Uniquely Singapore: Singlish

Bao Toh: 

Original meaning is bun knife (Hokkien). Alternate meaning is to tattle. The phrase also refers to sabotage, to betray secrets or tell on others. The long bun knife is possibly used to describe the backstabbing. 

Bee See: 

Original meaning is young ladies or Missy. Local meaning is Nurses. During the colonial days, young ladies were referred as Missy by the British, probably derived from 'Miss'. The local Chinese, speaking mostly in dialects during the era, might have pronounced it in the Hokkien dialect and called the Nurses, young or old, as 'Bee See'.

Chop-Chop: 

Original meaning is hurry up. Local meaning is same as original meaning. Influenced by British seamen, who used 'chop' or 'chop-up' as a way of saying 'hurried' or 'quick', the Cantonese also termed it 'hurry up'.

Go Stun: 

Original meaning is reversing of a boat or go astern. Local meaning is reversing of any vehicles. 'Go Stun' is a corrupted version of English phrase 'go astern' which means to move a boat backwards from the currents or winds. The local borrowed it and described it to the reversing of any vehicles on the road. The phrase might have evolved from 'go astern' to 'go stern' and finally 'go stun'. 

Goondu: 

Original meaning is marble or nut (Malay). Local meaning is idiotic. ‘Goondu' is a Singlish word, derived from Malay to express something that is hard and heavy, which indirectly suggests a stupid person. 

Jia Lat: 

Original meaning is energy wasting. Local meaning is 'in trouble'. Originally meant to describe a job or task that consumes a lot energy, but over the time, it has evolved to mean 'in trouble'. 

Pok Gai: 

Original meaning is Go To Hell (Hong Kong). Local meaning is bankrupt. ‘Pok Gai' is a curse used frequently during quarrels in Hong Kong. The Chinese translation literally means die on the street. 

This derogatory term, however, is used commonly in Singapore by gamblers as an expression that he has lost a lot of money. 

Shiok: 

Original meaning is great (Shauk in Pujabi)). Local meaning is pleasure. It is one of the most-used local phrases, which can be used to describe anything that provides extreme pleasure, especially food. 

Talk Cock: 

Original meaning is fanciful story. Local meaning is talk nonsense or rubbish. 

A Walk Through Memories

On 13 March 2015, the residents of Yishun bid farewell to the bus interchange they were so familiar with. The departure of the last bus meant that it was time to say goodbye to Yishun Bus Interchange that had served the town well in the past 28 years. 

The premises had been demolished to make way for a new integrated transports hub at Northpoint City, which will be made up of North Park Residences, an air-conditioned bus interchange and a shopping underpass that links to Yishun MRT Station that expected to be ready by 2019.

In 1977, the government launched the Yishun New Town project, reserving some 920 hectares of land between Admiralty and Sembawang for residential and industrial development. By the 80's, there was a sizable population living at Yishun New Town; many of the residents originated from the nearby kampungs such as Pengkalan Petai, Pengkalan Kundor, Nee Soon, Chye Kay and Mandai. 

A large bus interchange became essential to meet the demands of an increasing population in Yishun. Before the construction of Yishun Bus Interchange in the 80's, Yishun residents had to be contended with the two bus terminals located at Yishun Central and Yishun Avenue 5. Slow and irregular bus services made commuting between new towns and the city area tedious and inconvenient. The small terminals also faced difficulties in coping with the rising number of commuters, and basic amenities such as coin-changing machines were absent. 

The HDB was thus given the task to build a permanent facility to provide bus services at Yishun. In August 1985, tenders were issued and awarded to contractors for the construction of the new bus interchange. 

In just two years, Yishun Bus Interchange was completed and ready for operation. 

Officially opened on 23 August 1987, it was the ninth bus interchange built in Singapore after Bukit Merah, Clementi, Woodlands, Ang Mo Kio, Hougang, Bedok, Jurong East and Toa Payoh. 

Yesterday No More

Like other old towns such as Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah and Clementi, Bedok had its original bus interchange built as part of its town centre, along with other facilities such as hawker centres, libraries and town councils. 

Just two years after it was opened in February 1979, Bedok Bus Interchange was partially demolished to make way for a larger interchange to cope with the increased traffic. 

In 1989, Bedok MRT Station was completed near the bus interchange, providing other alternatives for long-distance travelling commuters. The interchange remained a focal point of more than 30 trunk and feeder services. 

The sheltered walkway frequently had pasar malam and men selling illegal VCDs. Witnessed a few times, when they somehow know the police coming, wow.. they abandon their stall and run like The Flash!! 

In mid 80's, Bedok Bus Interchange was bothered by the issue of illegal fruit hawkers. The hawkers would set up makeshift stalls during peak hours, causing an obstruction of traffic. Some commuters also complained after being short-changed by the hawkers. HDB officers had to be deployed daily to curb the problem. 

Bedok Bus Interchange, having served the residents of Bedok for some 32 years, had its operations finally ceased in 1 November 2014. It is now replaced by new air-conditional bus interchange, integrated with Bedok Residences and Bedok Mall, and directly connected to Bedok MRT Station. 

A Walk Into History

Situated just before the Woodlands Checkpoint, the old Woodlands Town Centre is the last point in Singapore before one crosses over to Malaysia. A resting point for many, it is now a sleepy old neighbourhood, paling in comparison to its glory days during the 80's and mid 90's, when it was the regional town centre of Woodlands. 

In the early 70's, kampungs in Woodlands were cleared as plans to develop the area as an industrial and residential estates were laid out. By 1972, Woodlands welcomed the completion of its first 1 300 housing units. The establishment of Woodlands Town Centre followed and became the focal point for the residents and workers. 

During its heydays, the old Woodlands Town Centre was bustling with activities both for locals and the visitors from Malaysia. Retail shops selling textiles and electronic goods were popular. The hawker centre, Kopitiam and Prata houses were filled with people, and more choices in food were offered with the arrivals of fast food restaurants such as the KFC and MacDonald's. 

In 1996, Woodlands MRT Station and its underground bus interchange opened at the Woodlands Regional Centre, which replaced the old Woodlands Town Centre as the central hub of the new town. Three years later, the 7-storey shopping mall Causeway Point was also completed. The old Woodlands Town Centre then started to lose its shine and attraction. 

The original Woodlands Bus Interchange, established in 1981 to serve the residents in the northern part of Singapore, was thus replaced by the one at the Woodlands Regional Centre. The old one was converted a bus terminal, providing short intra-town services for travelers between Singapore and Malaysia. The services were soon discontinued and the space became a temporary parking and pick-up points for Malaysia buses ferrying the workers. 

Today, the old Woodlands Town Centre is considered part of the Marsiling Estate.

With little upgrading, the old Woodlands Town Centre has largely retained its appearance for the past four decades. As a town centre, it may have lost its appeal and in certain times, look like a deserted ghost town. But it still serves as an ideal resting point for travelers on both sides of the causeway, or for anyone who yearns for a quiet meal in an increasingly crowded Singapore.

Spaces Of The Dead

In a Singapore inundated with the clutter that urbanization brings, open spaces - wild and green, however transient are always ones to be celebrated. 

Open spaces such as this one on which a former cemetery, Bidadari once stood at Bartley Road/Upper Serangoon Road, are fast being lost to the tide of steel, glass and concrete from which they had served as a respite from - sanctuaries where a much needed sense of space otherwise missing in the clutter and crowds, can be found. 

Masjid Bidadari 

The cemetery was one of Singapore's largest and with burials taking place over six and the half decades from 1907 to 1972, contained as many as 147 000 graves of members across the communities and a mosque, Masjid Bidadari (demolished in 2007). 

Converted into a temporary park after the completion of exhumation in 2006, the grounds, even in its days in which the resting places of the departed decorated the landscape, has been a place to find peace in.

With its days now numbered - a recent announcement by the HDB on plans for its redevelopment as a housing estate has the first developments taking place by this year, there is not much time before the joy it now provides will be lost to the urban world it has for so long resisted. 

The plans put forward by the HDB do show some sensitivity to what the place might once have been or represented, with the cemetery and the greenery it provided not completely forgotten.

Besides the preservation of some of the cemetery's heritage, one promise that the development of the 93 ha. site holds is that a 10 ha. green space which will incorporate a man-made lake - said to be inspired by the famous lake which belong to the Alkaff Lake Gardens we now only see photographs of. 

Alkaff Lake Gardens

Despite it does create a very pleasant environment to live and play in, it will not provide what the space now provides.

Fast Fading Memories

One of the few places in present day Singapore that I am able to find myself at home in is the former Kampong Wak Hassan (now Sembawang Park) area along the northern coast. 

It is an area which has in the last two and a half decades, as with much (if not all) of Singapore, undergone a huge transformation and also one that is still being transformed. 

Despite the transformation; Kampong Wak Hassan now plays host to a new public housing estate, it is still a place in which Singapore we have forgotten about can still be found - at least for the time being. 

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Kampong Wak Hassan is one of the last places left in which much of the past remains to be discovered. A past which perhaps with the planned future developments in the area, some for which preparations are already being made, is one which may soon be well forgotten. 

Kampong Wak Hassan and perhaps the coastline east of it is where some of the old world does seems to have been left behind including what may be one of the last stretches of natural beaches in Singapore, the old jetty and a seawall.

Kampong Wak Hassan is today, a world in which the charm of a forgotten old world missing from most of the redeveloped spaces on the island, can still be found. It is a world which has thus far, managed to remain free from the crowds and clutter which now seems to dominate almost all of the urban we now find around us. The area is one which had for a long while boasted of welcome pockets of greenery and un-manicured beauty. 

But all that I fear, is soon going to change. Kampong Wak Hassan for one is already in the midst of a 'renewal' which I feel will see it lose the character and charm which attracted me there since the days of my childhood as it becomes just another well manicured park cluttered with paraphernalia which Singapore really has to many of.

Voids That Filled Our Lives

It was in the second generation of the HDB flats in Yishun in the 90's that I grew up in. 

Then, many of the new residents were moving into HDB flats for the first time and were just coming to terms with the new reality of high-rising living.

Ground floor units - a common feature of blocks of HDB flats built up to the early 90's, as well as lower floor units were much sought-after many felt an unease living high-up. 

For those that had moved in from the kampungs, the confines of the new dwellings needed a fair amount of adjustment to. Where their previous dwellings might have seemed like a cold cemented common space. It was no surprise that ground floor units were particularly popular as they allowed a semblance of life as it might once have been - little plots of vegetables and the chickens running around at the back of the units were then quite a common sight. 

It was perhaps natural in the context of this, that common spaces became spaces for social interaction - opened doors, much as they had been a feature in the kampungs, made common corridors one such place. 

Beyond the corridors - there were also generous spaces that brought neighbours seeking an escape out of the confines of their new flats together. 

For the younger ones, the common spaces naturally became an extended playground during a time when the boisterous screams of children in such common spaces would have been tolerated a lot more than it would be today.

As a child - the world beyond the doorway besides being that extended play area, was a fascinating place. There was lots to observe - the comings and goings of itinerant vendors, salesmen, swill collectors, the Karung Guni Man and the opportunity to meet people who often looked and dresses differently. 

It was in interactions that took place in these spaces that many friendships were forged and where much of my extra-curricular educations was received. 

Common spaces and the successor to some of the original common spaces, the void deck, have certainly come a long way over the years - besides being called a void for the absence of housing units, there is no doubt that it is hardly a void - but  a common space that has evolved to one that fills the lives of the many residents who do use it.