The above outing organized by the ADA (Alzheimer’s Disease Association) for the staff and the care-giver; a time for a get away and relaxation.
At 0700 hours our group assembled at our Jurong Point and we were picked up by the coach from the Toa Payoh main office. By 0800 hours we have already cleared the Immigration Checkpoint at the second link and on the way for breakfast at Kampong Indah.
Typical traditional Malay house at Kampong Indah.
My grandpa’s house at Bedok (1950’s)
It is constructed of wood and raised off the ground by support posts; a veranda in front and the doorway leading to the sitting room and 2 or 3 bedrooms inside. My grandpa’s Malay-style house at Kampong Bedok in the 1950’s was similar.
After breakfast of ‘nasi lemak’ a local favourite by which the rice is cooked with coconut milk and some ‘Pandan’ leaves to give ‘flavour and aroma’. The sambal with fish, but some would prefer chicken and some cucumber. We were given a briefing on mushroom farming and taken on tour into the storage house where the mushrooms are wrapped by plastic for germination.
Mushrooms in plastic packing Waiting to board up the bus
We proceeded to Yong Peng to visit a factory making noodles. Upon arriving we de-bus and walked down a tract to this cottage industry. In a room we saw how the dough being prepared by the old way manually by a pole jammed at one end to the wall, straddle across a table where the dough is laid. A male Indian guy sits at the other end and using his weight by motioning up and down causing the pole to press on the dough; a rather crude method.
The modern machines for making and cutting the dough to noodles
Lunch/ Yong Peng: Kari, Bernard and Debbie/ Vivian and Fong.
‘Kong bak’ to go with the buns
Chicken cooked with wine. Enough, am I drunk?
After lunch we were off to a modern factory ‘Ecolate’ that breeds the birds and from the sliver of the bird comes the bird’s nest.
Introduction by video on the product/ Bird’s Nest Products on display
Exhausted? A moment of relaxation/ Ms Chua giving a lesson on botany.
At the agriculture farmland I found it rather interesting for my educational input and no doubt enjoy learning something new from types of various plants and the ingredients that we get. Meantime we have taken for granted when we get our groceries all clean up and presented at the shelves in our air-conditioned supermarket. We, Singaporeans are urban dwellers live in a concrete jungle, surrounded by blocks after blocks of flats and some of us have not even touch the rich soil of mother earth. Maybe for some there is this urge inside to be a farmer, probably after retirement. And owing to aging it would be natural for us to be slowing down and hope to work leisurely on the land. However I can see that it is not an easy job as you must begin early in the morning. It will require a lot of hard work probably, take the whole day to tilt the land and plant whatever crop. Especially the young plants in the nursery, they need attention as for watering, provide manure for faster and healthier growth and pesticide to keep pest away.
Plants like ‘Tongkat Ali’ good for circulation of blood/ Rows of sweet potato
Palm oil fruit. Coffee seet
Cocoa fruit Banana tree
After shopping and dinner we are again on the road this time heading home. Our guide started the ball rolling by singing ‘Karaoke’. Suddenly we discovered that some good singers amongst us that can be immediately sign-up with ‘Mediacorp’.
Pose after dinner On the way back to Singapura
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