Everything has changed…

It has been said that Sungai Merah was where the early Foochow settlers who arrived in Sibu from Fuzou in southern China from 1901 to 1903 landed. In my growing-up years, the bazaar comprised a few rows of double-storey wooden shophouses but by the 1970s, some had been replaced by concrete buildings and a row in the centre of the bazaar met this same fate when it was burnt down in 1985. The last row of wooden shops that housed the stalls selling local fruits, was demolished in August, 2009 to make way for the present 3-storey block of concrete shophouses where this coffee shop is located.

The bridge crossing the river linking one side of the bazaar to the other is still where it has always been but of course, it does not look quite the same now. This school and church was set up by the Catholic mission in 1927…

*Archive photo*

The school premises is still being used though I am not too sure about the church as there is now a bigger and more modern church, St Teresa’s, for the Catholics in the parish.

This is the wet market…

…in Sungai Merah as it stands today. I am not too sure but I think it stands where it has always stood all these years though restoration works might have changed its appearance a little.

I remember quite sometime ago, before I retired, I used to do some work for the exam office in the Education Department and one morning, the officer in charge took me here for breakfast and though I did enjoy the Foochow fried noodles from a stall at the back of the market, I was quite put off by the stench from the chicken stalls a little to the front.

Well, I went strolling around the vicinity the other morning and I spotted the stall, still going strong. Of course, I took a seat and ordered a plate (RM3.50)…

Hmmmm…it looks like the noodles here are cheaper than many other places in town where it can go up to RM3.80 or RM4.00 or more these days and the best part was that there were a lot of ingredients in it – meat, liver and so on…

…unlike elsewhere where one would be hard-pressed to find anything noticeable at all.

I would say it was nice and I sure would not mind stopping by for it again should I happen to be around these parts anytime in the future…but then again, there are lots of coffee shops around here and I may want to try those instead. We’ll see.