A Couple’s Journey

Before we headed off on this trip, we had looked at other peoples blogs about thier travels.  To try to see what others experienced, found, discovered and enjoyed.  One theme kept reoccuring which was to explore things, places which few had discovered before. To experience them in their unchanged, unspoiled state.  The thing I am starting to see is that for every person that gets inspired or sees the light, there are countless others who make mountains out of mole hills, pretends to see, experience things which they want to be more than what they are.  Which reminds me of these three young girls having a conversation at a table next to ours one night a few months ago.  When I say young maybe late teens early 20’s.  They were talking about being vegatarians and the bad things people do to animals.  Also how they stay away from foods with chemicals, blah, blah, blah.  Well one young lady, I think the youngest, was going on about how she “Was like totally against hurting animals, that it is like hurting mother nature and who she so you know like really cares about stuff like that”.  She continues by stating ” That is why I like only eat veggies and really enjoys eating xyz.” To which here older friend (I think she was probably 6 months older), probably the ring leader of the trio, said “You know like that has some chemicals added by the big pharmacutical companies that what to hurt the planet.” To which the young jedi replies “That is so wrong!!”  So I realize people at that age are trying to find themselves and all, but sometimes the level to which they elevate their ideas is crazy.  Not to mention I can’t believe PEOPLE STILL TALK LIKE THAT!!  Anyway not to bash on vegatarians at all, but clearly this girl wanted to appear to her friend that she was somehow deep and really in touch with her beliefs.  Much the same way some people I think feel that venturing off the beaten path is the way to real enlightment or seeing the coolest things!  It is not always the case, everyone is different, not everyone has to go into isolation to compose a classic novel or find the universe.  Not every wonderful thing on this planet can’t still be just as wonderful even with millions of people seeing it.  Commercialization isn’t all bad, does it go a little too far yes ie Bali, but a little intervention by people to help bring foriegners to see something can be a good thing. 

Alright my psych rant is over. It probably doesn’t make much sense, but hell I took sociology and some other behavioral science class which wasn’t psych!!  So back off the analysis 🙂

My point is this! Today we decided to try something different.  We were going to see a part of Singapore most tourists don’t see during a short trip here.  Alright granted this place was printed in a tourist book, as something to do if you want to experience something outside the city.  Something which shows Singapores past, not ancient past, but farms, organic farms, fish farms, etc.  Okay so it was in a guide book and not something completely unspoiled, but come on we like our lattes, we are taking small steps out of our comfort zones.  We may leap out, but today was only going to be a small step.  It would be fun, go meet the nice local farmers, fisherman, experience the friendly Singaporeans living out of the city, sample some home grown fruit and maybe learn a few things about life on a farm.   So off we go into the unknown, taking a 45 min train ride to the northern part of Singapore, up near the wetlands.  Surprisingly when we get there it seems to be closer to tall city like buildings then we thought, but hey we still have to catch a bus there.  They even have a express bus, to go see all the farmers places, since they belong to some sort of co-op.  We have to wait a little over an hour for the bus, luckily the bus does a set route and returns to each stop every hour and a half.  So plenty of time to look around at different farms, chat, sample fresh fruit and juices, doing some walking in the wetlands, etc.  Once on the bus we see that not to many people go here as there are only 5 other people and we are the only Westerners.  Cool this should be fun, leaving the city for the wide open country side!  As we are leaving the train station, the bus driver who speaks almost exclusively in chinese drives us through an industrial park.  Lots of car parts, computers, warehouses and not a pretty area.  Thankful within 10 minutes we are crossing a dam into the wetlands.  The view from the bridge is beautiful. There is a small park on the side looking over to a Malaysia city on the other side of the water.  Once we pass the park we are hit with fence and signes that state that these are protected area, showing a man with his hands up and a machine gun pointed at his chest.  Hmm very interesting.  Now are finally in the farm area.  Well I am completely shocked at what I see.  It looks like we are back in the industral area.  All we see is warehouses full of fish ponds, out of the 15 stops there was only 3 or 4 of them that was not fish farms.  Even the Aero-gardening was warehouses with some green houses.  There was one stop on the bus route that was completely tourist centeral. Ok there did not look like there was any people there but this place had restraunts, a mini putt-putt, gift shop, the whole nine yards.  I am sure there was a farm back there somewhere behind all the tourist areas.  Maybe it was due to the weekend, who knows.  It appeared this place is more for companies to drive big big trucks in and pick up lots of stuff, then sell to the general public elsewhere.  Where are the pick your own fruits and veggies, where are the people selling samples of whatever?  I can’t believe they even built a resort just for people to stay out here.  To do what I have absolutely no idea!!  The few people on the bus get off at the fish farms.  Which at the end of this hour and a half tour we found out they were interested in the big fish you see in front of some asian restuarants.  The big colorful fish, apparently the patterns on some of them are mirror images on both side of the fish.  This makes them more expensive ($7000 to $80000)!!!! So basically this tour is targeted at a very select few people who either will drop mad money on a freakin fish or people who really like to look at plants that can grow without soil aero-gardening or something like that.  Thankfully this only cost us $5 dollars and 4 hours!!  So beauty is definetely in the eyes of the beholder, to each his own or whatever cliche you wish to use.  But come on, this was pitched as a place to  get out of the city, learn something, buy organic fruits and veggies!!  So not!  I think I will wait for more tourists to go there, allow some commercialization to go on and then maybe it will be worth wild to see.  Sometimes places that are rarely seen or visited because there really isn’t any reason to see it!!  I know not everywhere will be like the secret beach Lionardo found, but Kranji is not yet ready to be seen by just about anyone.  So feel free to give this place a pass if you find yourself in Singapore.  The train ride out there was nice, maybe just do that and have a walk through the wetlands.  Thanks for listening and goodnight! 🙂

Tags: Singapore

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 3:37 am and is filed under Singapore. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.