A visit to the traditional fish market in Singapore at Senoko Fishery Port isn’t complete till you make a pre-sunrise dash down to Jurong Fishery Port too. The size of Jurong Fishery Port doubled the size of Senoko Fishery Port as there are more than 100 stalls to choose from, where an array of stingray, sotong, and mud crabs awaits – all ready for you to bring back home to be mixed up with the savoury goodness of sambal, salted egg yolk, and chilli crab sauce.
 
At 2.00 a.m, just like the situation at Senoko, the Jurong Fishery Port is also starting to get busy. There is a general sense of hustle and bustle. People are hard at work. That's when the boats are unloading their catch and throngs of hawkers, chefs and wet market stall owners are buying in bulk. Taking turns to operate the forklifts, fishmongers move in a fluid clockwork motion, and plastic boots squelch against the wet floor. If you hear a rolling rumbling sound, you’ll instinctively turn to look if you are in the way of someone moving their fish. What warmed me is the good-natured reactions of the vendors when I apologise for being in the way. While this is admirable to me, this is just another typical day for them.

When people think of fish markets, their minds understandably wander to busy port cities such as Tokyo or Sydney, few people would ever imagine that Singapore has traditional fish markets too. There are two fishery ports in Singapore at Jurong and Senoko, which house wholesale fish markets where buyers can snap up seafood in bulk, and cheaply. Even if you are not a buyer, a visit offers a glimpse of the supply chain that ultimately makes it all tick for Singapore’s seafood scene.
 
Well, while you are asleep, the fast-paced action at a traditional fish market makes for a night’s fun and an eye-opener. I visited Senoko Fishery Port recently, located at the far end of Sembawang, in the north of Singapore, where land meets the Straits of Johor. My alarm was set for 1.00 a.m. and as I stumbled out of bed to make my way to arrive at peak hour of 2.00am. The Senoko Fishery Port, which houses more than 30 lots, are open daily from 2.00am to 6.00am, except on Mondays — this is why Singaporeans often avoid consuming seafood on Monday. On other days, more than 1,000 seafood retailers and buyers come to Senoko to stock up and many fresh fishes change hands each day.

As I entered into the complex, the first thing that struck me was that this is a wet market at its best. Fishy-smelling water sloshes around your feet, while half-dressed fish merchants tramp around in galoshes, stack baskets of squid and anchovies, and weigh shrimp with traditional scales. Shoals of fresh-caught fish are often just strewn along the ground, with baskets of prawns and other shellfish crowding the area and shaved ice spilling every which way. As I walked around photographing these early birds in their glory, I wished I could have tasted the beautiful tuna before me. The next few hours go by in a whirlwind of activity.

One of the things I love the most about travelling by plane is when you look outside of the window and can enjoy those kind of views.
 
Flying offers us a wonderful experience: the opportunity to see the sky up close, to enjoy sunsets or sunrises, gorgeous snowy mountain peaks, beautiful green fields and so on and so forth. I admit I love sitting on the seat next to the window in airplanes (and in any other means of transportation, for that matter). I want to see “out”, to enjoy the view, even through the small airplane window. And, yes, I like to take photos – and to look at photos taken from various flights. The views are breathtaking!
 
Speaking of wonderful moments, here is my collection of some lovely white clouds on flights to-date. I hope you like them.

乘飞机的人一般都喜欢坐在靠窗的位置，我也是，一则清净，二者可以欣赏窗外空中美景，运气好可以欣赏到美丽的日出日落还有云海。摄影时把机翼也拍出来也是构图的一个要素，而且特别有场景感。在飞机上看云与在地面上看云感觉不同。在地面上看云，是仰望，它们遥不可及。坐在飞机上看云，它们近在咫尺，看的清清楚楚，真真切切。若不是隔着眩窗，它们准会飞进我的怀里。这么多年旅行，我不知不觉地累积了这组照片。心放空了，自己就像是在空中飞翔，早已忘了自己是坐在飞机上拍摄这些照片。
 
况且在飞机上看云，令人神清气爽，浮想联翩，心旷神怡。每个人都向往着自己就是那天空中的一片云，自由自在，无拘无束，天马行空，任自己驰骋。多少歌曲唱过，多少文人的笔下写出了——我是天空中的一片云。抬头望望天空，看着那倏忽变化的云朵，想想自己的处境，真想变成天空中的一片云。

周末愉快！我在新加坡中央商业区的高楼大廈拍摄的《倒影彩画》组的照片刊登在今天（八月二十一日）联合早报 zbNOW/早报现在【光影】版 。感谢 Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报 ！

河水流经之处必有生命。新加坡中央商业区的高楼大廈濒临新加坡河，少有双面向的独特位置。我一路沿缓缓流淌的新加坡河向滨海湾走去，欣赏新加坡河两边不同的景物，也拍摄河岸边众多的大楼反光和水面中互相辉映的倒影。每一转眼都是另一番美景，都市全景尽揽眼底。一直觉得水中倒影有着独特的美，仿佛置身于仙境之中，就象神话故事中的宝镜一样，令人心旷神怡。其实拍倒影照片，不只是借水，还要借天空，借平静的水面和摄影的技巧，才能拍出称心如意的照片 :)

My "City Skyline Reflection Along The Mouth of Singapore River" photo series is published in full coverage in today's zbNOW/早报现在. Thank you so much and much appreciated !

I took a scenic walk down memory lane with Singapore River as I have a special liking for this part of the Singapore River. Unconsciously, this is also one place that I would tend to go for some respite, or when I need to have time for quiet reflections during weekends. Furthermore, the colonial buildings nearby the area somehow have an attractive appeal to me. I simply love their designs, especially when being reflected along the mouth of Singapore River. Capturing a perfect reflection is harder than it sounds because any amount of wind at all will cause ripples and blur the surface of the water. I spent one whole day from early morning until evening to capture beautiful water reflections to form the collection. The weather was absolutely perfect that day!

If you could remember, I documented some street art in Singapore which they have a noble cause in themselves, i.e. the Wayfinding Project at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 in 2020 and at Yishun in 2021 for seniors with dementia.
 
Today I am going to introduce another new wayfinding project. These murals are located at Toa Payoh bus interchange. They are part of an initiative by Dementia Singapore and SBS transit to make more dementia-friendly bus interchanges and MRT stations.
 
The bus interchange is segmented into five unique zones as a mural of a childhood game or activity represents each zone. These colour-coded images would make it easier for seniors with dementia to find their way home, as explained in all my previous blog posts. Nostalgic images could help to tap on memories to stimulate parts of the brain. This also aids in long-term memory and cognition.
 
There are also directional floor stickers, so that if the elderly want to board a particular bus service, they just have to follow the directional arrows, which show the mural picture to lead the person directly to the boarding berth. Hopefully, this would allow seniors with dementia to feel less anxious when trying hard to remember their routes back home. The five colourful murals are:

​In these times of rising activism on climate change and other environmental issues, a new band of campaigners has joined the fight: street artists. Street art has typically focused on megacities and urban festivals. But I noticed that a generation of digitally ultra-connected artists has been encouraged to spread their brushes and spray cans elsewhere – to forests and seas – and to creatively question our relationships to the natural world. Leveraging their ability to reach one of the largest and most diverse audiences – anyone passing by – street artists are increasingly using their public works to address current issues, not the least of which is climate change.
 
Recently, I found an example of climate activist street art in Singapore, which shows that artists can actually bring an alternative and responsible message to the public through their work. Titled “The Birds in Our Backyard”, the series of wall art relates to human-wildlife conflict and how to live in harmony with feathered neighbors. They are all painted over ten columns located at Block 218B and 218C Boon Lay Avenue in Jurong West HDB estate. The lead artist is Ms Dorcas Tang, a climate activist and artist based in Singapore.

Ms Tang has garnered much attention in recent months for her advocacy on Instagram, (@earthtodorcas), which raises awareness of important climate issues ranging from extreme rainfall events and food waste to climate justice and conscious shopping. I find that her art is wonderful and non-confrontational, so it is perfect for spreading words about environmentalism and climate change to a broader audience. Such climate-conscious works enable us to think more critically about the impact humans are having on the environment and how we need to act in a socially responsible manner in order to conserve and protect our planet. 

我的《脚踏车骑向咖啡馆》摄影文章登在七月十日联合早报的小城大事版 zbNOW/早报现在。 感谢、感恩!

每当周末到来，就是 Cafe Hopping 的好日子。约上闺蜜一起探索隐藏在城市里的个性咖啡馆，度过一个悠闲的周末，卸下日常生活压力。咖啡文化日趋流行，新加坡有越来越多以脚踏车为主题而设计的咖啡馆，成了许多人相聚的热门地点。这些咖啡馆从装修风格到经营理念，都离不开脚踏车这一元素，将咖啡和脚踏车完美结合。一直觉得脚踏车和咖啡总有着一种近乎天然的契合度，因为爱骑脚踏车的人几乎都喜欢喝咖啡，所以当脚踏车邂逅咖啡，一动一静，就会产生精彩交集。无论是脚踏车迷还是咖啡痴，这些咖啡馆都可以让人远离喧嚣停下来休息喝咖啡，进一步了解脚踏车文化，或是与朋友小聚的闲暇时光，或者是买一辆喜欢脚踏车模型带回家。

Happy Sunday! My photo essay on bicycle-themed cafes in Singapore is published full coverage in zbNOW/早报现在 today. Thank you so much to zbNOW/早报现在 !

Coffee and cycling have always gone hand in hand, perhaps because one fuels the other, and that goes both ways. These bicycle themed cafes are based on different concepts and they are not only meant for people who love bicycles. They are places where everyone is welcome and even if the customers aren’t bicycle lovers when they walk in, hopefully they will be by the time they walk out. They are cafes which are passionate about cycling, but are also places where people with all interests can feel at home. The key interest at these cafes is to enhance and grow the culture of enjoyment around coffee and cycling :)

There is nothing I like more than being able to "kill two birds with one stone", or in this case, seeing two cities in one trip. When I went to visit Copenhagen, Denmark in February 2022, I decided to take the train from Copenhagen Central Station to Malmö (blog post here) and Lund which turned out to be my best time in Sweden. Lund is very close to Copenhagen as well as Malmö, so you can easily reach Lund for a nice day trip around the town. There are multiple departures every hour and the train journey takes only 45 minutes. 
​
Lund is one of Sweden’s oldest cities and many of the buildings in Lund are historicist creations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries thrives alongside modern buildings. It is said that you can spend your whole life here without seeing all the quiet little corners, all the beautiful buildings and details. Interestingly enough, founding dates all the way back to Year 990 when Lund was then a part of Denmark (there have been so many wars fought between these Scandinavian neighbors that at one point Denmark ruled everything, and then Sweden did, and then repeat). 

许多北欧的城市其实不算大，老城区便是北欧国家的旅游热门打卡地，瑞典也一样。瑞典有很多老城区，是旅客喜欢游览的地方，隆德（Lund）便是其中一个。历史悠长的隆德是瑞典最古老的城市之一，建于公元990年前后，当时还是丹麦管辖，但后来瑞典战胜丹麦，它就成了瑞典的一部分。

我从丹麦哥本哈根Copehagen坐火车到达隆德，整个车程才45分钟，非常方便。隆德具有很多古老的建筑，大部分建造于12和13世纪之间。相比瑞典的其他城市，隆德建筑保存得非常完好，甚至颁布了一个本地的法律来限制考古研究，这使得这些历史遗留的古建筑成为这座城市的瑰宝，璀璨的遗产。在旅途中，我很喜欢探索古老建筑，然后尽量地了解那个国家的历史，甚至还会幻想自已在这里生活，或如果穿梭在这样的老建筑之中，那会是怎么样的画面等等。

Gone are the days of boring, run-of-the-mill cafes. These days, cafe owners try to differentiate their business by throwing in a theme, hence the proliferation of cafes based on cartoons, movies, pets, and also hobby-based themes such as bikes. I have curated a list of bicycle-themed cafes in Singapore that you may or may not know. Bicycle themed cafes, like cycling itself, is booming, not just as a sport but also as a lifestyle. 

Coffee and cycling have always gone hand in hand, perhaps because one fuels the other, and that goes both ways. When cycling meets coffee, both bring people together for great conversation while enjoying something they love. Both bring a connection whether between long time buddies, significant others, or someone you just met. 

​These bicycle themed cafes are based on different concepts. Some bicycle cafes are coffee shop / bike repair shop hybrids, while others provide a full-service restaurant with a bike-friendly atmosphere and cycling-inspired décor. Whatever the case, these bicycle cafes are hubs in their cycling communities and provide a friendly, welcoming space that encourages the cycling culture and the active lifestyle. ​Even if you’re not an avid cyclist, you’ll still enjoy them. Whether you’re stepping off on a weekday morning commuting to work, looping around the nearby park or cruising through life on a relaxed weekend afternoon, they are all bicycle friendly business where you can enjoy a warming coffee or a quenching brew, so do check out this list.

每当周末到来，就是Cafe Hopping的好日子。我会约上好友一起探索隐藏在城市里的咖啡馆，度过一个悠闲的周末，暂时躲避日常生活的压力。咖啡文化日趋流行，我发现新加坡有越来越多以自行车为主题而设计的咖啡馆，成了许多人相聚的热点。我整理了新加坡的8间以自行车主题的咖啡馆，这些咖啡馆从装修风格到经营理念，全部离不开自行车这一元素，将咖啡和自行车完美结合。我一直觉得自行车和咖啡总有着一种近乎天然的契合度，是天生的伴侣，因为爱骑自行车的人几乎都喜欢喝咖啡，所以当自行车邂逅咖啡，一动一静，就会产生交集。
 
再加上近几年全球一直提倡“绿色生活”，曾被视为过时传统交通工具的自行车再度复兴，逐渐风靡世界，成为生活方式的一部分。因疫情的关系，生活在大城市的现代人也随着追求健康与慢活时代的变化，骑自行车逐渐成为许多人的运动项目之一。

I love LEGO. I like that LEGO is brilliant quality. I like that it encourages dexterity and spatial awareness and is great for both independent and collaborative play. Most of all, it’s fun. 

Whenever I see my 6-year old young niece playing with LEGO, LEGO is basically about building your own stuff. There is something pleasing about developing the LEGO building expertise needed so that you just knew which bricks you needed to make a sloping house roof, or how long a gap you could leave between the wheels on a bus and still make something that would “go”. Or developing that knack of being able to prise apart two flat LEGO planks that had become jammed together. I always enjoy seeing what other people create using LEGO, as well as the wonderful models that are showcased at any LEGO exhibition.

Recently, I brought my niece to a LEGO exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre, named “Brickman Wonders of the World”, which consists of over 50 large-scale iconic landmarks of the world. The exhibition was created by an Australian, Ryan McNaught, who is Brickman’s managing director and a LEGO Certified Professional himself. The whole preparation phase took him and his 6-man team more than 5,000 hours and over 1.4 million LEGO bricks to bring the ideas to life. 

我的丹麦哥本哈根和狮城的歪曲房屋游乐场《​让孩子的想象力在旅游场奔驰》的摄影文章刊登在今天（五月十九日）联合早报的缤纷版 zbNOW/早报现在。感谢、感恩。

摄影文章也包括其他狮城的独特创意的游乐场，全都是由丹麦工作室 MONSTRUM 和新加坡的 Playpoint Singapore Pte Ltd 工作室合作建成。大家一起玩耍吧! 

My photo essay on the Crooked House Playground at Brumleby in Copenhagen, Denmark and Yishun, Singapore is published in zbNOW/早报现在 today! Really much appreciated.

The photos and essay include some other themed playgrounds in Singapore, all of which are co-designed by Danish Consultancy Firm, MONSTRUM and local design consultancy firm Playpoint Singapore Pte Ltd. Thumbs up to them too. It's time to take a break and have fun at these playgrounds!

Cycling is a way of life in Denmark. Danish people love to cycle. Cycling is an important means of transportation in Denmark and you can't look in any direction in the city without seeing a bicycle because 90% of the Copenhageners own a bike. Furthermore, Denmark is actually one of the greenest cities in all of Europe as well. We all know biking and environmentalism go hand-in-hand. In fact, I think only the Netherlands can beat Denmark when it comes to cycling.

Throughout my trip in Denmark, I have taken pictures of idle bikes that I found interesting. It’s not uncommon to see bikes left in the most random of places. If you were to visit Denmark, you would surely run into many of these.

丹麦，不仅是个童话王国，还是一个自行车大国。在丹麦首都哥本哈根城市，10个丹麦人，9个人都有一辆自行车，随处可见的自行车专用道与停放点便能一窥这个自行车国度的骑行文化了。
 
这里的自行车、骑自行车的人都成了我照片里的主角。那些看似随便停放的自行车，有时候真的是非常有画面感的图片。朋友圈里有评论说，我怎么忽然变得文艺起来，拍了那么多有腔调的自行车。其实，不是我拍得文艺，而是丹麦人生活的文艺吧， 总觉得无论是古香古色的老屋，还是现代时尚的橱窗，只要有了随便停放的自行车，就增添了一丝生活的气息。自行车仿佛是这里人生活的一切，不管走到哪里，背景中总少不了自行车的芳踪。或者说，少了自行车，就觉得少了些什么。

此行在哥本哈根街头随意拍下一组丹麦人的自行车生活。

Denmark regularly battles its Nordic neighbors for the top spot on the World Happiness Index. It is ranked as the 2nd happiest country in the world, with Finland clinched the top place, based on the recently released World Happiness Report 2022. After I visited it recently, I completely understood why. It has the perfect size, you can go everywhere on foot or bike, it is not overcrowded and it is so relaxed, while at the same time one of Europe’s gastronomic, design and cultural centers.

But, one of the things that impressed me the most, are its beautiful parks. Here, you can find a wealth of natural areas, which attract both local Copenhageners and tourists looking to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. I came to realise that Copenhagen is a city with a strong spiritual connection to nature, evidenced in its enhanced eco-consciousness. Wherever you go, many places are enclosed by greenery. Besides Frederiksberg Gardens (read my post here) which is one of my favourites, there are other fantastic green areas all easily accessible by foot or bike. 

Copenhagen has another awesome attraction known as the Guinness World Record Museum. What originally began as the classic and fascinating book known as the Guinness Book of World Records has since morphed into a full-fledged Guinness World Record Museum located at Strøget in Copenhagen dedicated to the strange and incredible achievements of people (and even animals, in some cases) from around the world. The most incredible world records from all over. The fastest, highest, strongest etc. That’s what you meet at this museum.

There are more than 500 exhibits in the museum: the figures of the tallest and the fattest people in the world, the tallest buildings in the world gallery, Michael Jackson - the king of pop music and Merilyn Monroe - the queen of dresses exhibitions, the World of Toys gallery, to name a few. I enjoyed delving into the interesting facts, figures, and history of various world records both popular and obscure, as well as the people (or animals) who set them. Here are some photos of the many figurines to give an idea of what you will get to see in the museum.