river valley swimming pool

& the van kleef aquarium

this morning we had our morning walk at fort canning park. we wanted to learn more about the different spice plants that are planted along the spice trail. because of poor prior arrangement, we parked our cars at dfferent areas: i parked my car at fort canning itself while tye thong's car was parked at tank road.

as i walking along the '14th century walk of history' path i caught sight of the disused swimming pools of the former river valley swimming complex. it brought back memories of the few times i swam there and also triggered memories of a nearby building - the van kleef aquarium.

i had learnt from my former colleague that the river valley swimming pool was infamous for being the haunt of the gays. they would prey on unsuspecting young school boys. these people tended to spend an unnecessary long time in the changing room. they were also fond of parading in their skimpy trunks. i don't remember being taken advantage of.

van kleef aquarium is the predecessor to the underwater world at sentosa. in fact, when it closed down in 1991, many of the aquatic creatures were transferred to sentosa. i went into the aquarium only once but visited it many times, just standing outside and viewing some of the exhibits.

singapore's first public aquarium opened in 1955 and it was named after a dutch resident kwb van kleef who donated nearly $1/2 million towards the building of the aquarium.