katongkaren

That book sounds interesting - might just put it on my next Amazon order.

I've never been to Penang but meant to, and I think we really should go some day (if only for the food). So many people recommend it.

TBird

Bikbergen.....that was a great journey you took me on, I also grew up most of my childhood in Singapore living in a house over looking Kepple Harbour I also am going to get that book. Holland Village, CK Tangs, Banna Leaf Appollo Rest., I also went back and yes it has changed definately but once Asia gets in the blood it never disappears.

Bikbergen

Yes, nostalgia is a great thing and SE Asia is my second home so to speak.

I remember eating steak and kidney pie at the Tanglin club on a Sunday, visiting the Singapore Cricket Club with my parents and I even joined the Singapore boyscouts in time to greet Queen Elizabeth with the troop on her visit to Singapore in 1972.

I still feel like coming home every time I visit Singapore and stay at the old Goodwood.

It might have changed but it still has lots to offer!

TBird

......cheese board at the cricket club, watching my Dad play rugby.....Did you go to the british schools over there? Infact loved my childhood so much we are giving our kids a similar experience and travelling the world with our kids for the next 10 years...

Kooky.

Hello, this seems to have turned into a Singapore ex-expats' nostalgia trip Blimey O'Reilly, I see we even have a Singapore forum!

So I'm back, having done the long, long trip from my new home town of Sydney to my birthplace in the NE of England in one go and then a very wise and welcome stopover in Sg on the way back. Landed home this morning.

Caught up with a few friends on Friday, had a drink on Boat Quay and then up 6 storeys of one of the quayside shophouses to a wonderful Indian restaurant I never knew existed! Our Village; fab food and view of the river and out across to the Esplanade, etc.

Saturday we just mooched around during the day (of course, had to explore the shops ) and then went over to Geylang for seafood at No Signboard. Went past our old shophouse on Lorong 24A and realised just how great it was to live in a non-expatty area; everyone should try it. I love the buzz of Geylang but of course I've soon forgotten about the downsides, including being woken up every morning by the chorus of people hawking their guts up right below my bedroom.

Sunday was champagne brunch day, of course! Got the old gang together but we had to be a bit sensible as we had a flight to catch

All in all it was nice to go back, but nice to come home.

Old Singapore is disappearing fast. All my friends are slowly moving out of Seletar as most of it is to be obliterated shortly. There's certainly a buzz in the city at the moment as next week is the F1. Having seen the route - both on paper and in part with my own eyes - I can only say, if there are crashes, they will be quite spectacular

Oops, I see I've got smiley overload; apologies, must be the jetlag...

katongkaren

Awwww, it's like memory lane isn't it? So what's happening at Seletar then? And did you fit in a Mee Goreng (yum yum yum)?

Well we've got a memory of Singapore here on Phuket at the moment - smoky haze from Indonesia wafting in If Singapore is getting it, that's gonna make the Grand Prix interesting (though I think our haze probably comes from the North-West bit of Indonesia).

Kooky.

Hell, that would be a bummer - didn't even consider that. I didn't notice any haze at the weekend, and my eyes/nose usually noticed it PDQ - but all it takes is a change of wind direction.

(BTW at brunch, my social-butterfly friend spent most of her time chatting to a gay expat couple who'd come to Singapore from their home in Phuket for a break from beaches. )

Bikbergen

Yes, Seasider, give it another 10 years and you will become just as nostalgic about the old Singapore as us old timers

Seletar is going to dissapear? What next.......

Singapore has always changed but now more faster then ever!

When I was in Singapore last year, I had a long chat with a very friendly Malay taxi driver and he put it to me that the Singapore government wants to double the population to 8 million, hence the new Singapore Government campaign to promote having more babies! Apparently the Singaporeans are not doing their bit (Too expensive)

And where are they all going to live? On Sentosa......

Aparently it will double in growth.....

Oh, to answer T-birds question from before, I went to the Dutch school in Singapore which was established in 1928, lots of Dutchies back then because of Indonesia which used to be our prised posession.

Cheers!

Kooky.

Oh I'm pretty nostalgic now. I loved the place, it was home, we were not on a posting as such, but it was just time for a change and to think longer-term.

Not all of Seletar is coming down but will people want to live in the bit that's left? It's very sad that, as rents have gone up so much in Singapore in the past couple of years, Premas who manage the Black & Whites have started auctioning them to the highest bidder. This means that previously affordable accommodation has become mainly for those on expat packages - I've heard of Singaporean families who have been in Seletar for tens of years being forced to move out. The lovely village atmosphere is disappearing fast.

I lived in one of the few conserved shophouses in Geylang. The landlord owns 5 or 6 in a strip excluding one in the middle, in original condition (i.e., no glass in the windows!). If it weren't for that one, he would by now have made them all into apartments. All he has to do is keep the original proportions of the frontage. I almost wept when I saw them demolishing similar non-conserved houses further up Geylang Road to make condos.

Sentosa is a building site, it's true. However at the moment it's for the rich - mostly foreigners, from what I've heard.

Did the taxi uncle tell you about SDU, the government-run dating agency?

ex reg

I got a letter published in the ST in around1984 about all the buildings being pulled down in Singapore with no thought about heritage etc.
Since then of course they've made big strides in conservation, all due to my letter, no doubt

Anyway the main way the gov intends to increase population is by increase in FT (foreign talent) as I understand it.
That might well have an effect on a lot of things in Singapore with attitudes etc also being imported.

Kooky.

Well at least a couple of my male expat friends that married local and reproduced have been offered citizenship, ex-reg. If only it was an attractive proposition, they might make it that way.

OzSheila

Sounds a bit like my husband and in-laws who spent 14 years in Malaysia and hence spent alot of time transitting through Singapore in the 70's/80's. We all have very fond memories of Singapore in those days when it was a very different place. My OH and I have very special memories of the old Raffles when we used to stay in Somerset Maugham's Suite! My in-laws returned to Oz (country of birth) in 1992, couldn't settle, moved to France in 2000 and have now purchased an apartment in Kuching where they intend to spend the Northern Hemisphere winter. Once an expat it seems very difficult to settle anywhere permanently - it gets into your blood.

Kooky.

I think it does, OzSheila - I've only been one since 2002 and I can't imagine going back to the UK. I've also noticed that a lot of "expat brats" become expats themselves; it's amazing how many Shell kids one meets.

katongkaren

If you can afford to run two homes, wintering over in Asia then going back to Europe in the summer, sounds like the best of both worlds. So many people here on Phuket do that. Unfortunately we're just a one-home-couple

But right off topic again....

OzSheila

Yes, well we are now the second generation of expats, having spent 14 years in the UK and have returned to Oz for our kids secondary schooling. We now find ourselves counting the years until we can escape again.