If you were to walk or drive along that stretch of Dairy Farm Road
leading to the BKE Expressway, take a careful look to your left.
About 200 metres before the highway entrance, you might just
notice the roof of an old abandoned derelict house, which I termed
here, the Dairy Farm House. But be careful not to drive past
too fast, or you just might miss it. Walking through the overgrown
grasses I took these shots.
This is a pretty big house, double-storied, with zinc roof. It
stood at the bottom of a ravine, a drop of 20 metres and a
distance of about 50 metres from where I stood. I could see broken
glimpses of its roof, and where the front of the House is, broken
down walls belying the empty interior.
I wonder if it was the sole survivor of a forgotten time and era
of old Singapore. What was Dairy Farm like in the past? The road
is a branch off from Upper Bukit Timah Road. Was it part of a
village that once stood there?
This tree and altar is being taken care of by a few elderly men
who sat lazing around when I approached them. The said that a
temple used to stood just some steps from where this tree stood,
whose only remains is a stony wall among the lush trees.
Hoisted empty plastic
bottles can be seen over the land. Click
here for a close up
Wind bottles
On more curious thing I encountered while bashing through the wild
grasses, I saw many bottles, yes, maybe a hundred of these bottles
hanging on sticks or small fig plants.
The lay just before the ravine, rows and rows of these bottles
stuck onto sticks or figs, along a 400 metre stretch terminating
just before the start of the highway.
What are these bottles for? I remember some time back there was
some news on these bottles. It was supposed to be placed there by
workers, to warn them about the drop of a big drain should they
venture beyond those bottles. I supposed the drains must lie below
the ravine. But what a way to warn people!
In my 12 years in the construction industry this is the first time
I have encountered such a thing, using plastic bottles placed on
sticks as a form of warning barrier. I am afraid I have to
disagree. Most if not all contractors use barrier tapes, timber or
plastic barricades to warn off people, but bottles? Highly
improper!
Typical timber
barricades to warn of falling-from-height dangers
So what are these bottles for, Was
it actually to warn off people to stay away from the House? Was it
a coincidence that it lie just between the Spirit Tree and the
Dairy Farm House? So who actually placed it there? Was it
originally a botanical effort by the National Parks to protect and
encourage certain plants to grow?
If so, why have they stopped, and left these plants to their own
device. I looked around, but couldn’t find anything resembling a
proper growing plant. Bottles of many kinds have been used. I am
really puzzled.
Night visit
I left that afternoon, and came back again at night for a night
shot. This is the start of that 400 metre long stretch of bottle,
that lone bottle to the left marked its beginning. The bottles
seemed like markings of tombstones waving at me. I was shivering,
and I think not entirely due to the cool night.
So, do you know the real reasons of the Wind Bottles? What stories
lies waiting for us at the desolate Dairy Farm House? What will we
discover?
Eerie wind
bottles covering the ground - look like tombstones at night
An unusual half ring
of orbs are discovered in the third photo. One of them looks
like a skull when enlarged.
I am reminded of the lonely
Maltita House in Ponggul, and the lonely Pulai Tree in Changi.
1. The Ponggul House;
2. The Pulai Tree of Changi; 3. The Dairy Farm House
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Answering
Mysteries
Come
