This afternoon, I cycled through the last kampong of Singapore. Kampong is the Malay word for Village. Singapore has developed rapidly since its independence in 1965. Bulldozers have been bulldozing away all our past, my parents' generation living environment.
I was cycling through memory lane. The stone and mud path was narrow, muddy and uneven. Vegetation is quite thick. The longkang (drain) is dirty and filled with black polluted water. The houses have wooden planks for walls and red rusty zinc roofs. Faint road sign that whispers Lorong Buangkok. There is a loud music coming out of one of the houses. Otherwise the whole place is eerily quiet.
This last living kampung will be demolish next year according B2 who took the Pei Hwa Heritage Tour. I felt sadness. It is our last living history. The future generations of Singapore will have to travel to a neighbouring country like Malaysia or Indonesia in order to see a real kampong.
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