a weekend at Batam
I spent the last weekend on the Indonesian island of Batam. The island is just slightly larger than Singapore, and only about 20 plus kilometers away.
With just such a short distance away, and an hour's ride on a high-speed ferry, it's like visiting your backyard. Just maybe a decade back, it is quite a backwaters place. But times are changing.
Batam is an island riding on the wave of development. Though there are still huge tracts of forests and vegetation around, you cannot miss the power pylons and transmission lines that are everywhere. And the base stations for cell phone communications, and antennae and satellite dishes sprouting from every roof like metallic head-wear.
photo and image by dsnake1
It was a trip back in time when I visited the lazy, laid-back village at Bagam on Sunday. The corrugated zinc roofs, the un-plastered walls of cinder blocks, some with paint jobs that are like afterthoughts. The scruffy children playing in the dust under the hot sun, begging you for another camera shot.
It was just like stepping back into the village in Singapore where I grew up as a child. The only reminders that you are back in the modern world are the TV antennae, poking out from every roof, a couple of SUVs in the backyards, cloth-lines of jeans, skirts, pajamas and some g-strings strung out to dry in the sun.
hello, world!
catching the breeze
trees and antennae.
winds of change
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 )
too bad about the poor quality of the photo, it's either the camera or the photographer. had to photoshop it a bit. :)
With just such a short distance away, and an hour's ride on a high-speed ferry, it's like visiting your backyard. Just maybe a decade back, it is quite a backwaters place. But times are changing.
Batam is an island riding on the wave of development. Though there are still huge tracts of forests and vegetation around, you cannot miss the power pylons and transmission lines that are everywhere. And the base stations for cell phone communications, and antennae and satellite dishes sprouting from every roof like metallic head-wear.
photo and image by dsnake1
It was a trip back in time when I visited the lazy, laid-back village at Bagam on Sunday. The corrugated zinc roofs, the un-plastered walls of cinder blocks, some with paint jobs that are like afterthoughts. The scruffy children playing in the dust under the hot sun, begging you for another camera shot.
It was just like stepping back into the village in Singapore where I grew up as a child. The only reminders that you are back in the modern world are the TV antennae, poking out from every roof, a couple of SUVs in the backyards, cloth-lines of jeans, skirts, pajamas and some g-strings strung out to dry in the sun.
hello, world!
catching the breeze
trees and antennae.
winds of change
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 )
too bad about the poor quality of the photo, it's either the camera or the photographer. had to photoshop it a bit. :)
posted by dsnake1 at 11:28 PM
5 Comments:
i don't know if you intended it but this is an excellent haibun.
:D
i wanted to write a haiku for the picture.:)
I have never tried a haibun. This is wonderful!
As Polona said, this is a wonderful haibun, cheong lee san!
hi gautami,
i would like to read one from you.
you should have no problems with it. :)
andrew,
thank you!
heh, you are using my real name. :)
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