Yesterday evening around 6pm, I picked up a Malay woman together with her three young children at the taxi stand in Toa Payoh Central. When they were all on board, she said, "Please bring us to 'Chinchalok Road' near Katib in Yishun" I said "Huh, say again, what's the name of the Road?", she said "Chinchalok Road, never mind, never mind, I'll show you the way, its somewhere near Yishun Stadium". I suddenly felt 'blurrr', "Okay, okay, you show me the way" and I headed towards Yishun, thinking how I can forget such a road name. Where can it be??
Approaching Katib MRT Station, she said, "Turn left here", I said "Okay, this is Yishun Ave.1" and coming towards Sembawang Road, she said "Now turn right and then turn right again into (pointing her hand) that small road". When I heard her instructions, I immediately realised that she wanted to go to "Lorong Chencharu" which is directly opposite Sembawang Air Base. I said "Oh, you want to go to the Bottle Tree Park and she 'giggled' shyly, laughed a bit and said "Yah, yah the bottle tree" with a sigh of relief.
I did not hear her pronounce the name of the road clearly and all the time whilst driving, I kept trying to figure out her destination without any luck till I saw her pointing her fingers at the road. This is my second time here after a very, very long time and I must have forgotten all about the 'Bottle Tree'. The park here is very peaceful, quiet and hidden away. There is a fishing and also a prawn pond with 'kampong' style surroundings. A good fun place for fishing, food and family gatherings. After my passengers alighted, I parked my cab at the car park, took some photographs, walked around a bit, felt nice and very relaxed.
