Always something

Singapore is a city that is constantly changing, always with something new going on- somewhere. Over the last few months I’ve been away for two separate 2-3 week trips and coming back into the city afterward you really notice how much and how fast it changes- some entire buildings could be gone, or an intersection redesigned- new buildings going up. Even without the construction, the city has so much more going on beneath the surface that takes time and effort (and a desire) to see- the remaining jungles, smaller islands, the different ethnic neighborhoods, Little India, Geylang- really, a lot of Singapore is not as clean as it’s made out to be and I’ll never see a lot of it.


Last Sunday I took and aimless walk around my neighborhood- ending up near the Singapore River, and just before reaching the much built up waterfront I had to do a double take. I heard some scratching in the rocks that didn’t register and on looking back I saw two chickens and a rooster pecking for food in the gravel just off River Valley Road. I stopped to watch for a minute- I hadn’t even given it a second thought at first but then kept wondering where they were from and how they’d got there. I’d seen some before way outside the downtown area but never right in the middle of it. For as modern as Singapore currently is, it’s not that long ago that this would have been a much more common sight as even some friends the same age as me grew up in some of the last kampong fishing villages 30 years ago. Singapore’s always got something going on…