Did you hear the good news? Our government plans to re-create the Kallang River that used to flow through my kampong. I am talking about the river that I blogged about a few times (see links below) and which helped me to bag a $100 Harvey Norman voucher.This river used to meander through our kampong from around Braddell Road to Upper Thomson Road so much so that Lorong Kinchir traversed it 9 times. That’s why the kampong folks referred to Lorong Kinchir as Kow Tiao Kio in Hokkien. Now it is just a straight (boring) concrete canal running from Thomson Road to Braddell Road. They are going to pump in $76m to turn the present concrete canal into a meandering waterway.
I don’t think the National Parks Board has the interest of the oldies in mind when they embarked on this project. But I trust that the National Heritage Board would do the right thing and contribute some dead chickens when this river is completed to make it a truly nostalgic experience for the older Singaporeans like us.
Previous posts about the “Dead Chicken River”
2 comments:
When this river(more of a stream) meandered through the kampong, it was more interesting. It passed through nine small bridges. People then were very territorial. The huge kampong were in actual fact divided into sub-sections, each controlled by different kampong heads (not unlike tribal chiefs), somewhat like a triad setup. Folks from different sectors would not dare to mess up in each other territory. Kampong life was sometime disrupted by localised gang activities, but usually the village head was able to keep things under control. During wanyang shows, hooligans would be throwing their weight around trying to impress the young ladies watching the wanyang, but only in their own ward. Should they dared moved over to wanyang staged in another ward, they were guaranteed to be bashed up. However, there was an unwritten rule for the whole district, as long as the 'river water' did not mix up with the 'well water' everything would remain fine, and life went on as per normal, if not, things would start to happen.
Congrats Chun See! Its not bad to win a $100 Harvey Norman voucher as a consolation prize for your blog submission. Happy shopping!
Its heartening to know that the remaining few rivers we have in Singapore are given a new lease of life...keep them environmentally clean and provide good, natural fishing ground for recreation.
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