Archived Articles

- Island Investigator

Been There-Seen That?
Get the latest scoop on Singapore's early history - Read the Island Investigator!

6/1/04 Sorry..
While the change in schedules has been relatively hiccup-less, we know that there are a number of you out there who are still holding on to our Aug-Dec 2003 schedule. Burn it! Get rid of it! Put it somewhere where no one can see it! (Or bury it if you like, so that years later when you bring it to us, we'll be thoroughly overwhelmed with waves of nostalgia.)

2/1/04 Last minute rehearsals for our newly revamped river walk - What's with the look on her face????? (I mean, we're the ones that're listening to her spiel for the 30th time...in the sun...in the rain...on the boat... yet again...)

1/1/04 *Hic* Is it 2004 already?

26/12/03 TOP 3 TOURS Yup! It's official. Our three most popular tours since we started are *drumroll* Dhobis, Saris and a Spot of Curry, Secrets of the Red Lantern, and The Time of Empire, in no particular order. The exact ranking is TOP SECRET (you've got to kill this webmaster first!)
But that's not the most interesting thing we've found so far. Guess
what the most asked question on our tours is?
"Erm...I wonder if you could...erm...tell me sometime during the tour....erm, how you almost get stoned to death?"
Don't know what we're talking about? Read about our guides!

16/10/03 Spot a Walker Spot someone wearing our The Original Singapore Walks T-shirt on the street? Well, you can stop them anywhere, anytime to ask them any question about The Original Singapore Walks!


12/9/03
Been There-Seen That?
Get the latest scoop on Singapore's early history - Read the Island Investigator!

10/9/03
Yes! Our Big Boss/Head Honcho/MasterMind/Chief-in-Command has won an award in this year's Spirit of Enterprise! (Some of us got woozy on boozy to celebrate) *hic* Spot the Boss in these pictures!

22/8/03 We have moved! We are now officially ensconced at 24A Sago Street Singapore 059020

19/8/03 Posters publicizing the Changi Museum War Trails™ have appeared at The Changi Museum. Visitors already at the museum can hop onto either one of the War Trails when the participants arrive from Pasir Ris MRT station.

14/8/03 First run of the Of Bomohs & Pontianaks tour for the public. It sure freaked me out! You can see some photos here.

13/8/03 Our brochures are making a grand appearance in most hotels and apartments around Singapore. Look out for them! You can download our brochure too!

11/8/03 Official Launch of The Original Singapore Walks™
Yahoo! Today marks the official start of The Original Singapore Walks. Savi and Helena are rather jittery, as they'll be doing the first walk/tour of many walks/tours to come. We're happy to see so many of you from the free tours batch who have decided to come back for second, third and fourth helpings!

Oh yeah, a wonderful article about us has appeared on the Singapore Can Lah! Website. Want to read it?

10/8/03 The SECOND day of the National Day Free Tours Weekend
From Little India to Changi, and then back to the Singapore River and Chinatown is no joke. (Aren't we supposed to take the road less travelled?)

Today, we had Dhobis, Saris & a Spot of Curry, Red Clogs Down the Five-Foot-Way, Changi WWII, By the Belly of the Carp and Secrets of the Red Lantern. Judging from all your reactions, I'm not kidding when I say that we would love to do it all over again, despite the hoarse throats and sore feet! All your smiles, nods of appreciation, little gasps of realization and especially the sentence 'oh, I didn't know that!' really make our day.

These two days have just been wonderful for us, to see so many Singaporeans coming together to understand a little more about our history and heritage, and also sharing with us your stories and experiences. Our only regret is that we were not able to take more people! Our sincere apologies to all who did not manage to get onto any of the tours.

Photos taken over the Free Tours Weekend, 9-10 August 2003 - Click ME and see if you can find yourself?

9/8/2003 The FIRST day of the National Day Free Tours Weekend
It's 9am and there's nary a soul outside the Singapore Philatelic Museum - meeting point for The Time of Empire. We're looking at each other with our hands hid in our pockets so no one knows our fingers are crossed. Are those people not going to turn up?

Wait, hang on! Who are those people hanging out inside the Singapore Philatelic Museum? Do you reckon they are here FOR THE TOUR???

By all accounts, today has been a roaring success. As far as our trained eyes could tell, most, if not all, enjoyed all the tours today - The Time of Empire, Sultans of Spice, Changi WWII, By the Belly of the Carp and Secrets of the Red Lantern.

(Erm. And we got to do all that again tomorrow?)

8/8/2003
Cold feet, wet ears.
This is the day before we meet hundreds of you out there who had signed up for our free tours.

Are we ready?

("…Hey, does the first tour start at nine or nine-thirty?…")

5/8/2003 Media Launch of The Original Singapore Walks
Where's the caterer? Where's the lion dance troupe? And WHY ON EARTH is the sound system making that noise?

We will always remember this as the day that our blood pressure rose several notches, reached a point where we thought our capillaries would burst and than finally fell back down because it decided it couldn't take the stress either.

A Media Launch was held today from 9am to 12pm to announce the upcoming launch of The Original Singapore Walks. The day started out alright with most of the VIPs and the media turning up at the scheduled time. The 'lions' (not real ones - see photo above left) however discovered that there was a jam along the CTE and being punctual was 'simply out of question'. One (or maybe two) of my colleague's veins burst promptly. By some cosmic tear in the fabric of our space-time continuum however, the lions were in place by the time the Guest of Honour for the day arrived, and things just sort of sorted themselves out from then on. Though the guides were rather in jitters (doesn't matter how many times ya do it!), the planned tour preview went well. Heh, and we got quite a bit of a thrill watching clips of the tour on the news.

We would like to hereby thank Mr. Lim Neo Chian, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, for agreeing to be our Guest of Honour, and all the media and VIPs who kindly agreed to grace and occasion and share the joy of our newborn.

1/8/2003 Registration for the free tours over the National Day weekend (9-10 August 2003) is officially open. We're overjoyed(!) to receive so many applicants interested in their country's history and heritage that they are willing to sacrifice their time during their weekend, not to mention, a public holiday, to join us.

30/7/2003 News of our upcoming launch and the free tours to be offered over the National Day weekend (9-10 August 2003) leak like hell fire. All office staff inundated by calls and emails. This webmaster begins to lose sleep, hair and weight, in that order.

28/7/2003 Whoohoo! The Original Singapore Walks website go ONLINE officially!