Somewhere in my past…

Sometime ago, I promised somewhereinsingapore that I would post some more photographs taken during the time when I was living in Singapore – in 1973.

Well, initially, I stayed at Teluk Kurau in Katong but after a while, I shifted to the HDB flats along Beach Road, opposite the Golden Mile Shopping Centre. The Merlin Hotel was a stone’s throw away and this photo was taken at their swimming pool bar…

I think it was renamed Plaza Hotel later – I’m not sure whether it is still there and if it is, what it is called now.

Go straight ahead along Beach Road past the historic Raffles and you would get to The Satay Club. It was very popular then – the place to go if anybody wanted to feast on satay, satay and satay. This was located at the Elizabeth Walk…

…not too far from the familiar landmark – the Merlion. I suppose with all the land reclamation that had been going on over the years, the sea is not that close anymore.

Go round the corner past the Merlion and you would get to Raffles Quay/Shenton Way, if I’m not mistaken, where this building was located…

If I remember correctly, that was a revolving restaurant in the background – the other one in Singapore at the time was on top of the Mandarin along Orchard Road. There was a restaurant cum cabaret/nightclub in that building on the right – the Neptune. I went there years later with my missus to see the late Teresa Teng in concert.

Right across the road from this place (to our left) was Change Alley. I loved to browse around the little shops there and maybe buy a thing or two. That was where I bought those Indian sandals – the ones I was wearing in the first photograph…and I think that Indian outfit was from there too. Correct me if I’m wrong but if you walked out of the other end of Change Alley, you would get to Raffles Place and Robinsons’ was there then. At that time, it was something like Harrods, I guess – only for the rich and famous.

The above photograph was taken in April that year when my friend from Sibu, Jane, stopped over in transit on her way to England to pursue her nursing course and career. The one below was taken along Bras Basah Road/Dhoby Ghaut…

You can see the Cathay Building in the background – the icon that would be very familiar to people from my time as we would see that at the start of any movie in one of the Cathay cinemas, even the one here in Sibu. The last time I was in Singapore several years ago, they were renovating the place and I thought it looked very different from what it used to be.

There were not many places of interest/tourist attractions around then. Those were the days before the Jurong Bird Park, the Japanese and the Chinese Gardens and Sentosa Island was non-existent at the time – still called Pulau Blakang Mati, I guess. We could go up to the top of Mount Faber or drop by the Botanical Gardens…or the Haw Par Villa aka the Tiger Balm Gardens…

40 years have passed…and so much has changed. Sigh!!! Nothing stays the same, I guess…and yours truly, likewise.