Charms of Katong Part 1

The history of Katong begin as early as 1823 when Francis Bernard, the son-in-law of William Farquhar, started a coconut estate plantation in the district.This part of the land belonged to the rich and prestige in the past. It started mainly as mainly as plantations, then to a wealthy suburb, and now a residential area.

Katong is the name of an extinct species of sea turtle. It also means the rippling effect of a sea mirage when looking at a shoreline. Katong used to be near the sea. That is before the government reclaimed the land.

What does Katong reminds you of?
It reminds me of a very nice Malay song, Di Tanjung Katong. In this post "Charms of Katong Part 1" and "Charms of Katong Part 2", I would introduce some of these places shown in the video.

Where is Tanjong Katong?
Tanjong Katong used to be a beach stretches from upper East Coast Road to Tanjong Rhu. It is now residencial area. I just found out that there is a Fort Tanjong Katong . It is currently being reburied.

I went for the Katong Trail organised by Read! Singapore with a group of people lead by the very author of Sherlock Sam, Adan Jimenez. The authors behind the Sherlock Sam series is written by a husband and wife team under the pseudonym, A. J. Low which stands for Adan Jimenez and Felicia Low- Jimenez. To be very honest, I have yet to read Sherlock Sam series prior the tour, hence, I was quite surprised when I got to know he was the one leading the tour! No offence but I truly had expected a local born Singaporean to do it because of Katong's rich history. 

Adan introduced himself in the beginning of the tour at Marine Parade Public Library. He was born in California and immigrated to Singapore after he graduated in New York University. He lives here for 6 years. His wife is Singapore born and is a Peranakan! She used to live very near Katong and hence, Katong become the first place for Sherlock's first case. Unfortunately, she had an operation then and was not able to join us for the tour though she very much would like to do so. 

Adan said they have actually did a lot of research before writing the book, "Sherlock Sam and the missing heirloom in Katong." And I was taken by surprised that the author actually gave us an handout with loads of details about the places we were to visit in the trail. The authors (although Felicia was not there) were definitely very well prepared and full of passion about this place. 

Marine Parade Public Library and the Marine Parade Community Centre does appear in the story of the missing heirloom. These were the places Sherlock retraced and suspected Auntie Kim Lian may have lost her heirloom on her way to these places.

Author Adan Jimenez showed us where he and his wife got their inspiration to wrote the first book, Sherlock Sam and the missing heirloom in Katong.

I was so suaku (ignorant). I did not know that Katong is actually very near the library. I had expected a tour bus to take us to the destination!