This was Kampong Bengali, two rows of raised attap house which was sited at the area behind where Damo clinic is now. In the fifties we use to rent two units (big family lah!) at Rm20.00 per house. It does not come with electricity and the whole kampong shares a public pipe. Each house runs a rubber hose from the public standpipe to their own unit and each family take turns to fill up their tanks. Sometimes it is till the wee hours of the morning. How lucky you buggers are now.

I can't pinpoint exactly which house is ours but it should be towards the last 6 houses. There is no paved road but gravel laid. Used to run barefoot along it and we know exactly where each stone is so that we won't trip. Believe it or not!!. The roof is attap and floors are uneven planks. Use to sleep on a mat on the raised floor, no tilam leh! Heavy rain, it leaks, strong wind raises the attap up and we can see the sky. Centipedes dropping from above is quite common. We use only kerosene lamp, however, we have a bright" tai kong tang" - a pressurized lamp using kerosene with a treated cloth "bulb". Butterfly brand it is. The lamp will be turned off just before we go to sleep.

Bengali kampong is really own by a "Bai", and a loaf of white bread cost 25 sen, a double loaf cost 45 sen. We use to rear ducks and chicken, thats where the egg comes from (got it?). Goto get up very early to collect the eggs otherwise the crows will beat u to it. I would always shout something like this " di di di di di" to call the ducks back to the penfold. Surprisingly it always work and you would see them walking in a single file back to the fenced pen area. My, I could go on and on about life but will save it for later postings.