Punggol or the art of photo editing

Last Sunday we jumped on our loyal scooter and whizzed through the HDBs of north-east Singapore to reach Punggol. Max had been going on for some time about visiting the area of Punggol due to having viewed some particularly handsome photos of it on Flickr. Photos taken at sunset or early morning by an enthusiastic photographer living in Sing showed a somewhat desolate but at the same time intriguing landscape of beaches peppered with round black boulders, wild flower meadows and swaying grasses and Max wanted to have a go as well. During WWII 1000 Chinese civilians were massacred on the beach by the Japanese in what was to be then remembered as "the Punggol Beach Massacre" (!) and according to local historians it was the oldest settlement in Sing famous for superb seafood and veggie and fruit market trading. So, braving the heat and armed with hats, mosquito repellent and a bottle of cold juice, we took the 15 minute ride to the beach of Punggol in search of wilderness and maybe a grilled sea bass.
In hindsight I should have seen the cranes, drilling machines and excavators as being the sign of something rather sinister but I firmly believed that at least an ounce of wild Sing still existed somewhere on this island and that the bricks-and-mortar-laying obsessed Singaporeans had forgotten this remote area. The newly constructed asphalt road leads to an almost finished elegant teak covered jetty. At both sides of the jetty two concrete paths snake along opposite sides of the beach curving gently to accommodate dainty flower beds all perfectly symmetrical and aligned to teak benches overlooking the stretch of sea that separates Sing from the handsome Malaysian shore covered in petrol refineries with their desalters, storage tanks, waste tanks and above all the romantic fire from the flaring towers. Max mentioned what a good idea it was for this area to be spruced up and utilised for cycling and taking the children out for a stroll, I retorted that a good idea would have been to leave the area as it was originally, just clearing the dirt pathways from time to time and managing the forest. We clearly have different ideas on nature care! A couple of people had walked down to the beach in the vane attempt to catch a fish and we jumped off the pathway as well to stroll on the sand. Plastic bottles, abandoned shoes, polystyrene boxes and remains of the usual food and incense offerings adorn the shore and after only 3 minutes we had to end our customary counting competition of washed up right-foot vs left-foot shoes due to having reached very high numbers (a sad habit, I know, started many moons ago while travelling through the Arctic but we still feel a compelling need to do it). Overall the visit was a disappointment, what must have been a beautiful wild landscape until 6 months ago has today turned cold and uninteresting. Clearly now only clever photo editing and camera positioning are able to brush over the sterile landscape, conceal the plastic and bring out what is left of wild Punggol. Clearly Max did not shoot a single photo.