Changi Village

Changi Point Jetty

Changi Village is a place which evokes a sense of nostalgia in me. As a child, I remember spending school holidays in the area. My parents were civil servants and would rent one of the beach front chalets for a week. There were 2 lots of bungalows - one along Telok Paku Road and the other along Netheravon Road. Those along Telok Paku Road were elevated black and white coloured buildings. I assume they were orginally built for British army officers during the colonial era. The bungalows along Netheravon Road were more modern looking.

The week-long breaks at these rented chalets were filled with adventure. My cousins would join us and we would spend the week fishing, swimming, rowing a sampan, climbing trees (occasionally falling from trees). This was the 1970s. It was a simpler time without the distraction of computer games and social media. Recreation was mainly outdoors and we played hard. We would dare one another to swim out to the sailing boats anchored about 40m from the shore. There was "No Fear". The theory was that if you can swim and tread water, you can swim as far out as you wish. If you cannot swim, you used a float, which was the inner tube of a car tyre! Nobody was left out. We learned very quickly that there was something called water current and it is a force you do not mess around with. Thankfully, no harm came to us....just frayed nerves :)

In the evenings, the boisterous boys would sleep in the same room and there could be up to 6 teenagers. We shared jokes, riddles and of course, ghost stories! This kept us up late into the night and I am sure there were strange noises from under the wooden floor at night. I later realised that the young teenage mind is a fertile ground for vivid and wild imagination. We literally frightened ourselves by our own thoughts and unfounded fears.

As I grew into my late teenage years, I was part of the canoe club and used to frequent Changi for our weekly canoe adventures. We would take bus number 2 to the bus terminus and walk to the canoe club. The canoes were made of fibre glass and whenever we did a capsize drill and had to mount the canoe, we would get pricked by the fibre glass thread. It was a really unpleasant sensation.

Later on, in my first job with the airline, my office was a stone's throw away and we would frequent the hawkers' centre during lunch. There was a little pub called Charlie's Corner. This guy had a great selection of beers and pub food like fish and chips, chicken wings, etc. It was a popular hangout joint with airline folks.

Changi Point Jetty is where you would catch a bumboat to Pulau Ubin. The fare was a couple of dollars and the boat would leave when there was a decent crowd. For the die-hard mountain bike enthusiast, you can bring your own bicycle there. No extra charge for the bicycle :)

Bumboat to Pulau Ubin

The area is also great for photography. I caught some of these photos during sunrise. The photographs below do not do this place justice. I just head back to get more flattering shots of this piece of nostalgia.

Sunrise over Changi Creek

Changi Creek

Morning Puff

Cat with an Attitude