THIAN HOCK KENG TEMPLE

This is the local famous Thian Hock Keng temple located along Telok Ayer Street in this part of Chinatown. It is a tourist attraction and there are often bus loads of tourists brought here to experience the culture of the local chinese. Known as 天福宫 in chinese, it translates to temple of heavenly happiness.

This area used to be near the coastline and the villagers would pray to the Goddess of the Sea Ma Zu at this hokkien temple to bless those fishermen who go out to sea to make a living. A link on this temple is attached here:

http://www.thianhockkeng.com.sg/home.html

WANTON NOODLES

This was a plate of $5 wanton noodles with extra noodles at the Amoy Street Food Centre. Was it nice? Yes it was. And has it replaced my favourite stall at Rochor Centre? Absolutely not. It was not even close.

PHILODENDRON & ASPLENIUM

I cannot remember the cultivar name of this Philodendron but together with the Asplenium australasicum, they must have been planted here for about a decade now. So many things have happened in 10 years, but some things remain the same. The former is a good epiphytic aroid to be planted in shade areas to add a splash of colour while the latter is more an epiphyte found on trees.

A link on Philodendron is shown here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron

TELOK AYER STREET

These are some views of the Telok Ayer Street and Maxwell Road area. For those who work there, I am sure this view must be so mundane to them. But it was refreshing for me to walk down memory lane again.

TELOK AYER PARK - PLATYCERIUM CORONARIUM

I had to split this post from the previous because I do not want to negate its beauty by subsuming it under a generic post on the park. It deserves a post of its own. Planted on a Yellow Flame Tree and located just beside the covered linkway, the Stag's Horn Fern has grown so big now since I planted it.

The infertile basal fronds and fertile dichotomous fronds are beautiful and hidden amongst them were 2 fertile kidney-shaped fronds with masses of sporangia, containing the spores. This is what I call beautiful! When I was snapping photos of the epiphyte, an auntie walked past and was staring at what I was doing before she eventually walked off. She must have wondered what a crazy person I was to take photos of plants on a Saturday afternoon.

TELOK AYER PARK

I just couldn't resist not posting so many photos, especially since I have not been there for years on and the landscape I planted are still around. It is both a consolation and a bit of a disappointment actually.

The Calliandra tergemina var. emarginata, Heliconia 'American Dwarf', Cordyline fruticosa cultivar, Philodendron erubescens 'Gold' and Rhapis excelsa etc that I planted to line the pathways are still there. I remember changing the black algae covered granite crazy pavers to a lighter anti-slip homgenous tiled walkway and I am glad the choice was a prudent one since it still remains bright and algae free. At the upper deck, I constructed a ramp to bring wheel-chair bound users up to the higher level.

Another nearby open space that I was proud to upgrade then was the Robinson Road Open Space but I did not have the time to visit the place. These are some small projects that gave me a slight sense of achievement when I was managing the place because I felt I had contributed towards the general aesthetics and construction of a barrier free access to the park.

Across Maxwell Road was the former Singapore Traffic Police Headquarters building that was since painted a vibrant red and converted into a commercial space known as red dot traffic building and houses all the creative designs from Singapore, which was known as the little red dot on the tourist map and gave rise to the current name of the building. A link is attached here:

http://www.best-singapore-guide.com/red-dot-design-museum.html

TANJONG PAGAR RICOH PARK

I made a trip down to town recently and I had to post about these few parks that I used to manage. In fact, I was involved in the upgrading of this area above the Tanjong Pagar MRT into a park Tanjong Pagar Ricoh Park.

The partial redevelopment was sponsored by Ricoh (Singapore) Pte Ltd back then and hence the park name incorporated the company name into it. Anyway, the planters were not planted with Bauhinia kockiana previously. I wouldn't have selected this species for reasons I mentioned in earlier posts on this beautiful but common climber. To sidetrack a bit, the new purplish leaf flushes looked so pretty.

Anyway, the planter was supposedly planted with Bougainvillea 'Chili Red' although on hindsight, that is not the best cultivar to plant here. A few other cultivars e.g. B. 'Mary Palmer', B. 'Mrs Eva', would have performed better to grow over the trellis to provide shade. Below this trellis were some benches recycled from Ricoh printer cartridges but they have since been removed.

On the other end of the station, one can see the iconic Pinnacle@Duxton in the background.

Just outside the entrance towards Telok Ayer Street is a semi-circular plaza with granite benches. Behind these benches were Heliconia 'Lady Di', which are now showing symptoms of nutrient deficiency, as a result of a lack of regular fertilizing. As mentioned before, Heliconias are heavy feeders and they need to be supplemented with lots of organic fertilizers for its optimal growth. Within those beds were also the Cratoxylum formosum that we conserved as part of the development to provide shade.