I was better prepared and took the bus that went to the end of the world in Sarimbun/Lim Chu Kang. I have traveled from the Seletar/Punggol area (northeast), and in the north I have seen one military camp after another. Getting closer to Lim Chu Kang, I have noted down the following: Keat Hong Camp, Tengah Air Base, Lim Chu Kang Camp, Singapore Infantry Brigade, Sungei Gedong Camp. Getting even closer, I have also noted down this: Hay Diaries Goat Farm, fish farm, guppy farm, bean sprout farm (and Sarimbun Recycling Park)...
So I have expected the area to be more rural on account of the predominantly agricultural (and military) activities, I was still surprised. The end of the world in Lim Chu Kang was (almost) really the end of the world.
The Johor Strait seems wider, or this part of Malaysia is less about manufacturing. Beyond this jetty, I couldn't have walked very far on the shore: there is no road, there is mangrove, water, sludge, mud...
...and shells that smell of fish. Badly.
I have actually come to this area on account of another blog post on the Lim Chu Kang Pier, or Cashin House:
Used as a comfort post (I believe euphemism for bordello) by Japanese officers during the occupation of Singapore (1942-1945) and as a weekend villa by the wealthy Cashin family, proprietors of rubber plantations in the area.
Although I haven't actually found it on a map, I came prepared and had a pretty good idea where it was located. So I set out finding it. I haven't actually found it :) What I did find instead, were farms. Lots of, different farms.
Fish farm (called something-or-other Aquarium)
Nursery (?)
Dairy farm (?)
No idea, vegetables?
Also no idea, but the trucks said fresh eggs...
...the silos could be for chicken feed... I should have asked the friendly gentleman from Bangladesh who said he worked there...
I would have guessed dairy, but this is also a fish farm.
At the end of the street where I expected to find The Pier, I instead found a dead-end and this: WWII First Landing site.
"The Japanese 25th Army under Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomoyuki landed on the beaches at Sarimbun and Lim Chu Kang in February 1942. The attack on the north-western part of Singapore took Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya, by surprise as he had expected the invasion from the north-east and Pulau Ubin [i.e. in Punggol].
The 750 allied soldiers defending the Western Coast of Singapore were overwhelmed by 8,000 Japanese troops coming ashore in the mangrove lined coastal area. They pushed inland, towards Tengah [straight to the south] and Mandai [sharp turn to the left, i.e. east], through the Namazie-Cashin rubber estate. Their targets were the air base at Tengah and Kranji Village area from where they could connect to the Causeway ["bridge" over the Johor Strait, almost dead center on the north shore of Singapore].
Today, a small wooden jetty leads out towards the narrow channel between Singapore and Johor, fringed by prawn and fish farms. To the right is a pier with a large white coloured house built at the end. This house was a comfort stop for Japanese officers during WWII. After the war, rubber planatation owner and lawyer Howard Edward Cashin and his wife Gillian extended and re-designed the house, and made it their home until 2009, naming it The Pier."
(See my post on Punggol here, and more on WWII sites here.)
I couldn't even see the Strait, it was all jungle ahead and to the sides. I was just about to go into the jungle, in fact I was already over the ditch on the side of the road, when I had a Viber call from Hungary. And the line got steadily worse as I got deeper into the jungle (which was also full of trash, and I was wearing my sandals as always)... So I turned back.
I forgot to take a picture of this dead-end. But to give you an idea: the yellow site marker above is not on the side of the street, it is at the end of the street that is fenced off...
On my way back I have passed a gentleman, who was also taking pictures. I was on the phone, so I only quickly said hello. But we took the bus back together. It turns out Jack used to live in the area when he was a kid. He went to primary school there, too. In the 1960s there was a village with a school and shops that was later abandoned, and the jungle (and the farms) took back/over everything...
