The neighbourhood

A few photos to give an idea of what our new neighbourhood looks like. Below is our condo, it's the tall one on the right. 

 

Over the road is The Star Vista which includes a shopping mall, restaurants, bars and on the upper level a 5000 seat performance arts theatre which is also used as a church on Sundays.

It's a huge, asymetrical and rather strange looking building but it's apparently designed to be eco friendly, tunnelling natural air flow and daylight thereby reducing the need for air con and artificial lighting. 

And a bit further on is the Buona Vista MRT station, only a 4-5 minute walk from our condo. 

Under our condo is a bakery,two cafes, an organic food shop and a bar that has live music at the weekends. Below N. and I had just returned from a bike ride and were stopping for a drink at the bar. 

We have a lovely pool we can use with palm trees, frangipani and greenery planted around it to give a calm tropical feel.

The first thing we see when we walk out of the condo is Starbucks in a stunning black and white building, must be the nicest setting ever for a Starbucks. 

Opposite that is a road of black and white houses all now converted into restaurants

On the road behind are several more "black and whites" that are abandoned and boarded up, hopefully they will be renovated too. They all have a preservation order so in theory cannot be demolished for further development projects.

Nearby is a huge storm drain, planted with trees which were in full flower soon after we moved in. Up on the left side there is the PCN or park connector, a pedestrian walk way where people can jog, cycle and exercise.

After heavy rain this drain becomes a raging torrent and the water level rises incredibly quickly.

Further down the park connector, the canal widens and lots of fish congregate here, they had made circular beds ? for breeding.

I often see egrets, little herons and monitor lizards along here.

View from our balcony, a real mix of old colonial black and whites, modern tall condos and jungle greenery-that's Singapore for you.