20 Apr 2011 – A National Monument

This place brings back childhood memories! Glad to see that it is going to be a National Monument. And knowing the SIN system, this place will be immaculately refurbished and maintained. Was there a couple of years ago arriving with the train from KL to SIN and it was a rather run-down sad-looking colonial-style building. Looking forward to visiting when it gets restored back to its heydays. Ariel pix credit to Straits Times and the rest of the pix credits to Raymond CHAN.

1950s, first trip on a train was either from or to this station. Was intrigued with the toilets. They were not flush-toilets but what one could see was the moving tracks at the bottom; for a child, it was scary doing business onto the moving tracks! No wonder they could not be used when stationary or when in stations!

Second sister-in-law would take the train from Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia/near the Thai border to visit SIN now & then. Whenever we saw her off, the customs checks were very harsh. They would take out every single object including the clothes, to see if they are anything hidden in between. When the clothes look new, there would be a fine and if you could not pay, things get confiscated and believe me, these so-called custom-officers were unkind and even mean to an extend (hmmm wonder who benefits from the confiscated goods?). It was quite a painful and time-consuming ordeal 🙁

Choo choo train, chugging down the track,
Gotta travel on, never coming back. Ooh!
Got a one way ticket to the blues – Neil Sedaka                                                                                                                                                                                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmcwBkt0xfE