Dalat 1994

Dalat is a highland in South Vietnam. The weather is cool like Malaysia's Fraser's Hill but not cold and misty like Genting Highland. The town center has a large central market selling diverse produce. There are many places of interest such as the Summer Palace, Dalat's Flower Garden and Love Valley. Along the way to Dalat are many water falls and the largest one is the Prenn Waterfalls.

In 1994 I visited Ho Chi Minh City and got a Vietnamese friend to book for me a 3d/2n package tour of Dalat. I did not know that he went to a travel agency that catered mainly to the Vietnames tourists. On the morning of the tour, I was the first to arrive at the travel agency office. The 12 seater mini-bus was waiting by the side of the road. Then came a young couple on motor bike. Another young couple arrived after them. Soon the mini bus was filled with 5 young Vietnamese couples. They were about my children's age. I was the only foreigner among them and felt very uneasy. I tried not to feel embarrass. Fortunately they were very friendly. We chatted along the way to the hill resort. I learned from them that they were all going on their honeymoon to Dalat. Oh dear, I was the only odd man out! I also came to know that as a foreigner I paid nearly 3 times more than them.

We stopped for refreshment at a tea shop which also displayed bottles of snake wine for sale. The shop owner claimed the snake wine, an aphrodisiac was very good for honeymooners. As we moved on we saw a few waterfalls. The largest and famous was the Prenn Waterfall. We arrived at Dalat in the afternoon. I was taken to Nam Dao Hotel in town and the Vietnamese couples were taken to a lodging house away from the town center. That was the only difference for being charged more.


Each morning at about 5.30 am the road fronting the hotel was like a market place with hawkers and buyers haggling over the price. Passing motor bike taxis added to the din with their noisy exhausts pipes. By 8.00 am the place was swept clean by the hawkers before they disappeared from the scene.
The package tour took us to the Love Valley which was surround by tall pine trees. There was a lake for boating with souvenir and food shops nearby. We also visited the Summer Palace of Vietnam's last Emperor Bao Dai. Other places in the tour itinerary included the Flower Garden famous for its variety of flowers, shopping at central market, Vietnamese temple and a church. I remember visiting a stand by itself building called Crazy House. It looked more like a big tree trunk to me with many pigeon holes. Evening was free and after dinner we booked a room at a Karoake lounge to sing our favourite songs until late at night. Looking back, I have no regret joining the honeymoon tour. The guys were very friendly and at the end of the tour we exchange our personal particulars before parting.

Refreshment at a tea shop. On the table was a large jar of snake wine.


Path to Datanlah Waterfall



Datanlah Waterfall


I stayed alone in this hotel


Dalat Train Station



A restaurant by the lake. The tourist guide is on the front left

Dalat Flower Garden

Love Valley with honeymooners

Today the landscape in Dalat town has changed. It has many new hotels and shops. There is a market square, night markets and many more establishments catering for tourists' dollors.

The Story of My Cars

In 1957 I took my car driving test at the Maxwell Road Traffic Police car driving test centre. The theory test and toy car pushing was at the office. The practical test consisted of parallel parking was held at the parking lot beside the Traffic Police office. Next was driving around the China town circuit to test my driving skill. I had to filter from one lane to another, putting up the correct car indicator when turning to the left or right and applying emergency brake when the tester suddenly tapped on the dashboard of the car. The final test was driving uphill at Erskine Road. I was instructed to stopped the car at the slope with the handbrake on. When releasing the handbrake to move forward, the car must not jerk or slide backward . I passed all the tests and got my car licence the same day.

My first car was a second hand 1953 Hillman Minx. But I owned only half the car. The other half belonged to my uncle. We had an agreement that I used the car at night as I was on permanent graveyard shift. He used the car during the day for his business. A year later I attended a diploma course at the polytechnic. During the term break, I and 3 classmates drove the car to Kota Tinggi waterfall for a picnic. It was smooth sailing all the way there. We had an enjoyable time swimming, walking under the waterfall and exploring the area.

The return journey was more challenging. The car broke down on the road due to overheating of the car radiator. We had no container to collect water and the few passing motorists refused to help. There was no house within sight. After walking quite a distance we saw a hut and was glad to buy a pail from the owner and took water from his well. As we headed for the Singaopore the car radiator heated up again a few times. We had to search for water to top up the radiator. At last we made it to Singapore. I thought my car was fine except to fix the radiator. On closer examination I found the engine block had a hair line cracked.

Car broke down

I replaced the Hillminx with another second hand car, a Triumph Mayflower 1951 model and continued the same arrangement with my uncle. Due to its shape the Hokkien community referred to it as 'kwa cha chia' or coffin car. It had hand gear and I had problem engaging it. I had no choice as I could not afford a better car then. I used it for a few years and then sold it away.


Picture from ST 20 Oct. 1952

In 1961 I was the proud sole owner of a second hand 1960 Triumph Herald. It was about one year old and was in a very good condition. It looked like a sportscar with low chassis, 2 doors, white colour body with a metallic blue streak on both sides and 4 white wall tyres. White wall tyres cost more and was very popular in the 60s. I liked the car very much and it served me for 7 years.

1960 Truimph Herald

1968 Volkswagen 1300

In 1968 I bought my first new car, a Volkswagen 1300 cc. The beetle shaped car was very sturdy. It had air cooled engine at the back of the car and needed little maintenance. I drove my family of six to Fraser's Hill and returned without any problem. It had the power to go uphill easily. The only drawback was its fuel comsumption (about 26/7 miles per gallon). In 1974 I was working in Jurong. Due to the nature of my job I had to get a fuel economy car. I bought a 1000 cc car Datsun FII. It gave me a mileage of about 35 miles per gallon. Though with less power than the beetle, I was compensated by its fuel consumption.

Datsun FII 1000 cc

As my 4 kids had grown up, I needed a bigger car for the family. In 1979 I bought a new Mazda 626 hatchback from Asia Motor at Kg Ampat. It had a 1600 cc engine and looked very stream lined and stylish. It was a cheap big car. I drove the car to Penang when the Penang Bridge was just ready for traffic. In those days, there were no highway to the north. The roads were narrow and rugged with many heavy vehicles on both sides. Overtaking needed good pick-up and power. Mazda 626 was lacking in both areas. I tried to overtake the front vehicles many times with the accelerator all the way down but in vain. Often I had to quickly move back because of on coming vehicles. On another occasion I drove to Genting Highland with my wife. I had to drive on second and third gear most of the time to go uphill. Hokkien saying " ho kwa bo ho chiah".

Mazda 626 Hatchback 1979 model

Picture from carsplusplus.com

My last new car was Alfa Romeo T15 (1500 cc) similar to the one in the above picture. It had a boxer engine that packed with nearly 100 horse power. I loved the car. The pick up was fantastic compared to all other made 1500 cc car. It also had the power to climb steep slope. At the traffic light I tested the pick up with many cars including bigger ones. I was very satisfied with the car performance but it was very costly to maintain. It served me well for 5 years until I retired in early 1993.

Tai Thean Kew Circus

Adele Wong is doing research to write a book about Tai Thean Kew Circus. It was a family circus owned by her grandfather. She is asking those who have memories of the circus to share their experiences and make contributions.

She wrote to me: "Please do circulate my blog about the Tai Thean Kew Circus to all your friends who might have any memories of it. The book is based mainly on my grandparent's memory, sometimes I don't understand certain things they are explaining to me, espoecially about the circus acts and about the insects they used to catch when they were children. It is a very special project to me though and I am very surprised to find so many people out there with blogs about yesterday in Singapore." Her blogsite is: http://taitheankew.blogspot.com/

Vietnam 1962

In April 1962 I and my wife was on honeymoon in a French boat MV Vietnam. It was a cargo cum cruise ship. There was segregation between the first class and economy class passengers. Western food was served with a free bottle of French red wine at every meal. The ports of call was Saigon, HongKong, Kobe and Yokohama. It was a round trip cruise and we got to see HongKong and Saigon again on our return journey. During that period North Vietnam was ruled by the communists after the French was defeated in 1954 at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. South Vietnam's ruler was President Ngo Dinh Diem. He was anti communist and pro American.

When the ship landed at Saigon harbour, the passengers went on a land tour of the city. Saigon appeared peaceful and business carried out as usual. We did not know then that fighting between the communist Vietcong and South Vietnamese Army was just outside the city. We were taken to the botanicl garden cum zoo, the central market and Cholon district in Chinatown. The streets were lined with hawker stalls and the central market crowded with people. Many stallholders and shopkeepers were Chinese women who spoke Teochew. They traded in textiles, clothes, gold and jewelleries, dried goods and food. At Cholon Chinatown market, the traders were mostly Chinese Cantonese. It was seista time at noon and the market stallholders closed shops to take a nap. Along the way, we saw the slum of Cholon where people lived on both sides of the river. Their botanical garden was just a park and the mini zoo had very few animals.





MV Vietnam


Saigon Harbour



Temple at Cholon, Chinatown

Cholon slum area

A street scene in Saigon

A building at Botanical Garden

Another view of the building

Botanical Garden cum zoo

Another building at the Botanical Garden

A mini zoo at Botanical Garden

Central Market

Textile stall at Central Market

Central Market

Food stalls at Central Market

Phan Thiet

The Sunday Times 15 Aug. 2010 Life section

The above article reminded me of my holidays at Phan Thiet beach resort more than 10 years ago. At that time my son was working in Ho Chi Minh City and I visited him every year. There was one occasion my friend and I went to a beach resort at Phan Thiet. On the way there, we came across rows and rows of dragon fruit plants. We stopped to examine the plants and found that they were not plants but were actually vines that needed support to grow up like plants. Wooden poles were planted on the ground so that dragon fruit vines would creep upwards. We found them on sale at the markets and stalls by the roadside. They were very good to look at especially the big ones but never tasted sweet. In Singapore too I could hardly get a sweet dragon fruit.


Dragon Fruits


Slightly inland from the coast of Phan Thiet was a place that appeared like a desert. Above picture shows that we are in a desert. There were many sand dunes too. Actually there were bushes and trees nearby and also a small village. The houses were near the coast with many fishing boats and nets hung on poles to dry. I think the villagers were mostly fishermen.

Beach cleaners on the background

Chalet near the sea

I forgot the beach resort name. It was off season and we had the beach all to ourselves. There were many chalets like we had above. Guests could also choose to stay at the hotel within the resort. The beach was very clean. The resort owner employed workers to pick up litters at the beach every morning as you can see in the picture below.

The three are workers cleaning the beach.

Good Better Best

The above article was published in The Straits Times on Saturday 3 June 2010. The caption 'Good, better, best, never let it rest' evoked my memories of the old days when I was in secondary school in the early 50s. During those days, signing of autograph book was a fad among students. I have a few autograph books for different groups of friends but only the one below survives to this day. It is now in pieces but I still treasure it even with some torn pages. Each page had a photo of my friend. Over the years, the glue gave way and the photos were detached and dropped from the pages.

The verses in the newspapers are not complete. I remembered a friend wrote in my autograph book as follows:

Good, better, best
Never let it rest
When your good is better
Do your better best

I did not know the original author who wrote them. But many students used them to write in autograph books. Other popular verses are:

Drink hot coffee
Drink hot tea
Burn your lips and remember me

True friendship strengthens
and nver will die
But grows more constant
as the years pass by

Below are pictures of my only surviving autograph book since the early 50s. The autograph book is so old and worn out that when I turned over the pages to scan, some pages got torn. Those who signed my autograph book are more than 70 years old now and I think majority are grand parents like me.

Updated on 03.10.2013
Additional autographs written by friends with their photos attached. Circles of Friends and a Brick Wall of Friends were at the end of the book where they wrote their addresses. Do you notice that all my friends here are girls. As I mentioned above I had a few autograph books. This one is specially for all my girl friends in Singapore and Malaysia.

Pen Pal From Malacca

In 1953 my friend Steven Chong visited me and I took him sight seeing to various parts of the island. I took many photos with him but only 3 was found. The above photo shows a British airbase in Singapore. The background had a few houses. They could be quarters for the airbase personnels. I think the Royal Air For (Malaya) signboard was at the junction of 2 roads. I have forgotten the name of the roads. Does anyone knows its exact location?

The photos below are easy to guess.