Dr Phil Video Featuring Moi

I was very pleased to go for a short trek around Lower Pierce Reservoir in Singapore with my long-time friend Phil Towndrow and to participate in his on-going video blog project.

Check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioXKebM1Y84

This was totally extemporaneous so some of my explanations are a bit garbled. Here’s some more info:

The white guy who had a planation nearby was none other than John Turnbull Thomson, and he did indeed build a bridge or at least improve an existing bridge.

There were actually numerous bridges in the area and they may hold they clue to the name Ang Mo Kio…however, the colonial district name of Amokiah appears on maps in the early 1840s and thus predates Thomson’s planation.

Here’s one from 1842 from National Archives of Singapore:

The official National Heritage Board trail guide for AMK, written a decade ago by the excellent researcher and writer (and my friend) Tan Chui Hua, has this to say:

So, like, next time I go on a walk with Phil, maybe I should script it a bit first!