Visiting Punggol after 30 years.

Punggol is a region in the north east of Singapore.
It is slated to be the model for Singapore's 21st century towns.
The masterplan calls for riverside residences, 'ala Sydney Harbour style,  waterfront housing and lifestyle.
A model of sustainable eco friendly suburban living.

I have not been to Punggol (sometimes spelt Ponggol) for more than a generation!
To me, Ponggol recall memories only of the pungent pig farms at Buangkok.
You used to be able to tell you have arrived at Ponggol simply with your nose.

One other thing I remembered was the small roadside shop, near the bus terminal at the end of Punggol Road, that would eventually grow to be the famous Ponggol Seafood Restaurant today.

Punggol was so remote in my days that nobody went there unless you lived there or had a really pressing reason to be there. The last time I was there was at an invitation from Fr John Khoo, a diocesan Catholic priest, to visit his family home and to drop by the St Francis Xavier Major Seminary located there.

On hindsight, I think he probably had a devious reason to take me there.
Who knows, if it wasn't for the smell of the pigs (I really mean the animals, not the seminarians), I might have become a man of the cloth today?
Anyway, that was 30 years ago, and that's how long I have not been to that area since!

Punggol today, of course, has developed along with the tremendous growth all over Singapore.
Pig and poultry farms are no longer found and the area is now a sprawling sub-urban HDB estate.
The biggest thing to happen there recently is the plan to redevelop the entire region into a new waterfront lifestyle town.

Now that there's a direct connection from Bukit Batok to Punggol by MRT train, I thought I'd pay a visit after all these years and and see what the excitement is all about.

These are the pictures I took at Punggol today. There's still a long way to go.
Click the link here.
My Waterway@Punggol

Related links:
Venice of Punggol?