Here's a zoo to shop in

By Ginnie Teo

SEEING SINGAPORE

Feeling bored? Nothing to do during weekends? The Straits Times' See Singapore guide will offer you some suggestions. This new weekly series will highlight places to go, things to do. This weekend, visit a rustic farm mall at Chua Chu Kang.

The curious looks go both ways, as resident goats take a peek at the families that flock to the farm on weekdays. --STEPHANIE YEOW

A ZOO of sorts has come up on the outskirts of Chua Chu Kang and, here, visitors can choose to bring the animals home.

Called Farmart Centre , it is Singapore's only interactive farm mall as well as home to hundreds of animals, from dogs to goats and bees.

The 2 1/2-ha compound, about the size of four football fields, houses three pet shops, three fishing ponds, a petting zoo and a bee farm.

Located atop a hill along Sungei Tengah Road, it opened to the public a year ago, and has been attracting dozens of families, students and couples on weekends.

Hardly Jaws, bit this black-tip reef shark can still pack a good bite. --STEPHANIE YEOW

The centre's public relations manager, Miss Evangeline Tan, said: 'We're trying to promote farm lifestyles in Singapore so that Singaporeans will be more appreciative of farm products.

'With the hectic lifestyle people lead today, they don't have a place to go where they can take a break from the city. Farmart is as close as you can get.'

To drive to the mall, take the Sungei Tengah Road turnoff from Kranji Expressway (KJE) and look for signs along the way.

A steep, curvy road leads into a square compound, where the carpark is situated. The shops and mini-farms are built around the square.

The place has a kampung feel with sandy floors, rough wooden railings, and wooden and stone shops. Look around, and there is the odd attap roof and some wooden animal enclosures.

But it is not the look of the place which strikes you when you drive in; rather, it is the smell of newly-washed dogs and the pong of chickens.

Then there is the cacophony of sounds - chickens clucking, dogs barking, parrots squawking.

Buy a pet while you're at it. Prestige Pets' Mr William Lim has a puppy for sale. --STEPHANIE YEOW

Try not to miss some of the off-beat attractions. You can easily miss them, as the exterior of the shops with the attractions often give little indication of the treasures inside.

B.Hive, for instance, seems like any ordinary outlet selling honey products. But if you step in and listen carefully enough, you will hear an incessant buzz.

Go round to the store's back garden, and you will find a bee farm, possibly Singapore's only one.

Here, you can watch 120,000 honey bees hard at work, building two hives and zipping around on various tasks.

For 50 cents, a guide will give you a 15-minute tour of the place. His spiel is punctuated by odd snippets of information, such as the fact that the insects recognise their hive-mates by smell.

Soulful eyes like these promise to grab you attention - and steal your heart. --STEPHANIE YEOW

You can watch the entire process of making honey - from how the insects breed and choose which bee becomes queen, to how humans extract honey from the hives.

B.Hive's regional marketing manager, Mr Eric Tang, said: 'We came up with the tour in the hope that people won't fear the bees if they know more about them. Most people don't know that honey bees are harmless.'

One visitor, Mr William Wong, 40, an information technology technician, was fascinated. He said: 'Watching them is like watching the Discovery Channel.'

At Nature's Realm, there is an aviary with birds and parrots for sale, while at Sea Quest Waterworld, you can stroke the starfish, touch the exotic coral and marvel at the three black-tip reef sharks in the shop's touch pool.

Aside from shops with animals, Farmart has several shops selling vegetables, including the organic variety, at some of the cheapest prices around.

At the Lotus Nursery, rare Chinese vegetables like lingjiao - said to have 'cooling' properties - are harvested, and visitors can buy them freshly plucked.

The sweet scent of herbs can be smelled nearby, where items like roselle and lavender are grown.

At Chew's Poultry shop, visitors can buy eggs laid just that morning.

Finish at the animal-farm corner - home to five goats, two turkeys, three rabbits and numerous chickens.

The goats are kept in wooden huts, but the other animals are allowed to roam within an enclosure. Be careful where you step in the enclosure, as there are chickens everywhere.

Children are allowed to pet the goats, feed the turkeys and play with the chickens.

Nearby, youngsters can also try their hand at fishing for small koi in a pond.

Madam Susan Lim, 52, a housewife who brought her two grandchildren to the mall last week, said: 'I had such a relaxing time at the petting zoo, and so did the kids, who loved the goats.'