Richard H (Urban Red Dot)
@Richard_URD
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Singapore/Pan-SEA Armchair Urbanist and Culture Enjoyer | Transit and Place Enthusiast (DMs Open) It's not a black profile pic, I just can't decide a pfp
Woodlands, Singapore
Joined December 2018
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Hello, welcome to my Urban Red Dot microblog account.
Chat with me on Discord:
My long form articles are on Substack:
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Retirees at a kopitiam in Singapore and Malaysia:
Normalise sitting outside the café all day and not really doing anything
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50% of Tourists: "I love Singapore. It's so cool and futuristic"
Other 50% of Tourists: "I hate Singapore. It's so artificial and expensive"
Singapore in Question:
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We didn't
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"What's there to do outside the CBD?" was a common response I received, so this thread basically shows some hidden gems outside the city where you can visit and enjoy: (West and North-West)
50% of Tourists: "I love Singapore. It's so cool and futuristic"
Other 50% of Tourists: "I hate Singapore. It's so artificial and expensive"
Singapore in Question:
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A Singaporean's experience in TRX 🧵
The first thing I saw entering the mall is the amount of MRT feeder buses parked. Looks like they're trying to make this mall accessible to everyone
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Meanwhile in Singapore:
Every house has this, but in public toilets, finding this is like 4D/Toto (lottery and horse betting)
The existence of this thing is a true sign of a civilized society.
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🧵
Before independence, Singapore had a strong film industry and was the centre of Malay entertainment, with the Shaw Brothers setting up a studio in Jalan Ampas in Balestier, the studio is preserved and the Shaw cinema nearby is still in operation (not my pics)
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In Marsiling MRT, there's a hidden co-working space and cafe at Level 2, above the supermarket, under the MRT tracks. Looks like it's probably formerly a mechanical room, kinda clever idea of reusing space in MRT stations.
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
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Just Singapore MRT things: whenever there's exam season, there are posters in MRT stations guiding students to the nearest schools to the station in case the route to their school is disrupted
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Not a transit agency, but the unified public transport symbol of Singapore is very well designed, the logo is a mix of the shape of Singapore, with arrows and forms found in nature, and the resulting logo also forms the letter S!
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Come with me as I walk from Raffles Place, thru Telok Ayer to Chinatown
First place I observed is Cecil Street, where you can see the contrast between 21st century skyscrapers and a colonial 20th century building
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@TNFSG1
Go to the markets and hawker centres, fare is usually cheaper outside the CBD. Explore the HDB commercial areas, sit in a kopitiam there. If you're in Jurong, there's attractions like the Science and Discovery Centres.
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@Ldsphu2
As a Sinkie, i can say, its bcos many hate SG too, cant defend if youre attacking yourself too🤷♂️
But I agree bcos many Sinkies are arrogant, chauvinistic and have no humour (too much studying and stress fried their senses)
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Until the 80s, Singapore had a safe space for Trans people: Bugis Street, & many tourists, even John Lennon, visited to enjoy the vibes. Sadly, there was vice (esp prostitution), as trans people find it hard to get jobs&this was a last resort, & the Govt cracked down on it
Remember the 1970s and 1980s when no one was autistic, gluten intolerant, or transgender.
So what happened?
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Yishun is indeed a fascinating and crazy town that cements itself as the Florida/Ohio of Singapore. They have a whole shop selling ant farms!
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Meanwhile in Singapore
You should be able to open a 7/11 in a heritage conservation area.
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The need to pedestrianise Jln Bukit Bintang grows exponentially as the road remains in perpetual gridlock
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It's interesting how even the most rural, underdeveloped farmland of Singapore is served by a single bus service with 7 minute headways, has many bus stops, and they're all sheltered!
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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Nicoll Highway Collapse, when the then u/c Circle MRT Line tunnel walls around Nicoll Highway were caved in due to structural failure, killing 4. The effects of it are still present till this day...🧵
📸Mothership
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Back in 1990, a Hong Kong film called The Last Blood filmed action scenes in Changi Airport and Raffles Place MRT Station. You can't film like this anymore
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Part 2: Northeast, some parts in the West and NW I forgot
This tweet has gone viral. I have been procrastinating lately, schoolwork, anime etc. So part 2 is here: we'll start with Sembawang Hot Spring, Mainland Singapore's only natural hot spring
"What's there to do outside the CBD?" was a common response I received, so this thread basically shows some hidden gems outside the city where you can visit and enjoy: (West and North-West)
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Today, after my trip to KL, I managed to visit TEL4, Marine Parade and Katong, here are my thoughts...🧵
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@dumplings_r_yum
Honestly the hate SEAsians have for us is also partly the peoples fault rather than the government, being developed faster and earlier makes many Singaporeans look down on their neighbours and lick the boots of East Asia and the West
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Thinking of that one Jakarta guy who took a picture of the same broken escalator for 81 days straight in a train station, wishing for it to be repaired
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An expressway interchange in Singapore laid over the Old Town/Batavia in Jakarta and Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur, it's sad how car dependency ruins cities
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If I had a penny for every time a bride took transit in SEA, i would have two pennies...
A bride and groom took the Singapore MRT during the inaugural run (7/11/1987) to the church for their wedding service
(Almost) everyone rides the BTS in Bangkok - even a bride. The benefits of a good public transportation system are limitless.
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To the Singaporeans who complain about the long paid transfers at Outram or Dhoby Ghaut, try transferring from the Jakarta MRT to the Greater Jakarta/Jabodebek LRT
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Why is there a narrow park separating Outram from Tg Pagar? This is Duxton Plain Park, it used to be a railway track from the old SG station in Tank Road to the ports at Keppel, from 1907 to 1932! The Neil Road bridge (not underpass as the sign says) is a remnant of this. 🧵
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Today, I was at Queenstown, on a walking tour by Instagram/Tiktok urbanist Yong from @\urbanist.singapore. I see so much cool stuff i have no space in the tweets so read the alt texts! 🧵
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Tampines MRT station, transferring between the Downtown and East West Lines. Disappointed how the best planned town in SG has a poor transfer. Out of station, meaning i have to tap out and in, and passing through crowded walkways
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Unpopular opinion: We need smaller venues like Livehouses in Japan, like Zepp Jurong which closed.
This is useful for niche stuff like Jpop. Yoasobi performed at the RWS ballroom and Ado skipped SG for KL due to a lack of proper venues. Disappoints me as a Jpop enjoyer.
Kallang's new 18,000-seater indoor arena will host more concerts & sports events
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Today I visited Yew Tee, Singapore's sleepiest public housing estate and this is what I saw
-Bike lanes and lots of bikes
-Lots of sheltered footpaths and pedestrian friendly roads
-Two malls with ample amenities
-A walkable community space between the malls and MRT station
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If you're interested in looking at pretty retro logos, posters and graphic designs from Singapore, i highly recommend going to . They don't just have logos and stuff, they also credit the designers. SMRT's logo is designed by (another) Lawrence Wong!
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@anygalien
Soulless tourist attractions too, its just "throwing money at the problem" instead of celebrating and promoting our country's eclectic mix of cultures
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When people think of Singapore, they think of just the CBD (Downtown) and Changi Airport. The heartlands (neighbourhoods outside downtown, basically like suburbs but dense) away from the city feels so overlooked, it has more soul and culture to vibe with, and everythings cheaper!
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Singapore traditional buildings be like
(/j)
You may think that Asian traditional buildings are all equal, but here's a quick guide to distinguish some of the styles and their details.
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Singapore's National Library is so nice and quiet. Plus it's got floor-to-ceiling windows showing the skyline while you study. It's also an architectural masterpiece
Friendly PSA that your local public library is better to work at than a coffee shop!
- Fast WiFi
- Totally Free
- Tables, Desks, Workspaces
- Free Magazines, Books, Newspapers
I use the public library 3 blocks from my house several times a week, it's like having a free WeWork.
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A common dad joke in Singapore is "BMW=bus,MRT,walk", related to high car prices and extensive public transport.
This joke has finally been acknowledged by the LTA and is now an official campaign catchphrase!
I wonder how BMW would react to it tho...
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Just thinking about when Raffles City was first built in '86, it had Sogo and a giant LED display, which was cutting-edge then. Sogo went bust after the '97 AFC and left Singapore in 2000. They had another branch in Tampines too
📸NAS, Mothership, Straits Times (3 Oct 1986)
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Since this tweet is going viral, my name is Richard (nickname, not real name), I am a transit nerd, urban photographer and urbanist. If you want advice on Singapore, DM me. I don't have any other platforms but Discord, maybe I can set up a server soon...
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(from Discord)
Singapore MRT is now trialling 3d diagrams ala Hong Kong. Dhoby Ghaut be looking complicated. Also, I still prefer HK's because they clearly show shops and separate unpaid/paid areas. Still, great attempt
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Nice seeing the MRT and station shots in the old National Day song MVs from 2001 (Expo), and 2002 (Dover), when the stations were brand new.
This thread talks about the settings used in some National Day MVs🧵
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A fascinating trial in MRT stations, water dispensers. If you wonder why this didn't catch on, note that this was reported on the 4th of September 2001, and the trial was expected to start on the 10th. And guess what happened the next day which got rid of dustbins in MRT stations
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The biggest culture shock in Indonesia is...cigarette/vape ads being everywhere
In SG, cigarettes are taxed, hidden behind closed cabinets and packaging is made non-distinct, while Indonesia is the last country to not ban cigarette ads
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@asiaexpatguy
Not really mocking, rather saying there's some hidden gems outside the city, ofc im not saying they should go to somewhere like Yew Tee. I'm referring to places like Haw Par Villa, Joo Chiat, Coney Island and the nature reserves and parks etc
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Teck Lee will finally open after being mothballed since 2005. Teck Lee has been closed and possibly abandoned for so long that the MRT map in the station was dated 2005, when Buangkok MRT was still closed.
Teck Lee LRT station in Punggol to open 2 decades after completion to serve SIT campus students
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@hakiim_m_m_m
actually theres a theory that this is done to prevent student assemblies and protests, as Singapore had lots of them from the 50s to 70s
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Today,
@adriansyahyasin
and I explored the new estate of Tengah. While its still really incomplete, with the large amount of construction and work vehicles, you can see how great it is...
And I showed him a book on transport wayfinding I got in NYC
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This National Day, I wish our SEA neighbours stops hating on Singapore people. As a Singaporean, I look up to SEA. I apologise on behalf of the classist and arrogant Sinkies with bad fashion tastes, and I hope Singaporeans will appreciate our ASEAN bad bitch brothers in return
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80s HDB estates in Singapore are peak, this should be what PHIMBYs want. Shops selling all kinds of knick-knacks, greengrocers and whole 24h coffeeshops, right underneath or close to your home.
(The building above the area i took pics is actually a carpark serving the estate)
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Whenever I look at this map, I cover my face with embarrassment as a pro-Palestinian Muslim. Our Govt like to push this image of "friend of all, enemy of none" and "neutrality", and always preach "two-state solution", yet we can't recognise Palestine...
We’ve been saying, singapore is definitely the usa of asia. Rotten.
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Wonder why Singapore likes plants (and plant motifs) around buildings? Its psychological. At first glance, you may not notice that this complex is a brand new hospital! You can also hear the sounds of birds and insects instead of what you expect a hospital to sound like
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Better not really, but Singapore is full of thick canopy trees on roadsides too, bcos of the vision of a "Garden City", and also bcos of our tropical rainforest climate, which is home for thick trees with giant canopies. This is why our roads feel cool even when traffic is heavy
Is there a major global city with better street trees than CDMX?
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Bukit Batok, Bukit Gombak and Bukit Timah are some of SG's tiny hills. These hills have former granite quarries that were filled with water over time, creating huge lakes with stone faces. They all have trails that allow you to go deep into the jungle
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Nice argument. Unfortunately I have depicted you as heavy traffic on a toll road, and myself as a shiny new bullet train
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Honestly, while I have some criticisms of Singapore's transport system and car centric infra. To have such a robust transport network and huge plans for urban planning and developing it quickly from independence, after colonial neglect, is an impressive feat
Posting good example of urbanism from every country day 150: Singapore
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I like how both KL and Singapore have a place called "Sungai/Sungei Buloh" (Bamboo River), one's a developed town with an MRT-Railway Station, and one's a preserved mangrove swamp...
And they're both in the northwestern part of the city
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Stadium Boulevard will be converted into a pedestrianised "community sports boulevard" as announced in NDR 2024. Did you know that the same boulevard was the former runway for Kallang Airport?
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Meanwhile in Singapore:
Its nonbiodegradable tho, but traditional
I ordered a regular cold brew from a hip coffee shop and they handed me this. I think it’s biodegradable which is great but there has to be a better way to prevent plastic waste than making people perform public humiliation rituals sipping an IV bag of coffee
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Today i visited the site of the fatal accident that claimed 2 in Tampines. The area has lots of double decker buses, an MRT station and bicycle lanes. This shows that even if the area is transit focused, if the infrastructure is car centric, lives will still be lost to accidents
I believe while the recent fatal Tampines accident can be due to bad road manners, its not the sole cause. Road infrastructure is also an overlooked issue. The roads are wide and straight with obtuse bends, which can contribute to faster speeds
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One of my favourite corners of central SG is this vast underpass under Stamford Rd and Nicoll Hwy. Its right beside Esplanade Theatres so sometimes its used as a rehearsal spot for dancers. It was built to connect to City Hall MRT via Citylink Mall, and later Esplanade MRT
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In capitalist Singapore, 24 hour local style coffee shops (kopitiam) are culture, whether privately or publicly owned. public owned coffee shops under the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) offer discounts for coffees and meals if youre a member of a workers union under them.
If you ever wanna know why capitalism sucks, think about how many people you've known who wanna open a 24 hour coffeeshop and bookstore (with a cat) if they ever get rich vs how many rich people ever actually open a 24 hour coffeeshop and bookstore (with a cat).
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Jurong is also home to Jurong Lake, this lake is surrounded by gardens, like Chinese and Japanese Gardens, however, some are currently under renovation. But the opened sections, and the MRT allows you to view the vastness of the parks
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North Bridge Road @ Kampong Glam, very wide and stroad-y, as a result of the legacy of slower cars and tram tracks, but now its probably the most dangerous road to cross in SG
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Firstly, the west side. Jurong is home to underrated attractions and museums, also kid friendly, Singapore Science Centre and Discovery Centre. If you wanna play with (fake) snow in the tropics, then Snow City is for you!
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Before London, Singapore was the first city to implement a congestion charge in 1975, the Area Licensing Scheme (ALS) made use of paper stickers placed on the car windscreen, with a traffic warden looking out for them, this caused people to take buses, resulting in jams...
In its latest move to implement a policy that London implemented long ago, New York Is doing congestion charging! In all seriousness, it will be a complete game changer - not only for the city, but for the entire continent.
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We SG Urbanists think of OTC as a hero. He pushed for MRT during the Bus/BRT vs MRT debate, despite the high costs.
"This is like a 20-year affair from conception to delivery. Now the baby is born, to say that I am happy and pleased is an understatement." -OTC during MRT opening
Ong Teng Cheong on Nomination Day during Singapore's first presidential election in Aug 1993.
📸: NAS
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The development of Singapore's MRT system was held back a decade bcos of high costs and people, including Harvard, debating & proposing all-bus/BRT systems at a fraction of the cost. The more expensive heavy rail option was chosen fortunately, at S$40b (15% of SG's GDP in 1980)
It’s very unfortunate that some folks are suggesting that those who critique expensive (extremely expensive) transit projects are undermining transit as a whole.
I’d suggest reflecting on why so little transit has gotten built in the last two decades.
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The Transit Guy discovers the Kampung Spirit, where villagers in Indonesia, Malaysia and (in the past) Singapore lived close by and used to leave their doors open and help and interact with each other
This is how I want to live with my family and friends. Make this legal to build, everywhere:
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Yew Tee is memed as the most boring place in SG. But having free delivery to restaurants just shows how limited food options are in the area. The solution isn't this, the solution is to build more amenities.
foodpanda giving all 53,000 households in Yew Tee unlimited free deliveries for 1 month
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Fact: the new public housing in Bukit Panjang is so tall you can see flats in the other end of the Central Catchment Reserve
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Image 4 is a link for Admiralty MRT Station. Other than shelter, the bridge also has small shops. The bridge also has escalators and lifts, and is linked to the bus stop opposite the station. This should also be standard in Jakarta and other SEA cities
Duh, Singapura & Kuala Lumpur kurang kerjaan banget ya JPO & trotoar aja segala dikasih atap.
Harusnya kan gak usah pakai atap biar gak jadi sarang copet, & biar gak jadi tempat tongkrongan pedagang & pengemis. Fungsi utama JPO & trotoar kan buat jalan kaki, bongkar aja atapnya.
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We've been doing that for over 50 years, Singapore-Johor Bahru (Malaysia) routes. But they don't stop in Johor Bahru except for the checkpoint and bus terminus
Did you know that there's a city bus that runs between the US and Canada? Well, I rode it to find out what it's like!
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Happy Labour Day, just a reminder that the same MP who pushed for the MRT to be built was an activist who also supported unions and strikes...
Kinda off topic but Ong Teng Cheong was also a pro-Union activist. He was chairman of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) from 83-93 and he tried mending strained ties between unions and the government, and even supported a worker strike (strikes are banned by the govt)
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Singaporeans the moment it opens
Malaysia is building a 582-acre “circular city”. Designed by
@ZHA_News
, Discovery City in Johor is aiming to set a new benchmark for sustainable development in the country.
The project is a major component of the Ibrahim Technopolis (IBTEC) — a key site for strategic expansion
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Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singapore is one of my personal favourites. Tall public housing flats surround it like a wall, and THREE MRT (Metro) Lines pass it, two underground thru the park (one u/c), and one elevated line at the eastern end
Real cities aren't afraid to build big buildings on the boundary with their largest urban park 😌
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Do you notice how some SBS feeder buses are marked with G or W? This is used for loop services. Before digital displays, there would be Green or White destination boards for each direction. Now with digital displays, the route is marked as G and W instead...
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The NSEWL during peak hours is so frequent, the next train comes even before you finish grumbling that you missed the previous one!
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A bit further north is the little known Chestnut Nature Park, with a giant lookout tower for birdwatchers, and lots of trails, for hikers and bikers
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I almost forgot, the National University of Singapore is home to the LKC Natural History Museum, with real dino bones on display. And don't forget about Haw Par Villa/Tiger Balm Gardens, where you can learn about hell in Chinese culture, spooky.
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Punggol as a public housing estate is so iconic in design its actually used in our passport pages alongside GBTB, Marina Barrage, Botanic Gardens and Sports Hub. Pity the roads are kinda wide
(Image From Reddit)
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The 1940s and 1960s was called the Golden Age of Malay Cinema, where the Shaw Brothers and Cathay-Keris produced hundreds of films, with some being iconic in Malaysia till this day. Malaysian (P Ramlee, Saloma) and local actors (Wahid Satay, Zaiton) became superstars
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@ShuckMyBhauls
Peanut Pancake is more like a "common term", bcos the Chinese say Min Jiang Kueh and the Malays say Apam Balik, like in the map
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🧵Currently in Kuala Lumpur, at Bukit Bintang, and wanted to go to KLCC. No direct public transit since GoKL is now only for locals, and Jln Sultan Ismail is jammed. However, there's an entirely sheltered walk. I first get on this skybridge from Pavilion BB to the Convention Ctr
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>Singapore least toxic
Is this based on just young men who just came out of National Service after being yelled at by their encik (sergeant) for months
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🧵 Read the whole thing
Today I visited Toa Payoh, Independent Singapore's first planned New Town. It's so old the roads are labelled as "Lorong" instead of "Avenue/Drive"! The bus coverage is huge, almost every corner has a bus stop with feeders every 5-10 minutes...
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Observation: In Singapore, the till is left unmanned by the shopkeeper at a local conbini so they can restock shelves. Despite this, nobody has attempted to shoplift, and used the cash register, which has self-checkout capabilities, to pay for their items, with integrity
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What's the best way to connect the population centres in the world's most populated island? The answer:
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If you prefer swamps over forests, the northwestern end of Singapore has Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and Kranji Marshes, lots of mangrove swamps, with animals and birds lurking
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However, after independence, the film industry declined, as the government focused on technical skills, as LKY said in 1969, "Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford". The industry shifted to KL, while Shaw Brothers moved to Hong Kong and grew their successful movie industry.
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These images of public buses from the 70s from the National Archives (from SPH) are proof of why the MRT is a necessary piece of Singapore's infrastructure
3rd image from 1974 shows people walking on the bus lane, which was then new and people weren't used to it
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Hello from Singapore Car Free Sunday 2024 at Civic District, where you can see the contrast between colonial-era buildings in the front, and modern skyscrapers in the background
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Whoops! Looks like I forgot to add this factoid. When the Circle Line was planned, Esplanade MRT station was originally planned to be named "Convention Centre" after the nearby Suntec/SICEC, but was renamed as rules dictate that naming stations after places are discouraged.
Always in awe with Suntec Convention Centee. I like how spacious the L1 and L3-L6 atrium are. Built in 1992 (then SEA's largest convention centre), they give Kyoto Station vibes. Its linked to a bus stop with 17 bus services and a 3 line MRT complex. Also, huge LED at L1
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