Visit the last village on mainland Singapore
Bought in 1956, still run by the family
Kampong Lorong Buangkok sits off Yio Chu Kang Road in the middle of Singapore, a few hectares of single-storey houses, fruit trees and dirt tracks surrounded on all sides by high-rise public housing.
Why it's unique
It is the last kampong on mainland Singapore. A traditional medicine seller named Sng Teow Koon bought the land in 1956 — then swamp — and rented plots to Malay and Chinese families to build on. About forty families lived here in the 1960s; fewer than thirty remain.
What makes it a village rather than a museum is that it was never taken over. Sng died in 1997 and his daughter Sng Mui Hong inherited the land, still lives on it, and still collects rents that have famously barely moved in decades. The original name was Kampong Selak Kain — roughly, hitch up your skirt — because the ground flooded so reliably. Canals fixed most of that. Nothing else here was fixed, which is the point.
Before you go
**People live here and it is private land.** There is no ticket, no gate and no visitor centre. Walk quietly, do not photograph into houses or at residents without asking, and treat it as somebody's road rather than an attraction.
Go on a weekday morning when it is quiet. Nearest MRT is Ang Mo Kio then a bus; the entrance off Gerald Drive is easy to walk straight past. Fifteen minutes is enough to see it and long enough to be respectful.