First Trip To Singapore City in 1953

First Trip To Singapore City in 1953
By James Seah
http://blogtoexpress.blogspot.com/2011/07/first-trip-to-singapore-city-in-1953.html

I just read the above post and find it interesting. 

I was not born yet in 1953.  Nevertheless, Singapore did not change much in the 50's and 60's.

During my childhood time in the 60's, I walked to school.  Hence I hardly had any trip by car or by bus.

As I also had motion sickness, car or bus ride was something like a nightmare for me.  I will avoid it if I could!

I really cannot recall my first trip to town or anywhere in Singapore by car or by bus!  How forgetful I am... maybe that is my nature!

Here is what I responded to the post which I like to share here:

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Hi James,

Enjoy reading this post.

I think at my childhood time, anywhere we cannot walk to was considered far!

Distance have a different meaning since we measured by how far we can walk!

If our family members need to take bus to reach a place, I usually will not follow my family members as I have motion sickness!

Occasionally, we may take taxi and that was a big event, like "Ching Meng" as the tomb was at a far away location and no bus will drove us up near the hill.

If were are in the taxi, I could only have a great time going out with family members if the driver drove slowly and my motion sickness never gave me and others any trouble.

I remembered taking taxi was rather rare as most of the time, it was "Ba Wan Che" (illegal Private Car converted to take passengers) that help us to save cost in travelling. I think it was still in operation in the early 70s.

Any way, car ride at that time was a luxurious treat! If we could, outing in the evening after dinner in somebody's car, would make us feel really joyful.

Air-con is not on most of the time and we like the breeze of cold air caressing us. Hence, window seats if our first choice!

Most of us call the outing "Je Hong". It means let the wind be our evening treats as we are just going no where and doing nothing in particular when we take the ride.

At that time, we were joyful to be offered a place in a car full of kids and adults. One car can take up to 8 passengers and we do not need to put on safety belt as no car had it anyway!

The place that I remembered as a must for "Je Hong" is the Merdeka Bridge where we can see the two big stone lions! Unfortunately, camera is something we cannot afford then and I have no photos for most of the outings!

Dexterine
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