MY ATTAP HOUSE

My father's first house

I was born in 162C, Sembawang Road, 13m.s. as recorded on my birth certificate. The house had 3 rooms with cement floor. The kitchen was an annexed on the left of the main house with bare earth floor. Just outside the house on rear left was a well that provide the water for subsistence. Cooking was done with wood gathered from nearby and surrounding forests. Once a year, an old rubber tree was felled. It was then cut into 18 inches log. Mother had to split to manageable size for cooking. She alone will use the axe for this strenuous task. My brothers and sister help her with a six foot saw to cut the tree to logs. This was mainly done during the school holiday .

Family photo, youngest brother in mum's tummy.

Vegetable Plots

At the back of this house, there was a large vegetable plot. My kind hearted father offered this plot to a bachelor man to help him make a living. This man, Koh Seng built a small hut and eventually lived there for over 20 years. Father never collected rent from him. But in return, he gave us some vegetables and at time when we had laborious task, he would volunteered. As our house was rather isolated, he also provided some kind of security. My mum had her own plot nearer the house. That she grew our household needs. The harvest was plentiful, more than enough for our family needs. The extra was given away to city relatives and some were use as animal feeds. The fertilizers for the farm came from the chicken and pig dung. Yes, that’s ‘sustainability’ the world is hyping today.

chicken coup on the left of house

Mini orchard plantation

My father was a planter. He loved to grow fruits trees. We had many breed of rambutans, durians and coconuts. On top of these fruits trees, we had jambu, sour sops, and avocado, jackfruit and chempedak trees. There were also lemons, lime and Buddha fingers fruits. I am tremendously proud of our fruits orchard. We enjoyed picking ripe durians from the ground. I ate rambutans from the branches of my favorite tree. My relatives loved to visit us during the rambutan season. I always volunteered to pick for them. My aunties love me for my spontaneous help. Fruit on the trees are meaningless unless someone willing to pluck them. It was tiring and dirty task and often I was stung by ants.

Chicken coup on the right of the house

Drinking off the trees

We drank coconuts juice when we were thirsty. I was always very proud and happy to offer my version of fresh juice to my friends and relatives when they visit us. My greatest thrill was to fall the coconuts that were just ideal for drinking and the flesh still soft and translucent. This was where I honed my life philosophy of getting it right the first time, otherwise, I need to use the 30 feet bamboo pole with a metal hook attached to the top for one more pick. That will give the mosquitoes a second chance to feed on me. Anticipating the falling path of the coconut and just move away sufficiently to safety was a skill perfected by experience. My friends think that was pretty cool with the coconut dropping just feet away.

Storage for firewood. With grandmother

Pets and pests

We shared our house with many dogs and cats. The dogs provided us security and warned strangers to stay away. They were also my pets and friends. The cats kept the rats population under control. Occasionally we did have uninvited guests like snakes inside and outside the house. We have seen varieties of snakes like black cobras, python, green grass snakes and some house snakes. On raining days, we did get surprise visitors like the iguanas. There were scorpions, centipedes and spiders. ‘Kampong Boy’ like me knows pretty well to find them. They had their favourite nesting areas. Lizards, atlas moths, butterflies, dragonflies and all kind of caterpillars were plentiful. Many species of birds provided the music to the otherwise very peaceful and serene village setting. As night fall, the pitch dark surrounding can be eerie at times. The crickets never fail to squeak and occasionally the frog croak and some night birds chirping away. Of course, the dogs never fail to bark at slightest unexpected noise or motion. Looking back, life during my childhood resembles an expensive eco-tour today.

My 2 brothers and my sister on motorbike own by my uncle



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