My Childhood Period (pt.1)

I was born in 1942, during Japanese Occupation, at No. 49, Jalan Kedai Payang  which,  in late 1950`s, was changed to No. 91, Jalan Kampong Cina, to the family of small time businessman. Jalan Kampong Cina is on the southern side of Sungai Terengganu estuary. On the northern side of the Terengganu River is Kampong Seberang Takir, a Malay fishing village. Among a row of 8 wooden houses by the river side, our house was the last one from the bridge. The first 3 houses near the bridge were single storey, and the last 5 were double storey ( Notice why I use past tense referring to the  houses, as they were demolished by the Authority in late 2009 ) The first 3 single storey houses were supported by stilts of `nibong` stems ( a type of palm trees ) over the river bed. As for the double storey houses, the main front potions of about 30 feet long were supported by 3 feet wide concrete stilts. The extended back potions were supported by `nibong` stems. Those `nibong` stems had to be replaced every now and then, as their long submerged in water cause them to rot. When it became difficult to harvest the `nibong` stems, a concrete stilts of 1 ft wide were used instead.

 In fact there was a shanty small single storey house built side-by-side to the first house. It was a cobbler shop fondly known as house of `tauhua`. This `tauhua` family later moved to the upper part of the road and  later gave up its cobbler business and involved in picture frame and glass business – PERNIAGAAN CHONG WONG, which progress and now  has 2 shops. The house which they first moved in was a small shop on the `ua sua` side of the road. There were 2 houses adjacent to it, one occupied by `yee` Un Lee (mother of Teo Tee Kee) and  the next door was that of her relative, Chua Ban Hock`s crockery shop. Perniagaan Chong Wong, No. 152, Jln. Kampong Cina, bought the whole 3 shops and converted them into a single shop. ~tauhua`s` other shop is on the `ua hai` just nearby.

 By the side of this shanty house of `tauhua` was a 6 foot wide wooden pier extender 30 feet downward to about 2 feet above the river bed. I do not remember the main purpose of this pier. I suppose it must be a landing place for villagers, across the river, who took  boat ride to come to town. Anyway during certain time of the year when a type of shell dish, `gepor` was in season, the women folks around my area, including Soh Geok Chin, her sister Geok Chuan, my cousin Geok Sian, my mother, sometimes I followed and few more Hokkien ladies would come to this pier to get a boat to Pulau Duyong to sock in waste deep water searching for ~gepor` with feet and hands. The `cari gepor` was more for fun. `Gepor` are very tasty with `mee sua` soup or fry. Now a day, ladies are more preoccupied with TV series.

There was a concrete bridge, 24 ft. long and 24 ft. wide, which is still standing by the side of the pier. The bridge is said to be over 100 years old. There are beautiful floral reliefs on its concrete railings. The middle of the bridge is supported by thick wall-liked pillar built across the bridge from river bed thus partition the flow of water into two half. The bridge is roughly mid-way along Jalan Kampong Cina. It acts as a divider between the `phor` section and the `pasat` section of Chinatown.

In those days, road between the northern state and Kuala Terengganu was very bad and there were  no bridges across Sungai  Jertih and Sungai  Terengganu and also no bridge spinning across Sungai Golok  connecting Thailand to Malaya. Rice consumed by people of Kuala Terengganu town, had to be brought from Thailand by Chinese junks which berthed in the mid river. The `tongkang` was use to transfer sacks of rice to the private pier of rich importers. The private pier was actually an extension of the back portion of the house with strong wooden staircase leading down to the river bed. One of such rice importer was Chop Thye Seng which was 3 doors away from my father`s                house. The timing had to be right, ie .only when it was high tide, so that `tongkang` could come close to the pier. The `tongkang` was usually manned by 2 persons, one on each side of the `tongkang`, who would alternately moved to the front of the `tongkang` with a long bamboo poles stick down to the river bed. As the` tongkang` man moved towards the end of the boat, the `tongkang` would be propelled forward. The 2 man would take turn to do it. The `kuli` would carry sacks of rice on their bare backs to the importer`s warehouse, which was actually the same dwelling house.

There were no roads linking Kuala Terengganu Town to Singapore. Coastal steamers were the mean of transports. Such steamers which I used to hear the names of were Lawang and Hong Ho. Those steamers carried cargoes as well as passengers and were owned by Singapore companies. When the coastal road, Mersing Highway, was opened in late 1950`s or early 1960`s, land transportations, lorries, were used to carry cargoes. I was told that steamers Lawang and Hong Ho had to divert to carry passengers and cargoes between Singapore and nearby Indonesian Islands. During that period there was no bus service to Singapore yet. There sprout up a few illegal taxis services (plebet sapu) to carry locals to-and-flo from Singapore. The locals whom they carried were those known to them. I still remember their regular customers were `po` Bee Chuan or her daughter, Geok Puay whose shop was at No. 60 and is now selling gold ornaments by different person; they were like my maternal grandmother who frequent to Singapore to buy `Batik Jawa` for sale. Going to Singapore in those days did not require `International Passport. The young Chinese men who ran that `plebet sapu` activities were `Selar Puchat` whose wife had a lady dress making business at Jalan Masjid Abidin near the Mosque, another one was `Pin Po`, son-in-law of `Pek Chu` Lim Hong Ka, whose daughter has a flower and gift shop in Kampong Tiong Flats; and another one was `Ah Ngah`, son of Ah Pak pork seller, next to Capitol Electric. In 1970`s when Transnasional introduced direct bus service to Singapore, all those `plebet sapu` went out of business.