On the afternoon of Chinese New Year’s day, 75 years ago in 1942, Singapore fell to the Japan. It was to bring three and a half years of hardship on Singaporeans and a shift in power that would bring about the end of the once mighty British Empire. The capitulation of the Empire’s “impregnable fortress” had come swiftly, in a manner nobody might have expected. Just two months had elapsed since the Japanese Imperial Army launched its invasion of Malaya, and in a matter of one week since making landfall on Singapore’s northwest coast, the jewel in the crown was firmly in the hands of Japan.

On the ground, the poorly equipped, ill-trained and demoralised troops defending Malaya and the island were no match for the experienced, efficient and motivated fighting force Japan had committed to the task. With their back to the walls in Singapore, the defenders – British, Australian and Indian troops and members of the Malay Regiment, plus those of volunteer units such as the Chinese organised Dalforce, fought gallantly but there was little that could be done to stem a tide that had already turned against them.

In the less threatening environment we live in today, it is probably difficult to appreciate what these desperate defenders would have been put through. While it will of course not be possible to fully appreciate that, we can attempt to have some sense of it through the testimonies captured of those who have fought – what the National University of Singapore’s Southeast Asian Student’s Society hopes to do in putting together “The Last Days of Empire: Japanese Advance along Bukit Timah Road, 1942”. The guided tour, is one of 12 to look out for this February and March (see also: The ruins on Sentosa and a rare chance to visit), as part of the National Heritage Board’s (NHB) commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore.

The trail starts at the University Cultural Centre (UCC). The UCC stands where the assault on the strategic Pasir Panjang Ridge commenced on 13th February 1942. A vicious battle would be fought over the ridge over two days, which culminated in the Malay Regiment’s last stand on Bukit Chandu and the taking of the British Military Hospital, Alexandra Hospital today, at which a massacre occurred.

Dr. Effendy at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill.

From the UCC, the trail backtracks the Japanese advance north along Clementi Road – then Reformatory Road, a main thoroughfare that links with Bukit Timah Road and thereby connects north and south of the island. Stops along the way include the site at Dover Road at which the Rimau Commandos were executed. The rather strange spot at which the 10 of brave commandos lost their lives – just a couple of months before Japan was to surrender, was selected by the Japanese apparently for the view to honour the bravery of the men, who were said to have gone to their deaths laughing (see: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600228-1.2.63). Operation Rimau, mounted by a total of 23 British and Australian commandos and intended as a sequel to the highly successful Operation Jaywick, was aborted with 11 commandos being captured alive.

Marker for the Rimau Commando execution site at Dover Road.

Participants are also brought to the sites near the Buona Vista Battery, where a couple of monster 15 inch guns were mounted. More on these guns can be found at Peter Stubbs’ FortSiloso.com. It is though that remnants of the emplacement for No.1 Gun, tunnels serving the guns as well as an underground Battery Plotting Room for the battery are still intact – below what had previously been Mowbray Camp. Some remnants of No. 2 Gun are also thought to exist in the area of Pine Grove, which was also where a POW Cemetery, the Ulu Pandan Cemetery existed until 1975.

A view down Ulu Pandan Road, to the areas on both sides of the road where the 15″ guns of the Buona Vista Battery were mounted.

Dr Effendy speaking on the Buona Vista Battery.

The former Mowbray Camp – remains of No. 1 Gun emplacement, tunnels and a battery plotting room are thought to still exist.

Other sites that will be visited are the area close to Bukit Timah Village, where participants hear of the use of bamboo tyres by Japanese troops on bicycles; the foot of Bukit Timah Hill where the little known contributions of Dalforce is spoken about; and the POW built stairs that once led to the Syonan Chureito – a memorial to the fallen. The memorial, which contained the ashes of 10,000 Japanese who perished in the Pacific war, also included a small memorial for allied soldiers. Some of the local population will be mobilised during special occasions, such as the New Year, to attend ceremonies at the memorial (see also : my entry on Syonan Jinja). The Syonan Chureito was destroyed by the Japanese prior to their surrender for fear of its desecration and the remains of the Japanese war dead moved to the Japanese Cemetery at Chuan Hoe Avenue.

POW built steps leading up to the Syonan Chureito at Bukit Batok as seen during the Occupation.

Dr. Effendy and students at the steps of the Syonan Chureito.

The tour will end off with a guided tour at the Old Ford Factory’s newly revamped Syonan Gallery. The old Ford Factory was where the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese Imperial Army took place on 15 February 1942. The tour will be led by Dr Mohamed Effendy and at the Old Ford Factory, by Syonan Gallery docents. More information on the tour and other tours can be found at:

• The ruins on Sentosa and a rare chance to visit
• Battle for Singapore (NHB Museums Site)
• Booking Page for Tours (booking starts on 6 Feb at 10 am)

A view towards the area where Bukit Timah Village was.

One of Singapore’s more colourful religious festivals, Thaipusam, will be celebrated tomorrow, primarily by the Hindus of the Southern Indian community. As always, the festival is preceded by a procession of a silver chariot carrying Lord Murugan, whom the festival honours.

There are two parts to the procession here in Singapore. The first part, which takes place in the morning, sees Lord Murugan transported from the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple at Tank Road to the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple at Keong Saik Road. Lord Murugan (also known as Sri Thendayuthapani) then spends the day with his brother Sri Vinayagar (or Ganesh) before making the return journey in the evening. On the first leg of the procession, a stop is made at the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is dedicated to Lord Murugan’s and Lord Vinayagar’s mother, Sri Mariamman or Parvati.

Posts related to past celebrations of Thaipusam in Singapore:

• Vel, Vel, Vadivel: Thaipusam in Singapore (2010)
• Sights Sans Sounds of Thaipusam in Singapore (2011)
• Thaipusam at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Templ (2012)
• An Annual Walk of Faith (2013)
• Faces of Thaipusam 2014 (2014)
• What colours the full moon of Thai (2015)
• The full moon of Thai

The Chariot Route (2017).

Photographs from the first leg of the procession this morning:

The Silver Chariot passes the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple along South Bridge Road.

At the junction of Kreta Ayer Road and Keong Saik Road.

Arriving at the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple.

Preparing to carry the image of Lord Murugan into the temple.

Lowering Lord Murugan.

Moving into the Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple.

Today’s Thaipusam, an annual Hindu festival celebrated in Singapore that being a most colourful of spectacles, is perhaps also a most photographed. The festival sees a procession of kavadis – burdens carried by devotees of Lord Murugan – from the Sri Srinivas Perumal Temple at Serangoon Road to the Sri Thendayuthapani (Chettiars) Temple in Tank Road.

More information on the festival can be found at: http://sttemple.com/pages/16~thaipusam and at the following links:

• Vel, Vel, Vadivel: Thaipusam in Singapore (2010)
• Sights Sans Sounds of Thaipusam in Singapore (2011)
• Thaipusam at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Templ (2012)
• An Annual Walk of Faith (2013)
• Faces of Thaipusam 2014 (2014)
• What colours the full moon of Thai (2015)
• The full moon of Thai (2016)
• The Thaipusam Chariot Procession (2017)

Photographs taken at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple this morning:

The once bustling flea market, known to me as “Robinson Petang” – Afternoon Robinson’s or simply as Sungei Road in my younger days, will soon be more of a distant memory. Come the 11th of July this year, the too little that is still left, will disappear and never again return when the free-hawking zone that today’s traders are operating in gets shut down (10 July will be its last day).

Thieves Market today, a pale shadow of Robinson Petang in its heyday.

An aerial view of a part of Singapore that is in the midst of huge changes. The market is seen in the lower part of the photo.

Resembling a shanty town with its makeshift shacks and temporary stalls mixed into shophouse lined streets in its heyday, Robinson Petang had a reputation that spread far and wide – one reputation it also had was the “aroma” that the nearby Rochor Canal gave to the area.  Also known as “Thieves Market”, for a variety of very obvious reasons, it was the place to go to get one’s hands on any pre-loved item imaginable. Many of the goods on offer, which also included unused items, were otherwise rarely found. One of the things I remember my parents’ heading there regularly for at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, was huge glass bottles – which my mum decorated with mosaic and macramé for use as flower vases. There were then lots of other items on offer: antiques (or junk – depending on how one looked at them), electrical goods, surplus army items, and old clothes sold by weight and even new ones that in today’s world are diverted to factory outlet stores. Fake goods were also sold and a joke often shared among friends was that a prized item had been acquired from Sungei Road – thereby suggesting that it wasn’t the real MaCoy. The bazaar, traces its history to the antique trade, which developed its presence in the area in the 1930s, with secondhand goods traders only moving in after the war.

The flea market in its heyday (source: National Archives of Singapore Online).

The Thieves Market of today bears little resemblance to that Sungei Road. Resettlement and the area’s redevelopment since the 1970s, spelt the end for many of the trades around the area. Many of the area’s hawkers were moved in the 1970s and 1980s, including an exercise in August 1982 intended to put an end to the bazaar for good, following which a handful of 31 licensed rag-and-bone traders were left to ply the remnants of the trade. The bazaar, now centred  on Larut Road and Pitt Street, was designated a free-hawking zone (the only one in Singapore) in the year 2000, opened to traders who were Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents and sees some 145 to 200 vendors operating on the busier days.

Sungei Road in 1978 (source: National Archives of Singapore Online).

Sungei Road in the late 1980s (source: National Archives of Singapore Online).

Sungei Road in the 1980s (source: Mike Fong on ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’).

A five-foot-way barber in the area – such trades were moved in the 1970s and 1980s (source: Mike Fong on ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’).

In 2012, the Association for the Recycling of the Second Hand Goods, representing the traders, was informed of the decision to close the free-hawking zone. Despite appeals and attempts by the association to propose alternative sites, a decision was taken by the authorities to only allow flea markets to operated on a non-permanent basis – such as at street bazaars and trade fairs. Reasons given for the decision include the dis-amenities the market creates such as the obstruction and risk mosquito breeding in places traders use for storage. Assistance, including an offer made for the allocation of stalls in a nearby centre, will  be provided to 21 traders who hold a permit as well as to other traders affected.

Letter of appeal submitted by the Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods in 2015 (source: the Association’s Facebook Page).

The is still a variety of goods on offer.

Watch parts are commonly sold.

It appears that preliminary work for the area’s eventual redevelopment – which based on Master Plan 2014 is reserved for a residential development “with commercial at first storey” with a plot ration of 4.9 – will take place soon after the closure. This work may see the disappearance of a few of the area’s streets including Pitt Street and Larut Road (another road in the area, Pasar Lane, has already disappeared) and with the MRT station that is opening this year, will give the place a completely different complexion and erase a long held memory of the old Robinson Petang, for good.

Plans for future redevelopment (Master Plan 2014). The market is in the area circled.

Larut Road in the 1980s (source: Mike Fong on ‘On a Little Street in Singapore’).

The market today is centred on a shophouse cleared Larut Road and Pitt Street. The new MRT station is seen on the top right of the photograph.

More on the market, including photographs and also video documentation carried out by the National Heritage Board, can be found at: https://roots.sg/learn/resources/virtual-tours/sungei-road-flea-market.

Filed under: Changing Landscapes, Forgotten Places, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Sungei Road

Singapore had a brief love affair with the Concorde. Arguably the only supersonic passenger aircraft to be successfully deployed, a London to Singapore was operated by its National airline, Singapore Airlines, in partnership with British Airways for a few years at the end of the 1970s. The aircraft’s first flight over Singapore however, goes back to 1972, a year that was especially memorable for several events.  I came across a wonderful photograph of that first flight some years back, one that in freezing the Concorde over a Singapore that in 1972 was at the cusp of its own reach for the skies, captured the lofty aspirations of the aircraft’s developers and of the city seen below it

The photo of Concorde 002 over the old city centre of Singapore during its month-long demonstration tour of the Far East in June 1972 (online at http://www.concordesst.com/).

1972 was the year I was in Primary 2. I was seven, going on eight, ten months older than the newly independent Singapore, and at an age when any machine that sped were about the coolest things on earth. I was also finding out that going to school in the afternoon was quite a chore. Unlike the morning session I was in the previous year, there was little time for distractions and TV. School days were just about tolerable only because of the football time it could provide before classes started each day and unlike the previous school year, great excitement seemed to come only away from school, and the highlight of the year would be one that I would have to skip, “ponteng” in the language used among my classmates, school for.

Football was very much part of the culture at St. Michael’s School, the primary school I attended.

The buzz the Concorde created, even before it came to Singapore in June of the year, left a deep impression with the boys I kept company with and the paper planes we made featured folded-down noses that resembling the Concorde’s droop nose – even if it made they seemed less able to fly. I was fortunate to also see the real McCoy making a descent at Paya Lebar Airport, one that was much more graceful than any of the imitations I made. I have to thank an uncle who was keen enough to brave the crowds that had gathered at the airport’s waving gallery for that opportunity. The event was a significant one and took place in a year that was especially significant for civil aviation in Singapore with the split of Malaysia-Singapore Airlines or MSA, jointly operated by the two countries taking place in the background. The split would see the formation of Mercury Singapore Airlines on 24 January to fly Singapore’s flag. The intention had been to ride on the established MSA name, which was not too well received on the Malaysian side, prompting the renaming of the new MSA to Singapore Airlines (SIA) on 30 June 1972, a point from which the airline has never looked back.

What might have been.

The building that housed MSA and later SIA is prominent in the 1972 photograph, the MSA Building. Completed in 1968, the rather iconic MSA and later SIA Building was one built at the dawn of the city’s age of the skyscraper. The building was a pioneer in many other ways and an early adopter of the pre-fab construction technique. A second building in the photograph that also contributed to frenzy was the third Ocean Building, then under construction. The Ocean was to be the home of another company that was very much a part of Singapore’s civil aviation journey: the Straits Steamship Company. It was during the time of the already demolished Ocean Building that preceded the third that the company set up Malayan Airways in 1937. The airlines, which would only take off in 1947, became Malaysian Airways in 1963, and then MSA in 1965. The company, a household name in shipping, is now longer connected with sea or air transport in its current incarnation as Keppel Land. Other buildings marking the dawn of the new age seen in the photograph include the uncompleted Robina House and Shing Kwang House, and also a DBS Building in the early stages of erection.

The fast growing city, seen at ground level in 1972 (Jean-Claude Latombe, online at http://ai.stanford.edu/~latombe/)

The completed third Ocean Building (left), seen in July 1974 (photo courtesy of Peter Chan).

It was several months prior to the the Concorde’s flight and just four weeks into school, that I would find myself skipping classes for what was to be the highlight of the year and of my childhood: the visit of the Queen, Elizabeth II of England, Price Phillip, and Princess Anne, to the 3-room Toa Payoh flat I had called home. As its was in the case of several other visiting dignitaries, Her Majesty’s programme included a visit to the rooftop viewing gallery of the Housing and Development Board’s first purpose-built “VIP block”. The gallery was where a view of the incredible success Singapore had in housing the masses could be taken in and a visit to a flat often completed such a visit and living in one strategically placed on the top floor of the VIP block had its advantages. Besides the Royal family, who were also taken to a rental flat on the second floor of Block 54 just behind the VIP block, Singapore’s first Yang di-Pertuan Negara and last colonial Governor, Sir William Goode, also dropped by in 1972. The flat also saw the visits of two other dignitaries. One was John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia in 1968 and the other, Singapore’s second president, Benjamin Henry Sheares, and Mrs Sheares in 1971.

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne, in the kitchen of my flat on 18 February 1972.

The Queen at the Viewing Gallery on the roof of Block 53 Toa Payoh on 18 February 1972.

One thing being in the afternoon session developed was the taste I acquired for epok-epok, fried curry puffs that are usually potato filled. Sold by a man who came around on a bicycle at dismissal time, the pastries that he vended – out of a tin carried on the bicycle – were ones to die for. They were made especially tasty the vendor’s special chilli-sauce  “injected” in with a spout tipped bottle and well worth going hungry at recess time, to have the 10 cents the purchase required, for. Being in the afternoon session, also meant that the rides home from school on the minibus SCB 388, were often in the heavy traffic. The slow crawl, often accompanied by the deep vocals of Elvis Presley playing in the bus’ cartridge player, permitted an observation of the progress that was being made in building Toa Payoh up. Much was going on in 1972 with the SEAP games Singapore was to host in 1973 just around the corner. Toa Payoh’s town centre, also the games village, was fast taking shape.

A view over Toa Payoh around 1972.

Toa Payoh’s evolving landscape stood in stark contrast to its surroundings. To its south, across the Whampoa River, was Balestier – where suburbia might have ended before Toa Pyaoh’s rise. That still held its mix of old villas, shophouses, and a sprinkling of religious sites. The view north on the other hand was one of the grave scattered landscape of Peck San Teng, today’s Bishan, as would possibly have been the view west, if not for the green wall of sparsely developed elevations. On one of the hills, stood Toa Payoh Hospital, in surroundings quite conducive to rest and recovery. Potong Pasir to Toa Payoh’s east had still a feel of the country. Spread across what were the low lying plains that straddled one of Singapore’s main drainage channels, the Kallang River, the area was notorious for the huge floods that heavy rains would bring. When the area wasn’t submerged, it was one of green vegetable plots and the zinc topped structures of dwellings and livestock pens.

The grave dominated landscape north of Toa Payoh – with a view towards Toa Payoh (SPH photo, online at http://news.asiaone.com/).

Potong Pasir (and Braddell Road) during the big flood of 1978 (PUB photo).

Another main drainage channel, the Singapore River, was a point of focus for the tourism drive of 1972, during which two white statues came up. Representations perhaps of the past and the future, the first to come up was of a figure from its colonial past. The statue of Raffles, placed at a site near Empress Place at which Singapore’s founder was thought to have first came ashore, was unveiled in February. The second, was the rather peculiar looking Merlion and a symbol perhaps of new Singapore’s confused identity. This was unveiled at the river’s mouth in September. A strangest of would be National symbols and with little connection to Singapore except for its head of a lion, the animal Singapore or Singapura was named after, the creature was made up in a 1964 tourism board initiated effort. Despite its more recent origins, the statue has come to be one that tourists and locals alike celebrate and that perhaps has set the tone for how Singapore as a destination is being sold.

The Merlion at its original position at the mouth of the Singapore River (seen here in 1976).

The Merlion at its position today, staring at the icons of the new Singapore.

1972 was a year that has also to be remembered for the wrong reasons. Externally, events such as the tragic massacre of Israeli Olympians in Munich, brought much shock and horror as did the happenings closer to home in Indochina. There were also reasons for fear and caution in Singapore. Water, or the shortage of it was very much at the top of the concerns here with the extended dry spell having continued from the previous year. There were also many reasons to fear for one’s safety with the frequent reports of murders, kidnappings and shootouts, beginning with the shooting to death of an armed robber, Yeo Cheng Khoon, just a week into the year.

The darkest of the year’s headlines would however be of a tragedy that seemed unimaginable – especially coming just as the season of hope and joy was to descend. On 21 November, a huge fire swept through Robinson’s Department Store at Raffles Place in which nine lives were lost. The devastating fire also deprived the famous store of its landmark Raffles Place home and prompted its move to Orchard Road.  This perhaps also spelled the beginning of the end for Singapore’s most famous square. In a matter of one and a half decades, the charm and elegance that had long marked it, would completely be lost.

Robinson’s at Raffles Place, 1966.

The burnt shell of Robinson’s (SPH photo online at http://www.tnp.sg/)

Another tragic incident was the 17 September shooting of the 22-year-old Miss Chan Chee Chan at Queensway. While the shooting took place around midday, it was only late in the day that medical staff attending to  Miss Chan realised that she had been shot. A .22 calibre rifle bullet, lodged in her heart, was only discovered after an x-ray and by that time it was too late to save her.

Just as the year had started, shootouts would be bring 1972 to a close in which four of Singapore’s most wanted men were killed. At the top of the list was Lim Ban Lim. Armed and dangerous and wanted in connection with the killing of a policeman, a series of armed robberies on both sides of the Causeway, Lim was ambushed by the police at Margaret Drive on 24 November and shot dead. Over a nine-year period, Lim and his accomplices got away with a total of S$2.5 million. An accomplice, Chua Ah Kau escaped the ambush. He would however take his own life following a shootout just three weeks later on 17 December. Having taken two police bullets in the confrontation near the National Theatre, Chua turned the gun on himself.

The case that had Singapore on tenterhooks due to the one and a half month trail of violence and terror left by the pair of gunmen involved, would play itself out just the evening before the gunfight involving Chua. It was one that I remember quite well from the manner in which the episode was brought to a close in the dark and seemingly sinister grounds of the old Aljunied al-Islamiah cemetery at Jalan Kubor. The trigger-happy pair, Abdul Wahab Hassan and his brother Mustapha, crime spree included gun running, armed robbery, gunfights with the police, hostage taking and daring escapes from custody (Abdul Wahab’s from Changi Prison and Mustapha’s from Outram Hospital). Cornered at the cemetery on 16 December and with the police closing in, Abdul Wahab shot and killed his already injured brother and then turned the gun on himself.

The Aljunied Al-Islamiah Cemetery off Jalan Kubor and Victoria Street, where two gunmen met their deaths in 1972.

Besides the deaths of the four, quite a few more armed and dangerous men were also shot and injured as a result of confrontations with the police. A 23 December 1972 report in the New Nation put the apparent rise in shootouts to the training the police had received to “shoot from the hip, FBI style”. The spate of crimes involving the use of firearms would prompt the enactment of the Arms Offences Act in 1973, which stipulates a mandatory death penalty for crimes that see the use of or the attempt to use a firearm to cause injury.

The tough measures may possibly have had their impact. The use firearms in crimes is now much less common. This has also brought about an increased the sense of safety in Singapore, as compared to 1972. Many who grew up in that age will remember being warned repeatedly of the dangers on the streets, particularly of being kidnapped. The same warnings are of course just as relevant today, but the threat was one that could be felt. Many stories of children disappearing off the streets were in circulation and that heightened the sense of fear. While many could be put down to rumour, there was at least one case of a child being abducted from a fairground, that I knew to be true. There were also many reports of actual kidnappings in the news, including one very high profile case in 1972 that saw the abduction of a wealthy Indonesian businessman. The businessman was released only after a ransom was paid.

Singapore in 1972:

• Singapore (1972) by Jean-Claude Latombe
• Singapore 1972 – an album on Flickr by Polyrus
• Singapore 1957 on – an album on Flickr by Gary Denvers
• The 1972 General Elections
• The Queen visiting Singapore in 1972 (AP News Footage showing the Queen’s arrival at Block 53, Toa Payoh)
• The Queen visiting Singapore in 1972 (AP News Footage showing the Queen at the viewing gallery of Block 53, Toa Payoh)
• The Queen visiting Singapore in 1972 (Local News Footage showing the Queen’s arrival at the flat I lived in)

A rare clip with scenes taken at a ceremony at the Syonan Jinja (from 1:23 to 3:30 in the clip), a shrine built during the Japanese Occupation with POW labour. The shrine was to have been a most beautiful of shrines with pebbled streams, stone lanterns, a stone stepped paths and torii gates and set in a 1,000-acre park with public recreational and sporting facilities. Pebbles, intended for the water filter beds at Bukit Timah, were diverted for its use. A new city was also to have been built around it. The grand plans were cut short with Japan’s defeat in the war and the shrine was destroyed before the British returned for fear of its desecration. More on the shrine can be found at this post: Lost places – the shrine across the Divine Bridge.

The opening of the Syonan Jinja in 1943 (source: http://www.himoji.jp/himoji/database/db04/images_db_ori/2200.jpg).

Detention class, tuck shop, science lab, literature class and PE – names that evoke an instant recall of the best (or worst) days of our lives – will haunt Armenian Street this weekend when just like the good old days, scores of kids dressed in school uniforms that probably no longer fit, make a return to the area for the Armenian Street Party.

The former Tao Nan School – now Peranakan Museum, in party colours.

Put together by the Peranakan Museum, which is itself housed in a former school building,  the party being held this Friday and Saturday evening, offers lots of opportunities, especially for those of my generation, to feel that youthful vibe of one’s schooldays. If being naughty and ending up in The Substation’s Detention (an interactive space that celebrates creativity and playfulness) isn’t for you, there are lots of other things to do including showcasing one’s talents on stage through the Timbre Group’s Open Mic Night to relive the glitzy days of Talentime, tucking into some delectable and quite un-school canteen like treats brought the Tuckshop by True Blue Cuisine, and take part in Upside Motion’s Xtend the Night PE lessons – for which sign-ups ( are required at http://asp-xtendthenight-80s.peatix.com/ (Fri) and http://asp-xtendthenight-90s.peatix.com/ (Sat).

More information on the party and how to have fun at it can be found at the Peranakan Museum‘s and Singapore Philatelic Museum‘s websites.

Detention Class by The Substation (Friday and Saturday, 10 and 11 March 2017 7.30pm – 11pm).

Glee Club by Sing’theatre Academy (Friday, 10 March 2017 6.45pm, 7.45pm and 8.45pm).

Old School Swinging by Act 3 International (Friday, 10 March 2017, at 6pm and Saturday, 11 March 2017, at 6pm and 8pm).

What defines Singapore isn’t just its well photographed icons of the modern age, food, its colourful festivals and its now ubiquitous blocks of public housing flats. Lots go on without ever being noticed, including what these twelve untypical views of some of what makes Singapore, Singapore, depict:

The darkness at sunrise

An incoming storm.

Rainstorms are very much a part of life in Singapore. They can be a nuisance, but are also welcomed for the cooler temperatures they bring. One storm system that is particularly dramatic, arrives with suddenness in the early mornings around dawn, bringing with it a fury of lightning, thunder and heavy rain. The squalls, which blow in from March to November, are known as the Sumatras – after the Indonesian landform they blow in from.

The (once) shimmering shores

Sembawang Beach, one of the last natural beaches, illuminated by the lights of a celebration brought in by one of Singapore’s immigrant communities.

The Malay Annals, the chronicles of the kings of old Singapura, makes one of the earliest recorded mention of Singapore’s shores. In one of it more well-known stories, a glance at the shimmering white sands of then Temasek was all it took to have Sri Tri Buana or Sang Nila Utama sail over from Batam. Confronted by the sight of a magnificent looking beast that the royal party believed to be a lion, Sri Tri Buana decided to remain on the island and establish a kingdom that he named Singapura after the beast. Except for a vicious attack of sawfish – told in another of the annals’ intriguing tales, the shores provided calm. The British East India Company would see great value in the shores some 6 centuries after Sang Nila Utama and came to lay what would be the foundations for modern Singapore.

Crossing at speed

Crossing MRT lines, as seen from a moving train.

Modern Singapore makes a huge investment in public transport infrastructure, a key component of which is the MRT. Construction of the first lines, which was initially resisted, began in the 1980s. Three decades on, Singapore is still in a frenzy of building a criss-cross of lines with a view to reduce the dependence on road transport in the longer term. In will also only be a matter of time before the MRT crossing into neighbouring Malaysia. Plans are in place to have the MRT run under the Tebrau Strait and into Johor Bahru.

The lights do not go out on the shipyards

Working lights at Sembawang Shipyard at dawn.

Once thought of as a sunset industry, the shipbuilding and repair business continues to serve Singapore well. With a long tradition in the industry, it would only be after independence that the business came to the fore. The two shipyard giants, Keppel and Sembawang, have their roots in the post-independence era, built on facilities inherited from civilian and military facilities established by the British. Both were an important source of jobs in early years and together with other shipyards, have established a reputation for efficient turnaround repair times. One contributing factor is the effort put in by some of the hardest workers across the industries that keep the shipyards running 24-7 whenever that is needed.

Upwardly mobile

Inner workings of a multi-level ramp-up logistic centre revealed by its illuminations.

The entrepôt trade, and what supports it, is one of the things Singapore has been built on. The arrival of the age of containerisation in the early 1970s, transformed the trade and also the ports and goods handling facilities. Like in public housing and in the light industrial landscape, goods handling has also now gone high-rise. Multi-level ramp-up logistics centres have become a feature of the industrial and suburban landscape over the last two decades with much more being built. The transport and storage trade, associated with these facilities, accounts for a significant 8% of the GDP.

Offshore oil

The petrochemical complex on Pulau Bukom and Pulau Ular / Pulau Bukom Kechil, seen from an offshore patch reef. Pulau Bukom is the site of Singapore’s first oil refinery.

For the oil industry in Singapore, going “offshore” takes on another meaning. Singapore’s beginnings as a main refining centre was in 1961 when Shell opened the first refinery offshore on the island of Pulau Bukom. Singapore has since also ventured into petrochemical processing. Although there are some onshore facilities still running, much goes on offshore with a man-made island made from a cluster of islands off Jurong, Jurong Island, being a main centre. Petrochemical processing facilities have also sprouted up on an expanded Pulau Bukom and on the neighbouring island of Pulau Bukom Kechil (which now has Pulau Ular and Pualu Busing appended to it).

The light brought by a moving dock

Inside the belly of a Landing Ship Tank.

One way in which Singapore plays its part as a member of the international community is in providing humanitarian assistance in the event of crisis and disaster in the region. With 4 locally designed and built Landing Ship Tanks capable of moving men, machine and cargo over large distances, the Republic of Singapore Navy is well equipped to provide support for such a response when needed – as was seen in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami in Aceh.

Corridors of sin and also of salvation

A corridors of sin and salvation. The lights are of a Buddhist Religious Centre.

Geylang may be a neighbourhood that has built a reputation for its association with several of the 7 deadly sins, gluttony and lust included. What is perhaps surprising about the neighbourhood is that it is also where the largest concentration of religious institutions in Singapore can found  (see also:Streets of Sin and Salvation).

Islands of many tales and legends

Kusu Island at twilight.

The southern islands of Singapore, once inhabited by members of the Orang Laut community, have long been the subject of myths and legends. Handed down over the generations, the stories – of spirits and genies suggest how the islands were formed and how the islands acquired their names. Sadly, with the communities now dispersed, much is being forgotten. One that will not be forgotten as quickly is that of Kusu or tortoise island, which legend says a tortoise in rescuing two shipwrecked sailors, turned into the island. The island actually resembled a tortise at high-tide before land reclamation altered its shape. Chinese and Malay shrines maintained on the island, continue to attract Chinese devotees,  especially during the annual pilgrimage that takes place over the ninth Chinese month,

Regeneration

The deconstruction of the 1973 built National Stadium in 2010, where two perhaps three generations of Singaporeans connected to during the days of Singapore’s participation in the Malaysia Cup football competition.

Regeneration of old places, neighbourhood and places Singaporean have grown to love, is very much a feature of life in Singapore. Many, especially from the older generations have had to cope with the loss of familiar places and the loss of that sense of home such places bring (see Parting Glances: Rochor Centre in its last days, Parting glances: Blocks 74 to 80 Commonwealth Drive and A world uncoloured).

Light of a not so foreign land

Good Friday at the Church of St. Joseph – where the religious traditions of Portugal are most visible in Singapore.

With a large majority of the population made up of the descendants of the ethnic Chinese immigrants and also an influx of new immigrants from the mainland, and large minorities of Malays and those from the Sub-Continent, Singapore’s many smaller minorities tend to be overlooked. Over the years, Singapore has seen the likes of Armenians, Arabs, Jews, Japanese and as well as those from the extended Nusantara flavour the island. There is also a group that has in fact long had links with the area, the Portuguese or Portuguese Eurasians who feature quite prominently. Many have maintained the traditions of their forefathers and it is on Good Friday every year when some of this is seen in the Good Friday candlelight procession in the compound of the Portuguese Church.

Where the light does not shine

Where the light doesn’t shine. Workers on yet another skyscraper construction project waiting for transport to their dormitories, many of which are located in faraway and remote locations, late in the night.

Work goes on on many construction sites, which employ labourers from various countries including China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, without whom the skyscrapers of modern Singapore would not have been built. These workers, not unlike the shipyard workers, work extremely long hours and are housed in dormitories located in some of the remotest of locations in Singapore.

I loved the old GPO. It was a post office like none other in Singapore. Its main hall, which you entered after a climb up a short flight of stairs, was grand and airy. Stretching almost the entire length of the building, the hall was also where the long postal counter was found. That ran along the hall’s length and held the distinction of being the longest in the world.  Like all old buildings, the GPO – now the Fullerton Hotel has its collection of stories, including ones that tell of romantic liaisons.

In search of romance – a civil servant, played by Isabelle Chiam, gets everyone at the Minsitry of Finance involved.

An opportunity to discover the romances of the past, and also the building’s colourful history – in a fun and amusing way – presents itself with “A Fullerton Love Story Tour”.  Led by a resident tour guide, participants are taken on a search for romance – not of their own – but between a love struck postman at the GPO, played by Edward Choy, and his love interest – a civil servant with the Ministry of Finance housed in the same building – played by Isabelle Chiam. Participants also become part of the story as they move through various historic spots that include the Singapore Club, Fullerton Square, the Presidential Suite and the location of the Fullerton Building’s former lighthouse.

The love struck postman, played by Edward Choy.

View from the lighthouse towards what used to be the harbour.

Tours, which will be held from 8pm to 9.30 pm on 29 April, 6 May and 13 May 2017, are available for booking at http://afullertonlovestorytour.peatix.com. Priced at $78 nett for adults and $58 nett for children between 6 to 11, the tours will be followed by desserts at The Courtyard crafted by Executive Pastry Chef, Enrico Pezzelato.

The resident tour guide.

Besides the tour, which is being held in conjunction with the Singapore Heritage Festival 2017, the Fullerton Hotel is also bring back the TENG Ensemble for a showcase of brand new Singapore-inspired works. The showcase, “Where the River Always Flows II”, will include songs by P. Ramlee and Zubir Said and two East-West pieces specially commissioned  by the Fullerton Heritage.  Tickets for the concert, which will be held at the East Garden on 29 April 2017 at 7 pm, are available at $3 each at http://wheretheriveralwaysflows2.peatix.com.  More information on the concert and the tour can be found at the Fullerton Heritage’s website.

Enchanted Garden – one of five desserts guests on the tour will get to choose from.

Filed under: Entertainment, Event Previews, Events, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore

Good Friday, which for believers marks the day Jesus Christ was crucified, has been commemorated in a very visible way on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Church for more than a century. Conducted  very much in the fashion of the Iberian peninsula, the elaborate procession takes place at the end of the church’s Good Friday service during which the crucifixion is reenacted using a life-sized image of Christ that is lowered and placed on a bier for the procession.

The church, known also as the Portuguese Church due to its origin in the Portuguese Mission and it having been a parish of the Diocese of Macau until 1981, is the spiritual home of the Portuguese Eurasian community. The community is one of the oldest migrant linked communities in the region. It is on Good Friday, when the religious traditions of the community are most visible, that we are perhaps reminded of this. The procession, the holding of which goes back more than a century, attracts large numbers of worshippers from all across Singapore and at its height in the 1960s and 1970s, saw thousands packed into the church’s compound with many more spilling onto Queen Street.

More on the procession and the Portuguese Church:

• Good Friday at a slice of Portugal in Singapore
• The flicker of tradition
• A sea of candlelight
• A one hundred year old beauty
• A look into the Portuguese Church’s beautiful Parochial House

The hunt for eggs this Easter should start at the Singapore Philatelic Museum. The museum, despite its name, is not just about stamps but has quite an interesting mix of exhibitions that will delight the visitor and to celebrate Easter, as well as the arrival of Spring and also the (Chinese) year of the rooster, the museum has brought in 148 eggs flown in from one of Europe’s smallest countries, Lichtenstein.

A silver egg with an image of St. George and the Dragon (the patron saint of Russia and Moscow).

A perforated chicken egg with a decorated egg yolk.

Like the museum, Lichtenstein despite its tiny size, has quite a surprise in store. The eggs, which are quite extraordinary, are part of a precious collection from the vaults of the Lichtenstein National Museum that will be seen for the first time outside of Europe. Drawn from the Adulf Peter Goop collection, the eggs are a mix of finely decorated quail, ostrich, goose, duck, swan and chicken eggs, as well as ones made from precious metals, glass, porcelain, wax, crystal, marble, stone, wood , reindeer horn, cardboard and papier-mâché. The exhibition, “Precious Eggs: Of Art, Beauty and Culture”, also sees commissioned egg sculptures created by Liechtenstein’s leading artists, including Dr George Malin, Arno Oehri and Sunhild Wollwage on display. It will run until 8 October 2017.

Goose egg – with the Madonna and Child made with paper and dried flowers.

Egg mail!

In conjunction with the exhibition and specially for Easter Sunday, the museum will hold a series of activities for kids and the family. One that is particularly interesting, the Pysanka Egg Demonstration, takes place from 1 to 4 pm. Lovely ladies from the 300 strong Ukrainian community in Singapore will be on hand to show how Pysanka – traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs – are decorated. The unique decorations, include geometric patterns from the mountainous areas of the country and also other motifs that are typical of the cities and visitors will not only get to learn about Ukraine’s unique Easter celebrations, they will also get to try their hand at decorating the eggs. Other activities include a “Green Eggs and Ham” storytelling session, Easter Craft and a fun quiz.

Ladies from the Ukrainian community will demonstrate ‘pysanka’ .

Pysanka – traditional Ukrainian decorated Easter eggs.

The Adulf Peter Goop Collection:

Born in Liechtenstein, Mr Adulf Peter Goop (1921-2011) started to collect Easter eggs in 1985. He was inspired by his experiences as a boy giving painted eggs on Easter morning to Russian soldiers seeking asylum at the end of World War II, who were touched by the gesture of friendship. Numbering about 4,000 eggs, his impressive collection hails from all over the world – some from the Russian Imperial Family. In 2010, Mr Goop donated his comprehensive art collection to the Principality of Liechtenstein.

In a tweet yesterday, the Church of St. Alphonsus – popularly known as Novena Church – announced that it will be holding a dedication mass for the new church being built on 1 August 2017 – the feast day of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorist order that runs the church. The church has been closed since October 2014 to allow the new building to be erected on a site next to the old church previously occupied by St. Clement’s Pastoral Centre, the bell tower and the Redemptorist Residence. The familiar and well-loved old church, which was gazetted for conservation in 2011, now stands dwarfed by the much larger new church that is being built at a cost of $55 million. The new church will be air-conditioned and have a capacity of 1,500 – twice that of the old church. Parking will now be in the basement, which will have a capacity of 120 cars. More information on the new church building can be found at http://www.novenachurch.com/redevelopment.html.

The new church coming up next to the conserved old church building.

Previous posts on Novena Church:

• A glance at the old church
• The annual procession

Yesterday’s tweet announcing the 1 August dedication of the new church and new mass and Novena devotion times:

How the church will look when completed (Novena Church Facebook Page):

How the inside of the new church will look like (Novena Church Facebook Page):

A rare (and final) opportunity to visit the Caldecott Broadcast Centre (CBC) presents itself during this year’s edition of the Singapore Heritage Festival. The centre, home to radio and television for as long as we can remember and out-of-bounds to most for the longest time and which was recently closed for good, will have its gate opened during the weekends of 28 April to 1 May and 5 to 7 May for SHF Takes Over.

Set for an old street used in the making of the Chinese TV drama The Lead – the last production CBC was used for, which will make its debut on 22 May.

While it may not be all of Caldecott that will present itself for exploration, there will be a chance to explore soem of the oldest spaces, and ones in which in more recent times, local productions were made. The event will also see a host of activities such as performances and exhibitions, such as TV50, which offers a glimpse into the history of television broadcasting in Singapore since it was launched in 1963. There even is a mock-up of a community centre television viewing area, a living room and a kopi-tiam that many of my era and before will find nostalgic.

There is also a chance to also recall some memorable local television productions and their characters in Studio 6,  lip-sync your heart out, listen to stories of our islands, watch a load of re-runs and join special guided tours – led by the stars themselves. For the latter, Mediacorp artistes and industry staff will lead Walking Caldecott and tell stories associated with various locations around the CBC. There is also The Lead Special Guided Tour, in which the likes of Rebecca Lim, Shaun Chen and Xiang Yun, will take participants “behind-the-scenes” with stories related to the filming of the local drama, The Lead, which is making its debut on 22 May 2017.

Relive memories of local television programmes with Studio 6.

Registration for the guided tours will be conducted on-site outside the TV50 Exhibition, 30 minutes before the start of the tour. The hour-long Walking Caldecott tours run on 28 April, 5 May and 6 May at 6.30pm, on 29 and 30 April at 4.30 and 6.30 pm and on 1 and 7 May at 10.30 am, while half-hour-long The Lead Special Guided Tour will be held on 6 May at 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm. Spaces are limited and will be given on a first-come-first-served basis.

More information on the tours and the event can be found at http://heritagefestival.sg/programmes/all-caldecott-hill-programmes. Information on the Singapore Heritage Festival 2017 is available at http://heritagefestival.sg/. Entrance to CBC will be vai the Old Main Gate along Olive Road and as parking is unavailable, visitors are advised to catch the shuttle buses from Bishan and Caldecott MRT Stations or MacRitchie Reservoir Carpark. More information on these arrangements can be found at http://heritagefestival.sg/about/getting-to-caldecott-broadcast-centre.

More information and photographs:

Festival Schedule

Festival Map.

There’s lots of makan too at the Festival Village.

The festival village.

A wall to leave memories on post-its.

Old photographs, of much cherished places that are no longer with us in Singapore, are a godsend. They help me to hold on to my sanity in a country that due to the relentless pace of change, feels much less like home with each passing day.

A set of such photos arrived in my inbox over the weekend. Taken in 1965 and sent by Ian Brooks, the photos are first in colour that I have come across of the Tanah Merah Besar area of my early childhood. The photos are especially precious for two reasons. One, the show a house perched on a set of cliffs (yes, cliffs!) and two, they also show one of many machine-gun pillbox that were then a fairly common sight.

The area in which these were taken – where the seaward end of Tanah Merah Besar Road turned northeast or left into Nicoll Drive and right or southwest to Wing Loong Road – was a gateway into a most magical of places, the Tanah Merah of my early childhood. That Tanah Merah was one of seaside kampungs, coconut groves, beach-side villas – one of which belonged to Singapore’s first Chief Minister, David Marshall – and holiday bungalows (see also: Once Tanah Merah and also Mata Ikan) and one that provided me with some of the most memorable moments of my early childhood.

Sadly, nothing is left of it except for a Tanah Merah Besar Road that now ends at a fence (belonging to Changi Airport’s western perimeter), and the memories of a world that if not for the photographs that still exist, would surely fade away.

Filed under: Changi & Somapah, Changing Landscapes, Forgotten Places, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore

Update (27 May 2017, 1900 hrs):
Army Open House 2017 has been extended to 29 May 2017 by popular demand

After a break of 5 years, the crowd-pulling Army Open House returns this weekend (27 and 28 May) at the F1 Pit building. Battle rides, dynamic performances and the Soldier Strong challenge are some of the highlights along with the mix of static exhibits, games for the young and matured and also an NS50 Showcase.  More information, including that related to an interactive app and how to collect limited edition collectibles can be found at the Singapore Army Facebook Page.  The Open house will also be travelling to Punggol (2 to 4 June) and Jurong East (9 to 11 June).

Some highlights:

Rides Galore

Ride on a M3G Raft (two M3G Rigs connected to form a self-propelled raft capable of travelling at 13 km/h in water). The M3G, which can also be configured as a floating bridge,, is one of two water rides, the other being the Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo V (LARC V). There are also Land Rides on the Light Strike Vehicle (LSV) Mk II, the Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicle, BRONCO All Terrain Tracked Carrier and the Peacekeeper Protected Response Vehicle. Covered shoes are required of all those who wish to participate and physical queuing is not longer necessary (just register at the stand and an sms will be sent).

There are kiddie rides too! At the Kids Zone on Level 2 of the F1 Pit building.

Hitting the Wall

Revisit SOC with the Soldier Strong Challenge (like never sweat enough) – if you are game, it is one of the ways to land your hands on limited edition collectibles.

Have a Canteen Break 

Lots of food, surely better than an army camp canteen.

Chill Out at the air-conditioned NS50 Showcase and be reminded of Peng Kang Hill

The NS journey over the years.

Two reminders of the two activities most dreaded by National Servicemen of the past on a “trick-eye” style photo wall: log PT and Peng Kang Hill.

Take an Augmented Reality Photo and find it on http://ns50moments.com/.

Take a Pledge Photo, which will be shown on a wall and also on http://ns50moments.com/.

Catch the Dynamic Defence Display (at 10 am and 3 pm)

Come up close to Military Hardware

The Static Display includes hardware such as the Apache Attack Helicopter.

The National Gallery Singapore’s inaugural Gallery Children’s Biennale, themed Dreams and Stories, opened to a bang last week and on offer is one of the many exciting events our very fortunate children in Singapore can indulge in this school holiday season. Great fun for the young ones, the festival features interactive art showcases, performances and activities curated for kids and the young at heart and runs until 8 October 2017. More information can be found at https://www.nationalgallery.sg/see-do/highlights/childrens-biennale-2017.

Minister Tan Chuan Jin opening the Children’s Biennale.

Some highlights

Joining the dots – Yayoi Kusama style, at The Obliteration Room.

Not water under this bridge – Mark Justiani’s ‘Firewalk: A Bridge Of Embers’.

It takes balls – TeamLab’s Homogenizing And Transforming World.

Lynn Lu’s growing mess of memories penned on ribbons – This Changed My Life.

Where participants get to pen memories on ribbons and put them up.

Head in the clouds? Lynn Lu’s Duplet.

Flowers with stories – Tran Trong Vu’s The Sonnet in Blue.

Poem / Stories on handmade flower petals.

Thanks to the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) and Mr Morhan Karup, representing the families of the former Pasir Panjang Power Station (PPPS) quarters, I found myself at a huge gathering of the PPPS quarters’ ex-residents. It provided an opportunity not just to have a look at the former quarters,  but also to be reminded of the community spirit missing in the brave new world Singapore has been forced to become .

A group photograph of the ex-residents. It was estimated that more than 600 former residents returned for the gathering.

The bonds of community were very much in evidence at the reunion, which attracted some 600 ex-residents from a total of 340 families who once called PPPS quarters home – despite a separation of over three decades. The former quarters, built in the 1950s and 1960s, comprised five high-rise blocks and another five 3-storey blocks and were vacated at the end of the 1980s when many were encouraged to apply for HDB flats. The quarters were for long one of the area’s landmarks, which also included the chimneys of the power station and the storage tanks of the BP (and former Maruzen Toyo – see: The tanks at Tanjong Berlayer) refinery. The refinery, which opened in 1962, was in fact well positioned, and had been where fuel for the power station’s prime movers, were supplied from.

A parting glance.

What we see today of the quarters is one built to supplement accommodation originally erected in 1952 to 1953. The then new power station, built to supply the colony’s electricity needs for the two decades that were to follow, was to be further expanded from a an initial capacity of 25 MW at the end of 1952 to 175 MW in 1962 to meet surging demand. It did not stop there and a second station, B Station, was built adjacent to the first (A Station) in the mid-1960s, adding a total of 240 MW to the station’s capacity. All this required workers to be recruited from India and Malaya, all of whom needed to be accommodated. The erection of new and taller blocks in the 1960s, also allowed the families of the workers to be accommodated more comfortably. These had larger two-room, one-hall units, compared to single bedroom units in the older blocks. The larger units were then allocated to those with families and smaller ones (in the three-storey blocks) to newly married workers and those who were single. The units were rented out for some $10 to $16 to the families.

An eight-storey block built in the 1960s. The layouts are very similar to some of the later SIT flat designs. The high-rise blocks had two-room, one-hall units and were allocated to married workers with families.

Older 3-storey blocks with one-room, one-hall flats allocated to singles or workers who were newly married.

One who came from far was the father of Mr Selvam, a long-time former resident (1954 to 1986) who was born on the premises in 1954 (in a unit in three-storey Block D). Mr Selvam’s father, Mr Sockalingam, came over from India in the 1950s to work as a turbine driver and married a local lady. With a twinkle in his eye, Mr Selvam – known to those in the community as “Thambi’ (younger brother in Tamil), recalled days spent in the football field, at Labrador Primary School and taking a shortcut through World War Two tunnels to take a dip at the beach. The tunnels, remembered by all who lived there in the 1960s and 1970s, were apparently filled with the artefacts of war and included the rusty remnants of Japanese weapons. With Mr Selvam, was his friend Mr Yusof whose wife was a former resident. Mr Yusof described the estate as a “concrete kampung”, a description that seemed to be used by many of the estate’s former residents.

L – R: Ex-residents Mr Thangavelu, Mr Omar, Mr Selvam (a.k.a. ‘Thambi’), and the husband of an ex-resident, Mr Yusof. Mr Thangavelu, lived with an uncle who worked at PPPS, while Mr Omar was a turbine driver who was transferred from Jurong Power Station in 1970.

One of the memories Mr Selvam and his friends who were sitting around him were especially keen to talk about, were of the row of food stalls across the road just outside the compound. It was there where many would gather, share a meal or a drink in the evening break out into song – something that the gathering yesterday, also seemed to encourage with quite a few joining in an impromptu song and dance with many in the crowd cheering on.

The organising team, with Mr Bernard Loh of the SLA.

The get-together, at which the bonds forged over the years were very much in evidence despite the length of time the community ‘s members have been kept apart, follows on another organised in 2014 that was attended by 300 ex-residents. The 2014 reunion was prompted by re-connections made possible through social media, after many in the community had lost touch with each other after moving from the quarters, and also with the decommissioning of the station (A-Station in 1979 and B-Station in 1997). The group is planning a dinner at the end of the year, which on the basis of what was seen – would certainly not be the last.

Sisters Manchula and Sita posing at the same spot a photo was taken of them in 1975.

Two of three Chia sisters, whose family lived in the quarters from 1956 to 1971.

Last reflections.

The gated compound of the estate provided security, although none seemed to be needed and residents often left their doors opened or unlocked.

The winds of change are sweeping through the area.

The proximity to the power station allowed workers to come home for lunch.

An area once occupied by older flats, which were demolished.

Old estates often have nice shady trees, something that new estates lack and it is a shame to see them go.

Video of Ex-Residents breaking out in dance

A last look

Signs of More Recent Times

Sent by a fellow old boy, this video is one that brings back the most wonderful of days – my schooldays at St. Joseph’s Institution when that was in Bras Basah Road. Produced for the school’s 15oth  anniversary in 2002, it is filled with familiar scenes from the old school: the assemblies we had in the courtyard facing the Brothers’Quarters, Anderson Bridge connecting the Anderson Building to the main wing, the fountain in the front yard, the old grandfather’s clock that made the trip east with the first brothers, the Hippo Scout den and the Co-op Society room at the far end of the courtyard, a classroom, the school field across the road …

Now repurposed occupied as the Singapore Art Museum, what remains is the main wing, Anderson Building along Waterloo Street, and the block that housed the chapel on the upper floor and the school hall (now the Glass Hall) on the ground floor.

More on my schooldays in Bras Basah Road and other recollections of the area can be found at:

• Schoodays in Singapore (Asia!)
• Bencoolen Street has become more walkable (Going Places)
• Whispers of an otherwise silent world

The cultivation of rubber, once the mainstay of the Malayan economy, has left a mark not just on our northern neignbours, Malaysia, but also here in Singapore. Clusters of aging rubber trees or even individual trees in Singapore’s less developed parts mark former rubber plantations, the largest of which are found on Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. In the northwest, a pier turned sea pavilion, built to move rubber out of a long isolated area of Singapore in the 1920s, also recalls a business on which many fortunes were made (and lost) and in the west, two surviving dragon kilns speak of the pottery making trade fed by the demand for clay latex cups from the many plantations. There is also a little corner of a former rubber plantation in the northeast in which its past is commemorated by five old rubber trees found in a corner. The five are all that remain of hundreds that a Japanese monk had planted to acknowledge the donation of the plot by the plantation’s owners – to be used as a burial place for hundreds of karayuki-san who died penniless.

Latex being collected in a clay latex cup – many kilns were established across Singapore, including the two surviving dragon kilns at Jalan Bahar, to produce these cups.

One of the things I found fascinating as a child was the sight of rubber tappers moving from tree to tree that I would catch on the many drives to Malaysia. From comfort breaks taken in and around rubber estates – due to their isolation – I could see the results of the tappers’ actions. The cuts made on the trees’ bark were quite visible as were the cups of latex. What I was not able to see close up however was how the tapper actually made the cut; that is, until just a few days ago when I was able to catch a demonstration of the art. The live demo (see video below) was performed by a retired rubber tapper, Uncle Ah Ha, as part of an Outward Bound School (OBS) UBiNavigate 2017 trail organised for Pesta Ubin 2017.

An old rubber press in the OBS area of Pulau Ubin – in surprisingly good condition.

UBiNavigate also gave its participants the opportunity to explore the western part of Pulau Ubin. An area in which OBS operates, the area is normally off-limits to the general public. Once where Ong Seng Chew owned a rubber estate, this corner of the island is still filled with many reminders of that past such as an old rubber press lying in a bed of tree fall, broken bottles that once held the enzymes required for the rubber production process, and rubber trees that have long been abandoned.

Part of the UBiNavigate trail taking participants through the relatively unexplored western side of Ubin.

Several aspects of Ubin’s much storied past were also in evidence, some of which were related to the quarrying activities that provided much of the granite used to build modern Singapore. Besides the sight of a former quarry – just beyond the fence of OBS Camp 1, two concrete storage rooms could be seen, fitted with heavy steel doors. These storerooms were apparently used for the storage of dynamite that the nearby quarry used for blasting.

A dynamite store that used by a nearby quarry.

Several other interesting “discoveries” tell us of the the island’s previous inhabitants: a solitary tomb of a Madam Goh that is still tended to by her descendants, a disused well, a concrete communal stove, and the concrete base of a Chinese village-style dwelling. More on UBiNavigate, which was held on 3 June 2017, can be found at https://ubinavigate.wixsite.com/2017.

Latex dripping into a clay latex cup.

Remains of narrow necked enzyme bottles used in rubber processing.

Other rubbery posts:

• Celebrating the Botanics (The role played by the Singapore Botanic Gardens in the introduction of rubber)
• The last rubber tree (Bukit Sembawang Estate)
• A lost world in Lim Chu Kang (1920s pier used to transport rubber from the Cashin Estate to Kranji)
• Voices from a forgotten past (Japanese Cemetery Park – once part of a Japanese owned runner plantation)
• The last, and a soon to be lost countryside (Bukit Timah Rubber Estate)
• The estate that Lee Kong Chian built (Lee Rubber Company)
• Keeping the fire burning (The last of the pottery kilns that supported the industry)
• A search for a lost countryside (Lim Nee Soon / Bukit Sembawang Estate)
• That old rusty red coloured building along Sembawang Road (Lim Nee Soon Rubber Factory / Lee Rubber)
• Mount Washington (once “planted with rubber trees”)

More views around the western end of Pulau Ubin

An abandoned well.

Coconut shells were also utilised as latex cups.

The OBS Reservoir.

A beach on the southwestern shoreline of Ubin.

A solitary tomb of a Madam Goh.

Remains of an old communal stove.

A shrine built in 1979.

Another of the shrine.

Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow opens at the National Gallery Singapore today. The highly anticipated exhibition takes visitors through the preeminent Japanese contemporary artist’s seven decade long career. Even if you are not a big on her artistic expressions – which are attempts to give form to her delusions – the exhibition is worth a visit just for the opportunity to be obliterated by the artist’s mirrored installations. Admission charges apply for exhibition, which runs until 3 Sep 2017. More information, including that on talks, workshops and other exhibition related activities can be obtained at the National Gallery Singapore’s website.

A video installation, Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict.

A must visit infinity mirrored room: Gleaming Lights of the Souls.

Reflections off a mirrored box installation, I Want to Love on the Festival Night.

A peek into I Want to Love on the Festival Night.

Another peek into I Want to Love on the Festival Night.

Invisible Life.

Another must visit mirrored room: The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens.

The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens.

The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens.

Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets.

It takes balls of steel – Narcissus Garden in the City Hall Chamber.

A view across Gallery A. The exhibition is spread across three galleries of the SINGTEL Special Exhibition Gallery on the Level 3 of the City Hall Wing.

Left-over Snow in a Dream, a soft sculpture from 1982. The artist applied sewing skills she picked up working in a parachute factory as a schoolgirl during the Second World War.

Women’s Castle.