the chureito at lorong sesuai

japanese soldiers leading some german soldiers to the chureito

(photo courtesy of my blogger friend peter)

a smaller version of the memorial at the japanese cemetery park

the 135 concrete steps

the bukit batok memorial

once in a while, when i am at bukit batok nature park, i will see a bus-load of japanese tourists alighting at the foot of the 135 concrete steps. if you do not know the history of the place, you may wonder: what is the attraction for this whole bus-load of tourists? are they here to see the mediacorp transmission towers at the top of the hill? or are they here to see the 'big book' - the bukit batok memorial? no, they are there for another reason.

after the war, the japanese consigned 500 australian prisoners of war to build a memorial to the japanese soldiers who died in the malayan campaign. the japanese commander lieutenant-general yamashita had chosen this site for the memorial because the fiercest battle in singapore was fought there, somewhere near the ford motor works.

the japanese memorial was known as the syonan chureito (syonan war memorial). it was a 13m high cylindrical wooden pylon with a brass cone at the top. the ashes of the japanese soldiers who died in the battle of bukit timah were buried there. not far behind it, there was another memorial - a 3m high wooden cross - dedicated to british soldiers who died in the same battle. there was also a small japanese shrine near the chureito.

what happened to the two memorials and the shrine? when the japanese surrendered in 1945, the returning british forces demolished the memorials and the shrine. according to one report, the wooden cross was destroyed inadvertently. another report said that the wooden memorial failed to withstand the elements of nature and the passage of time. today, if you go to the site, beyond the fence, you cannot see any trace of them.

my friend, who was a teenager during the occupation, had seen both the chureito and the wooden cross. he was working for the japanese military command then. every year, on new year's day and on the anniversary, he would be taken to the site to pay his respect - by bowing three times - in the direction of the chureito.

it was customary for japanese employers to take their local civilian staff to pay their respect at the chureito. in fact, the japanese authorities made it compulsory for the leaders of all the communities to pay homage at the chureito.

today, the 135 steps are the only reminder that at one time the presence of the japanese conquerors was very evident in this area. the original steps were rough and not so well aligned. today, there is an information panel, put up by singapore tourist promotion board, that gives a bit of history of the place.

the 13m obelisk was so high that it could almost been seen from bukit timah road. these days when the tourists visit the spot, it is only their imagination that will enable them to see the obelisk.

dahil sa'yo (because of you)

who was the singer? no, not obama. this great american singer sang it in 1961 when he made a visit to the philippines.

english translation of the song:


long have i endured in my life
the pain and sorrows from love arise
then you came and redeemed me, my dear
my only hope in my darkest fears


because of you, there's joy in living
because of you, till death (you) must realize
in my heart i know there is only you
and ask my heart, you'll know that this is true


because of you, i found happiness
that to you i offer this love that is so blessed
though indeed i may be a slave for loving you so true
it matters not to me, 'cause everything's because of you.

the original song was written by miguel 'mike' velarde jr. it was written in 1938 for the movie 'bituing marikit' and sung by rogelio de la rosa.

my first abode

when it came to housing, most people would upgrade but we actually down-graded. that is, if you consider moving from an urban area to a rural one as some kind of retrogression. when i was born, we lived in a brick house at upper dickson road. a few years later, we moved to an attap house in the now defunct kampong chia heng. the above picture shows the 2-storey house in which we stayed for a few years.

today, the area has not changed much but the ownership and occupancy have changed hands. in the 60s, there were more chinese households in this area. quite a number of them were stall-holders at the nearby old tekka market. today, most of the owners and occupants of the houses are indians. back in those days, we did have indian neighbours but they were in the minority.

my earliest memories of this place include eating durians that came in a big basket. the owner of the house would buy durians by the basket to be shared by his family and friends. the other thing i remember about my stay there was being awakened very early in the morning. every morning, at around 5 a.m., even before sunrise, you could hear a cacophony of noises as the stallholders pushed their carts and trolleys to the market.

i remember this cul-de-sac and the run-down 60-year old coffee-shop at the corner of clive street and upper weld road. i learnt that this coffee-shop was featured in a local documentary entitled " old places". back in those days, i would see elderly men reading the sin chew jit poh or the nanyang siang pau chinese newspapers in this coffee-shop. in those good old days, you could buy coffee 'takeaway' in your own container.

during a certain time of the year, a wayang stage would be erected at this road end and the wayang shows, which lasted 2 or 3 days, would attract both children and adults from around the kampong kapor area. the people who came to watch, both young and old, would take their own stools and chairs to the site.

i think this house, on the same row as the coffee-shop used to house a temple. it was this temple that sponsored the chinese wayang, usually teochew but some years, hokkien. the wayang would run for 2 or 3 days. on these days, hawkers would set up food stalls by the side of the roads.

ulu sembawang park connector

while driving along mandai road on sunday, i was excited on seeing a new signboard announcing the ulu sembawang park connector. i have been wanting to re-explore this area for sometime but i could not because it is a protected area - a military training area. according to my blogger friend chun see, wild boars have been sighted in this area. protected or not, during the durian season, it is not uncommon to see trespassers in this area. i recall enjoying my visits to this farming area back in the 70s. i wanted to see if there were still some vestiges of the past.

my first attempt to walk the trail failed because i had driven there and i could not find a parking space. the nearest parking space was 1km away and my walking kaki was not up to it - walking the extra 1km that day. the next day, i took a public bus (service 171) that stops near the entrance to the park connector. the first part of the track was the old road that led to the ulu sembawang village. there are some farms on the right side of the track. i think these farms are part of the mandai agrotechnology park where the access to them is via lorong lada hitam.




from the mandai road entrance, it is some 4.8km to the admiralty park, the one next to the republic polytechnic. however, some sections of the connector at woodlands avenue 12 are still under construction. from admiralty park, you can make your way to the woodlands waterfront and the two other parks in woodlands.

besides other flora, the nparks have planted lantanas by the side of the track and their beautiful flowers are attracting lots of butterflies. i am learning to identify butterflies and if i am not wrong, this one belongs to the crow species.


i ended my walk at the point where there is a road crossing to woodlands avenue 12 and from there i backtracked to mandai road. again, the same story - i did not meet any other walker along the route but i did come across two cyclists.

so, did i manage to see remnants of the ulu sembawang village? the tracks or roads that served the village are still around and i think the soldiers are making use of them. however, i did not venture far enough for me to see old structures like abnadoned buildings and so on.

old coffee-shop quiz

my blogger friend stumbled upon an old gun and based a quiz on it. however, without any clue, it was almost impossible to tell where he had stumbled. all the help he would give was to tell us that 'cannon' in cantonese or mandarin has the same meaning as 'to lie'.

today, i re-visited this old coffee-shop. my quiz is based on this old run-down building. to help you along, i can tell you that this coffee-shop is as old as i, if not older. i used to live in a house just across the road.

looks like this coffee-shop has attained some kind of celebrity status. the day when i was there, there were other photographers taking pictures of the shop. i did not drink or eat at the shop. it looks dingy. it looks like it belongs to another era. time seems to have stopped moving here but the old clock on the wall was still ticking away.

quiz questions:

1 how old is this coffee-shop?

2 it was featured in a local documentary. what's the documentary?

3 where did i use to live? (the type of question my blogger friend, the cannon stumbler likes to pose)

sengkang riverside walk

when my group picked it as the venue for this saturday's walk, i realised that it would be my first visit to the place. ever looking for new terrain to cover, we decided to explore the newly opened sengkang riverside park. as with all new parks, which do not have mature trees to offer the protection from the elements, especially the sun, it is best to have the walk early in the morning or in the later part of the evening.

if you drive, it is not a big problem to get to anchorvale street where the visitors' centre is located. a discovery for me is that you could get to punggol by way of jalan kayu. when you are on jalan kayu, after passing the ubin thai temple on your right, look out for the turning into sengkang east way. a short distance into sengkang east way, turn left at the junction into fernvale street. you will drive past two light rail transit (lrt) stations - thanggam and kupang - before you reach the visitors' centre on the left.



this is the visitors' centre with the free public car-park next to it. you can opt to coupon park at the anchorvale community club, which is located across the road from the centre. we toured the community club and the sports and recreation centre. the swimming complex has the usual children's pool with slides and tubes. what really make us envious of the residents of punggol and sengkang are two olympic-sized pools - one outdoor and one indoor. the adjacent sports complex has poligras olympia hockey pitches.



the sengkang park is the one where nparks has set aside one parcel of land for planting fruit trees. we could identify most of the fruit trees like the mango, durian, banana, dragonfruit, breadfruit, starfruit and jackfruit. but there were some we could not, like the one shown in the picture above.

of course, we could not miss out on the floating wetland, one of the unique features in this park. the wetland was recently declared open by the prime minister. there is this giant mangosteen which is actually a shelter. we did not see any heron, kingfisher or tern but we did come across two snakes - one dead and one slithering - at the park.

a nice and quiet park for walkers, joggers and cyclists. i was told by my friend that in the evening, there are lots of kite flyers. at the moment, it is not well served by public transport. the lrt does not seem to be frequent or as well used as the one at bukit panjang.

does food cooked over a

charcoal fire taste better?

picture from national archives of singapore

a lot of people will attest to it: that certain food cooked over a charcoal fire definitely tastes better than if it was cooked in other ways. besides the satay seller, there are still a number of food-vendors that use charcoal to cook their food. think of the sungei road laksa, the clay-pot rice at geylang and clementi, the hokkien mee at the junction of telok kurau and changi roads, some bak kwa stalls and the stalls selling ikan bakar or ikan panggang. will the food taste the same if they switch to using gas or electric grills?

when i was a student, i used to think that charcoal was the local name for coal, the substance that is mined. coal is a readily combustile black or brownish black sedimentary rock found in the earth whereas charcoal is usually made from the stems of trees. this website gives a good and comprehensive account of how charcoal is made from the mangrove tree, specifically, the bakau minyak.

actually, any variety of natural wood can be used to create charcoal. hardwood charcoal is preferred for cooking.

if the charcoal is not fully dried - the one that is slightly brownish black in colour - it will release more smoke when burned.

nowadays, we do not use charcoal in our kitchens. some do use it once in a while, like when they are brewing some herbal concoction or when cooking dumplings during the dragon boat festival or baking love letters for the lunar new year.

i think most of our charcoal comes from indonesia. the picture above (3rd) shows one of the rare shops in singapore that sells charcoal only. each time, we needed to buy lots of charcoal for a bbq in the camp, we would go to this shop on serangoon road.

if you buy your charcoal from the supermarkets or shops for your bbq, it can come in two forms - lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes. from the serangoon road's shop, you get lump charcoal but those that come in sealed packets are usually charcoal briquettes.

vintage tea - pu'erh

i am not a serious or regular drinker of chinese tea. my interest in chinese tea was perked after i heard a friend extolling its benefits; no, not the health kind but the monetary kind. he was telling us about how someone made a bundle from selling his old collection of chinese tea. he had bought it many years ago for $20 a piece and recently sold it for $500 a piece.

according to him, the value of a certain type of tea has increased by as much as 25-folds over the years. i have heard of vintage wine fetching astronomical sum of money, but vintage tea? it was the first time i was hearing about it. it seems tea connoisseurs and speculators, especially those from china, are willing to pay premium prices for old pu-erh tea.



i decided to visit some of the better known tea-houses in the chinatown area to find out more about chinese tea. the tea chapter on neil road sells a wide variety of tea, including pu'erh which it classifies as a black tea. the pu'erh is sold in the form of a brick or a cake. a piece of raw pu'erh tea brick dated 1980 costs around $880. this tea house also conducts tea appreciation lessons for individuals as well as groups.

i have always thought that tea is best consumed fresh, shortly after production. but, no, here is a case of a tea that matures and mellows with age. it seems that pu'erh tea can be drunk immediately or allowed to age for many years.

at yixing xuan tea-house, which i visited on the same day, there was a school group attending a tea art session. you can get a variety of chinese tea from this shop. it sells four types of pu-erh tea. the costliest is 18-year old pu-erh which is sold at $60 per 100gm.


pu-erh tea comes from yunnan, a province in china. it has a strong earthy flavour. it is processed using an ancient technique - which used to be a state secret - that involves aging the leaves. it is often formed into bricks although you can also get pu-erh in a loose form. some prized pu-erh can be as old as 50 years.

in a country like china when something commands a high price, what do you think will happen? yes, the counterfeits started appearing on the market. unscrupulous tea manufacturers started producing adulterated versions and some added chemical to the tea to hasten the fermentation process. just like in the milk powder scam, these greedy people did not care if the chemical was toxic or harmful to the drinkers.

the same friend also told me that not only is the pu'erh tea sought after, the sticker (nei fei) which is usually embedded into the brick during pressing is also valued. the sticker is seen as a proof of the authenticity of the tea. the sticker usually states the factory where it is produced.

so, if you are thinking of buying pu'erh tea, it is best to get it from a reliable source and you have to look out for the sticker.

see it in our own backyard

i know a friend who travelled all the way to india to see a tree which can be found in our own backyard - in our nature parks. he had gone with his wife on a conducted tour to india. the tourist guide took them to see this fascinating tree, which is quite a common tree in india. he had not known that such a tree could be found in singapore until he joined me for a walk at west coast park.

it is the cannonball tree which can be found in some of our nature parks. i have seen them at west coast park, fort canning park and the botanic gardens.

the flowers and the fruit, which is the size of a coconut without its husk, grow from the trunk of this evergreen tree.

it is hard to miss the cannonball tree. if the attractive flowers or the unusual fruits do not catch your attention, the aromatic smell, which the flowers exude, will surely draw you to the tree.

the orange, red and pink flowers give off a smell which is quite overpowering. however, it is not an unpleasant smell. in fact, it smells like some perfume.

on the other hand, the fruit, which usually cracks open upon falling to the ground, has a smell that puts people off. in other countries, some animals, including domestic animals, like chicken and pigs, have been seen eating the fruit.

short trip (1) - kuching

kuching, the capital city of sarawak, has always been an hour flight from singapore. however, with the advent of budget airlines, it now seems nearer, more affordable and convenient to visit this place in east malaysia, which is just a hop away. to make sure that you will have a pleasant and an enjoyable visit, it is best to do some homework to find out more about the place before embarking on the trip.

we should not assume that things and systems will be the same. in kuching, for example, you can hardly flag down a taxi on the street. it is not that there are no taxis in kuching; there are, but they are usually stationed outside the main hotels and the airport. the bus service is also not as frequent and the network is not as well connected as ours.

if you are planning a weekend trip, i would suggest you do the kuching heritage walk around the waterfront, take a 50-sen sampan ride across the sarawak river to kampong boyan and enjoy some of the local delicacies.



in a previous posting, i have mentioned some of the food unique to kuching. i realise that you also need to tell readers where to find the food. so, in this post, i am going to introduce some of these makan places. after my last visit, someone asked if i had eaten seafood at topspot. i told him i had been to the spot but i went there only to see the food.

topspot is located on the sixth level of a car-park complex next to the standard chartered bank and two blocks away from the 5-star hilton hotel. this place is popular with both locals and tourists. when you are there, you should try the midin with belachan or garlic, bamboo clams, black pepper crabs and the giant prawns.

another place listed in the official travel brochure as a top place to go for local cuisine is the lao ya keng hawker centre. it is located on carpenter street, just opposite the huang thian siang temple, a teochew temple dating back to the 19th century. the food centre can get quite crowded from lunch time onwards.

if you want to try the sarawak laksa, kway chap and pork porridge, you have to be there in the morning. other recommended dishes are kolo mee, yong tau foo and the satay. the sarawak variety of laksa is different from ours.

when you are in kuching, you have to try the local teh-c peng special. it is quite distinctive. there are three distinct layers - the layer of tea floating on top, in the middle is the layer of evaporated milk and at the base, a layer of gula melaka. the drink is available from the drinks stall at the same (lau ya keng) hawker centre.

in kuching, every coffee shop seems to offer kolo mee, laksa and tomato mee/kueh tiaw. if you stay near the waterfront, you should have no problem accessing the two makan places i have mentioned. if your stay is at harbour view hotel (rm$175/night), which i did on my last visit, there is a popular makan shop called the green hill corner on the row as the hotel. the beef noodle/kway teow is usually sold out by noon.

another popular makan place is the song kheng hai food court located in the padungan area, a mere 15 minutes walk from the main bazaar area. most people go there for the local snacks and drinks including the teh c peng special.

if, like some sarawakians and even singaporeans, you want to 'tar pau' the kolo mee, try getting it from this stall along jalan palm. the stall is located in 'sister coffee shop'. they have had so many requests for 'take-away' that they know exactly how to pack the food for you.

bringing other food back? how about sarawak pepper and the kek lapis? you can get sarawak pepper and kek (kueh) lapis from the many souvenir shops along the main bazaar. there are also some shops on the other side of the river which sell this local delight.

one local told me that the only 'souvenir' worth buying at the touristy stretch of main bazaar is the pepper.

another thing you can do, if you are there on a weekend, is to visit the very popular sunday market at jalan sartok. although it is called 'the sunday market', a better time to visit the market is on saturday evening. this market is about 25 minutes' walk from the harbour view hotel.

dondang sayang and ronggeng

in my posting on malay weddings past and present, i mentioned that in the past, the music was mainly the traditional type, like kroncong. another form of traditional music that was popular at both malay and peranakan weddings was the dondang sayang.

dondang sayang is a traditional malay form of entertainment which involves a repartee of witty verses in a lighthearted and sometimes humorous style. to the peranakans, dondang sayang is referred to as 'musical debating'. it involves the singing of pantun or four line verses set to music. the chief musician is the violonist, providing the counter melody to the vocal melody.

when it first started, there was no music accompaniment. then came the malay musical instruments - the rebab, rebana and tenawak. it was the portuguese in melaka who added the violin and accordion.



normally two singers exchange pantun during a dondang sayang session. one sells the pantun and the other one buys. it thus follows a question and answer format. however, there were some unwritten rules pertaining to common sense, rhyme, language and decency. even with this understanding, there were occasions when some participants got so worked up that it led to tension and animosity. when you had a number of exponents wanting to show off their wit and skill, these sessions could drag for hours.



the music (from the violin) is slow and hypnotic (from the drum beat) enough to induce some spectators to dance to it. ronggeng is usually associated with dondang sayang. in ronggeng, there is no physical contact between the two dancers. it is not unusual to see members of the same sex dancing with each other.

in the days when men paid $1 for 3 dances with the 'taxi-girls' at new world amusement park, the ronggeng was one type of dances that was enjoyed.

photo from the national archives of singapore

here we see our minister mentor (then our first prime minister) dancing the 'ronggeng' during the launch of 'minggu berjaya kebangsaan (national solidarity week) dinner hosted by the malay cultural organisation. i think this was in 1964.

eyebrow threading

in an earlier blog post, i talked about men using two coins to remove facial hair. i have not seen women using coins but i have seen them using a length of thread to pull out hair.

i once accompanied my younger daughter to buffalo road in little india to have her eyebrows trimmed. there are a few shops - mostly located upstairs - along this stretch of road that offer this eyebrow threading service. a mere 5-minute job, it costs about $5 and a full face hair removal job costs twice as much. no expensive tools or equipment is involved; only a length of cotton thread and the skill of the threader. although i was the only man in the shop, they did not chase me away. i had wondered: do men go for threading? i guess some kind of men do.

threading is different from tweezing or plucking. in tweezing or plucking, a single strand is pulled out each time; threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straight line. threading can be used to remove other facial and body hair.

the threader anchors one end of the thread to her teeth or around her neck. the piece of thread is twisted into a double strand. this double strand thread is used to pick up a line of hair and then remove it.

is it painful? for the price of vanity, any pain can be endured. "no, it feels like an ant's bite." "slightly painful." in the hands of a skilful threader, it should be quite a pleasant experience.

as a result of its popularity, you do not have to go to little india to have it done. you can find threaders in the heartlands like yishun, marsiling and clementi or even in upmarket places like orchard road and tanglin mall.

is threading exclusive to the indians in singapore? as far as i know, all the professional threaders are indians but i have seen chinese women doing it. in her younger days, my mother used to have her facial hair removed, once a year, just before the chinese new year, by a neighbour using a reel of cotton thread.

it was not a 5-minute session. it was more like an hour session or longer. i cannot really remember. my mother would sit on a stool and the threader neighbour would stand opposite her with a length of thread, with one end held to her teeth. she would work on the whole face, not just the eyebrows. in the course of it, she would use up a few lengths of string. i also remember that she would spread generous amount of the face powder to ensure that the experience was a smooth and painless one.

on checking with my daughter, i was told that the indian lady who did the threading also apply the same face powder (the one shown in the photo above) to the area which she wanted to work on.

left high and dry since 2001

like the river valley swimming complex, the yan kit swimming complex has been left high and dry since 2001. according to the records, the first public swimming pool in singapore is the one that used to be at mount emily park and yan kit followed soon after. actually, before yan kit was opened, there was another swimming pool - although a privately owned one - which was open to the public. i have blogged about it here. it was the haw par pool at pasir panjang.

a fellow blogger wrote about his memories of yan kit swimming pool here.



in fact, when haw par pool closed down, its waterpolo team, the tiger swimming club, sought and got permission to train at yan kit swimming pool. when i visited the disused swimming complex last week, i could three troughs - a deep one, with a three-metre diving platform, near the main entrance, a standard one in the middle and a shallow one, which must have been the wading pool, at the other end.




according to my friend who had his waterpolo training at yan kit, the place was packed with bathers and swimmers on weekends. some of the pool users from the nearby chinatown area were literally bathing in the pools. they would have a towel around their neck and all the time they would be rubbing their body with the towel. it was a good and cheap, though not hygienic, way to get a decent bath, which was something they could not get in their crammed cubicles in chinatown. the initial admission charge was 15 cents; just before it closed in 2001, the charge was $1.00.





just like mt emily swimming pool, there was one day each week set aside for the modest ladies who did not like to be seen in their swim costumes in public. however, on such tuesdays, the taking was usually much lower.

when attendances at public swimming pools started to dwindle in the late 70s, a number of public pools had to be closed down because of the high maintenance cost. besides river valley and yan kit, the others that were closed include bukit merah, jurong town and pandan garden. farrer park is now a private swimming pool. mt emily has disappeared totally.

however, that does not mean that the singapore sports council has stopped building swimming pools. there is a brand new one next to my block at the bukit panjang sports complex cum community centre. the admission charge is $1.50 for adults. i have yet to step into it.

what can you do with 2 ten-cent coins?

today, while riding on the mrt train, i saw this elderly man (who am i calling another man, elderly?) plucking his facial hair with two coins. i assumed they were ten-cent coins. it reminded me of my dad who never owned a shaver his entire life. i think the only times he had a clean shave was when he visited the barber, which would have been about once a month.

those days, the barber used a shaving blade which he sharpened by sliding it up and down a piece of black leather. the old shaving blade was one with a handle and the knife could be folded up when not in use. the barber would apply lots of cool lather on your chin, above your upper lip and the side-burns before he started removing the hair.

at home, whenever my dad was idle, he would use two coins, usually the ten-cent one, to pull at his sparse facial hair and stubbly chin hair. it was a practice not uncommon among men in the past but a rarity nowadays. when i was older and i had strands of rough hair on my chin, i tried to do it my dad's way but i gave up because i could not make much progress. i suppose to be deft at it comes with lots of practice. it is not unlike using a pair of tweezers to do the job.

however, not all who have to resort to using coins to do the removal job do not own a shaver. for some, it was something to do to pass their time, like while waiting for a friend to show up or like the taxi driver waiting to pick up his passenger/s.

where did they keep these 'tools'? some kept them in the normal place - the pocket of their trousers. there were others who carried the two coins in a very handy place - tucked in their ear, usually one ear only.

will this practice make a comeback like eyebrow threading for women?

where is albert winsemius lane?

my blogger friend victor goes to great length to keep the readers from getting to the answer/s of his quiz. using all the applications at his disposal, he will either remove certain iconic or familiar landmarks from the background/foreground or blank out certain words, signs or characters that may lead the readers to the answers.

as for me, i have neither the software ( i believe it is called 'photoshop') nor the expertise to ensure that the quiz is not a giveaway. so, i will show it as it is and i will ask direct questions based on the pictures.

first, a bit of information about the man after whom this road (or lane) is named.

albert winsemius, a dutch economist, was singapore's long-time economic adviser from 1961 to 1984. he led the united nations survey mission to singapore, and was to play a major role in the formulation of singapore's national economic development strategy.

for his contributions to singapore's economic development , he was conferred several honours. in 1967, president yusof bin ishak awarded him the distinguished service medal. in 1970, he was conferred an honorary degree by the national university of singapore. in 9176, he recieved the national trade union congress' may day gold medal of honour.

in 1997, national technological university established the albert winsemius professorship as a lasting tribute to dr albert winsemius for his significant contributions to the economic development of singapore. (source: wikipedia)

on oct 23, 2009, dr balkenende, the prime minister of the kingdom of netherlands unveiled the albert winsemius lane.

quiz question: where is albert winsemius lane? (answer must be specific; 'somewhere in the west' is not acceptable.)