Ah ..ha.. got it !
As far as I knew, forest with natural vegetation are plenty. There were tigers before the WWII, mousedeers, civet cats, wild boars, monkeys, crocodiles etc. Now we only have monkeys and squirrels. One day we spotted a huge turtle in the rainwater canal and we ?adeptly? called it the ?Lock Ness ? monster !.
Our kampong folks, when escaping the Japanese soldiers, hid in the jungle.
My mom saw a pair of ? lights? at a distance.. she knew it was a
tiger and prayed for it to go away. She also encountered ?green jumping lights?
and said these are ?ghost? lights, perhaps it might be the spirits of the forest.
Interesting thing they did, they started plucking the grass under their feet and
the lights get lower and lower till it disappeared..
In the early years, we lived in single storey houses , these are not ?slumps? as we read about Indonesia or India.. but houses with own ?compound?. Several
such compounds will form a village or we called it ?kampongs?.
Kathy may have stayed in special compound, we called it ?Black and White? and are preserved houses. They are very popular with expats here ? not cheap though. Rental can be from Euro 5,000 to 10000 a month.
Kathy, can you tell me where you stay and I will seek it out.. It may still be around.
Gillman Heights used to be populated by English Army personnels.
Houses back then are constructed with dried palm leaves (known as atap leaves) as roof and real timber for pillars, beams and wall ? these are painted white. Our floors are plain cement and we fill it up with one or two pieces of traditional furniture from China. ? it is very valuable antique now ? I still kept one.
Within the compounds, we would have our fruits trees such as durians, rumbutans, mangoes, mangosteen, bananas, custard apples, soursops, and many more. We have our own home grown greens , farm poultry and diary,
fresh fishes are plentiful cuz we are surrounded by sea.
Treatment for ills:
For constipation, we would gather some weeds and grass, boil with brown sugar,
down 2 to 3 times, and it was gone.
Stung by bees ? easy fix.. get the honey and rub on it.
Skin disorders, boils .. gather some herbs and weeds, boil it and bath in it
several times and it subsided.
Cancer, diabetics, kidney problems, all these are unheard of . sounds like a dream? so distant.. no? it was real?recollecting my childhood days.
Now, all these kampongs are gone. In it places are all the highrise.
up to 50 storeys ? housing, offices-cum- shopping.
Our gardens and playgrounds are on the.. maybe 10th or 30th floor
or the roof top of the shopping centre.. there is always a niche somewhere
up there for the office workers to relax and have a stick. .
Our National Library, located in the city.. about 16 storey high, has many gardens , 2 are opened to public .
The roof top of commercial buildings are converted to rooftop gardens for
relaxation.
The National Park Board (Npark) has done a fantastic job. Many specimens
from all over the world are brought in and planted on all roads and every parts of the island. We are testing the stress level of these trees and flower shrubs when planted beside the heavy traffic.
These migrants, gets very complacent here, plenty of sunshine, water and clean air.. they just grow fat and green but refuses to flowers and fruits. The Npark is facing the challenge to make them procreate.
Singapore Inc Is very business savvy?we had exported our knowledge to the
Arabian peninsula, starting with Dubai and moving inwards.
Cheers !
