Photography: Day Shoot In Kampong Glam to City

Day Shoot In Kampong Glam to City
4th of November 2006Photography by mybearbrickCamera: Canon Ixus 40

Before heading to Kampong Glam, some interesting shophouses were spotted. Along Haji Lane,you will discover a couple of interestingly hip and exotic shops by young entrepreneurs.


Among them is this Straits Records, they had plenty of grafitti on their shop front. That is also a form of art.



Between the Haji Lane and Sultan Mosque, you will cut through Arab Street, where it is already famous for shophouses selling Muslim food and providing 'kookah' or commonly called 'shisha' (a favourite among teenagers these days).The famous Sultan Mosque of Kampong Glam, if I am not wrong, this is the largest mosque in Singapore.





In front of the Sultan Mosque, you find two rows of shops appealing to the tourists. There are souvenier shops and cafeteria. Of course, alcohol cannot be found here.



A visit to the Malay Heritage Museum. I was happily taking photos like a tourist,only towards the last few exhibits, then did I realise that photography is prohibited. I will remove the pictures from this post if requested. But for now, I will share with everyone what to expect. For a small fee, you should visit the museum and see the exhibits in real. You can see in the pictures below a Quran (left) and cannons from the early days.



Among the historical artefacts, these rifles were the ones that I could not resist taking a few more shots.



Costumes of a typical Malay wedding ceremony.



The early film-makers of this region were the Malays and back then there were no special effects, only black and white films. Now I can understand why my future father-in-law keeps some many black and white Malay movies, though he grew up with the music of Elvis, The Seekers, The Shadows, ABBA and later musicians like Simon and Garfunkel. Below shows a typical scene of a bunk occupied by the film crews.



Back then, there was no such thing as HD movies in digital formats. Th recording media was ribbon tapes.


A vanishing image in Singapore is the mamak shop (a sundry stall usually operated by Indians). There used to be one beside the famous Rochor Bean Curd at Selegie. Now it occupied by the smokers' corner of a coffeeshop. You can still find some mamak shops that look like this, in Little India, along Serangoon Road.


Some stationeries such as the 555 notebook and Airmail (originated from Air France Mail) envelopes are hard to find these days. The Quink Ink is used for calligraphy pens. On the right, shows the early plasters where there are no ridiculous cartoons. The Brasso can still be found now with the same packaging.


Back then, tobacco came in cylindrical tins.


Cylindrical cigarette tins were slowly replaced by paper boxes. Back then, cigarettes were cheap and had loose regulations.Candies were always the reward for the children then. Vicks was a popular brand of sweets even till this day. Other candies include Apollo chocolate wafer biscuit, chocolates (my girlfriend's late grandmother used to love this and it sure brought back memories) and even the plum tablet candy.



When i was a kid, older boys used to play with marbles. There were the glass marbles with colourful swirls inside and then there were huge clay marbles. Not shown was the kooti-kooti, where the players use small flat plastic sea creatures figurines to stack on top of the opponents.


The 10 cents animal or flag erasers became the kooti-kooti during primary school. Cough drops came in pocket sized metal boxes and some can still be found now.



The traditional oilments were universal remedies to most ailments.


Before we had pressed or loose powder, my grandmother used such powder for the face.More traditional oilments that cure a thousand ailments.


Back then, the present Darlie was known as Darkie. The famous Darkie man was also replaced by a friendlier face with a sweeter smile. One thing that never change is the classic taste.


More traditional medicine and the popular Tiger Balm Brand.A scene of a typical wooden kampung (Village) house.


Typical items found in an early Malay household.

An early radio receiver.



Scene of a kitchen in the early days. Some of these are still being used in my girlfriend's place.


--Some pictures of the city. Can you identify the building? What is the orange ball behind the tree?




An interesting tree. Can you name it?

Special Thanks to Shaun Wong.

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Singapore Heritage Kampong+Glam Malay+Heritage+Museum