We set off with much excitement on 20 December towards Singapore's wild North. It was a Monday, hence we noticed vehicles gradually dwindling in numbers as we approached Kranji. We heard the Kranji countryside could be rather crowded on weekends, so we deliberately selected 2 weekdays to spend in Kranji.
For 2 days, we immersed ourselves in the luxuriant greenery and last frontier of Singapore's rural countryside. We did not feel like we were in Singapore at all! The eloquent silence of the lush virgin rainforests, the regular sightings of wild animals (including a wild boar galloping at top speed into a wide expanse of field!), the rare notion of driving along empty roads without cars for almost an hour or of driving leisurely along meandering country roads with dense vegetation around us - these were poetic moments for me.
For the Bees, let's just say it was an initiation of fire. For the first time, as they were showering in an open-air bathroom, they had a few millipedes and worms for company, much to their hysterical chagrin. Big Bee has an irrational fear of worms (much like my similar fear of butterflies and moths!) so she was terrified half the time in the countryside. But the Bees loved to chase chickens around, visited dairy farms and witnessed birds of all species doing funny things around us (including one small woodpecker pecking Hubby's car one morning!).
All in all, it was a staycation that rejuvenated our tired urban souls, that invigorated our jaded cosmopolitan minds. A breath of salubrious, sylvan air to renew our beliefs that life consists of so many multidimensional facets!
Some highlights of our staycation that I love:
Day 1
1) Driving with dense anticipation along the immensely expansive boulevard (aka reserved military runway) of Lim Chu Kang road, and along unknown meandering roads with nothing but the trees, birds and blue mottled skies as company.
2) Entering into a villa of D'Kranji Farm Resort to be stunned by the extremely small room, despite the illusion of physical space from the gate! Yet, we were aptly impressed by the automatic gate, the private car porch right inside our villa and the roomy balcony that allowed us to sit and admire the primeval forest right in front of us.
Granted, the service, cleanliness and facilities within D'Kranji left much to be desired, but we were not expecting a five-star resort, and I think these were positive ways to introduce the Bees to the (dis)comforts of living in the countryside! Such traits of the resort slowly grew on us, and Hubby and I grew to enjoy the idyllic but sparse restaurants, scanty farming facilities and sleepy service.
3) Hubby and I loved the open-air bathroom with dense verdant vegetation, although the Bees were not that thrilled with the prevalence of millipedes and worms around the shower cubicle!
4) Running after a big fat chicken and observing its every move in the almost-empty farm site of the resort, and witnessing shrubs of plump, purple brinjal growing in the resort. The Bees also observed how farmers toiled on the farm land - watering crops, weeding and harvesting ripe plants.
5) Hubby and Big Bee indulged in prawning for the first time! Seeing Hubby cut a chicken heart into tiny pieces as bait for the prawns made my hair stand, but it was gratifying to see Big Bee sitting patiently with a fishing rod, excitedly calling out whenever she thought a prawn had been hooked. Sadly, we only caught one prawn!
6) Walking around the resort's farmland in the setting sun, hearing nothing but the incessant yet soothing calls of cicadas, inhaling the sweet smells of plants and forests and seeing the workers on the farmlands ambling back after a long day at the farm.
7) Driving around the Kranji countryside in the descending lavender dusk, and crossing the Kranji bridge with a clear view of both the Malaysian and Singaporean waters and coastal skylines. Utterly charming.
The Singapore coastline
The Malaysia coastline
8) Indulging in a dinner at a cosy cafe at the Turf Club Riding Centre, where Big Bee's perpetual interest in horse-riding was enlivened again. Despite her constant requests to resume her riding lessons, we are still very hesitant after what happened in a riding accident in 2009.
9) Sitting in a short session of deafening getai singing at the beer garden in the resort, with Hokkien and Chinese singers dancing to a revolving disco ball on stage. So retro! The Bees were so thrilled that they were dancing and running crazily in front of the stage - probably the most ardent audiences these getai singers had seen in a while!
Day 2
1) Waking up to a heartachingly gorgeous azure sky speckled with feathery and fluffy white clouds. And upon hearing a mysterious pecking sound from the porch, only to find a mini blue-yellow woodpecker pecking with much perseverence on Hubby's car!
2) Taking our breakfast at a cosy Malay restaurant, reminiscent of kampong days. We were particularly impressed by the friendly Malay female boss who gave us a last, complimentary plate of nasi-lemak after they heard us lamenting that they ran out of nasi-lemak! Such warm and affable service, just like in kampong days!
3) Adjourning to Hay Dairies, where the Bees understood how goats are milked for our consumption. They got to see bounteous udders in full, close-up view, as well as learned the repercussion of milking - a shrivelled udder! So we went around identifying those goats that had been milked or not milked, haha!
We walked around the goats' pens, observing their behaviour at close range, and ended the visit with drinking chocolate goat's milk, which tasted immensely muttony to me. Big Bee liked the drink though, whereas Hubby and Little Bee could not stand it.
4) Driving around the deserted Kranji countryside with no end in mind, and eventually ended up in a certain university in the West where Hubby and I first met! How nice! So we strolled around that exact venue a bit, telling our girls excitedly about that fateful first night way back in 1992 :) The Bees were rather nonchalant about it, though!
5) Visiting the Lim Chu Kang jetty in high noon, thus seeing the waters in high tide, and looking at fishermen working. We explained briefly to the Bees how these fishermen worked with the distant kelongs to catch fish, and then trucking these fish to the markets.
6) Hunting around Kranji for several cow farms that I heard exist in Singapore. Sadly, none of them are open for public visitors, and we were even shoo-ed (albeit very politely of course) by one proprietor when he saw us snooping around his dairy farm! However, I was very adamant to show the Bees that big dairy cows exist in Singapore, so we sneaked around the boundary of one dairy farm, hiding behind bushes and ankle deep in rural grasses, and we caught glimpses of the colossal cows in its compound! In full glory - of cows with black-and-white patches and even a pristine white cow! Big Bee was thrilled!
7) After we checked out, we proceeded to Farm Art for lunch, and we all loved this quaint zichar restaurant that serves the most divine coffee-flavoured pork ribs! The Bees and us devoured our lunch in ravenous speed. We then sauntered around the somnolent Farm Art and fed some poor caged-up farm animals (goats, rabbits, hamsters, frogs, tortoises, etc). The Bees enjoyed the feeding session immensely, though I still think there was a certain amount of cruelty to these animals.
What a memorable holiday - it is possible to escape into the great farmland in Singapore and be lost amongst all the meandering roads and little nooks and crannies of our last remaining rural scape.
I thought it was eye-opening for the Bees to see for themselves how certain farm products originated (milk, crops, fish, etc). They enjoyed themselves, albeit not liking the ubiquitous creepy-crawly inhabitants in the agrarian countryside.
Back home, the urban girls were quickly back to their favourite activity of conquering metropolitan plots of land though - through a game of Monopoly!
2 comments:
Looks fun! And I never knew we had cow farms in Singapore!!!
viv: Yes, it was super fun! Just like an overseas holiday, but at a quarter of its price, haha. Yeah I was amazed at the cow farms, but sadly, can't go in :(
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