Hipsters could never recreate this. A look into Kampong Lorong Buangkok.

I know I know, some of you out there are big time hipsters who prefer nothing but the oldies because for some reason, you seem to “connect”. I have nothing against you, but disproportionately large glasses against your uninteresting faces can only do so much for your credentials (read: not a lot).

Hidden in the north-east of Singapore is Kampong Lorong Buangkok. Now THIS is old. THIS is real, frickin’ ancient stuff, which is unlike your “keepin’ it real” kind of real.. real.

You could hardly consider Singapore an old country but its 50-yr ascend from kampongs (Indo/Malay word for “villages”) to endless high-rise apartments is nothing but phenomenal for a booger on the world map. Seeing this kampong in the middle of landed property and HDB flats off Yio Chu Kang Road is just plenty amazing. If any of you have ventured along the Park Connector Network connecting Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 and Sengkang, then there is a very big chance you might’ve totally missed it even if it was right beside your exercise route.

Without further riff-raff, modern people of Singapore, I present to you Kampong Lorong Buangkok in pictures.

Off Yio Chu Kang road, within Gerald Drive, one sees the welcoming entrance sign. “Surau” apparently is Indonesian for “prayer”, so I’m assuming a mosque (praying facility for Muslims) is within.

One of the first houses in the compound of about 30.

See how I played with the available light and captured that quirky angle of the shadow there? Isn’t that old-school letterbox just adorbz maxxxxxx? And the bokeh of the man in the background? You’re welcome, hipsters.

Altercation. He came at me baring teeth, blaring voice as soon as I took this shot. I swear I’d apologised more times and more sincerely in that one minute than I’d ever done in my whole life so far. I managed to recover my balls about half an hour later in the murky canal down the road.

If I were a property agent, I would have absolutely no idea how to sell this to you. SO HERE’S A PHOTOGRAPH.

That’s a real modern car. No way! Seeing as this place seems to have had its time stopped since 1945, seeing motor vehicles in here did throw me off a little, but I adapt quick. I was already half-expecting a kampong-dweller in Wayfarers after this.

What is this?! Relax. It’s another house.

This did not come from an BTO exercise.

If I had a house painted in that colour and had a letterbox like that, I would actually be really stoked to receive snail mail that isn’t threatening me to pay a bill or else.

According to reddit and 9gag, every person with a camera photographs cats. And so it shall be.

And not a single fuck was given. When I grow up, I want to give fuck-all too.

You know how people always say we should be “more decisive.. like Oprah says so”, and that we shouldn’t “sit on the fence”? I would never sit on this fence.

Just a couple steps in and we’ve reached the house of the kampong’s owner, Ms Sng. Friendliest, most chatty Chinese lady ever. We had such a good chat that was all of 45mins that I lost most of the morning light.

Brownie the dog was adopted by Ms Sng 16 years ago after it was abandoned by a Malay family that also resides in the kampong. Interestingly enough, many Malay families in here own dogs. For those of you who don’t understand why this is interesting, Malay families, as far as I know, are all Muslims. Muslims generally don’t view dogs like reddit and 9gag view cats. They’re walking, four-legged downvotes. Wait, isn’t Brownie now about 20 years old? O_O

After all that talking, I asked for one shot before she went about her business and I screwed up on the focus. I might as well have turned the camera on myself. I’ll update this when I return to get a better shot. She likes me well enough now anyway. Teeheehee.

The kampong owner’s neighbour stays here. They do nothing but look out for each other. Most of my neighbours in the past 20 years avoid each other like the plague.

Here’s a look into a comfy dining/relaxation area of a resident’s house.

Venture further in and you’ll see this bridge across a small stream.

See all that space? Your tiny-ass HDB corridor would be bullied to tears with mega wedgies by this Gigantor Space.

Colonial-design houses galore.

Looking in through cozy blinds.

Why am I doing this? Why this shot? To put it philosophically, I want to shed light on this place so that people of the modern world do not forget where we come from. Personally, I just happened to like the lighting. /cue Johnny Hates Jazz – I Don’t Wanna Be A Hero

I would love a door that looks like that if I lived horizontally.

“Hougeans”? See how people of the past actually liked each other? Fuck you if you disagree.

In stark contrast to the man wanting to beat me up, these two gentlemen were more than happy that I interrupted their jolly conversation and politely asked for a photograph.

As the morning comes to an end, so does my journey.

I was from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia and my parents used to own a house larger than this with even more land than the one pictured here. Now we live in a bird cage in comparison. What price to pay for a “better” life?

See the juxtaposition of the old-school against the new and modern? Kampong Lorong Buangkok is literally right beside the Park Connector Network. The next time you take the route, do yourself a favour and venture in with an open heart, an open mind, and plenty of politeness. This is after all, Singapore’s last surviving kampong. You might find more than you bargained for, but nothing that isn’t good for you as a person.

Be well.