When I was young, I'd listen to the radio.

The last trip home, I took some photos of my kampung where I grew up in. Ahhh.. those memories when passing by these places. How different everything now. If digital cameras were available then, I would have been able to capture how things were at that time. Alas, all those scenes can only be enacted in my mind only.

Now, this post would be a bit boring, but at least, you would get to know some glimpses of my childhood and my "carerful" life.. yesterday once more.

This is or used to be, Super Kinta, the "IN" place at that time. It's actually a big wet market in the center of the town, with a supermarket at the 3rd floor. When it was opened for business, I heard someone telling us that it's so big that they can't cover the whole area in 1 day! What a big joke compared to the malls we have now. Of course, I'm not talking even about KL malls. I know other cities have much bigger malls than what we have.

BUT. That's about one of the only place we shop or hang around in. And it had gave us many delightful moments. Like the time my friends and I chat at the eatery for hours with just an order of drinks. Or the "lau di fang" Yu Kim and I used to meet up at. And the pretty things SK had to offer. At least we had a place to call "home" and no need to meet up at sidewalks.


This used to be "Cafe Le Rendezvous". Iit's this place where I knew the word rendezvous. I always have the fantasy to be meeting up with some mysterious lover in that place, by how the name goes. Now it's called OLD TIMES pulak. So, I suppose we can only bring old friends for old times sake. The boss must be smart enough to know business is better that way, huh? Not sure if the owner changed hands or just a name change. But I think the last one, it was selling western cuisine too.

This place is one of the most memorable spots for me in Ipoh. Where Lido and Cathay located in, it's about the only entertainment we ever have, for a movie retreat, then to A&W. Our bus from Menglembu comes direct to this bus stop, only 50 cents a ride.

When I was less than 12 years old, I tagged along my brothers to watch movies, travelling in the buses, alone, by ourselves. My brothers do treat me very well, always holding my hand to make sure I'm safe. We just love the A&W rootbeer floats. It was about the only thing I was looking forward to everytime we went on a movie trip like this. Among all the movies we watched, I remembered only "Kramer vs. Kramer", which I had absolutely no idea what the storyline was.

When I reached the age to choose either bas sekolah or public bus, I happily chose the latter and walked to school everyday from here. God knows how far it is to MC, can someone tell me? I think it's easily more than 1km. And the buses come so infrequently, sometimes I had to wait 1 hour for the bus to arrive. I began to regret my decision to switch to public bus but it had seemed so "adult" and "cool" then, and I want to save my face so, I hang in there.. sigh..

Speaking about public buses, there were some incidents which are now forever etched in my memory. Being so young and vulnerable and attractive and innocent, I was never really worried about the pintai hamsup loes. But yes, they were lurking around all the time. My encounters include once who had flashed his thing to me, he was sitting beside me. Funny thing was, I didn't even know it was that thing. I thought why his thumb looked so k-shaped, must be sick man!

Then these pintai lo seemed to innocently sit beside me, and after awhile I could feel his hand going near to my thigh and using his fugly little finger to molest me. That was so nauseous. This fingers also some of the times come from the back seat from the side! I used to fall asleep riding on these buses after a long day at school, and once I wondered why my armpit felt so ticklish. When I checked it out, I could see the finger liu-lei-liu-hui, like a leech! I think I was so irritated that I turned around and scolded that bugger! Sickening!

After these experiences, I learned to choose the aisle seats whenever I'm alone. Better still sitting next to a woman. Then again, you know with aisle seats, sometimes those standing people comes so close that the physical contact wasn't very pleasant either. Sigh.. I'm so fortunate I need not sweat it out at public buses anymore.


Lido and Cathay served us the longest among the few cinemas we had, and now even both of them succumbed to the pressure of competition from TGV and GSC. Lido is now a restaurant while Cathay, no idea.
This lane wasn't quite popular at that time, I just thought Memory Lane sounds very appropriate but should be located somewhere else.
Ahh.. my school. The field is the venue of Sports Day for primary students, mainly telematches. As far as I recall, there wasn't an event my team won anything. What a sad thing it was. Apart from this front gate, there was a side gate where the lane is next to a nursery (one which sells flowers and plants). And a backgate which was an empty land of sands only at that time. Now it's the MBI and next to the school is Parkson. How nice if Parkson were there during our time. We would jam there everyday after school. Who cares if the bas sekolah didn't turn up, huh?


The roundabout near our school. Always pass by it after the road in front of our school was turned into a 1 way road. And I had thought it was the prettiest roundabout ever in the whole of Ipoh. It still looked the same after all these years, no changes at all, amazing.

Well, that's about so much I can remember, not so colorful, huh? One day I will story you about my stint as a maid helper. That one indeed was some brief experience I would never forget in my life.