Monday, June 26, 2006
During my teenage years, I took up canoeing courses at this sembawang sea sports club. Only managed pass my novice course coz at that time i was too young to adavance to the next stage. I still remebered it was so fun canoeing around the area, it was v near to the johore straits so while canoeing I could actually glanced over to the straits of Johore. The most exciting part is dat at 0530pm you could see the sunset while canoeing ... a very beautiful sight really .... it's so beautiful amaring sunset on e canoe. I still remembered a funny incident that happened. I was cleaning my canoe trying to empty the excess water in my canoe. Didn't find anything amiss when i was canoeing in e middle of the sea to seletar island. Suddendly i found a mini crab crawling towards me in at e end of e canoe. I did a comical move by jumping out of my canoe into the middle of the sea. Luckily, an instructor saw me and managed to change his canoe with me....haha
I really missed those days participating in those sea sports activities. Therefore I was determined to go back there to participate some sea sports activities. The club was previously known as sembawang sea sports centre. To my dismay, I surfed the net and couldn't find of the club's address.
I managed to dig out one of my course book which i had kept. It had the club address printed on e book. 60 Jalann Mempurong, Singapore 759058. I went to the street directory www.streetdirectory.com to check out on the address. Once again... stated on e webpage was a location called BOTTLE TREE VILLAGE. WAt e heck!!!!
I decided to browse through the website and found out a piece of dissapointing news
The Bottle Tree Village
The Bottle Tree Village is the brainchild of Mr Alex Neo, who was so fascinated by the Bottle Trees that he saw in Australia that he just had to have some of them shipped over to Singapore, even if it cost him up to $30,000 each. The Village which occupies the former Sembawang Sea Sports Centre is now home to 6 of these Bottle Trees, also known as Brachychiton rupestris which are native to south-west Queensland in Australia.So the story goes that Mr Neo first learnt of the tree during a business meeting with Mr Danny McCarthy, the director of Station Creek Tree Farm, an hour's drive from Brisbane, in Australia. Of more than $600,000 invested in the village, at least $100,000 were spent on the plants, of which 25% was on shipping freight cost.Apart from bottle trees, grass trees, giant ferns and palms, also imported from Australia can be seen around the Bottle Tree Village.
The seaside atmosphere is also perfect for some evening barbeque. Order from the BBQ selection ranging from chicken wings, sausages, satay, otah, stingray and even crabs. Cooked food like seafood fried rice, curry chicken can also be served at about $2 per person. Free usage of BBQ pit comes with every group spending $200 or more.
Such a waste for it to be converted into a seafood centre. Of all e locations in Singapore, Sembawang sea sports club provides the best canoeing spot. You can canoe to parts of smaller island. Hai... there goes my dream...
Canoeing at kallang sea sports centre jus makes me feel like canoeing in a big lon gang.. so enclosed and small.
The bottle neck village actually sounds interesting. But read in some forums it stated that the place provides excellent sunset view.. but the food suxs and its quite pricy.
