Church Camps

School June holidays is about 3 months away and most churches are already asking their members to register for the Church Retreats. The locations are usually in west Malaysia and the most popular state is Melaka. Besides good Peranakan food, there are antique shops, shopping malls and many heritage buildings to visit. Church members without car travel by aircon luxuary coaches with seats that can recline backwards like in the aeroplane cabins. The highway is excellent and the coaches travel without bumps and jerks. There are rest areas with food stalls and clean separate male and female toilets. At the destination, there is the comfort of sleeping in hotel aircon rooms and eating buffet meals. During free times, there is a choice of shopping in the old town, at the shopping malls or relaxing in the hotel pool with jacuzzi.
I remember my first church retreat in August 1953. Our camp site was at the Malacca High School. We went there by bus. There was no highway and the bus travelled by the old route passing through many small towns such as Ayer Itam, Batu Pahat and Muar. Our rest area was at Ayer Itam. There was only one coffee shop with attap roof and uneven earth floor. On arrival everyone rushed to the common latrine. Soon there was a long queue. Water supply was from a rubber hose connected to a tap outside the latrine. Water was stored in a container with a ladle. There was no flush system and all wastes went into a pipe which was discharged somewhere behing the coffee shop. We had unwelcome guests (flies) to share our food. They flew around our table and many more were on the floor. It was most unhygienic but we had no choice as practically all the buses stopped there for rest and food. At Muar our bus cross the river by a ferry which was like a floating platform. One long rope was tied to each side of the ferry and was pulled manually across the river by men on the opposite side of the river bank. The bus then continued on its way to Malacca. It was quite an uncomfortable ride with all the bumps when the wheels hit the pot holes or went over undulating grounds. Occasionally the bus jerked backwards when applying brakes to avoid a buffalo, a goat, or a chicken not counting the kampong folks who dashed across the narrow road. To the people in the rural area, it was their way of life. Compare to the present, our advantage then was that, we were able to see Malay kampongs and the people, animals like buffalos, goats and poultry, farmers and padi fields and many other interesting sights along both sides of the road.
Our camp site was a school and we slept on improvised wooden beds in the classrooms. There was no aircon but many mosquitoes to interrupt our sleep. Meals were provided at the school canteen. There was segregation between the sexes at meal tables. There was no shopping or sight seeing. Our free times were for fellowship with campers from other states. At night we went to the beach to evangelise and distribute tracts. There was no sedition law under the British rule. It was my most memorable church camp.

Bethesda Sunday School Class



Church Camp in Malacca 1953



Bus waiting for ferry to cross the river




Meal time at ladies' table



Meal time at guys' table



Luxury Church Camp at Frazer's Hill



Genting View Resort



Meeting room with confortable sofas and chairs

Malacca Park Plaza Resort

Queen Elizabeth II Coronation

On 2nd June 1953 Princess Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth. There were great celebrations in United Kingdom as well the British Commonweath countries. In UK those who were at home were able to watch the coronation ceremony at Westminister Abbey London in black and white television. In Malaya, British North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei, there was no television then. Anyway, each British colony had their own celebration. Public and commercial buildings were decorated with Queen Elizabeth II photo, a crown and two Union Jack flags. There were also archways built across the roads with the words "Long Live The Queen". Parade and march past were held at the Padang with the Governor taking the salute. Floats sponsored by commercial firms and Chinese clans and associations made their ways along the main thoroughfare in the City during the day time as well as at night. I remembered our scout troop built a structure by the side of Stamford Road canal to watch the float passed by from the padang towards Victoria Street. After the parade there was a big traffic jam. Click here for the Big Jam. Singapore General Post Office issued special coronation evelopes and stamps to mark the occasion. My pen pals and I exchanged photos showing the celebrations carried out in our own hometown. I got mixed up with the photos as I forgot to mark them. You have to guess the States where each photo was taken. It is easy to recognise KL.

This coronation envelope is about 56 years old.

Pen Pals

In 1950s Singapore and Malaysia were still ruled by the British and together was known as Malaya. During my secondary school days, there was a students' magazine named Young Malayans. It was first published in 1946 in Kuala Lumpur. The monthly publication was distributed throughout Malaya, British North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. I subscribed to the magazine as there were not only many interesting articles including those contributed by students, especially from Leslie Fong who wrote Chinese stories about filial piety but also a pen pals column. I wrote to many whose names appeared there. Writing to pen pals was my favourite past time and I spent a lot of time and money buying stamps, envelopes, writing pads and taking photos. In school I studied Malayan geography and travelling to the mainland gave me the opportunity to see the various plantations and tin mining methods. As the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words". I also got to meet my pen pals. Actually it was like killing 2 birds with one stone.

I travelled by bus and train to Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Klang, Malacca and Segamat. It was difficult to fix an appointment with my pen pals because of communications. We had no phone at home, the mail was slow and unpredictable. It was also a problem finding their homes especially those living in small towns like Kuala Lipis, Betong and others. Nevertheless, I manage to meet up with pen pals in KL, Klang, Seremban and Malacca. My most memorial visit to them was the one at Klang town. She invited me to lunch with the family in her house. Later she gave me a guided tour to Port Swettengham, now known as Port Klang. My male pen pals were all in Malacca. They came from rich families. One is now a private medical practitioner in Orchard Road, Singapore.

A pen pal wrote love letters to me. She usually signed off her letter with drawings of two hearts overlapping with the abbreviation of our names P & E. I met her in her hometown Seremban, but her parents allowed us to meet for a very short time. See the reverse side of her photo below.




Rex Theatre at Seremban (1952)


Theatre at Pudu Road, KL near the prison (1952)


Pen pal Winnie Joo on the right



Lily Goh of Seremban





Irene Ong from Ipoh

Pen pal Lillian on the left from Seremban

Steven Chong (left) and Charlie Koh (centre)

A letter from a Malayan pen pal studying in England

Letter from Maureen Lim of Klang

Maureen Lim C Bee

In Port Swettengham (Port Klang)

Port Klang Pier

All the beautiful girls above are by now grand mothers with many grand children. How time flies!

Chinese New Year Tradition

During my childhood, many relatives and friends came to the house for new year visits. They knelt down before my grandma with two oranges in hands and wish her longitivity or good health. It was usually uttered in Hokkien as "chia lau lau or lau cong kian". Kneeling before an elder during the Chinese New Year was also a Peranakan tradition. They spoke in Peranakan Malay "mak/nenek (mother/grandma) panjang umor (long life)". For the single adult and children, grandma gave each an ang pow and said some good words. It was full house as visitors arrived from morning to evening. Lunch and dinner were served for those who came at the appropriate time. There were gambling sessions of mahjong, poker, pah kow and even 'si go luck'.


Before the new year festival started, children were playing with small fire crackers. Each small packet had little red and green colours fire crackers. The noise of fire crackers got louder as the new year got nearer. The bigger fire crackers played by adult had only red colour. Fire crackers came in single, double and treble barrels. The double barrel fire crackers shot upwards to explode another time. Similarly, the treble barrel fire crackers exploded two more times in mid air. Sometimes, we used an empty can to cover the lighted double/treble fire crackers to see how high the empty tin would go. Today, without the fire crackers, the Chinese New Year festival is rather quiet.


On the 8th day grandma offered prayer of fruits and dried vegy on an altar placed at the front door entrance. Long sugar canes with green leaves were place on each side of the door. A strip of red paper was wrapped around each sugar cane liked tying a ribbon. Praying began at 8.00 pm with lighted joss sticks on a vase-shaped vessel and ended at 12 midnight.

On the 15th day, grandma's house was a gambling den again. Every year my uncle bought one to two crates of fire crackers. The cost was shared by all the gamblers. It was an annual affair, almost liked a tradition. Gambling stopped just before midnight and all the guys gathered at the five foot way of the house ready to fire the fire crackers. At the stroke of 12 everyone in the neighbourhood lighted the fire crackers and threw them onto the road. It caused such a din that one could hardly hear the other talked. The road was so smokey and motor vehicles had to move very slowly to pass through. It was also full of small pieces of red paper from the fire crackers like being carpeted. The Chinese New Year festival ended when the neighbourhood was quiet once again.

This Chinese New Year we had about 80 visitors in the house. They arrived family by family from morning to evening. Majority came on the first day. Children were given an ang pow each. Visitors also gave ang pows to the children who came visiting. My wife cooked mee siam, longtong, kueh pie tee, fried chicken wings, curry, kueh ko swee and nonya agar agar. Everybody got to eat her cooked food. Chinese New Year festival is coming to a close soon on chap ngoh mei. My family will have another gathering of merry making and interacting. There will be no explosion of fire crackers to mark the end of the occasion.

My grand-daughter dressed for the occasion


My grandson and his friends at the computer game


Arrival of my daughter's family


Arrival of other visitors

My brother-in-law and his family


My cousin and her 3 generations family


My niece's family

Visitors interacting

Foreign visitors with her 2 kids


Distributing ang pows


Visitors having dinner

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner 2

*Fast backward, I remembered my 2 grandmothers and my mother were busy at the kitchen preparing for the important meal. There was no gas/electric cookers then. Cooking was done on a specially constructed cooking range of cement and mortar. Firewood or charcaol was used as fuel. Eating was at an elongated oval wooden table that could sit about a dozen people at the dinning room. There were Peranakan food as well as typical Hokkien cuisine. We had ayam curry. Eating chicken meat was a treat then as it was served only on a festival or a celebration. Adults had tea or brandy and the children drank Fromroz aerated water. We had no refrigerator. We bought a block of ice and then knocked it into pieces with a hammer. Pieces of ice was added to the drink to make it cold. Dinner was rather quiet as no one was supposed to talk while eating. After dinner it was different. There were so much noises with adult getting kaki to play mahjong or cards, and children got excited talking about ang pows.

Last night we had Chinese New Year's eve re-union dinner. There was a foreign lady with 2 kids. The two boys are my daughter's God sons. Nevertheless, they had to observed our tradition of wishing the Patriach happy new year. See their postures. We started with 'loh hei', tossing of fish salad and followed by yummy steam boat. Enjoy viewing the video below.


A very close friend who seldom missed our family gathering


My two daughters 'pai nien'. She observed the tradition of kneeling.


Lo Hei!


Cheers!!!


We had steam boat for a change


Kids and maids at another table

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner - 1

Chinese Reunion Dinner is held once a year on the eve of the lunar new year. Family members from far and wide where ever possible return to the patriarch's home for a reunion dinner. It gives them the opportunity to meet up with relatives and also to introduce the new arrivals. According to tradition, dinner has to wait until the arrival of all family members before starting.

In 1970s, one to two weeks before the Chinese New Year, Jurong indurstrial estate was a dead place. Almost all Malaysian workers had left for home to be with their families. Food establishments, such as restaurants, eating houses and food centres once crowded with lunch time workers, stopped operating.

Today, many Chinese Singaporeans do away with reunion dinner by going on holidays. Few want to cook and they book reunion dinners at restaurants. With two sittings, each has about two and a half hours. More time is spent eating than interacting with family members. Afer dinner, each leaves in different direction. Such runion dinner becomes meaningless.

My family still follow the tradition of having the reunion dinner at home. My wife is a good cook, especially with peranakan dishes. On Saturday, 17 Jan 2009 we had a pre reunion dinner with with my niece and her family of four, plus two very close friends who are single. We started it a few years ago and has become an annual affair. My niece's husband is a Malaysian and she has to be with her in-laws for the new year. A close friend is also a Malaysian and she too has to go home. The food my wife cooked were: buah kurak, kiam chye ahk, babi arti, ngoh hiang, hi pioh soup, noodle and pineapple salad, chap chye, sambal udang, itek sioh and satay babi (view video clip).

The reunion dinner on the eve of the Chinese New Year shall be confined to my immediate families.