All traces of Siang Lim Park gone forever!

This post is a continuation of the previous post on the new Siang Lim Park.

I walked to the end of Lorong 40 joining a T junction with Guillemard Road.

Direction of camera - facing directly south in this photo. Opposite Lorong 40, across Guillemard Road is the Versailles Mansions (condos). If you look at my map Ref#24, I indicated that this was where my very good friend the late Charlie Tan Boon Seng used to live in...a row of single storey terrace houses. Further back was just nothing but open bushland where we could go hunting for tasty birds like the "burung ayam ayam" among others. Many of us were adept at using homemade catapults for hunting...accuracy pretty deadly. We made a small fire and had our own backwoods cooking right there. To us and for us, it was like Red Indian country at the bushland.

This corner of the Waterina used to be the home of my friend " Mat Tikus" Ref# 23 on my map.

I was facing east.

There were no road barriers in the middle rof the road and no traffic lights here in the past. Traffic was very light in the early days.

At the end of the Versailles condos is Hemmant Road...which used to have a row of very old dilapidated houses occupied by squatters. In one of these dwellings lived an old couple and an only son. He was the most famous rojak seller in our kampong. Using a tricycle as his pushcart stall, he stationed himself permanently at the Lorong 40 bridge. I never knew his real name as everyone respectfully called him "Apek rojak". He operated daily from the late afternoon till the night. His devoted and loving wife or son will bring dinner for him. Tragedy struck one day when a huge fire engulfed the small colony at Hemmant Road burning it to the ground. Many of us kampong folks, including myself, rushed there hoping to pitch in some help. We only managed to help them carry away some miserable household and personal belongings. The fire had spread too quickly, aided by strong winds. They were devastated and so were we.

In one swoop, all the squatters were gone. That place was never reoccupied by squatters again. It later became the Police logistics Depot.


As I turned to the west, this is the scene. The Sunny Spring is to the right of photo. Further down the road, on the left is the Singapore Badminton Hall.

This is the Sunny Spring Condo. Just where you see a lady walking on the pavement was once the home of another family friend, Agnes. See Ref# 11 on my map. Their front door faced Guillemard Road.

This is the present entrance to the Condos. A friend of mine used to live here at the corner house. And it was from here that we watched the gunfight at Siang Lim Park across the other side ( the Waterina ), back in August 1965.

I did not have access inside this estate. However by eyeballing, if you walk straight ahead through the entrance, keeping slightly to the left...that would be where the 2nd ancient keramat used to be. Map Ref# 10 on my map.

Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's, part 4

30 At the junction of Lorong 40 and Geylang Road were 2 coffee shops, one on the left and on the right. Ref # 30 was one of the most famous coffeeshops
in the whole of Geylang. Why? What was the main attraction back then?
Probably the best “hor fun” or “ yi mee” or “chow fun” on our island.Thaaat…GOOD? Ask any old-timer about this famous cook nick-named “ malai kai “....whose hor fun would be the standard used as a measure against
all other similar fare down through the years.
In all my years of eating this dish everywhere, no one has come close to the original “malai kai” version.
I will do a separate post about him and his food. His customers come from all over, many in big cars of old.

31 The other coffeeshop on the left. It had a few stalls but could not pull in the crowds without a magnet like “malai kai”. But during the night, there was a tricycle stall that was a permanent feature parked by the side of this coffeeshop. Gentle apek and his equally gentle son, sold all sorts of cut fruits and their most popular drink...a homemade "buah lai" mixture turned into a drink. It was unlike any of today's canned drinks...which I would not rate highly. D2 and I would give apek's buah lai drink a 9/10 rating. No one knew his secret concoction, saved himself.

32 This was the coffeeshop along Lor 44 and Geylang Road, in front of Queen’s
Theatre. It was quite famous in Geylang for 2 stalls…the Indian prata and
nasi briyani and the more well-known “Mee Rebus”. On Sundays, there were
queues and the place was packed. You can see part of this coffeeshop in the 1956 photo below
on the left of the picture.

33 The site of Queen’s Theatre. When a popular movie was showing, the "black market"syndicate got into action. They would get their members to queue for tickets.These boys and young men were recruited to re-sell the cinema tickets to patrons...at a higher price than listed. It was easy money for these black marketeers as we used to call them. The situation was quite fluid with not one but a few syndicates muscling in on this lucrative but illegal business.
But genuine cinema goers were livid and always at their mercy, pricewise!
Most times they made money. Some days they lost when they held many tickets that were unsold.

34 Right portion of Siang Lim Park had a quandrangular field that was never maintained
at all. So weeds and at times lallang grew. But there were some concrete
benches for folks to relax in. For football, our kampong folks played it daily
at Ref# 35, the Lor 40 field.

35 This was the field bounded by Lor 40, Lor 38 ( dead end towards the River ) and the river itself. It was the home territory of all living around there. On most evenings, our kampong boys and youths will be playing their favourite game….soccer. Once in a while, the ball sailed over and into the smelly river and whoever kicked it had to go retrieve the ball. Most times, the bulrushes and lallang helped to trap the runaway ball. There were swings and see-saws for the younger children. As kids, many of us made our own camps and hideouts among the thick bushes and wild trees that adorned the sides of that gentle-flowing river. Smelly or not, it was “our” river…a favourite place for catching fishes, ( guppies, tiger barbs, ikan sepat ) tortoises, monitor lizards.

36 Home of Henry, another of my childhood friends. He was a true blue
Peranakan who spoke Hokkien, English and pasar malay.

37 Home of Mr Neo Yam Koon, my Primary 4 form teacher from GES.

The photos below were sent to me by Peter my online blogger kawan.
Thanks Peter!
This is the Queens Theatre as it was in 1956 and today, 2009.
There was a Muslim cemetery behind the theatre stretching along the river past Lor 42. As kids, after watching a malay movie like Pontianak, Orang Minyak or Hantu Jelangkong together with my kampong friends, we would deliberately walk home by the cemetery way (the backlane behind the shophouses ) knowing full well it gave us the creeps...especially after such haunted movies. Then we promised ourselves no one was to run. When someone shouted "HANTU!" ...everyone ran for dear life, promise or no promise! Haha!
What fun we had in our childhood.
Sometimes, I do wonder where all my childhood kampong friends are today.
It would be wonderful if I could track them down and relive
our childhood days again over some good music, food and drinks.