Discovery walks

Discovery walks

After going on a free walking tour of Joo Chiat last year, Ms Lisa Chua was hooked. "I go there to eat about once a week but I wanted to learn more about the place," says the heritage buff and polytechnic lecturer, who lives in Yishun.

The tour was organised by Jane's Walk, a global movement started in Toronto in 2007 to honour Jane Jacobs, a Canadian-American urban design activist, who died in 2006.

Ms Jacobs championed walking as a way to get to know a city and Jane's Walk encourages volunteers from more than 100 cities around the world to organise free public tours based on neighbourhoods or issues they feel passionate about. They take place every year on the weekend closest to May 4, Ms Jacobs' birthday, and aim to introduce people to aspects of various neighbourhoods which they may not have been aware of.

On the tour of Joo Chiat, Ms Chua, 44, learnt about conservation buildings in the area and the people who live and work there.

She enjoyed herself so much that she has signed up for three Jane's Walk tours this year, around the Fullerton Hotel, Tiong Bahru and Botanic Gardens- Bukit Brown areas.

She says: "I just see these areas as they are, places where I go to eat or shop. Tours give you a lot more insights into them. You can read about these places but they don't come alive as much as when you hear people tell you stories about them."

About 250 people are expected to attend the 11 Jane's Walk tours this year, most of which take place today, tomorrow and on Sunday. The numbers are a jump from about 100 people who went on four walks around Joo Chiat, Changi Village, Bukit Brown and Victoria Street last year. Of the 11 walks, which include trails to Chinatown and Opium Hill, eight are fully booked.

Ms Mai Tatoy, 44, and Ms Yvette Tey, 26, the organisers of Jane's Walk here, were pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming response. "We thought we'd have done well if we just organised six walks this year, but so many people wanted to be involved," says Ms Tatoy.

Each tour can accommodate 20 to 30 people but up to three times as many participants wanted to sign up, so the organisers have had to turn people away.

Ms Tey says: "The popularity of the walks makes you realise how passionate people are about Singapore's heritage. I think people like going on these tours with friends, hoping to learn more about Singapore and their neighbourhoods and ask questions about its future."

Ms Tatoy says that they are planning themed walks for next year, including Art-Deco architecture, black-and-white houses, and a dog-friendly walk. "I can only see it getting bigger," she says.

Jane's Walk is the latest of free volunteer-led tours around Singapore, most of which sprang up within the past two years.

There are at least six such walking tours, which are often organised by civic and community groups, including My Queenstown, Tiong Bahru Heritage Group and All Things Bukit Brown.

Independent operators have also joined in the fun. They include Singapore Footprints, a group of Nanyang Technological University students who lead walking tours of the Singapore River and Bras Basah-Bugis area every Saturday and Sunday, and author Verena Tay, who runs the Balik Kampung Tours.

The tours attract a mix of Singaporeans who want to learn more about local heritage and tourists who aim to venture beyond the usual attractions.

Ms Tay, 48, says: "People identify with the concept of commemorating, remembering, celebrating and evoking a neighbourhood that they are familiar with and which they treasure. It is a way to find out about different perspectives of the neighbourhood.

"The tours are a good way to get an insider scoop of the neighbourhood. By following people who live there, you learn details you never knew existed."

Last year, she organised two free public tours based on the popular Balik Kampung book series she has edited since 2012. The books feature short stories written by more than 20 Singaporean authors, mostly about the neighbourhoods they grew up in.

The two tours, which were led by some of these authors last July, were fully booked. They took a total of 80 participants to places such as Redhill, Changi Village and Marine Parade. Ms Tay hopes to organise two similar tours later this year.

Monthly tours led by the Tiong Bahru Heritage Group, capped at 15 people, are also fully booked. Places are often snapped up within one day to a week after the news is posted on the group's website.

Mr Barnie Leow, 45, a professional photographer who has lived in Tiong Bahru for close to 40 years, leads a tour lasting about 21/2 hours every other month. He says these walks draw people - comprising Singaporeans and tourists - whose curiosity is piqued after hearing so much about the estate.

"They want to hear the stories and see the buildings for themselves," says Mr Leow, who is one of about 15 volunteers with the group.

"Some people who lived in Tiong Bahru 20 to 30 years ago come back to see how much has changed, and then they learn about stories, heritage and landmarks they didn't know about when they were living here. People come to learn about their home."

Besides pointing out architectural landmarks, he adds stories about the neighbourhood's development and tales about the people who live there, which he has gleaned from his years of living in the area.

These include the satay man, who started selling satay with his mother when he was a young boy and has since become a neighbourhood fixture.

Most of the walking tours started as a way to raise awareness of the neighbourhoods the residents feel passionate about. The volunteers who lead the tours are often longtime residents who want to share their knowledge of the area.

The longest running neighbourhood tour is by My Queenstown community group, which has led a free two-hour tour of the estate's landmarks on the last Sunday of every month since 2010.

Mr Kwek Li Yong, 25, the group's co-founder and president, says: "We started the tours because very little was known or talked about Queenstown then. Tiong Bahru was getting attention but Queenstown was not getting any mentions, even though it was the first satellite estate in Singapore and has important architectural landmarks and social institutions."

He spent two years developing the itinerary. The five volunteer guides now take participants to landmarks such as the Queenstown Community Library and Queenstown Sports Complex, which both opened in 1970, and old provision shops and conservation buildings nearby such as Alexandra Hospital.

Mr Kwek, who graduated from the National University of Singapore with an economics degree in December and is currently unemployed, says: "Queenstown was seen more as a ghost town for a while, but it has been on the radar as a heritage area in the past few years."

This is partly due to the fact that the tours are advertised on the National Heritage Board website.

Bukit Brown Cemetery is another heritage area that draws much interest. Members of All Things Bukit Brown, a 40-strong group dedicated to the preservation of Bukit Brown Cemetery, has led one to three tours every weekend since 2012 to raise awareness of its history. Each tour draws about 25 people, many of whom have done it more than once.

There are 100,000 tombs in the cemetery and the 15 guides, affectionately called Brownies, each lead the three-hour tours based on their own preferred itinerary, routes and themes. For example, one guide may have a particular interest in the tombs' tile work, while another will focus on aspects of Chinese culture and customs reflected on the tombs, says Ms Catherine Lim, a co-founder of the group.

The passion of the volunteer guides is a reason people return for repeat tours, adds the freelance producer, who declines to give her age.

Mr Darren Koh, 46, a lecturer at Singapore Institute of Management, has attended three tours of Bukit Brown Cemetery over the past three years, each led by a different tour guide.

He says: "Every guide takes you on a slightly different path so you learn different aspects of Singapore's past. Hearing these stories gives me a greater sense of the country's history, importance and its community. These add to our sense of home because the difference between a house and a home are the stories you remember about it."

vlydia@sph.com.sg

UPCOMING TRAILS

JANE'S WALK

A Writer's Memory Lane

Join Professor Kirpal Singh, a poet and culture critic, as he leads a 11/2-hour tour around the Raffles City area and discusses how the development and tearing down of buildings in the vicinity reflects Singapore's rise from a small fishing village to a dynamic city.

When: Tuesday, 6pm

Meeting Place: Administrative Building, Singapore Management University

Info: To register, go to www.janeswalk.org/ singapore

OTHER WALKING TOURS

Bukit Brown Cemetery

Tours through the cemetery run on an ad-hoc basis every weekend and usually take about three hours. Wear comfortable walking shoes and take along drinking water, bug repellent and sunscreen for the tours, which sometimes run along unpaved pathways. Details on the times and meeting places of the tours can be found on the All Things Bukit Brown website (www.bukitbrown.com) or the group's Facebook page.

Where: Bukit Brown Cemetery

When: Saturday and Sunday at various times

Info: To register, go to www.facebook.com/ groups/bukitbrown/events/

My Queenstown

The two-hour walking tour around Singapore's first satellite town will take participants to Queenstown landmarks, such as the Queenstown Community Library and the Queenstown Sports Complex. The tour will also include residential areas and abandoned buildings to give participants a true sense of life in the estate. Tours are held on the last Sunday of every month.

When: May 25, from 9 to 11am

Meeting Place: Queenstown MRT Station

Info: Go to www.queenstown.org.sg to register. For details, go to www.eventbrite.sg

This article was published on May 2 in The Straits Times.

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