i can imagine him saying,
"during my time ah, we used to..."

nice find, ivan :)

such memorees! kam siah! i got many a hapy days there under the kampong house abusing the goats. dun ask dun tell mah hor? i know it even before clinton become presidant. steady or not?

Simply marvellous.

heyy, i am throwing a kampong night theme party for my school. i guess i've come to the right place for inspiration. Could you tell me more about the good ol' days - the atmosphere, houses, the activities/games and such. do email me, very much appreciated. thanks! :)

wow! interesting blog! as i'm on a history project right now..and i'm going to have to do write up on some historical kampong events..this is the right place to come! thaks!

My name is Roger Wong, I live in in Mississauga just outside Toronto, Ontario. Canada
I used to live in a kampong just off Upper Serangoon Road ( In the old days the area was known as ' 5 Miles Stone Hougang ' and it was connected to the Hainanese Kampong that spread from Upper Serangoon Road to Lorong Ah Soo, As a matter of fact I was born in that Kampong and lived there for 30 years and moved to Jurong West and finally migrated to Canada.
However all kampongs were erased by the progress of Singapore but the memories live on for those who had experienced the kampong lifestyle.
Here are some facts of kampong lifestyle..
Kampong Kids...... are very creative, boys made toys to play among themselves, toys such as kites, wooden guns ( made from plywood and pinewood crates ) and swords ( made from hibiscus branches and cigarettes can covers) catapults made from the forked branches of the quava trees and the elastic band from bicycle tire inner tube, bow and arrows from bamboo. etc etc. we played rounders ( a game similar to baseball ) and badminton we mastered our swimming in the Serangoon River swamp. In the swamp we learned to catch crabs and fishes etc etc. The kampong girls played 5 stones, masa masa, most of them learned to sew and made their own dressess and stuff and sometimes they help to made chinese opera costumes. Most of the girls knew how to cook and do the family laundry.
Kampong Houses were eco-friendly, doors and window were always opened wide in the day, all the kids went to each other houses all the time. everybody knew everybody.
There were always hawkers going round the kampong everyday at different hours selling their delicious food , we have the rojak man, the tahu goreng man, the roti man, mee siam man, mee rebus man, chee chiong fan woman, man selling homemade rice wine ( unlicensed ) homemade ice cream man. and pophiah man. We went to movie too, a neigbourhood cinema called Mercury Cinema. The movie ticket cost 30 cents each that was in 1959. Oh what a wonderful kampong life.. and I missed it so much.
My mother and brothers are still living in the same kampong today minus the lifestyle and the type of kampong attap houses.
Everytime when I visit singapore and I stay with my mom and brothers, I stay in the same room which left many years ago.
I hope I will be back soon to visit the kampong where I was born.

I realise how many people love the ld kampong ways not just for the lifestyle but mostly for the way people use to behave. A group of Singaporeans even build a cluster of houses in Lower Seletar. About 2 years ago, their houses were demolihed when the upgrade the dam but they simply rebuilt their houses in another place. I spoke to these guys and find that they are very nice people. Lets hope more people will do things like this before the real Singaporean become extinct and be replaced by the calculative new breed.

It is interesting that without the kampong lifestyle, how the courtesy and kindness campaign seemed destined to fail.

I grew up in Singapore from 1955 to 1969 and recently have been back to Singapore for my 3rd visit. How I miss the old Singapore with the Kampongs and rural way of life. I have such happy memories of the wonderful country I lived in with all the mixed cultures and relaxed way of life. Singapore is like any other Westernised city, it's a shame it hasn't kept the charm it had. However Singapore today is a well run, organised beautiful new city and I will keep going back. Now I know there is still an area of Kampongs I will go looking for it.