Thieves' Market @ Sungei Road

Thieves Market, in my opinion, is one of Singapore's most under-rated attractions. Not surprisingly, it doesn't feature very much in any of the Tourism Board's official brochures or maps - most probably because the market reflects the seedy and rough underbelly of S'pore life which totally contradicts our usual clean modern city image.

According to information on the web, the market came to be at Sungei Road in the 1930s. And it was called Thieves Market due to the rather dubious nature of the items sold there. While most items are probably bought from the "rag & bone man" or salvaged from the local HDB Housing Estate rubbish dump, some people believe that the items may have been stolen as well.

Most items are displayed on make-shift tables or simply placed on the road. There isn't any governmental control (or least it appears to be so) and stalls are located/placed rather haphazardly around the area, which gives the market a certain old world charm. To me, the market is almost like a living fossil record of Singapore's early roots as a trading post.

There's a whole lot of things that can be found at Thieves Market. It is literally an Aladdin's cave of used items - from shoes to clothes to cameras to books to CDs to tapes to mobile phones etc. You will be amazed at what you can find at the market.

The people who make up the market are quite interesting too. Sometimes I wonder what their lives are like and what sort of stories they have to tell. Among them, there is a old lady who left quite an impression on me. She looked really old and frail, and you wonder if she was really able to have pushed/moved all those things she had for sale here by herself.

I doubt that the market will survive any much longer than 5-10 yrs at this current location, given the current blazing pace of development. The area which the market occupies is only about a 15mins drive away from Orchard road and the main business district.

Thieves Market is generally bounded by Weld Road, Pitt Street, Larut Road, Pasar Lane and Sungei Road. Geographically, the market is located at latitude (1.305 degrees) 1° 18' 17" North of the Equator and longitude (103.8559 degrees) 103° 51' 21" East of the Prime Meridian on the Map of Singapore.

Holy Sh*t

This is a video about some of the latest technology that Microsoft is dabbling with. As you can see in the video, this is pretty amazing and damn cool sh*t.

I won't be surprised if a 'Matrix' type of virtual reality will be available in a decade's time or less even. This technology seems very much to be like the Matrix's predecessor.

Oh, and that BMW ad at the end is pretty cool too.

YouTube link

eh, you sick ah?
That's what people been asking me lately. Strange thing is that I'm not sick.

I think it's probably because I sound more 'nasal' than usual. Why's that? I have no idea eh. Maybe it's because I've been waking up at 6am in the morning everyday to commute for blinking 30mins on the MRT to Camp. That goes to show waking up at unearthly hours for extended periods can do weird sh*t to you ... well, to your voice at least anyway. :P

ok ok.. I won't complain about it anymore. I know some of you probably wake up even earlier than 6am - and you've been doing it ever since school / work / the kid came. Me? I'm only waking up so early because of reservist. heehee...

Admittedly, commuting at 6.30am in the morning does have some advantages. It's still nice and cool, so I don't perspire that much walking to the bus stop. You can actually get a seat on the bus and MRT. But best of all, you get to see Singapore in a very different light.

There's a lot of interesting people that you'll see at such an early hour. The scenery is quite different too because of the morning light. It's not that I've never seen or traveled around so early in the morning. I guess I'm just looking at them from a photographic point of view. You'd be surprise that this little red dot actually still has some rather captivating scenery around. Maybe I'll just wake up early one of these days and see if I can take some pictures.

Anyway, I'm fine....except for a little cough..some aching muscles... itchy mosquito bites...

hmm....ok, maybe I'm not that fine afterall.

Fatigued

Nuff' said. Sigh..

Huff & Puff
Reservist Day 5 (Fri, 1 Jun)

We ran 7km on Friday - a much further distance but at a slower pace.

But even at that slower pace, I was huffing and puffing in no time. The only good news is that my body is not hurting as much as the first time. I suspect the overweight elephant was probably on leave and asked a hippo to stand in for him.

Anyway, it felt good to have been able to complete that distance - even tho I did walk a little bit of it.

Perhaps if I stop eating that much, I might actually stand a chance to lose some weight.

Damn, I shouldn't have had those 3 pratas just then - one of them even had cheese and mushrooms in it! And that milo-peng just really hit the spot in this damn hot weather.

Oh well, there's always the next run again next Tue. heehe..