Balik Kampong Padang Terbakar, March 2015

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When national resettlement and land‑reclamation plans reached the eastern coastline in 1982, Aimida Haq and her family - together with their neighbours - had to leave the place they had called home for more than fifty-seven years (both her father and children were all born there). Their house at 150A Siak Kuan Road, just a short walk from where the former Sekolah Melayu Padang Terbakar (Padang Terbakar Malay School) once stood, was soon gone, erased by the tide of redevelopment.

In the decades that followed, new landmarks rose in its place: the Changi MRT Depot, Singapore Expo, and the NEWater Plant. Yet the longing for the kampong they grew up in never faded. Through a private Facebook group formed to reconnect old neighbours, their kampong spirit endured - friendships deepened, stories resurfaced, and the bonds forged in childhood remained unbroken.

Then in 2015, a simple idea took root: to return to their childhood hometown and see how the landscape had changed.

In March that year, the idea became reality. And what changes they discovered.

They visited the area where the towgay factory once stood, marvelling at how dramatically the physical terrain had transformed over the decades. But what could never be erased were the memories - of gathering, playing, praying, and living side by side. Neighbour with neighbour, friend with friend. These moments were etched so deeply into their consciousness that no amount of redevelopment could ever wash them away.

One photograph from that day captures the group resting at a bridge - a quiet spot that once overlooked the former Sungei Bedok river mouth. In the past, this bridge linked Kampong Padang Terbakar with Kampong Bedok Laut, allowing students to walk to school and office workers to cycle all the way to Bedok Corner. Many would park their bicycles at the fence outside the old Bedok Rest House before catching the bus to their destinations. (The group also visited another bridge near the former towgay factory site.)

Thank you, Aimida Haq, for sharing this heartfelt journey and the emotions woven into every photograph. The magic of that day - and the memories it rekindled — continues to illuminate the story of our kampong.

With the upcoming opening of the Sungei Bedok MRT station, in the exact spot of Bedok corner, we are certain another visit will be calling soon.

This bridge is neared where the former Sungei Bedok river mouth used to be


This other bridge is nearer to where the towgay factory used to be

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