Jalan Kukoh

Yesterday, I woke up to the incessant ringing from my alarm that was set at seven in the morning to accompany my man to Jalan Kukoh. He is doing his second semester of his second year in LASALLE, and is required to do some research in preparation for his Final Year Project. His topic of choice was poverty, and he had chosen Jalan Kukoh to be the neighbourhood where his project is going to be all about.

We started off our day with a hearty breakfast at the market, in which led to me walking with a really full stomach for the rest of the morning. Then, we stalked a whole group of elderly, and took quite a few shots of them while they were doing their morning exercise.

We were told by the people at the Residents' Committee (RC) to come back at eleven to interview some elderly, so we walked around the neighbourhood for more photos.

These were the four elderly residents whom we have had the chance to meet and speak to. My man and I got to know more about Jalan Kukoh and their residents from them, and they were really jovial and kind with regards to our never-ending questions. Talking to them was a breeze, thanks to my training as a Physiotherapy student in Singapore's hospitals in the past three years, while it was awkward for Kah as it was his first time interviewing others.

When it was time for their lunch, the both of us took more photos for his Work-In-Progress show that was on Monday before going to The Central for our lunch. We settled for Ramen Santouka, due to my craving for ramen, and were sorely disappointed when we found out that their boiled eggs were sold out.

In my honest opinion, Nantsuttei serves the best ramen in Singapore and beats Ramen Santouka hands down! The sad thing is that they were located in Millenia Walk's PARCO which had closed down, for maintenance or for good, recently.

After our heavy lunch, we walked back to Jalan Kukoh to interview the children living in the neighbourhood. We happened to chance upon this really pretty cat, and Kah allowed me to touch one for once! Ah well, I have to respect his ailurophobia, don't I?

These are the bubbly children whom we had interviewed. They then pointed us down the way to another RC where the rest of the children can be found. We then spoke to Alvin, who is the in-charge for that part of the RC, and he introduced us to the Magic Bus!

The logo pretty much explains it all. We stayed for the meeting for a while before Kah had to leave to take more shots.

Then, we saw a group of children who were learning Dragon Dance from their instructor. It was a cool sight, and it made me appreciate this traditional dance in our Chinese culture even more. I am even under the impression that Dragon Dance training is so much more taxing that soccer trainings are!

Thereafter, we walked back towards Chinatown and grabbed some buns for dinner before heading back home!

After our carbo-filled day, I suffered from such horrible indigestion that I decided after my shower that I NEED to detoxify my body. I immediately went online to buy my ingredients for some Lemonade Cleanse and woke up today telling myself that I love food too much to stick to that detoxification process wholeheartedly. It is no wonder that I am turning fat. (Inserts dramatic sigh)

Thank you, Chng Kah, for bringing me to Jalan Kukoh and giving me such a culture shock. It was indeed surprising to see a part of Singapore that I never knew existed. Thank you for the honey water that you had prepared in the morning, so that I will have something sweet to sip on for the rest of the day (sorry for finishing half the bottle in one gulp after walking around for just one hour >.<). Thank you for looking out for me when I was so nervous about going up the block that the elderly had told us 'is filled with drug addicts'. Thank you for spending the whole day with me, allowing us to sweat together like old times on the field, and for allowing me to taste the saltiness on your lips at the end of our trip. Thank you for you, my dearest one. ♡