Walk along Balestier Road - Traditional Shops that still surviving

As I continued my walk along Balestier Road, at the junction of Balestier Road and Whampoa is this very old traditional bakery shop. I used to stay near Whampoa during my childhood so I can relate to this old bakery shop. Mom used to buy freshly baked bread from this bakery.

They are still around and still using the traditional oven to bake these bread. When I was there around 1 pm, there were people queueing to buy the bread that just come out of the oven. Of course I bought some too. :)

Sing Hon Loong Bakery (4 Whampoa Drive)

I asked permission from the owner to take photos of the freshly baked bread.

Bread cutting machine

Lam Yeo Coffee Powder, 328 Balestier Road

Another old shop still around is the shop selling coffee powder along Balestier Road. As it was a Sunday, it was closed. I only could take photo of the coffee powder from a small gap from the main gate, lucky they did not pull the shutters down lol. I can still remember the smell from the coffee powder that mom used to come and buy from this shop.

The above two shops has a history of more than 50 years as old as me hahaha.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

My World Tuesday - Old Buildings

Singapore is known as a clean and green city. But we still have certain corners of the streets that looked so dirty.

Some of these shophouses are empty and no they are not abandoned. I guess some new tenants are moving in soon, as I saw some renovation works at the front of the shophouses. Each shophouses are worth more than a million dollars.

Wonder why the landlord did not take good care of their backlane.

When I was young, I used to be fascinated by the spiral staircases.
Just opposite from those dirty shophouses are also some shophouses cum staying quarters. They are much cleaner and well maintained.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Fond Memories - Part 3 - JTC Flatted Factory

Continuing from my walk around St. Michael's Estate, I found this flatted factory still standing. The factory was built so long ago and I remember my eldest sister worked here during her school vacation to earn some money to supplement the family's income.

This factory and many factories elsewhere were built in the early 70s to help Singapore's economy and having factories built nearer to where Singaporean stays, help the businessmen get workers easily so workers dont have to travel far to work.

This will be my last post about St. Michael's Estate and where I spend my childhood. I hope my little childhood's story is of interest to you all as it is for me. :)

Fond Memories (Part 2) - Jalan Bahagia

Continuing from my walk around the place where I used to stay during my childhood, these old flats (Block 21) still exists, they are at least my age...lol
But these flats are upgraded and maintained and looked so new. In Singapore, HDB flats need to be re-painted every five years.

Those staying on the ground floor has the advantage of sunning their mattress or laundries in the open area.

The above row of houses looked like private houses but they are actually HDB houses. They have a leasehold of 99 years but these houses are about my age (49 years) so they have about another 50 years life and they dont cheap anymore. They used to be rented houses but HDB has already sold them to the tenants long ago.

They are so beautifully decorated just like those private houses.

You might like to view this Blog (I happen to stumble onto this blog) which showcase the interior of these houses.

Fond Memories Part 1 - St. Michael's Estate

This is a very old photo of my childhood home. I stay there since I was born but shifted out when I got married (1983). The flat was one of the first few homes built in Singapore during the late 50s to early 60s by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT).

The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was a government organisation set up in 1927 by the British colonial government in Singapore in response to the housing needs of the population of Singapore. To read more about SIT, you can read from wikipedia. Now the Housing and Development Board take over the SIT.

So I was lucky to be able to live in a flat since the day I was born so I have flushing toilet system and I dont have to use the bucket type of toilet...lol. Most flats during the early days are rented but nowadays more than 90% of homeowners in Singapore own their own flats/houses. (I dont have the latest figure of homeownership...so the figure was based on what I read in the papers.)

The flat and the surrounding flats were all demolished and now new flats built by the HDB take over the place. There are only 3 or 4 new blocks replacing about 20 blocks of the old flats, most are vacant land, I guess there are more plans to built more new flats when there is a demand for it. I just couldn't recognize the place when I went back there last month to have a look at the estate.

The newer flats are much more expensive and higher. Each flat in this area can cost about S$300,000 or more depending how big the flat is.

This empty lot used to be a very big wet market selling poultry, fishes, vegetables, pork, etc and some stalls outside the wet market sell cooked food. I missed the market because it brought back fond memories of my childhood.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Whampoa Estate Part 5-Wet Market and Hawker Centre

My contribution for pink saturday are some interesting scenes in the market.

This is a hawker centre where they sold mostly local food and the prices are quite reasonable . This estate is so old and most of the hawkers are long timers and the food they sold are so good.

Just walked across the hawker centre is the wet and dry market. The wet part sold fishes, chicken, vegetables, etc , while the dry sold dry groceries , clothes, cloth, household items, etc. Did you spot the "P" in Whampoa as a contribution to Pink Saturday?

Did you spot any pink dress in the above photo?

Stalls selling dry groceries like curry powder, spices, pepper, mushroom, nuts, etc

Inside the market will be the wet part, where they sold poultry, fishes, etc

As it is near noon, the market is close for the day, so the stall holders has to wash and keep their stalls clean.

I hope you enjoy the introduction of the market and hawker centre. :)

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch Friday - Whampoa Part 3-Fishing

My skywatch is still in Whampoa Estate. This canal leads to the open sea.

Can you spot a man fishing in the above photo? He is at a corner. Look at the below photo for a closer look at the man. I wonder if he ever catch any fish?

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Please return tomorrow for interesting post on the market place in whampoa estate.

Whampoa Part 2-HDB Shophouses

Continuing from my post about Whampoa Estate, here are shophouses that been here for a long time, at least more than 20 years.

These shophouses are known as HDB Shophouses located in the heartland of Singapore where majority of Singaporeans lived. Most of the times you can bargain for your products for about 10 to 20% discount unless they are fixed price. Sometimes, you can find things you cannot find in big shopping malls. You have to return to visit my post on the market place in next few posts.

Most of the shopowners lived above their shops and these shophouses are not cheap, some are sold for about a million dollars and the owner would then rent out or use for their own. My sister had one shophouse just like the one on the right. She stay above her shop.

Please return for more interesting post on whampoa estate.

Community Club

This area used to be a sleepy small village with many attap houses. Attap houses are houses with attap leaves as their roof and the name attap is named after the tree.


I remember seeing cows and goats in here when I was a very young child. Now flats are spotted here. I used to stay around this area but shifted out when my brother bought a flat and my other sisters and myself got married and got our own home too. This area is very old at least more than 30 to 40 years old. The flat that I used to stay are all demolished, I will talk about it at later post. I will post a photo of my old home in later post.

This area is known as Whampoa named after a well known Chinese named Hoo Ah Kay, Whampoa (1816-1880). You can view his history from here.

This is Whampoa Community Club where residents can come here to meet up or join any activities that the CC organises. Noticed the name of the CC are in four different languages, Malay, Chinese Tamil and English. We are a multi racial country and the CC is for all races.



Some of the activities organised by the CC.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.