4 February 2012
 

Country roads

Not to take me home, but to a place belonging to Sembawang, which is right up on the northern part of the our island. Hub and I headed there to visit a friend during the weekend.

While I was looking at the map to help navigate our way, my eyes rolled over to an area on the map with roads bearing names of countries + cities like Africa, Australia, Falkland Islands, Jamaica, New Zealand and more! Huh, all at one place?! We had to check this out!

Some googling explained that the pre-war colonial homes like this one (above) along Wellington Road have high ceilings over the drive-way to allow horse-drawn carriages. These homes once housed the British, Australian and New Zealand forces. Now they house the US military and maybe some are rented to the general public. The white doors are really tall.

As we drove out to the main road (named Admiralty Road East, which connects to Canberra Road), we landed ourselves in Ottawa and Montreal, just beside Canada Road!

Follow me on this map and…

…you’ll find that we are just as close to Kenya Crescent, Sudan Road, Durban* Road, Lagos* Circle and Pakistan Road!

Hmmm, I’m seeing a connection now…Sembawang being an important British naval base in the past, I suppose these country roads were named after fellow members of the Commonwealth?! In the case of Sudan Road, could it be there because of its former Anglo-Egyptian status?

* Durban (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria)

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4 Comments »
  1. From Tracy

    That is very interesting, what great history! I always wonder why streets get named after countries/cities, etc. Hope you had a good weekend with friends…the adventure to get there was well worth it, I’m sure. Great to catch up with you here now we’re back from London! Happy week, my friend ((HUGS))

    2008.07.14 @ 8:32 am

  2. From EngineerT

    Singapore … truly an international city!

    2008.07.14 @ 12:04 pm

  3. From Jenny

    I agree this is such an interesting entry!

    2008.07.15 @ 8:07 am

  4. From vanq

    thanks for the info. it’s really interesting there are still such places that exist in Singapore. I was just driving around that area early this week and explored quite abit. curiosity lead me to do abit of googling and i ended up here. found out that these houses are managed by the Navy Region Singapore and it’s a temporary lodging facility for overseas navy personnel.

    2011.07.02 @ 2:29 pm

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