The Ceylon Foods

Guess I'm feeling a little more pensive these days but it's hard to imagine that it has been two years since we last packed up from Ceylon and moved here to Kembangan.

I'm not feeling nostalgic about Ceylon.

Neither am I feeling nostalgic about Kembangan.

It's just... it's just a little hard to imagine that all this time has already passed.

I had not thought I would write about some of the foods I had whilst back in Ceylon Road- and in all intentions I wasn't going to- but then out popped the food album from one of my phones and I realized there were some meals which I hadn't written about, or written before. 

Whether or not I have doesn't really matter. 

People like me don't go look into the archives unless we have to, so the problem now is I don't know where to begin. 

What's best, I suppose, is to just plonk them pictures here, and keep on as I go along. 

Every plate featured here holds meaning to me. 

Whether it be the plate of green curry fried rice with fresh slices of wagyu beef, whether it be the plate of homemade pan-fried scrambled eggs with pieces of crusty garlic toast bought from Pullman Bakery in Millennia Walk, or whether it be the bowl of fresh blueberries over a heap of fresh banana, they're all so significant to me. 

We used to tapao rice and leftover green curry home from whichever Thai place we were eating to make green curry fried rice the next day.

We also used to stop by Pullman Bakery just to see whether they had the garlic butter crusts because my friend liked them and we would ration out four at a go. 

And before we shifted to frozen blueberries (as we do now) we'd get fresh ones from the supermarket and I'd have them with bananas I'd go buy myself. 

I miss the homemade scrambled eggs my friend makes. 

I also miss the banana and blueberry concoction, which, in all honesty, I should kick back again. 

There're some dishes that I've not had for a long time, and I don't think I'd have anytime soon.

Like the croissants.

There're a good many places that serve up buttery croissants, I know, but there're good ones and there're good ones and I want to only have those that are good.

Near our corner there used to be a Maison Kayser. 

That's where we got our croissants from.

I don't know if they're still around in town now. 

Maybe they're still chilling somewhere. 

But they had lovely croissants, and I always used to like mine with swashes of butter and dipped in honey. 

Covid season saw a lot of tapaos, which I'm pretty sure I have a separate album elsewhere- I took a lot of pictures at that time- and this one bowl is likely from that time. This is one that I can't quite recall from where we ordered it from, however. I can't even remember if it's Taiwanese or Japanese or Thai.

The cucumbers make me think of Isshin Machi, but for the life of me, I don't recall Isshin Machi having fried egg with their rice. 

It might be Ichiban's chicken karaage, but I too cannot recall them having a fried egg with their dish.

Could it be Fung Sheng Hao? 

Or then again could that not be picked cucumber but fresh cucumber turned soggy during delivery...? 

Memories sometimes do get blurred.

What doesn't get blurred are the joys of eating the food that we've had. 

Like Pad Thai, which likely we also ordered in during the same period, and can I say looks aesthetically pleasing even till today?

I love it when my food looks bright and cheery. 

Maybe that's why I love my siew mais and my sotong balls. 

Plain as they are, the combination makes for one of my favorite foods. 

Truth be told I haven't been having them for a while- almost two years to be exact- not because I've stopped loving them but simply because I'm no more able to have the entire pack of six siew mais plus five sotong balls the same way I used to, my friend won't share them with me, and I'm too lazy to dig out the Little Blue Pot from the box. 

Excuses, I know. 

I really should go get them chilled siew mais from the supermarket downstairs. 

It's something I had been wanting to do for the last two years but never got around to it. 

Perhaps now is the time. 

Do I miss my sotong balls?

Actually, yes. 

They make for a lovely addition to the foods I'm eating, my favorite instant noodles especially, where I must dump at least 4 of those balls and then maybe a small tomato or two. 

Pratas Over The Years

So I was sorting through a collection of pictures on my phone and realized, to my surprise, that I in fact have a lot, a lot of pictures featuring all the pratas that I've eaten throughout the years.

I had not known that I'd taken so many.

But here we are, armed with at least ten pictures or more, and most of them seem to be taken at the same place, from the same stall, at different times. 

I guess it has always been a habit of mine, actually, even during odd times, and yes, it is something to kick back in again (never mind how exactly I am feeling right now)

I've always been a fan of egg prata. 

Not the prata with the fried egg on top but the prata with the egg all mixed inside. 

It's something I've liked for a long time the same way I actually still do eat my prata with sugar instead of curry from time to time. 

My first memory of egg prata was at the food canteen inside the now-defunct Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. 

Mr Radioman had gotten it for me. 

And I'd never forgotten the taste.

These days I strike a balance between the Egg Prata, the fried egg prata commonly called Prata Plaster, and Prata Kosong. 

I also take more curry than sugar. 

Most of the pratas in this collection come from renowned prata stall Mr. and Mrs. Mohgan, whom I believe is still at the coffee shop on the junction of Joo Chiat Road and Dunman Road.

Those who know their prata will know that Mr and Mrs Mohgan are one of the most popular prata stalls east side of town. 

Those who frequent their prata will also know that they didn't use to be at the coffee shop where they are now. 

We had discovered the prata place quite by accident. 

At that time I had not known just how hot they were. 

Only much later- like maybe a couple of months after frequenting their stall at Crane Road- that I found out they were in fact very popular. 

So crispy and tasty was their prata that customers didn't mind waiting for over an hour whilst Mr. Mohgan hand made each piece by customers' orders. 

They worked as a team, Mr. and Mrs Mohgan, and they continued to do so at their new location on Dunman Road until the year Mr. Mohgan passed. 

Honestly, I much prefer their new location compared to the old one. 

Yes, I might be a fan of their prata but I am not so huge a diehard that I will not mind the environment I wait for the delicious prata in. 

Neither am I so huge a diehard that I will not mind the quality of the kopi. 

The kopi at this new coffee shop is way, way better. 

There's still a wait, yes, even now, but the wait's much more comfortable with whirling ceiling fans, cross-winds blowing into the coffee shop even on the hottest mid-year mornings, and hot kopi. 

The fresh, hot, crispy prata makes for the berry on the cake. 

Never mind if, based on the pictures, most of our pratas here seemed to be both the kosong, and the prata plaster with the fried egg on top, which, split between my friend and I, we both took half each, making it one prata per person on the whole. 

It is here, I think, that I learnt to adapt, shifting the palate away gradually from the sugar to the curry.

Their mutton curry, after all, was just so good. 

Wish I had eaten more of their egg pratas though. 

It'd be wise to do that if I get a chance to drop into the coffee shop once again. 

It has, after all, been a long time. 

Thankfully I still go to Springleaf pretty much though. 

What surprises me is that I had not thought I would become their fan.

Going to Jln Tua Kong, is, after all, a bit of walk whether coming from the Siglap side or the Opera Estate side, but their unusual selection of pratas make it worth the effort and time.

Not only do they have the regular pratas same as you'd find at any prata stall, they also have the special ones that have won competitions.

I love their Murtaburger. 

It's one of those crepes that can't actually be called a crepe but is more like a bouncy square shaped pillow of a stuffed crepe filled with two perfectly grilled lamb patties, thick goeey mozzarella cheese and chili with black pepper. 

I always think they have mayonnaise, I don't know why. 

Maybe it's how the cheese stretches and mixes with the chili sauce that makes me feel like it has the texture as mayonnaise. 

It's extremely filling, I tell you, and I love it. 

A part of me wonders if I would one day order the dessert pratas when at Springleaf.

Maybe I should.

They do have quite a menu. 

There's a red bean one, a banana one, a milky one, even a roti bomb and ice cream prata. 

I'd like to try a banana chocolate prata or a strawberry prata. 

They'd taste just as great, I'm sure. 

I just hope that I'll have the chance to visit their outlets even more. 

Skewers of BBQ Box

I had been planning to write of this our meal here at BBQ Box a while ago.

But things caught up, I got busy with other stuff, and so only is it now- weeks later- that I get the chance to look at these pictures and write. 

We've been to BBQ Box before. 

This outlet, in particular. 

And from what I sense, it looks like we are going to be coming here again. 

One thing good is that they've not lost their standards, which is, if you ask me, very different from others, like this place at Chinatown that we'd gone to a while back.

Being located in a heritage shop house along a once-popular food street, we'd come with high expectations, only to have everything fall short with anyhow-fried, anyhow-grilled skewers, and watered down drinks in the supposed free-flow dispenser. 

So we told ourselves we were not going to go to random places anymore. 

Just stick to the familiar. 

Coming to places like BBQ Box, I don't expect freebie snacks or freebie ice cream. 

But still it makes for a pleasant surprise when I get one. 

BBQ Box didn't use to offer small little bags of snacks.

Now they do, and like some of the Mainland restaurants, customers here too can take as much as they like.

So we took two. 

But the food came before we could open up a packet, so (quietly) we dabaoed home the snack instead.

It's always a delight to see the wide variety of skewers they have on menu.

Their grilled meats come with the choice of lamb, mutton, beef, chicken and pork. There're sausages, as well as pork intestines, pork skin, chicken gizzards, chicken cartilage, quail eggs, and something called grilled Japanese rice balls. 

Besides the meat there's also seafood, which we don't normally take (too fascinated by the meats we are) but there're scallops and prawns and oysters and squid. 

This is a place for starters, so on the menu there're foods like Si Chuan Style Pickled Chili Chicken Feet, Spicy Dry Soya Bean Cake Floss, Vinegar Jellyfish Head, Pig Ear With Cucumber, and Cold Beef Tendon and Tripe. 

Perhaps I ought to pay more attention to the menu next time I go and see what else they have. 

I mean, it's not possible for a place as good as this to not have grilled vegetables of any sort, so I'm pretty sure they will have veggies like mushrooms and sweet corn and eggplant and potatoes. 

One of our favorite orders are the premium meats, and even though I don't ask my friend what it is we order, what we have normally includes the Cumin Beef, the Cumin Lamb, maybe the Middle Loin Pork and Chicken, and this time i think we ordered the Mala Pork Si Chuan style. 

Their Cumin meats are really good. 

Don't ask me which meat is on which skewer- most of the time I just munch it off the stick and don't bother with which meat on which stick is what- but whether it be the lamb or the beef (which is what we mostly order), one certainly can taste the spiced herb all over the meat skillfully dusted, evenly marinated. 

There is no overwhelming taste.

There is no thing where I get a burst of rich spiced cumin on one side but no taste of the spice on the other.

It's all there, all spread around. 

What I like best about the premium meats are the tender bits. 

The skewered meats might look skinny, really, like small pieces stuck on a stick, but between one piece and the other often you can't tell what's what, so you just bite into the piping hot smoky grilled meat, and lo and behold, surprise, a tender- sometimes fatty- piece amongst the bits. 

It makes for a good chew.

It is also moreish, and always I find myself reaching out for more. 

There were a couple more of these skewers, I should think, but I don't have a picture. 

What I do have, however, is this dish bowl of what I think is some sort of a pumpkin soup but might well have been Golden Fish Fillet Soup. 

I can't really recall just what ingredients there were inside, but there was a lot. 

Bobbing under the surface of the soup there were plenty of vegetables- carrots, leeks, lettuce, then there were slices of beef all slowly simmering in the dish, and finally, at the bottom, a whole heap of vermicelli tung hoon which I absolutely loved. 

We ended the meal with cute looking little dumplings that my friend specially ordered.

There're a few kinds on their menu, like those with Shrimp, Leek and Egg filling, Pork with Leek, and and Pork with Cabbage. 

I think ours was Pork with Leek. 

So easy it was to pop the round little dumpling inside my mouth and chew. 

I loved the texture of the skin.

I loved the rounded, pleasant marination of the meat. 

And it is for this reason that I never have any dumplings at random food courts anymore. The skin they use is way thinner from the handmade ones in authentic Dongbei Northeast places, plus I like mine that offers me the soft of meat with a whole lot of pleasant, tasty chew. 

McDonalds Ice Cream Cones

Ice creams are one of my favorite desserts. 

And if there be one (simple) thing I look forward to from season to season, from time to time, it is the ever-changing flavors of McDonalds dessert ice cream.

It's not just me, I'm quite sure, because how can anyone not be delighted when the fast food chain starts their advertising for cones, sundaes and McFlurries in the variety of flavors like coconut, strawberry, rock melon, Hershey's Chocolate, and more? 

I've always been a huge fan of the vanilla cone. 

Whether it be I have it now as an adult, or whether I relive the memories of myself at six years old eating the cone with Mr. Radioman at the McDonalds near Stamford Road, the cone has always been a quiet yet lingering part of my life. 

Again, I don't think it's just me.

A McDonalds ice cream cone is one of those instant pleasures that people generally can either afford, or (worse case scenario) save up for. 

I used to share the strawberry sauce ice cream sundae with Mr Radioman whenever we had birthday and Christmas celebrations at McDonalds.

And even though it has been many years since I last had the Oreo McFlurry, I used to have it a lot back when I was still in school.

I've gotten more fond of the cone these days.

Not simply because of the price point, but also because I get to try their fun flavors without needing to worry whether or not I'll be wasting food if it doesn't suit my taste. 

That's the great thing about cones.

If you like the taste, no problem.

If you don't like the taste, there's not much to finish. 

Over the years I've had the opportunity to try out a couple of ice cream cones. 

I might not remember for certain where I have had them.

I might not even remember exactly which flavor is which but there was a Matcha cone which was mild on the sugar and mild on the matcha, there was a vanilla cone with some sort of bubblegum swirl that I tried because a friend had said the taste was unusual and tasted good. 

More than once there have been Hershey's Chocolate cones, all of which have been consistent with the distinctive sweetish taste of cocoa and the faint but creamy taste of milk. 

Then there have been those of Thai Milk Tea. 

It isn't often that I take pictures of my cones, but sometimes I do, like the Chendol one which I had at Marina Square recently. 

Was it a great tasting cone?

Yes, and no. 

On one hand it did remind me of the Chendol softee that I'd once had at 7-11 20 years ago.

On the other hand, however, there was the strong sweet of the gula melaka which afterwards lingered cloyingly at the back of the throat.

i can't say I didn't like the Chendol cone. 

But right now they've shifted to the strawberry, and I'm wondering if I should go take a shot at it too.

Nissin, Myojo & Maggi

So I had to clear out some space in one of my phones, and because I am the sort who has to have her music in as many gadgets as possible, decided it wiser to transfer out a couple of seldom-used picture albums instead of her favorite playlists. 

So here we are. 

Amongst all the albums that I transferred to the laptop that afternoon there was one of Food. 

I tend to give odd names for my picture albums.

And even though I don't know just how far back this YUMS album dates back to, the earliest pictures start from 10 years ago, and so, yeah, let's just say it began from there. 

Year on year there are many stories that can be told of all the food that I've eaten (and maybe I'll get to it one day) but for the moment, for the sake of this article, I'll just stick to a series of a single food, and just this series alone. 

So amongst all the pictures in YUMS, there was one food that popped up quite constantly, and frequently. 

Instant Noodles.

I hadn't thought that there were more than two, or three pictures.

But there are. 

There's one that dates back to 2016 where I had, on a late evening, cooked a packet of Myojo noodles over the stove, thrown in my all-time favorite ingredients of sotong cuttlefish balls, and finished up the whole bowl whilst sitting on the floor in the hall at the dark wood coffee table.

Then there's another one- this one two years later- using the same bowl, still with my favorite sotong balls, plus the addition of two hot dogs and cherry tomatoes this time. 

The next batch of pictures jump straight to 2020.

Chances are I didn't take pictures of those that I ate in 2019.

Seeing the pictures of these noodles hold a different meaning to me altogether. 

How it is I have three- the most out of all these years- I don't know, but I think they're all ramen, and if they're ramen, for sure they're all going to be Hokkaido Miso from the Nissin brand. 

To be honest, seeing these pictures right now makes me emotional. 

Not only were the noodles themselves gifted to me by Mr. Radioman, all them ingredients in the pot had also been bought by him.

He was the one who went to buy the sotong cuttlefish balls.

He was the one who got the hot dogs and the siew mais and the lettuce you see in these last few pictures.

And he was also the one who got the meatballs and the cherry tomatoes. 

Sometimes I wonder if I should be brave enough and continue buying them sotong balls and siew mais from the NTUC downstairs.

But I haven't found the courage to.

I don't want to relive the times when we bought the noodles together at the supermarket, tore the packet open, and split the packets into three and two. 

I also don't want to relive the times when I stood over the gas stove watching the noodles and my sotong balls boil in the pot before bringing them out to the hall to eat, or the room where I ate there at my long bench-like table. 

Which is why the only picture I have of instant noodles in 2023 is a bowl of Nissin dry UFO noodles on the bed linen of a hotel room near Little India. 

I'd chosen the carbonara. 

I've never returned to the siew mais nor the sotong balls nor the cherry tomatoes. 

They just didn't feel right anymore. 

And even though I have the Little Blue Pot steamer where I can actually cook my noodles underneath whilst steaming my sotong balls and siew mais on top, I've not done. 

Maybe it is that I've put my money to other foods. 

Maybe it is that I've decided to have other stuff- like bread and cornflakes- for quick meals- instead of making a bowl of noodles using ingredients that I know I'll take a long time to finish. 

I'm getting somewhat emotional right now.

This particular season has been hard. 

Perhaps I didn't think seeing pictures of instant noodles would be a trigger, but it is. 

Because now I don't use a stove pot anymore. 

I don't have any of these ingredients sitting in the freezer anymore.

And I don't even put the Nissin seasoning very much anymore. 

I didn't take a picture of the noodles I had couple of weeks ago. 

But here's one from last year. 

I think I was trying to cheer myself up over my lonesome meal. 

Kind of sums up how I prefer my noodles these days. 

No seasoning, just a lot of butter, many dashes of sesame oil, and generous sprinkles of mixed herbs- my preferred mode of vegetable for my noodles dry. 

Maybe one day I'll get back to the siew mais or the sotong balls. 

A noodle dish can do with some protein after all. 

Klang Bak Kut Teh @ Lorong 11

It's been a bit of a while since we last came here. 

Might it be that we tend to either stay in the Bedok/Bedok Reservoir/Kembangan area, or that we head straight into town these days rather than hopping from point to point?

Coming back to Leong Kee Bak Kut Teh brings back a whole lot of memories, which surprisingly, despite them having renovated, continue to stay. 

I remember a time when the white fluorescent lit of the coffee shop interior cramped in the stall space, the counter space, and the coffee counter. 

All that's gone, replaced by a fresh coat of cream-colored paint on the walls, a carefully hand-drawn mural, air-conditioning, and new furniture for dine-in customers. 

No more do customers need to squeeze with each other at round black tables on the side five foot way beside the coffee shop.

No more too do customers have to sit out at tables in the back alley when the place is packed. 

Now one gets air-conditioning whilst waiting for their food.

And a (quintessential) (ahem) Geylang view.

There's much about the food at Leong Kee that makes for a meaningful meal, especially if you're one fond, and familiar, with bak kut teh. 

It might not come served in branded bowls or matching cutlery, but the claypot is solid, and the food's the same. 

Leong Kee was one of the first few places that taught me to appreciate bak kut teh- it never used to be a particular favorite of mine- and because I learnt to love the black herbal version of the teh, thought I would only appreciate this style. 

A person grows, of course, and today whilst I do go for the Teochew style of white peppery bak kut teh broth, I still have a thing for the black herbal one, and Leong Kee's the place I like to go to whenever the thought hits.

We ordered our regular dishes of bak kut teh and ter ka this hot, sunny afternoon. 

A bit of anticipation on my part, I gotta admit- it had been so long.

Glad I was, then, when the food arrived just the way I remembered it- fragrant, bubbling hot, plenty of meat sitting inside. 

There's something very heartening about the soup here at Leong Kee.

It might be the Cantonese in me who is very used to broths and soups and double-boiled stuff, but one gets this overwhelming sense of warmth even with just a little sip, as if someone had taken a warm, fluffy blanket and wrapped your entire body system comfortably in it. 

Some people might find it weird, but really, it goes through you, and you can feel it. 

Another thing I like about the food here is how huge their portions are. 

They don't stinge with the size.

Where some places like to do lots of little bite sized here and there, here theirs are all big big chonky chonky with the pork ribs chopped thick and big, the vegetable and tau kee all one whole piece. 

No elegant eating over here, just work your chopsticks and spoon, or better yet, throw away whatever dining propriety and stuff the whole piece of whatever you want inside your mouth. 

I did it with the lettuce.

My friend did it with the tau kee.

This is not a place to put the entire piece of bak kut bone in your mouth though. 

Too big. 

One has to either tear it with the teeth, or with the hands. 

I like alternating my meat and rice with sips of the soup. The warm broth softens the meat, makes it more flavorful, and wraps your tongue with a comforting feel better than if you were to eat the meat by itself alone. 

There're no favorites when it comes to these two dishes.

I like them both equally the same. 

Even the ter ka, which, although I said I would never eat, over the years, I have learnt to appreciate the solid, solid feel of the meat underneath the bouncy collagen-rich skin. 

Friends sometimes tell me I ought to learn how to eat the pig skin. 

It's supposed to be good for me. 

But to my imaginative brain it looks scary, and till date, I haven't learnt yet how to look at it properly, much less stick it inside my mouth and chew on it.

Maybe I'm not good with savory types of collagen. 

I'm better with the sweet. 

But I like the gravy of this pig trotter dish.

And I love the parsley veggie that always comes resting on top of the chonky trotter meat below. 

Bus Ride Sights: Expo-Changi V

Not too long ago I wrote about a bus ride I sat from Geylang to Changi Village.

That was Part 1.

Here's Part 2.

Originally I had intended to chuck every picture into one post, but then it would have become too long, too confusing, too unreadable.

So here we are.

A bus journey spilt into two parts, and, in an odd way, looking at these pictures now, how apt it is, too. 

The scenery changes as the bus trundles along Sims Avenue and Sims Avenue East all the way down past Bedok MRT and Tanah Merah MRT station, but it becomes at once more spacious and sparse after you pass Simpang Bedok and into what is commonly called the Simei area. 

I had thought that the ITE campus would make for a scene change. 

Indeed so. 

But the real change came a little while after that- at the junction to Expo. 

Or was it after Expo?

Somewhere around here is when you begin to realize you've skirted the border of Changi and Simei, and are genuinely entering into the zone this side of the island all the way down to the end point of the Eastern Coast that is Changi V. 

The correct name of this road around this junction is probably Upper Changi Road and which leads to Upper Changi Link. 

There're a couple of industrial buildings here- whether light, or heavy, I don't know- but their buildings are big, and they aren't of the JTC flatted sort. It still surprises me the amount of industry there is in this area. I hadn't thought there would be this many factories and industrial buildings this side of the country. 

From here the bus turned into Upper Changi Road East where there was the SUTD (University), a church at where I attended a youth camp with a Christian association some twenty plus years earlier, and a couple of pretty, resort-looking condominiums. 

It's really condo after condo after condo here until one gets to the large, neat campus of The Japanese School, and then the bus turns into Upper Changi Road North. 

It is right here, I should think, that one can consider themselves legit getting into the vicinity of what I feel was once the colonial part of Changi with the most significant landmark being Changi Chapel Museum. 

This is the part where today Allied veterans in their 80s and 90s, together with their children and grandchildren, still come to. 

More than once I've seen seniors in their walking shoes and their walking gear make their way over and around this museum whose exhibitions must bring back some form of memories big or small, pleasant or unpleasant, otherwise. 

But before that, however, there is a stretch of (more) industrial buildings, and then, like an icon from times past- the (still standing) old whitewashed gate of Changi Prison, its greyscale walls, and the yellow and blue walls of present-day Singapore Prison Service. 

You'll also pass by the entrance of the present-day Changi Prison Complex in between but there aren't any pictures. 

Not recommended to be snapping them, nor posting them. 

All along Upper Changi Road North the bus continues, with the entrance of Cosford Container Park on the right, and Selarang Park Rehabilitation Complex on the left. When it was that rehabilitation for drug addicts and former drug addicts got moved to this space, I don't know, but it's got to be fairly recent, I presume, for whilst the Selarang Park Complex has been there a while, Christian-based DRC Breakthrough Missions moved to Cosford about two plus years ago, and I think they've got a cafe there.

Cosford itself is a place for food and everything, as so it seems, whether it be Thai Mookata or Taiwanese grilled skewers. 

And, apparently, one gets of arriving, and departing airplanes on the runway.

I might pay a visit to Cosford Container Park one day, but that's for another time. 

What charms me most about this side of Changi is the feel of the rustic interposed with the colonial. 

Where other places might have forested, jungly green, here one gets a plethora of wide, open space, and meadow-like fields. 

I don't have a picture.

I've never been able to get a proper picture of them green fields and little green hills and house on top of a hill. 

I don't know why.

Maybe because it is often here on Loyang Way that the bus tends to speed along as quick as the driver can, and the scenery whizzes by before I can press the shutter. 

This time I was sitting on the right hand side of the bus, though, and thanks be to God, I got these rustic-like shots of Changi that serve as reminder of what this place might once have been. 

There's a fair bit of construction happening on now- either the Terminal 5 or something else- and then right after that comes the storied building of Selarang Camp on one side, following which after marker junction Cranwell Road is the School of Commando (Hendon Camp?) and part of Changi Air Base (West) on the other. 

Somewhere along here I think is what makes up part of Changi Air Base (West) then one comes to Cranwell Road on the opposite side. 

Cranwell Road is to me a major marker junction on this stretch, for it is here that one has to take to get into the curve of Netharavon Road, the old Changi Hospital, and the ferry terminal at Changi Village. 

This is the section that makes you think of Changi Air Base when it was still RAF. 

Not so because of the location, or that there're two military camps here, but because of the road, the scenery, the humongous colonial-style buildings that have retained its architecture but are so huge that nobody knows what exactly to do with it. 

They've haven't figured out what to do with the old Changi Hospital too. 

But one catches a glimpse of the Changi golf course, with the classic-looking, standalone, small church building of Maranatha BP on the right side, before the bus turns into the HDB-type apartment blocks of what feels even more kampong-like Changi Village Road.