Quick recce in the morning

I rode up to Kent Ridge Park to survey the place in order confirm the routes for the Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail on Sun 23rd July 2006. Site visits are always necessary and biking up made it all that more enjoyable.

SACA is having the competition rather soon after prepping the trail and I decided to make things easier by minimising the crossings with the new mountain bike trail.

Next year we can plan better. For now, if both walkers and riders are alert on the trails, we'll manage.

A section of the forest was stripped, possibly for the plantings NUS will be doing, as its next to our plot. Looked scary though, whole place stripped down like that. Better find out as our visitors are sure to ask. But at least I got to take some profile pictures on Adinandra dumosa.

My bag was laden with computer, camera, documents and spare clothes and this was heavier than I thought! The blazing sun didn't help. Though I survived, my poor shape made competing with the bus out of the question this year.

First posted on Otterman speaks, 13 Jul 2006.

Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk this morning

While the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore: Kranji Mangroves team were on their way to Sungei Buloh this morning, some of the Raffles Museum's Pasir Panjang Heritage guides were heading down south to join Stella Wee of National Archives in welcoming visitors and finding lost souls at Harbour Front.

I had an old timer and long-time resident in my group who added his own stories to the guiding - this is always fun for the guide as it makes the session more conversational and is a rare opportunity to learn while guiding.

This time, the walk ended at Reflections at Bukit Chandu with a wonderful surprise - an enactment by a drama company. They did a good job, I thought, from the little I saw, although the heritage guides found themselves skipping content to make it to Bukit Chandu in time for this session.

I skipped the second session to donate blood but the others told me they went through the enactment and our biggest guide obediently knelt when yelled at by a 'Japanese officer' - the actor savoured the moment when the rest followed suit. We later suggested the gravity of the situation might have had him confused with his Catholic mass, but we'd better continue that investigation tomorrow. Wish I was there to see it, but I really feel that was probably just sympathetic acting.

Although I will miss the Kranji Commemoration Ceremony, the Pasir Panjang Heritage guides and Adrian Loo (Changi Heritage) will be at the ceremony.

First posted to Otterman speaks, 03 Sep 2005.

Biking the Heritage Trail

During the Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk yesterday, we provided a bus pick up point at Buona Vista MRT Station. The bus would bring participants to Kent Ridge Park Car Park B (the one with the tank) where guides from St. Andrew's Junior College's Green Club and museum volunteers (Toddycats) waited to begin guiding.

With the SAJC students competent enough to run the guiding session (it was our second weekend), I decided to meet the participants at the MRT station and get them up the buses myself.

So I found and packed everyone on the my registration list up the bus, waved them off, then raced the bus to Kent Ridge Park - this meant struggling up the steep hill three times - I really felt the weight of my iBook in my pack and the emptiness of my stomach from missing breakfast (but I have reserves!) The bus driver grinned at me as I laboured up Vigilante Drive, stuck his hand out the window to wave to me in my agony as he breezed by, unknowingly the victor! Needless to say, I lost this race every time.

Later, I'd try to beat the bus from Bukit Chandu back to the MRT by taking a short cut through the edge of Normaton Pond and Science Park 2. Happily, I managed to beat the bus once!

I tried to spin on low gears as much as possible and may have succeeded - thankfully the knees aren't aching today.

And I threw in some guiding for good measure.

First posted at Otterman speaks, 26 Jul 2004.

Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk

Love the poster!

The third and last day of the Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk will be conducted tomorrow by students from SAJC and Todddycats!/Raffles Museum volunteers keeping an eye on things.

The St. Andrew's Junior College students from their Green Club have done pretty well. And even with me having to cancel training for them in June when I fell ill. In fact the groups were pretty much left alone by Todddycats after the few training sessions. They have clearly demonstrated that with adequate training, they can do an excellent job.

That's really encouraging!

During the walk, guides introduce the flora, fauna, life in the 1960's, 1900's and the Battle of Pasir Panjang. The route is a shorter version of what I usually conduct with the help of the Todddycats!, annually, in February.

I just hope it doesn't rain. There are window-rattling winds in the west right now, and I hope it blows over before dawn.

Well, we'll see.

First posted on Otterman speaks, 25 Jul 2004.

Kent Ridge or Pasir Panjang?

When I first began offering walks on the Ridge in July 2002, I called the series the Kent Ridge Heritage Walks. And offered the walks to the NUS community.

So why this gradual switch to Pasir Panjang?

Well, in order to establish an NUS interest in the walks, our address, Kent Ridge (which I use as "city" when filling in forms), was a useful place to begin with. Few realised the origin of the name, nor that it was only half a century old, and a relative newcomer to the history of the Ridge.

The original name for the area, Pasir Panjang actually means "Long Beach", and isn't unique to the region as many other beaches bear this name (e.g. on P. Bintan and P. Redang).

But it is the name of this ridge and shore behind NUS and its about time I reverted to using it.

And no better time than Heritage Fest.

First posted at Otterman speaks, 05 Jul 2004.