Monday, March 21, 2011

Good morning yesterday


It is incredible to look at old Singapore photos and kampong days pictures. You realize how Singapore has changed since 1960s, from kampong days to a first world city state. This change fascinates even the ones who have not been here for a long time, think about the generation who have lived through this great change. How do they feel when they look back the past 30 years? Well actually there is an excellent blog where some of them shares their feelings and memories of the past as well as the photos from past: Good Morning Yesterday.

Good Morning Yesterday is prepared by Lam Chun See who was born in 1952 in Singapore. He says that "this site is for Singaporeans and friends of Singapore of his generation to share stories of Singapore back in the kampong days when we were kids. I started this blog because I realised how much our country has changed in our life time, and it would be good if our kids can visit this site and learn a bit about our past. Please feel free to share your experiences". Younger people will also love this site, because it contains stories from the now extinct past of Singapore, kampong days.

Lam Chun See decided to start his blog when he came back from Myanmar in 2005. On his way back to the airport, he shared the hotel car with a Japanese visitor and during their conversation, he remarked that Yangon was very much like Singapore during the time when he was a kid. Many of the old British style buildings resemble those in Singapore. Japanese visitor was surprised and said that Singapore must have changed a lot during the past few decades.

It indeed changed a lot and too during a life, the physical landscape especially, has changed a lot. He then started this blog to share his memories of life back in the 60' s and 70's when he was a kid.

Kampong Buangkok, last surviving kampong on mainland Singapore
What I like most about Good Morning Yesterday is that great effort is put to detail the stories of the past. The content is just awesome, I sometimes loose my self in it for hours. Just a couple of days ago I met with my Singaporean landlord in his early 60s and shared the blog with him. Stories opened stories and we have lost ourselves in the blog for 2 hours! It was a great emotional experience for him, he does not use internet and did not see most of the old Singapore photos before.

By the way, if you are interested in to see what was life in Singapore in Kampong days, you do not need to head to Pulau Ubin, there is also one surviving kampong on mainland Singapore, Kampong Buangkok.

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