Haw Par Villa

It has been weeks since I last had breakfast with my hubby on Sunday. He has been to JB with friends to enjoy Bak Ku Teh at Kota Tinggi or another part of JB to enjoy another type of breakfast delicacies, while I have been hitting the gym with fi.

The highlight of last Sunday was the visit to Haw Par Villa.

The statues of a tiger and cheetah (or leopard) are still clearly etched in my memory. I had a photo when I was about 4 or 5 years sitted on one of the animal statue. Therefore, this time I was determined to find the animal statues and take a photo with it so that I can compare the difference between when I was 4 years and 29 years old. Oh well ...... I will elaborate later .......


Haw Par Villa has always been an amusement park for many generations of children, including my parents. It was built by a rich businessman Koh Boon Haw who invented the Tiger Balm ointment. He bought the piece of land and built a villa for his brother Koh Boon Par on top of a hill. I'm not too sure is he the one who built the deity statues, etc. Don't know in which year, it became public and everyone can go and visit the park without any fee. That's also how the name of the amusement park come about.

At one time, the government or Singapore Tourism Board took over the place, refurbished it and charge an admission fee of S$ 16 !!!!! No one wanted to pay so much and the park deteroriated. Eventually, the govt or STB spend some money again to repaint the statues and again become a free admission park again. Now, there is even a museum and modern chinese restaurant in there.


See this car ! Cute ? It is one of its kind. Original one. It used to belong to the Koh Brothers. It is now a timeless piece 'parked' at Haw Par Villa for tourists to gawk at. hahaha...

We paid S$1 each to visit a walk-in cave where there are showcases of 10 Courts of Hell. It show how a person got their retribution or go to heaven according to what they have done in their life. If you have done many good deeds, they will go to heaven. If you have done bad deeds, then you will be sent to the respective hell levels to suffer. While going through, even the slightest bad thing (like cheat in exam) will send you to hell. Looks like the heaven must be everything empty. After the sufferring, you will be reincarnated back to human or animal depending on how bad your deed is.

Back to my cute tiger and leopard story...after walking under the hot sun for about 10mins, I finally found my beloved animal statues !!!! I was so excited and whipped out my camera immediately. You juz not going to believe me !!!! The camera FAILED me !!!! I kept sliding the phone so many time and it juz refused to activate the camera. I was fuming ..... by then, my 'ang' cannot tahan the heat and insist we are going back. I was juz so mad with the stupid phone.

While we left in the car, I juz realised I can actually activiate the camera by slecting the icons in the menu bar. By now, I'm even madder with myself ! I AM THE STUPID ONE instead !

I promised myself lor....I die die must go back there to take a picture with my beloved animal statues lor.....