More on Kampong Bahru

Kuala Lumpur in the early fiftees was idyllic and laid back . People go about doing their own thing but the pace is never hurried. Kg Bharu was never far behind. The people are friendly and seem to know each other. Kg Bharu was a small enclave declared by the Sultan of Selangor as a place reserved only for Malays to build their houses. I was born in 1944 and have three sisters. My parents, sisters all live in Hale Road (named after Mr. Hale, a District Officer) a very small two-roomed housed raised above ground with brick and cement pillars supporting the house. The rooms were very small. My sisters were in one room and my parents and I were in the other. There was a small kitchen at the back.

Food was prepared on stoves fired by wooden sticks. The food seemed to taste much better as bits of ashes came falling into the frying pans when food was prepared.There is no privacy in a way when we take our showers. The shower place was downstairs and we used the wooden stairs to come down to shower. I suppose nobody was shy and we just enjoyed the shower. Of course we wore sarongs to protect our modesty. The toilet was at the back of the house and it uses a bucket system. We have to squat when we use it. It was unhygenic but that is Kg Bharu in the rare old times.

There was no sewerage system for toilets as far as I can recollect and the Municipality hires Indians to pick up the buckets every Saturday nights and the contents were disposed in the Gombak river or perhaps sold to Chinese farmers for feed. It is only alleged. How far its true I'm not quite sure but the Indians with buckets on their shoulders was a picture to behold. Alas there was no Canon digital camera at that time. What a pity.

Before pickup time they (five or six) would sit on the kerb by the side of the pick up lorry.They will sit very happily chewing beatlenut and leaves while waiting for roll call. They would then merrily go about doing their work and in most cases it is a job well done The house has a varendah where the family sat down and watch the world go by. There were not many cars on the road. Most of them were black with white lined tyres. It was the way they designed and made them. Most cars were owned by British administrators,army personnel,etc. Watching by the verendah we could often see cars passing by - a Mayflower a boxy car,a Riley which has walnut panels, morris minors and Austin 7's.