Fun on Foot 2007

Pleasantly surprised to meet one of my ex-student @ Funan DigitaLife Mall after the fun on foot event. Imagine he could still remember my name after 17 years and the fact that I had put on at least 15 more kg! He should be in his 30s now as he was only 16 year old back in Rangoon Secondary School. Of course he called me by my maiden name - Ms Lily though I am known as Mrs Lily Lee now. I met many other ex-students from Hougang Sec and I must say I am proud that many of them were inspired by the teachers to participate in the fun on foot event even after they have graduated. I supposed this is what made teaching rewarding and pushing us on - knowing that we did make a difference in their lives!

I formed a team, Hot on Heels, with Ms Wong, her nephew, Melvin, and my son, Ian, for the fun on foot event today. We were flagged off from the Raffles' Landing site at 8.40 a.m. and we decided to proceed to the Parliament's house first. There we learnt about how the original site was occupied by the Temenggong's house and how the land was took over by Raffles and the architect was Coleman. We were asked to calculate the age of the building and also on who donated the stone elephants. After that we crossed over to the Supreme court. There was a reenactment of the signing of the treaty and I thought we had to find out the answers from the reenactment. However the answers are just presented on the carved murals - the centre part shows the signing of the treaty by Raffles and the Temenggong and at the sides the occupations/trades of the early days were shown.

After that, we went to the third checkpoint which was the Padang - the first place where Singapore National Day Parade was held. Over there we had to name two clubs and also to play a traditional game. click below to watch Ian play a traditional game.


After that we went to City Hall and took a train to the Paya Lebar MRT station. We thought that the checkpoint is at the Geylang Serai Market but it turned out to be the old site of the market! I remembered that for the Buzz my Day event, we also lost much time in locating the checkpoints there. They should make it clearer as the clue says that it's a place where people 'shop for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri'. We finally found them behind the fence and I am sure many went on a wild goose hunt for the checkpoint. We had to complete an activity which is fishing and we had to name the fishes from a named list. Melvin took the challenge in this event. After that we took the bus to the Badminton Association where a Singaporean won the All - England championship. It started to pour when we got down the bus and I saw many particpants drenched in the rain.

After the Badminton Association we took a bus to Amber road and walked towards East Coast road to look for "the best laksa in Singapore" as indicated in the clues. However when we reached the restaurant, there was no Marshalls there. We decided to try out the laksa as it was already lunch time and we saw many other participants doing so too. It was Ian's first try at eating Laksa and I am surprised that he actually like it as he is usually very fussy over the food he eats. After lunch, Ms Wong had a hunch that it might be at the Indian temple nearby - sure enough we saw the Marshalls stationed beside the temple.

After completing the questions at the temple, we took a bus to Victoria street and went over to the Arts Museum which used to be occupied by a school - St Joseph. The original tiles are found at the lockers area. After the Arts Museum, the next stop is the National Museum followed by Cathay. I was surprised to find out that the Cathay building was used by the Japanese as a propaganda office in WWII.

Our last 2 stops were the MICA building and Boat Quay. Can you believe that MICA has 911 windows? It used to be a police station and the first holding place for prisoners. As for Boat Quay, we were supposed to find out the answers from a show which had already ended so the Marshalls give us some indirect clues - some calculation needed. The weight of a sack of rice carried by the coolies was 100kg and the price for the journey from South China to Singapore was $35. The lighters were the earliest form of transport at the Singapore River.

We only managed to finish 12 out of the 18 checkpoints. I think the organisers should reduce the no. of checkpoints and also restrict the no. of questions at each checkpoint to 3. The locations of some checkpoints were also not clear from the clue given e.g. at the place where you can find the best laksa in Singapore is actually refering to the Indian temple!

Well I did learn much from the event and I must say I enjoyed it though Ian said he would not want to participate in it anymore. I think the organiser should relook at the event as it is "Fun on Foot" and yet the locations are so far apart that we had to use public transport. Either they change the title of the event or make sure that all the checkpoints can be covered on foot!