people's park market

people's park complex is a 31-storey commercial-cum-residential building on eu tong sen street, within the chinatown area. the shopping centre was completed in 1970 and the residential block in 1973. it was then the largest shopping complex in singapore and it was the first to have an atrium within a shopping centre. the developer was a gan eng seng alumnus called ho kok cheong.

what was here before the complex was built?

photo from national archives of s'pore

the people's park complex was built on a site that started off as an open public park at the foot of pearl's hill. the park later became the people's park market. the hokkiens called it 'chin choo pa sat', the pearl's market. there were outdoor stalls selling textiles, sundry goods and food, much like the former beauty world town at 7th mile upper bukit timah road.

'people's park market used to be singapore's oldest pasar malam (night market) housed in pre-war zinc sheds'....caption for the national archives' photo.

however, the difference was that people's park market was set up and managed by the municipality or the city council. it was more organised and there were concrete pavements around the stalls. beauty world at 7th mile was more like a maze, with stalls, some in attap shacks, set up in a haphazard manner.

the outdoor stalls at people's park market were arranged in rows, just like those in a covered market, but they were packed closer together so the place was rather warm and stuffy. some referrred to it as singapore's version of hong kong's 'ladies street'. it was patronised by people of all races. tourists were also attracted to this market. the day market sold fresh food and vegetables. the night one was more like an open-air restaurant, selling cooked food and drinks. there was always the bargain offers of dresses, textiles and household goods.

both people's park market and beauty world town suffered the same fate - they were destroyed by a big fire. fire gutted the people's park market on 24/25 dec 1966. the loss amounted to a million dollars. in the case of beauty world market, there were about 5 fires, the last one being in 1977.

after the big fire at people's park market, the former stallholders were given places in a temporary shopping centre along the same road.

in my next blog post, i will feature the beauty world market.

another lamp-post quiz

this is my third lamp-post quiz. it is not like i like lamp-posts a lot but i just seem to notice their different designs. and i am not one of this kind, hor. my first lamp-post quiz was this, posted on 13 november 2008. this was the other quiz, posted on 17 april 2009.

the lamp-post - the one in the foreground - is not a functional one. i figure it must have been around for more than half a century.

i hope my blogger friend charlee will not be the first one to give the answer. this young man, a happy wanderer like myself, goes around singapore looking for and at heritage sights and he seems to know and recognise more old stuff than many senior citizens.

just one question for this quiz. where can you find this lamp-post?

bukit panjang to upper peirce reservoir

today, i finally accomplished what i had wanted to do for sometime - go on a hike from chestnut avenue to upper peirce reservoir. actually, i started the hike from my home at bukit panjang. the building in the above picture can be seen from the dam at upper peirce reservoir. a former student of mine, who had gone with us on the trek to the shinto shrine deep in the macritchie reservoir, offered to show us the route but some how we never got around to doing it. there was another occasion when keith initiated an attempt to use the same route to get to lower peirce reservoir but at the last minute because of inclement weather, it had to be called off.

at the chestnut avenue waterworks, i asked the person manning the gate if there was a track leading to the upper peirce reservoir. apparently, he has not gone on any hike around that area, and his answer: ''it is very wide". i also approached a mountain biker waiting for his buddies but he could not help me either because he was unfamiliar with that area. he told me that he would be using track 15; must have been referring to some mountain biking route. since i was already there, i had no choice but to 'plunge in'.

at the initial stage, there were many fallen trees across the track. they must have fallen like dominos. sawn off tree branches were used to cover the soggy track. the paths were quite well marked except for a few spots where you had to detour because of the fallen trees. as usual, i did not meet any walker during the entire hike but i did meet the cyclist whom i had approached earlier for help.

certain sections of the track hug the edge of the water. the water level was quite high; if it should rain a bit more, i think the track will be obliterated by the rising water. that is one of the reasons why some trekkers can get lost in our water catchment areas; the rising water covers the track and forces them to move away from the marked (well-used) track.

i did not see any 'sign of civilisation' until i came to the dam. all the way, it was the forest and no sign of human or human activities except for some plastic water bottles, wrappers and some markers left behind by earlier hikers. it was at the dam that i came to realise that the upper peirce reservoir is the nearest reservoir to bukit panjang because i could see the blocks of flats that i had walked past earlier.

follower of teochew porridge stall

whenever i think of teochew porridge, i think of chye buay (preserved cut vegetable), steamed fish, hae bee hiam (chilli fried with dried prawn) , chye poh (salted radish) omelette, tau kee (beancurd strip) with stewed chicken feet, the bland watery, grainy porridge and owen road.

owen road in the 60s and up to the 80s used to be the place where people would zero in for teochew porridge, just like you will head for beach road and geylang for steamboat buffet, lau par sat for malay satay and upper thomson road for roti prata. in the past, we would also head to middle road for steamboat and waterloo street for indian rojak.

the authentic teochew muay or porridge stalls at owen road had a spread of many dishes, some stalls as many as 60 varieties for you to choose from. most, if not all, of these dishes that went with the bland porridge were salty. if it was not salty, like the steamed fish, then you would have to dip it in soya sauce or the fermented bean sauce to make it salty.

in those backlane and low-stool days, there were as many as three shops or stalls selling teochew porridge along that short stretch of owen road between worcester road and race course road. it was so popular that some of the shops/stalls had extensions to the back lane, especially the shops at the two ends. yes, we did sit on low stools sometimes but we did not squat or place our feet on the stools.

we were so besotted with the chye buay at one particular owen road stall that, up to today, whenever or wherever we eat teochew porridge, we will order this dish. if this dish is not available, it just seems that something is missing and that the teochew porridge meal is not complete.

after that owen road stall moved, we looked for teochew porridge elsewhere and found a good replacement at the former lakeview housing estate. one day, while i was at dunlop street, i was happily surprised to find the same man who had been manning the owen road's stall. from then on, we had the option of having teochew porridge at either lakeview or dunlop street. somehow, we preferred the dunlop street stall, the one that had originated from owen road.

the porridge stall at dunlop street moved again. we made enquiries and found out that it had moved to sam leong road, off jalan besar. the quality remained unchanged although the number of dishes appeared to have dwindled.

one day, while having porridge at the stall, we overheard the owners talking about quitting the business. alas, it was not long before we discovered that the stall had been replaced by a bak kut teh stall.

i have been resigned to not having my favourite chye buay and hae bee hiam till the other day when i went to explore geylang. after eating bak kut teh, we were walking to the bus-stop when i saw my 'old friend' at the corner teochew porridge stall at lorong 17. i went up to him to ascertain that he was the same person who had been at owen road, dunlop street and jalan besar.

looks like i would be renewing my acquaintance with my favourite teochew porridge stall.

teochew porridge in the past used to be the fare of the working class although it was not uncommon to see towkays coming in mercedes to join the labourers, trishaw riders and blue collar workers in their overalls at the stall.

today, a bowl of fishball noodle or a plate of wanton mee is cheaper than a teochew porridge meal. today, we pay $16.00 for four bowls (two bowls each) of refreshing porridge with fish (sea bass), hae bee hiam, chye buay and tau kee at the geylang lorong 17 stall.

car washing in melbourne

yes, in australia, they do wash their cars too. yes, they also drive it to a petrol station to have it done. the difference between australia and singapore is that most australian drivers do the washing at the petrol kiosk themselves. nevertheless, there are a few places where you can get a 'hand wash' by a team of workers. you can even have your dog shampooed at the same car-wash, at a different area. because of water restriction in the state, you are not allowed to wash your car at home.

with the minimum wage policy and consequently, a higher labour cost, the petrol kiosk or station is mostly a self-service place. in australia, if you know how to drive a car, you must know how to operate the pump at the petrol kiosk. there is no pump attendant to do it for you. similarly, at the car-wash, do not expect anyone to serve you.

how much you spend at the car-wash may also depend on how many kinds of cleaning you want and how efficient you are. for the most basic wash, my son-in-law, ian, usually spends about $2 to give his car a wash whereas my daughter, ivy, feeds the machine $5 or $6 to get the same thing done. if you want a more thorough cleaning job, with waxing, thrown in, you may have to spend more than $10 at the coin-operated car wash.