In Memoriam: My Army Buddy, Chong Teuck

In my earlier post on Gillman Camp, I mentioned my army buddy Chong Teuck.

Yesterday, I saw an obituary commemorating the 10th anniversary of his passing in the Straits Times. I decided to write this blog in memory of my old friend with whom I spent almost one half of my active days in the army.

Cheong Teuck and I were platoon mates for nine months in Charlie Company, OCS (Officer Cadet School) in SAFTI in 1976. After that we were both posted to Gillman Camp for the four-and-a-half month JOEC (Junior Officers Engineer Course in 1977. From there, I was posted to 30SCE in Mandai Camp to serve my remaining 10 months of full-time national service as a platoon commander, whilst he went on for yet another course in 37SCE. Being a regular, he was permitted to do that.

My regret as always, was that we never kept in touch, and our paths never crossed since then.

I dedicate the photographs below to the memory of my friend Chong Teuck.



Taken at Gillman Camp after some lesson on camouflage and concealment


Enlarged view (From Left): Joe Chung, Chong Teuck and myself





Taken at Temple Hill, Gillman Camp after a lesson on the Cage Bridge





Taken at Gillman Camp after a lesson on Bailey Bridge



Taken at Mandai Camp during a lesson on Medium Girder Bridge. Me facing camera. CT (with gasses) looking on



Taken at Safti Demolition Range. Me standing; extreme left. CT standing 2nd from right


I was happy to read from his obituary that Chong Teuck had accepted Christ as his Lord and savior. May the Lord bless and keep his wife and 2 daughters.


At least I know that someday, we will meet again ‘”on that beautiful shore”.

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

The Humble ‘Punki’ – A Symbol of Toil and Fun

After reading June Yong’s interesting post
about the Grassroots Heritage Centre, I decided to pay a visit the other day at lunch time. As June mentioned, there were lots of useful information about the history of community centres in Singapore for the past 40 years. But I confess I did not pay much attention. Instead, I was excited to see many familiar objects which brought back memories.

The first object that caught my attention was the rattan basket or what we called ‘punki’ in Hokkien. (sorry I do not know the correct name in English). I have not seen this type of rattan punki for a long time. Nowadays, they are all made of plastic and black in colour.



To me the humble punki is a symbol of toil as well as fun. Toil because it reminds me of the tough defence exercises in the army where we had to dig trenches and moved earth with it. Fun because we used to catch fighting fishes from the nearby ponds with it during our kampong days.

As most of the NS boys in Singapore are familiar with the former activity, I will limit this post to sharing about how we used the punki for one of the most enjoyable activities of my childhood.


To catch a fighting fish, you must first locate a suitable site. We usually look for patches of grass or vegetation on the edge of the pond; like the one you see in the picture below (taken at MacRitchie Reservoir), but our grass was taller and the water dirtier. It’s strange how this instinct stays with you all your life. Every time I come across a lake or pond like this, my mind immediately asks; “Are there any fighting fishes here?”



Next you wade quietly to the knee-deep, murky water in front of the patch and plunged in the punki. Immediately, use one hand to beat around the bush, literally, to chase the fishes into your punki, whilst steadying it with the other hand. After that, you raise the punki in eager anticipation. What a thrill it was to see a brightly-coloured, struggling male fighting fish in your punki. However, we occasionally get a rude shock when we see a huge hairy spider scurrying around instead.

The kind of fighting fish we caught were quite different from the ones you see in the aquariums. Those they sell in the aquariums are Siamese fighting fish with bigger, more elegant fins and tails. Ours had smaller fins and tail. They are called betta imbellis, so I learned.



We would put our precious catch in tin cans and bring them home and transfer them to glass Horlicks bottles together with some water plants, usually the hydrilla, and keep them in a dark area, such as (don’t laugh) under our beds, to let them regain their bright colours.

What do we feed them? We usually catch tubifex worms from the nearby Kallang River. How? Please read my earlier story, ( Our Kampong). Alternatively, we use a spoon to scoop mosquito larvae, which were in ample supply, from nearby drains.

Then comes the cruel part where we would let our fishes fight by putting them into a bigger bottle. I am glad that kids nowadays are not so cruel.

This is a photo of me and my younger brother taken in the early 60's. Do you see the pond on our left? On our right is another pond where we catch the fighting fishes. I figure this spot is now right smack on the CTE.

Besides the punki, I also saw some other familiar objects like wooden badminton rackets and a mock-up of the community centre. I will blog about these another time.

Foreign Sports Talent Scheme

The table tennis team has done Singapore proud by winning 4 gold medals at the Commonwealth. Our sports officials are jubilant. The Straits Times sports editor declares “This is a vindication of the Foreign Sports Talent scheme”.

Nowadays, I don’t follow the sports news very closely. But, recent events in Melbourne have attracted my interest. Especially, I note the dismal performance of the Netball team in comparison with the peddlers. So I would like to share some thoughts. But it’s personal and should not be taken too seriously as I haven’t been following the debate about the FSTS closely.

I don’t like to pour cold water, but I must confess I have not been terribly excited by the excellent performance of the table tennis team because I understand a large number of them are not native Singaporeans. I must admit I could be behind time in this aspect.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I casually asked my family members what they thought of the FSTS, and these are their views.

1) My Kayaker Son. (He is captain of the ACS (I) kayaking team and fighting fish enthusiast)

He thinks that if the foreign athletes were brought in when they were still of school-going age, and educated in our schools, then it was alright. Otherwise, it would be like going to Thailand to buy the best fight fishes and entering them in a local competition and winning all the top prizes – it would not be very fair. If you bought the good quality fish fries and raised them up yourself then it is still acceptable.

2) My youngest daughter who hates sports. She thinks it’s alright. “After all Singapore likes to win wat”.

3) My teacher wife.

But then what about the local athletes like your kor-kor (elder brother). They train so hard and make many sacrifices to reach the top. What if the government says, our kayakers simply have no hope to compete against the Australians. Let’s bring in some foreign talents to represent Singapore. Wouldn’t that be very cruel to our own Singaporeans?

Incidentally, I am also somewhat puzzled by the remarks of one sport official who was interviewed on television last night. He said something to this effect. “Nowadays, our athletes are more competitive and compete to win.”

I find myself asking; “You mean the previous athletes like Patricia Chan and Water Polo teams were not ‘competitive’?”

My Stamp Collection - Part 2

Today, I am going to show a few more stamps of ‘extinct’ countries. But to make it more interesting, I will draft my post in the form of quiz questions. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I like to test the younger Singaporeans about history and heritage-related stuff. I usually ask those above 40 not to participate – in order not to embarrass them. Haha.

So here goes …

By the way, anyone remember our former PM's frequent exhortations to build a 'rugged society'?

Question No. 1 What was Singapore’s National Day - before 1963 that is?

Did you know that we were regarded as a 'state' of Malaya, like Johore or Penang?

Question No. 2

What was Sabah known as before they joined Malaysia?

Notice that they printed the words Sabah over North Borneo?

Question No. 3

Vietnam was a colony of which European power before independence?

In case you are not able to read the small print, it listed countries like Togo, Tunisia, Upper Senegal, Niger, Upper Volta, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna Islands and many more.


Question No. 4

What was the name of this country? What is it known as now?



Looks like stamp collecting can be quite educational for of history and geography. Maybe some of the young friends reading this blog will be interested to take up this hobby and even form a stamps club in your school.

My Stamp Collection

Layyoong’s interesting post (Snail Mail) about the Singapore Philatelic Museum reminded me of the time when I used to collect stamps as a hobby. I guess that was probably in the 1960’s. She will be surprised to learn that not only nerds, but uncouth kampong boys also liked to collect stamps. I think we were introduced to this hobby by our more civilized cousins, the Ngs.

Fortunately, I was able to locate my old stamp album and so I can share some photos with you.

Flipping through this old album of mine, I realized that our world has changed a great deal in one generation. Many of the countries in my album do not even exist today; or have since adopted other names. For example:

Aden and Ceylon

Sarawak (before Merger)


And even Malaysia at a time when we had to sing the Negara-ku.

I particularly liked stamps from Hungary. I recall being fascinated by a set of diamond shape stamps and pestered my father to buy them for me. I think it was quite indulgent of him to blow 20, 30 cents for a packet of just 4 or 5 stamps that had no practical value.

I also remember exchanging stamps with one Indian boy who used to come around to our kampong every afternoon to peddle home-made kuehs which he carried in a basket. This boy studied at Bartley School and lived in Bartley Road area: which means, he had to walk about 2 to 3 km one-way just to sell a few dollars worth of kuehs. I wish he is reading this blog.

I also remember 1 silly incident. Once, I saw some beautiful stamps in a magazine and I place the mail order for them. On receipt of the stamps, I was supposed to make payment via postal order. Because I was too ‘swaku’ to know what was postal order, I did not make the payment until I received a stern warning from the vendor. I immediately, packed the cash in an envelope and sent it to England.

Even though I stopped the hobby in secondary school, I still have the habit of cutting out stamps from foreign countries. For example, whenever our domestic maid receives a letter, I would ask her to cut out the stamps for me. Consequently, I have a whole box of cut stamps from Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia.

When I was working in the National Productivity Board in the 80’s, the staff regularly received offers to purchase First Day Covers. I never could resist putting in my order.

Question is, Now what do I do with my stamp collection? How much are they worth today?

Maybe I will just leave that problem to my grandchildren