We participated in the nostalgic tour by The Singapore Memory Project (SMP), a nation-wide movement to capture and document precious moments and memories of Singapore. In the two-hour tour, we took a stroll down the memory lane of Singapore to visit some of the places which will definitely bring back your memories of yesteryears.
Located right at the heart of Raffles Place is the “Playsets of the Yesteryears” by National Parks Board. It features a variety of swings, see-saws and merry-go-round to relive the childhood memories of playing in a sandpit playground.
Next up is Albert Centre. Albert Centre was one of the residential/commercial complexes used to house the residents and traders in the city because of urban redevelopment in the 80s. Besides the famous hawker center, there is a wet market. Wet market has been an important source of fresh food, such as fishes, meats, fruits and vegetables since the olden days, an important social space for the community to interact with one another. However, wet markets are now slowly being replaced by supermarkets as the place to go for daily necessities and food.
Bras Basah Complex is a popular place where you can find a wide range of books such as reference books, children books, novels, magazines, used books, comics and textbooks. There are also shops selling watches, stationery, sports equipment (badminton racquets, shuttlecocks, table-tennis bats, etc.), handicrafts, gifts as well as photography studios.
Next up is Esplanade Park, where the old Satay Club was located from 1971 to 1995. Stalls were set up at night by hawkers selling food and snacks, toys, balloons and even snake charmers. It was a popular place for family outings to enjoy the sea breeze (the original shoreline ran along the park) while having a nice meal for dinner or supper. Nowadays, land reclamation has moved the shoreline. Today, the ornate Victorian Tan Kim Seng fountain stands at the Esplanade Park. It is one of the two ornate fountains in Singapore (the other is at the Raffles Hotel).
Visiting the Children Little Museum at Bussorrah Street is a nice reminiscent of our childhood. Located in Kampong Glam, the privately owned Children Little Museum is a treasure trove of our old childhood toys commonly played in the 1970s. But don’t be misled by the name, it showcases many antiques and collectible items. They also conduct DIY Toy Workshop to learn to make toys like kites, chapteh, wooden guns and flying wheels. The admission to the Museum is a small token of $2 to the owners.
The last stop of the nostalgic tour was lunch at Seow Choon Hua Restaurant, famous for Fuzhou fish balls. Other specialties include the red wine chicken mee and Foo Chow lor mee. The Foo Chows are famous for their rou yuan. Fish paste is used for hee kiow skin and pork for rou yuan. The meat wrapper is known as yan pi (literally translated as ‘swallow’ skin); yan jiao (dumpling) is finely chopped pork meat wrapped in yan pi.
You can play your part in the Singapore Memory Project.
a) Sharing memories at the SingaporeMemory.SG web.
b) Downloading the free SG Memory iOS application from the iTunes app store.
It’s a portal to deposit your memories and stories in the form of texts, audios, videos or images. Selected memories will be further developed into creative audio-visual presentations by specialists and presented on the same portal.
As part of the Singapore Memory Project, “My Home, My Library” by National Library Board is also holding exhibitions at the public libraries island-wide, featuring memories from residents who are living in the neighbourhood. You can visit the exhibitions from now until 29 April 2013.
Win the lucky draw prize of $200 shopping vouchers in the snap and share contest. Simply snap photos of anything related to the exhibition at the exhibition and post the photos to your Instagram or Twitter with the #sgmemory hashtag. The most retweeted tweet will win a prize of $50 in shopping vouchers
Last but not least, you are strongly encouraged to use the #sgmemory hashtag to share anything and everything Singapore-related memories so as to build a gallary of images for the future generations.
Visit my @instagram account for the #sgmemory gallery.
Will visit some of the places especially the Playsets of the Yesteryears
@CleverMunkey: yeah, this is something different from the usual touristy stuff.
Nice post, Eunice! I miss Haw Par Villa in your list. Although I am not from Singapore, this is my favorite place in Singapore. And it seems to be in everyone’s childhood here, when I speak to Singaporeans;-). What do you think of HPV?
@CurlyTraveller: yes u r right. I was there when I was a kid! Oh well, it’s like a place for halloween? 😛