The double decker bus I rode on a few days ago took me along the beautiful West Coast area of Singapore. There is a long, narrow park that meanders along the road on one side and Jurong Channel on the other. I jumped off in front of a collection of huge warehouses.
As I walked towards the buildings I realized these warehouses were not just places to store old dirty stuff. The warehouses collectively are known as the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Center. As I approached the closest building I was met by a nervous Jack Russell terrier named Tan.
Tan was very hyper but offered to give me a quick tour through the buildings. There are four buildings and each are temporary storage for food stuffs. The first one stores refrigerated products. The second one holds fruits. The next one has vegetables and the last one maintains dry goods like rice, nuts, grains, dried fruit and dried fish.
As we walked around the buildings I found out why Tan was so nervous. We turned around a corner near a stack of crates of oranges and there stood the ugliest, meanest looking dog I had ever seen. Tan told me his name was Adolf, who thinks he owns the place. I am pretty feisty, but I did not want to deal with Adolf. Tan and I wisely scooted down an isle full of pineapples to avoid the "Demon Dog from Hell."
The other reason Tan was so hyper was all the forklift traffic. The drivers have a lot of work to do loading and unloading trucks. They start work at midnight, emptying trucks that are filled with product that is locally grown, as well as product flown into Singapore from all over the world. It is neatly stacked and then loaded back onto trucks bound for grocery stores and restaurants all over the island. The forklift operators don't have time to worry about looking out for silly dogs that might be in the way.
After the trucks all leave, non business people can purchase any goods not required by the retailers. What a great way to obtain really fresh produce right off the loading dock!
It was time to run. I thanked Tan for the tour and as I left the Wholesale Center, I made sure to avoid crossing Adolph's path.
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