Continuing with last week’s Heritage Trails post on my Balestier expedition, here’s part two of it!

Heritage Trails is a five-part series where I’ll go on little expeditions to the heartlands as well as some pretty unexpected heritage sites in Singapore, using the heritage trail brochures I have collected, which you can also get from the MICA building at Clarke Quay or from community centres around the areas.

Further down the street from the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall is the Maha Sasana Ramsi Burmese Buddhist Temple. Do you know that quite a number of roads in Balestier are named after many important Burmese sites? Read more for some interesting features of the Balestier area as well as some traditional bakeries.

This temple was founded by U Kyaw Gaung, a Burmese traditional medicine practitioner, in 1921 when he brought all the way to Singapore, a 10-tonne, 11-feet high marble sculpture of the Buddha from Saygin Hill, a quarry north of Mandalay. His descendants still live in Singapore today and continue to be trustees of this temple.

Originally, the Buddha sculpture was placed in this temple’s original location at 17 Kinta Road which is near Serangoon Road but moved to where it is currently (Tai Gin Road) only in 1990. Maybe you can make out a little bit of the statue in the next photo.

When I went to visit, there were quite a number of people at the temple paying their respects. During Buddhist holidays and Burmese festivals, most of the Burmese community in Singapore would gather at the temple.

Interestingly, there are quite a number of Burmese-themed roads in the Balestier area, which are better explained in the heritage trail brochure, as I mentioned earlier, you can get from a few places, and go on the actual trail to see for yourself, or maybe even learn something from just reading it!

This is a small water kiosk at the corner of Boon Teck Road with quite an interesting history. According to the trail brochure, this kiosk dispenses free water and tea for any thirsty passer-by. You know how hot it gets when you’re walking around under the sun, so I was quite filled with happiness when I read that.

When I visited, the water unfortunately ran out.

Anyway, it’s some kind of preserved legacy of its earlier days. Back when clean drinking water was scarce, this kiosk was set up to provide clean water for the poor, e.g. horse carriage drivers, rickshaw men and others working in the area.

This service (according to the trail brochure) continues to be provided by a nearby temple called Thong Teck Sian Tong Lian Sia, which was originally sited at Kim Keat Road in the 1940s and had moved to where it is today in the 1970s. There are two big containers at every water kiosk, one filled with water, and another filled with a type of tea called “Su Teh” in Teochew.

Further along the trail are the Sim Kwong Ho Shophouse, the Masjid Hajjah Rahimabi Kebun Limau, and the Former Shaw’s Malay Film Studios.

This is bread, freshly baked on Kim Keat Road, from Sweetlands Confectionary (10/12 Kim Keat Lane).

The whole street smelled of perfectly scorched carbs which I really, really wanted to eat.

An uncle laying the bread to cool.

More bread at Sing Hon Loong Bakery (4 Whampoa Drive).

Many different types of Kaya and other local spreads like margarine and a really different tasting peanut butter, the kind you know was made here in Singapore. You can just tell by taste alone whenever something’s made in your own country.

And the bread was really good. I had some toast and the usual stuff and my friend bought like three loaves of different kinds of bread if I remember it right.

The last on the trail was the Novena Church which used to be surrounded by a Jewish cemetery. Read more on the booklet for greater in-depth write-ups about the various places along the trail, and if you ever get a chance to go on this trail, take it. The food around Balestier which it’s so famous for is more than worth it.

Be sure to check back next week when I’ll explore Queenstown!