Penang in the 1960s

Penang in the 1960s was very much like Singapore at the time, with plenty of market stalls, hawkers, tri-shaws and a large Forces presence. Here's some photos from that time which will perhaps bring back happy memories. The first photo shows the Magnolia Man delivering ice cream to a Forces family. There's something about the people in this photo that makes me think that they're British although there were also a lot of Australian families living in Penang at the time. I remember the tubs of Magnolia ice cream that we used to get from the van. It didn't taste much like the ice cream you get today and it had a sort of sweet, watery milky sort of flavour. It always melted as you ate it with the sun and humidity!

The second photo shows a market stall and I've a feeling that this photo was taken at the village of Ayer Itam. I remember going to the market there when we were on holiday at Sandycroft. I was about 5 at the time and the reason I remember the market is because my mum bought me a white monkey puppet! It's strange what stays in your mind. Most people stopped here before heading off to see the pagoda at the Ayer Itam Temple.

The third photo shows what appears to be a shoe repair stall. A mother is waiting with her small son. This photo must have been taken a bit later because I can see that 'The Exorcist' is being shown at the cinema in the background. It's funny that this film was banned all over the UK but was shown freely in Penang at the time!

The fourth photo shows a basket maker selling his wares, which includes all sorts of rattan work. There seemed to be someone, complete with all their goods, selling everything you could possibly want, up and down your street in those days. These included hot food sellers (remember the Satay man?), balloon men, gully gully men, fruit and vegetable sellers and even people selling live chickens. I hope to post more photos and memories of Penang here at a later date.

My first passport

When we first went to Singapore in 1965, I must have been included on my parents' passport. It wasn't until 1967, when I was 6, that I got my very own passport. It was one of those lovely old navy blue passports that everyone had at one time. It's funny, I couldn't write very well then (if at all) and I had to sign the bottom of the passport but made a mess of it. That's why there's a bit of sticky tape over where my signature would have been. I remember my hand being guided to produce the signature that you can see here. I don't remember being measured but I was 3ft 10" at the time. I wonder if people still have to put their height on their passports nowadays? I'm not sure why I needed a passport at the time and it was always funny that the people who issued it spelt my name wrong anyway! Maybe it was issued because we were returning to England within 6 months. There are no exotic stamps in it, just one to get into Malaysia in 1967. We'd already been there two years! It was cancelled about 38 years ago but I'm glad I kept it. It somehow looks more official than the little passports you get nowadays. I quite like the passport photo, I think that I remember that t-shirt. My passport photos would never be the same again!

The New 7th Storey Hotel

I was very interested to read James Seah's blog post today about what became of the New 7th Storey Hotel. I know that many people stayed there in the 1960s on arrival in Singapore and again when they were due to leave. Reading James's blog made me look for an old leaflet that I had from the hotel from 1990. We'd travelled around Australia for 6 months and wrote to several hotels in Singapore, from Sydney, to see if they had any accommodation. The New 7th Storey Hotel was the only one kind enough to write back and book us in by mail. When we got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, the driver said, 'No good! Very old!' We'd stayed in worse places backpacking around Australia so we weren't too bothered.

The hotel had obviously seen better days and was covered in bamboo scaffold. Inside, the staff were very friendly but we seemed to be the only guests. We were shown to the lift which had a metal gate type elevator which was operated by a very old man. This seemed to be his only job, to see people up and down, and he looked like he'd been there forever. The room was very sparse with two beds and a ceiling fan. I think that I've said before that they'd left one pair of

flip-flops out for us but each was for a different size foot! They let us have a plastic cereal bowl, which looked like it had been kicked around since 1960, and a spoon. We'd travelled so far that we had a sleep and when we woke up the next day, there were cockroaches in the bowl so we decided not to eat our own cereal in the room. I'd picked up a leaflet at the reception which showed the restaurant on the 7th floor and it looked fine so we went up there for breakfast. There wasn't another soul about but the views were great. There was a language barrier but we eventually ended up with some toast and cereal, which seemed to take forever, which was strange as we were the only guests. I always remember that the toast tasted of sugar, for some reason. The staff were nice enough but it wasn't the best place in the world to stay and after a couple of days we said goodbye to the cockroaches and moved to the YMCA on Orchard Road, which is the best YMCA I've ever stayed in. The leaflet for the New 7th Storey Hotel reads (word for word): While fast-changing Singapore develops as a modern cross roads and port of south east Asia, it's good to know that certain things are still in existence and changes made into a new Singapore.

New 7th Storey Hotel is centrally located amidst bustling busy shop-houses, one of the few remaining fore days of Singapore milestone.

Each of the hotel 38 rooms have been refurbished spacious and safety, add with a homely touch, has a colour television and direct telephone facility, with individual air-conditioning control unit and wall to wall carpeting.

Restaurant and Bar on the 7th floor provides magnificent views of the harbour and city areas, serves Western and Eastern Ala Carte Menu and breakfast in the morning.

I've scanned some photos from the leaflet and although the leaflet is from 1990, I think the photos were from the 1970s. We never saw this many people when we were there. Reading James's blog, it's all now disappeared which seems a shame because even though it was run down it was still a reminder of the old Singapore and how it all once looked.

More photos from Sandycroft Leave Centre in Penang, 1965

Here's some more photos taken at the Sandycroft Leave Centre in Penang in 1965. The first photo shows me in my pants - the uniform of all

kids in Singapore and Malaya at the time. I would have been 4 years old then. Behind me, are the chalets that we stayed in. It's funny, even after all this time, I remember what they were like inside. Alan and me had mosquito nets over our beds. They must have all come out at night because I don't look too bothered about getting bitten in this photo. I remember that we played football on this grass with an inflatable beach ball and I recall having a collection of ice cream tubs, which I wanted to keep because they had characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on them. Mum must have chucked them all away when I wasn't looking! I think there were three levels of chalets and we were on the second. Below us was the arcade - plenty of fruit machines and shoot-em-up games, also there was the cinema, cafe, a bar for our dads, a small shop and a restaurant.

The second photo comes from the football match that my parents played where the men played dressed as women and vice versa. In the photo is my mum, Les Sharpe, Bette Sharpe, Fred and also Debbie Sharpe. It's funny that I was only 4 but I remember that this is the day that Alan and me bought a Man From Uncle car from the shop there. They were the thing to have back then. I'm sure that we probably ran around pretending to be Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakan! If you've followed my blog, you'll know that the women won the match.

The next photo was taken by Alan one morning when he went out for a walk on his own. He used to like taking photos with my parents old Kodak Brownie camera which I think became his when they got a new one. In the photo is the swimming pool and the sea can be seen in the background. On the water's edge is where we saw dolphins while having breakfast and everyone ran out of the sea quickly when someone shouted, 'shark!'. It was just like the scene from Jaws. Then the dolphins started jumping in and out of the water and everyone realised what they were and started laughing. I don't remember anyone ever seeing a shark, or hearing of anyone being attacked by one, the whole time we were in Singapore and Malaya.

The final photo shows me on the swing nearby to the chalets, There's a see-saw nearby and I remember Alan and me playing on there. He always gave me the bumps and we would get other kids to sit on the other end and bump them too. It seemed a great laugh at the time. When we weren't pretending to be characters from the Man from Uncle, watching dolphins, going to the cinema, playing in the pool, in the arcade or playing football, we'd be out exploring the island visiting places like the Snake Temple, Iyer Itam and going on the Penang Hill railway. There were also boat trips and banyans, landing at beaches covered in starfish where we'd have barbeques, play cricket and other games or go swimming. I was happy just playing in the sand at the time. Writing about it now, it seems very idyllic and such a long time ago.

The removal of the Penang Hill Railway

I wrote recently about the Penang Hill Railway and how I loved travelling on it back in the 1960s. Today, I was reading a blog from ygblog4 and read that the train has now been dismantled.

After 87 years of use, both the train and track have become so worn, that it regularly breaks down. I find it amazing that the train that we travelled on all that time ago is the same one that was still in service until very recently.

The good news is that the train isn't disappearing altogether and hopefully, later in the year, it will be replaced with larger, faster carriages, complete with air-conditioning.

   

Here's a little film that my dad shot of the railway back in 1966. It's not a very long film and, if you're a regular follower of this blog, you've probably seen it as part of a longer home movie but it's worth seeing again just for the great views. I wonder if Penang is still so green and lush today? Hopefully, I'll return to Penang one day and travel on the new funicular and see all those wonderful sights again.

Singapore in December 1990

Here's another short film of our trip to Singapore in 1990. The building covered in bamboo is the New 7th Storey Hotel and we stayed there when we landed in Singapore. It actually looks worse in the film than I remember it! I think that the hotel was in Rochor Road and has only recently been knocked down. When the taxi driver dropped us off, he said, 'No good!'. We stayed there anyway, because we were on abudget. We appeared to be their only guests and they'd left a pair of flip flops out for us in two completely different sizes! The cockroaches woke us up in the morning and we went to have breakfast in the restaurant on the top floor. Great views but it looked nothing like their leaflet which I've still got. I'll scan it sometime and put it on here. I remember that there was a very old man operating the lift. Of course, many Naval families stayed at the 7th Storey Hotel in the 1960s but I think that it had gone downhill a lot since then.



The film also features views of the streets, Chinatown, the Merlion, Singapore River, the Christmas lights in Orchard Road, the remaining sampans on the river and right at the end, Singapore Zoo. It's worth sticking with the film just to see the swimming polar bear!
After we left the 7th Storey Hotel, we stayed at the much more plush YMCA on Orchard Road. It was better than any posh hotel I've stayed in but you could only stay there for 3 days so we ended up in the Supreme, which was a step up from the 7th Storey Hotel but not much of one. The wiring seemed dodgy and the air condition was jammed on which made it freezing cold in the rooms. The man on the reception told us if we wanted it warmer, to just open the window! When we left, the taxi driver said, 'Don't stay there - big fire!'.
I'd love to go again some day. I bet it's all changed and even many of the places in this small film will now be gone.

Tiger Balm Gardens movie, 1990

Here's a short movie I shot at Tiger Balm Gardens in 1990. Sorry it's a bit dark, my video camera had travelled all over Australia and had been dropped so the quality isn't as good as it should be!



The park had changed quite a bit since the 1960s. The gorilla statues had been removed and a huge dragon ride had been put in their place. It was great to see it all again but it wasn't quite the same as I'd remembered it. A lot of the land in front of the park had been reclaimed and built on so it felt like it was in a different location.
Tiger Balm Gardens has been knocked around a few times since I last saw it and I'm not sure if it's even still there today or if it's been moved somewhere else. I know that the dragon ride was later demolished. I've seen photos of it on the internet over the years but I'm never sure how recent they all are.
Anyway, the Tiger Balm Gardens that I remember fondly will always be the one in the 1960s, it's a pity that it's not been looked after over the years.