Goin' Country

I took a trip into the Singaporean countryside today.  I didn't even know there was such a thing...but apparently, there's a small rural community called Kranji in the northern part of the island.

Once I got off the train, I found a minibus nicknamed The Kranji Express, which stops at all the farms - and there are lots of them. Farms for fireflies, frogs, goats, koi, palm trees and the list goes on.  Mariah Carey's "Vision of Love" was blasting inside the bus, and the man next to me was trying to calm a live chicken he held in a grocery bag.  Ah, the country.

Thirty minutes later, I arrived at "Bollywood Veggies," which is run by a married couple, who I think were former hippies and now produce the largest source of organic papayas and bananas in the country.  As soon as I arrived, the staff handed me a faded black-and-white map of the farm and asked for the $2 entry fee.  The owner called out, "No entry fee for him.  He's a foreigner so give him a nice map."  And so I walked away $2 richer with a laminated color map in hand.  Not bad.

I donated the savings back to them at their Poison Ivy Cafe, where I sampled some home brewed aloe vera tea and sweet potato leaves with chili.  When I ordered, like a dummy, I asked, "Is that sweet potato?"  Waitor: "Nooo, it's the leaves.  It's a local favorite."  Anyway, it was very good and tasted a little like collard greens.  

And I topped it all off with some homemade banana bread, which was AMAZING.  Bought a half-loaf of it, got back aboard The Kranji Express, and went home.