tiger Balm Gardens and 虎豹別墅.

The entrance stands majestically in the middle for a gentle slope.

Seems like they have maintained the structure well over the years.

The car park area at the foot of the hill just before the entrance.  Parking lots are not a lot but as the visitors here are not a lot as well, it's easy to get a vacant parking space.  Parking fee is $5 per entry.

The sign board that greeted us right after the entrance looks new and nice.

There are quite a number of outdoors displays.  Many are nice for taking pictures with them.

Here are more pictures of the outdoor displays:

Many displays come with description sign boards that explain the moral of the stories behind them.

There are nice sceneries to immerse oneself in also.

And finally, we arrived at the iconic attraction of Haw Par Villa - The 10 Courts of Hell.

Inside are the displays of what sufferings one will go through after death. The level of sufferings depend on how bad one's deeds that one has done before one's death.

The scenes are just too gruesome to mention here. I will leave it to your interpretation and imagination.

With the tenth court of hell seen, we made our way down the slope and exit out to pick up our car.

It's a memorable and educational trip for the kids while it's down memory lane for the adults.

Singapore - Our Garden City?

Singapore has long been known to be a "Garden City".
Credit to the government who has put in much effort in it.

Is Singapore really that beautiful?

Yes!
If you take into account the super clean streets and roads and the nice greenery plants and trees throughout the country.

No!
On some occasions, I would think otherwise!

Look around you the next time you commute to work or school.
Here are some common sights you will see:

Singapore is so "dynamic" to an extent that you see changes and improvements to the buildings, roads, transport system on a daily basis.

During your short commuting to your workplace or school, I guarantee you will see several of these sights along the way.

Especially with the ever-constructing MRT system, such sights are here to stay for years to come.

If you take these into account, it's not that beautiful anymore.

Singapore Identity - Neighbourhood Coffeshop

Everyone I know knows that I'm a coffee lover.
One of my favourite places to have coffee is at the neighbourhood coffeeshop. Or "kopi tiam" as we are calling it in Hokkien. No, it's not called a Food Court as so many have called it. I hate Food Court.






The uncle or coffee boy that serve the coffee will greet you with familiar Singaporean Hokkien accent. He will remember your usual order of kopi.

Now, with everywhere employing Chinese Nationals from China to work in coffeeshop, our normal sounds like "kopi", "kopi o", "kopi siew dai", etc has suddenly become so unfamiliar.

The worst is some coffeeshop is converting to Food Court Style where they don't serve the coffee to you anymore. You have to order it at the counter.

Yes, the Chinese from China are mostly polite and do their stuff well.
But, we are losing our Singapore Identity in this area, as well as my morning coffee enjoyment.

Sad.

Thoughts on Car Accidents in Singapore

So, I was driving as usual to work as one of the many early birds.
Many of us came out early in the hope of avoiding paying the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) when it starts when rush hour in that area begins.

It would be a usual "free entrance" for me as I would have gone through the ERP gantry before it starts charging.

But alas, it was not as expected today. I drive on 4 expressways every morning to work: PIE -> KPE -> ECP -> CTE

This day, I encountered an accident on PIE, KPE and ECP!
3 car accidents on the same morning at the same time. Obviously I got charged unwillingly at the ERP gantry!


And I wonder why car accidents happen so frequently in the past months. I encountered car accidents like once a week for the past one month or two.

I'm guessing one cause of it is the increase in the number of cars in recent months (before the authority decided to reduce the COE quota).

Let me put it this way:

More cars on the road ->
congestion during peak hours ->
increased ERP charges and lengthened operating hours at the ERP gantries ->
drivers rushing to beat the ERP gantries before they start charging ->
more accident-prone



In my opinion, increasing ERP rates and lengthen the operating time is not killing the root cause for car accidents and congestion. Reducing COE quota is a good one, and I applaud that.

However imagine this:
Reducing COE quota ->
Less people owning cars ->
More congestion on public transport!

My conclusion and opinion:
Ultimately, reducing COE is not a perfect solution. Slow down the increase in population is a good solution. No, I'm not saying reducing the birth rate. Birth rate should still increase. You know what I mean....