After Performance Sightings

Today, I had a performance at Marsiling Community Club, "The Teacher, The Thief". But no, this post is not an after-performance account. What I'm about to write is something which I saw on my way back.

You see, as our show started early, and "The Teacher, The Thief" being a very short show, we finished rather early, at around 10pm. Having no mood to go back straight, I decided to take a detour. The idea of going to Kranji Way (the road that leads to Sungei Buloh nature reserve) came to my mind, as it has been ages since I last went there (but it was day time), and I liked the area there, especially that Kranji dam, with Kranji reservoir on one side of the road and the Straits of Johor on the other. Therefore, from BKE, I made an exit at the Woodlands south flyover, and head towards Kranji Way.

My memories of that area wasn't exactly very clear, but I remembered that if you travel all the way till the end of the road, you'd end up somewhere in Boon Lay or Choa Chu Kang. However, what I didn't remember was that this road was very, very long! Actually, it's not Kranji Way that is long. It's just that Kranji Way is linked to Neo Tiew Road, which is a long and windy single-lane road with nothing but tall bushes on both sides. Well, I wasn't particularly scared of travelling on this road, even though it's eeriely quiet and deserted. However, when I came to the end of Neo Tiew Road and turned into Lim Chu Kang road, I realised that I have came to the Choa Chu Kang cemetery area, and it was there I saw something which really made my hair stand.

As I passed by the Chinese cemetery area, I saw some cars parking by the side of the road, and I could see that in the pitch dark burial grounds, there were lights, coming from burning candles. Initially I thought it could be people doing tomb sweeping, but I realised that it wasn't just inside the cemetery, but at the entrance to the cemetery and outside as well. There were also people praying. I suddenly remembered that I once read of people who tried to ask for lucky numbers from the spiritual beings by making offerings to them in the cemeteries at night. I wondered if these people are just doing that? Although I wasn't particularly afraid of the supernatural stuffs (I believe they won't harm me, since I never like to disturb their peace), but I just felt chilling air flowing down my spine. I decided to ignore them and get out of the area as soon as I could...

A Stroll In The Cemetery

As in my previous post, I had been to the MediaCorp Radio on Monday for a radio interview. After the interview was done, it was still a few hours before I started work. Having nothing to do in the mean time, I suddenly thought of going to Bukit Brown Cemetery, which is not too far from MadiaCorp. I do not have any relatives "staying" inside, nor do I have any fetish for the dead, but being a cultural freak, I think cemeteries are great cultural grounds too, especially those old ones which reflects greatly on our nation's history.

When I was much younger, I used to be very afraid of such burial grounds, especially when my father drove his car on the PIE passing by Adam Road flyover and Old Police Academy areas. That stretch of the expressway was actually part of Bukit Brown/ Kheam Hock cemetery in the past, but the land was cleared in order to build the PIE. Therefore, imagine how scary it was with tombstones "staring" at you on both sides of the expressway! Now that I've grown up, I no longer fear such places, although I still dread going to the cemetery during Qing Ming festival as Choa Chu Kang cemetery, with all the concrete and little trees and grass, is a place far too hot and humid for me to bear. Bukit Brown cemetery, however, being one of the oldest surviving cemeteries left, is very shady, and is a more serene and cool place to actually tour around.

The roads inside the cemetery are not well-built; in fact they looked more like small lanes, and if one car is parked along the side, there's no way other vehicles from any direction to pass through. But I guess back in those days when the cemetery was open for burial, not many people would drive cars, so nobody would have thought of building wide lanes. Anyway, the tombstones in this cemetery are unlike those in Choa Chu Kang cemetery (referring to those built after the late 70s), which were built in neat rows and columns in various patches of land. The tombstones here were sparsely scattered, and were much bigger, at least two times larger than those in Choa Chu Kang. Even though the conditions of these tombstones had degraded over time, probably due to neglect, some of them still looked rather grand. There was one which even had got stone benches built around the little courtyard in front of the tombstone! However, I wasn't able to take a picture of it as it was situated on a high slope.

Halfway through my journey, I came to a T-junction where I saw a small shrine by the side of the junction. Inside the shrine's altar was various statues of Goddess of Mercy. Judging from the condition of the incense urn on the altar as well as the surroundings of the shrine, I supposed there is a caretaker looking after this shrine. However, after looking around my vicinity, I did not see a single soul (living one). There was a car parked beside the road as well, and I wondered where the driver had gone to.

As I ventured deeper into the cemetery snapping pictures, the sky suddenly turned dark. I quickly stopped snapping pictures and hurriedly left the cemetery in my motorbike. It is not fun to get caught in a sudden rain in a cemetery!