Queenstown Heritage Trails

                                       My Queenstown Heritage Trails Map

On 4^th July 2014 I received an email from Mr Kwek Li Yong, President of My Community and Chairman of Queenstown Heritage as follows:

"We would like to invite you to the media preview of My Queenstown Heritage Trail with a guided tour on Sunday, 27 July 2014 from 9am to 11am and scribble down your personal experiences about the guided tour in your blog. We are meeting at Queenstown MRT Station. I have enclosed a copy of the poster for further information on the trail". 

On Sunday 27 July 2014 we met at Queenstown MRT. I was given a copy of My Queenstown Heritage brochure. It was quite informative especially to the younger generations who were not aware of the many changes. At about 9.00 am we started the walking tour. Fortunately the weather was good although earlier on it was threatening to rain.

Queenstown Driving Test Centre Map

Photo credit to MyQueestown

Our first stop was at the former Queenstown Driving Test Centre. It reminds me of the time when I was working at Princess House. I drove to my office daily and from there to my work sites. Very often I came across ‘L’ drivers at Commonwealth Avenue and Alexandra Road. They caused obstructions to the other vehicles. I drove behind them always looking for a quick exit. We referred to the ‘L plate’ drivers as ‘lembu’. Lembu in Malay means 'cattle'.

Photo credit to MyQueenstown

Our next stop was at Block 38 (above picture). The building was originally a market cum food centre built by Mininstry of the Environment. Its dome shape facade resembled a Chinese coffin and it was therefore called coffin market by the residents.

Nearby was a building that housed Tah Chung Emporium and Golden Crown Restaurant. Both were on upper floor separated by a wide staircase.The goods sold at the emporium were all China made. I shop there because every item was cheap. The restaurant was popular with young couples especially during the wedding month of April to June.

The third stop was at the two former cinema buildings. They are now use as churches. When I saw the churches, my memory flashed back to the hey-day of the buildings. Both were built as cinemas, Venus and Golden City. Their lobbies were crowded with people and there were long queue for cinema tickets on week-ends. Friday night was a pasar malam night and I was there on duty. There were hawker stalls selling a variety of goods and cooked food on both sides of Margaret Drive. Some overflowed onto the concourse and vacant land. It was like a festive season with streams of people moving and browsing the goods displayed on the hawker stalls. 

Along the way we visited the Queenstown Community Centre, a Catholic Church and an Indian Temple. The Walking Tour ended at Tanglin Halt hawker centre. It was a happy ending for me as it brought back fond memory again when I was in charge of Tanglin Halt Market cum Food Centre. I remembered it was an open shed wet market with a few food stalls at the side separated by a chain link fence. The surrounding shops remained unchanged except for the trade and shopkeepers. I remember there were two clinics. I happened to know the two doctors personally. Dr Lim was a neighbour at Joo Chiat Road and Dr Tang was a former colleague at the Ministry of the Environment. Both of them had moved out of the area some time ago.

I was a little disappointed with the Heritage Trial. Blogger James Seah and I were the only two elderly people in the group. The rest was young people interested to know the history and changes of the place. I was invited to the Heritage Trial. I joined the tour hoping to share my memories but there was no question put to me. So I had an easy time following the tour. The tour leaders should take advantage of our presence to extract our memories of Queenstown. On the whole credit must be given to the organizer and the two tour leaders who did their job well. The Heritage Trial gave me an opportunity to go back in time and rekindled fond memories

Cu Chi Tunnels

Surrounded by Vietcong

My first visit to Chu Chi tunnel was in 1994 with a Vietnamese friend. I had to pay an entrance fee but it was free for the Vietnamese. At that time Chu Chi tunnel was not a popular tourist spot. So there was few visitors. A Vietnamese guide, usually an ex soldier conducted the tour. It was not necessary to have the required number of tourists for each tour. The number could be as few as two. Before the conducted tour, the group was taken to a shed to view a film clip on the war in South Vietnam. Then the guide showed us a layout model of Chu Chi Tunnel and explained to us the facilities in the tunnel. The tunnel had 4 levels and was 9 meters deep. There were meeting room, rest room, kitchen, clinic and others. Kitchen was at the lowest level and the smoke was filtered at every level. When reaching the ground level, the smoke could hardly be seen from the air. At the juctions where the 4 tunnels met, there were booby traps of bamboo spikes at the corners. It was so awkward to get into the tunnel and crawl through it. I doubt anyone would try for level two. At the end of the tour the guide served us tea and tit bits. We gave him tip which he put into his pocket.

I visited the Chu Chi Tunnel again in 1995 and 2000. In 2000 Chu Chi Tunnel had become a place of interest for tourists. There were many organised tour from Saigon. At the end of the tour all tips went into a common pool to be divided by all the guides. For recent visit of Chu Chi Tunnel read unk Dick's post here

A layout model of Chu Chi tunnels

The camouflaged trap door to the tunnels

Crawling through the tunnel

A hammock for resting

Clinic for wounded Vietcong

Refreshment area for tourist at end of tour.

Cleaning up after the tunnel tour

Mooncake Festival

My family celebrated the Mooncake Festival yesterday at my son's house. We carried a lantern each to walk around the housing estate. After that we ate mooncakes together.

I remember the traditional mooncakes were packed into a cardboard box of 4 mooncakes. The popular ones were usually from the hotels especially the well known Empress Hotel. Over the years, the mooncakes started to change colours such as green (pandan), purple (yam) orange, white and so on. But the contents inside the mooncakes remained the same with one or two egg yolks or just bean paste. Now the mooncake boxes have new designs like a lady's fashions. I was amazed to see the different mooncake containers displayed on the table (see pictures below).

The Straits Times dated 22 Sept 2010 had an article about the mooncake festival in China. The mooncake fancy boxes not only contained mooncakes but also gold bars, designer watches, fine wine and gold statuette packed next to the mooncakes. In Singapore we now have fancy mooncake boxes too. But with our present government I am assured that what valuable gifts inside China mooncake fancy boxes will not be followed here.


Fancy mooncake box designed to look like a lady's handbag

Hexagon trays

Drawers box

The empty mooncake trays and drawers can be used to keep cosmetic and jewelleries


Closer to traditional mooncake boxes

Birth To Death

All Singapore citizens here are ducomented from birth to death. We know that but never give it a thought. Many of my personal documents can be considered archives. They are shown below. I was born at the Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital and my birth was registered there with my name. Some parents had not decided on the baby's name upon registration. So the baby's name was left blank in the duplicate copy of Registration of Birth.

Duplicate copy of Registration of Birth

My Birth Certificate

The Registrar of Birth & Death stopped issuing the duplicate copy of Registration of Birth after Singapore's Independence in 1965. Before WWII and soon after the war, a baby born in Singapore was issued a Vaccination Notice. Failure to comply faced a penalty of $10/-. It means a lot of money then. An infant who had been successfully vaccinated was given a certificate. All 3 documents are shown below.

Vaccination Notice


Infant Welfare Appointment Card

Vaccination Certificate

Primary school report card

Primary school leaving certificate

Secondary school report card

Secondary school leaving certificate
In school I was given a report card. There were 3 terms per year. All the school examination results were recorded in it. After finishing primary education, I was given a school leaving certificate. Similarly for secondary school I had a report card and after secondary 4, a school leaving certificate. During my time only those who passed the Cambridge Examinations would see their names published in the Straits Times with either Grade 1, 2 or 3 printed besides their names.

1954 Cambridge Examination results

Royal Society of Health Diploma

Standard I certificate

To upgrade myself I took many courses as shown in the above certificates. The documents not shown here are my Identity Card, Driving Licence, Marriage Certificate, International Passport, membership cards etc. I am sure others have more than what I possess. And finally the certificate which I shall not be able to see is similar to the one shown below.

Conclusion: we are documented from the time we are born to say that we have arrived. Then, there is the document to say that we have been through the various vaccination and inoculation to give us antibodies and immune system.

There are also documents to show the level of our faculty to fit us the the jobs.
The final document that ends our lives story here is not visible to the living.