nicthegeek

It seems that the demolishing of Tang Dyansty City in the western corner of Singapore is taking place. Newspaper reports last year said that demolishing would start in January this year and be completed by March 09, although nothing was really noticeable this past 10 months. Passing by it last week, even unobservant me noticed that the 10m high stone ‘castle walls’ have fallen, and the pagoda has lost quite a few of its storeys.

It’s always been a myth to me what Tang Dynasty City really represented and sought to prove. The ancient Chinese ‘city’, a recreation of ancient Chang’an, is not part of our culture (maybe our great great great grandfathers’). The admission ticket, seeking to emulate the success of Haw Par Villa, was over-priced. Activities were mostly passive and blah, consisting of craft demonstrations, a wax museum and Chinese acrobatic acts (which one can catch on Channel 8 every public holiday). Food and other products for sale were ridiculously expensive.  Only some of the exhibits from the park came to a good end, after being auctioned off by the owners.  Some of the terracotta warriors, fake of course, now see the throbbing nightlife of the city.  One of them might even stand in my boss’ house.

For the past 10 years since it closed, the park has just been an eerie 12-ha plot of land, whose carpark served as a large vehicle park, a temporary stop for busy contractors eating at the food court across the road, and who knows, as an illicit rendezvous point at night.  It certainly was dark enough.

Discussions for the after-life of the $100-million theme park included a Shaolin-style helath retreat (which has apparently been shelved or fallen through), or perhaps even an integrated resort (IR) minus the casino, in the theme of Downtown East (Downtown West, anyone?). Sources from the industry have mixed concerns about the future of the 12-ha site.  Will it succeed as an IR minus the casino?  Or will it emulate another Downtown East family theme park?  Will encroaching into Jurong Lake and neighbouring Chinese and Japanese Gardens, adding onto the massiveness of the site be of any use?

Given the recent economic downturn, we really need to ask whether there is enough critical mass in Singapore and the surrounding countries to support yet another massive leisure/entertainment/shopping/hotel project.

Young and old, local and foreign, the vision includes all

SOME 100,000 plants will be introduced. The neighbourhood park will be transformed into a theme park for both young and old. Boon Lay Shopping Centre will be revamped.

The vision is to transform Boon Lay into a tranquil suburban residential enclave with a distinctive identity, and it’s not just to cater to the district’s aging population.

By rejuvenating the estate with upgraded facilities, this will also hopefully attract younger families to live in Boon Lay, said Madam Ho Geok Choo, Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC, at a briefing on plans for the estate.

The WellnessCentre@BoonLay, which provides healthcare services to the elderly, will partner Alexandra Hospital to provide step-down care at affordable rates for elderly residents discharged after a hospital stay.

Also to be launched is an e-Learning Lab, set up by the Boon Lay Youth Executive Committee to provide computer facilities and Internet access to underprivileged students. Certified instructors will conduct computer courses.

Would the large number of foreign workers in Boon Lay, however, affect the estate’s image and younger families’ decisions to move into the estate?

Said Mdm Ho: “Boon Lay residents have learnt to accept the foreign workers, although the challenge remains how to assure the younger ones who want to set up homes in Boon Lay that the issue is not something to be worried about.”

Indeed, Boon Lay could become an example for a more tolerant nation, she said. “Perhaps Boon Lay can be the first constituency that will demonstrate that, despite the big proportion of foreign workers in the estate, we still have the young flocking to live here because we have got our fundamentals right.”

Citing examples of how foreign workers are included in community events in Boon Lay, Mdm Ho said the grassroots leaders have invited these workers to the community visit by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports on Nov 23.

On the economic crisis, she said more residents have been coming to her for financial help.

“I use to see about 60 people or so, but in recent weeks, the number has grown to around 80 … They mainly come because they are laid off or they can’t afford to pay for their utilities. Some cannot even find enough money to pay for their transportation to school and their workplaces.”

Mdm Ho hopes to raise $1 million for community development in Boon Lay by end-January.

The fund-raising activities include a charity dinner at which a new cookbook with residents’ recipes will be auctioned off.

Source : Today – 12 Nov 2008

Wow, seems like my home area is being held up as an example of racial tolerance…of course our MP speaks for all of us, when she says that we have accepted the omni-presence of FTs in our neighbourhood, although I still wonder where she lives…

Finally!  But some of the comments made by our ES-EM-AH-TEE big shots are really WTF! inducing.  Now I know, “The importance of the train is to ensure you can pack as many people as possible.“

[via Business Times]

THE Boon Lay Extension (BLE) of the East-West Line is expected to begin service on Feb 28, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The BLE, it said, will help reduce travel time by as much as 15 minutes by offering direct access to the MRT system instead of requiring bus transfers at Boon Lay station.

It will also reduce the current high utilisation rate of Boon Lay bus interchange and Boon Lay MRT station.

‘The BLE is part and parcel of the Land Transport Masterplan to double the rail network in 12 years, from now to 2020,’ said Raymond Lim, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In addition, the LTA announced its revised MRT Operating Performance Standards (OPS), which came into effect yesterday.

For one, LTA has tightened the train passenger load indicator from 1,700 to 1,600 passengers per train, placing a more stringent limit on the number of passengers each train can carry.

Secondly, a new indicator – train headway – has been imposed to ensure that the intervals between trains during the peak periods do not exceed stipulated standards.

For instance, the operator will have to ensure that during lunch time on weekdays, the headways at Raffles Place (all bounds) range from three to four minutes.

Thirdly, the availability targets of key equipment such as lifts and escalators will be raised to minimise downtime.

‘These standards are necessary for today’s passenger ride, and SMRT has always remained well within these standards,’ said Saw Phaik Hwa, president and chief executive officer of SMRT Corporation.

The 3.8km extension will benefit residents in Jurong West Town and those working in Jurong Industrial Estate. It has two stations – Pioneer Station at Jurong West St 63, and Joo Koon Station at Joo Koon Circle

Just realised that I should have posted a map to the place, from ladysilver’s comment.  Here it is!

View Larger Map

It’s at Boon Lay Food Centre, right at the front corner facing the carpark.  If you go at night, you can just tell by the queue in front of it

Buses to take: 99, 240, 246

There was a time when I was quite a fan of the famous boon lay nasi lemak.  until i realised i might well get a heart attack from eating nasi lemak at 2am in the morning too often.  Why 2am?  because the nasi lemak stall only starts selling at 10pm at night.

3 years ago, the queues snaked around like crazy, even at 2am in the morning.   3 years later, the queues are still there.  But i’ve given up waiting 30minutes, even if the rice and chilli and chicken wings are to die for.  I do miss the chicken wings though.  They are GOOD.  so good that I’ve seen some uni students order just 2-3 wings to eat with their nasi.  Maybe I should risk the queue again.

But it was only until now, that I realised, that famous stall, subject to comparisons to the famous changi village nasi lemak, actually has a website.  Yes, Power Nasi Lemak is very much powered up to the internet.

I’ve been living in Boon Lay for the major part of my life.  It used to be an interesting place when I was in primary school, because you get loads of time to wander around the neighbourhood after school.  There are nooks and crannies, even within that small little town, to fill up a lot of time.  There were some bengs and gangsters hanging around, and there was the occasional fight at the hawker centre, but it made the little town just that much more fun.

After a while, the rest of Singapore seemed more exciting, so Boon Lay got a little dull and a little colourless, and I couldn’t bear to stay in that place.  With an influx of Thai foreign workers, it also got a little sleazy and dingy and dangerous.

Recently, with a major immgration wave of foreign workers, Boon Lay seems to have become a second little  india or chinatown.  I can’t walk anywhere without encountering a foreign face or accent.  But our little town is still pretty happening, judging by the searches on soso.com.