Pa Ong Chia - Cab Sharing In The 1960s

The pa ong chia was basically an illegal taxi service. (The Hokkien term literally means "bully car". No, not a vehicle driven by a road rage bully but more a pirate taxi service driven by someone trying hard to make a living. The cars were usually very old. (Read on and you will soon realise that there was a reason for using very old cars for this purpose.) All of them ran on diesel because it was very cheap at that time.

Such a service, though illegal, was extremely popular with the public because the fares were very cheap. Passengers paid only 20 cents a trip. (Compare that with today's taxi fares - I think it is about $2.50 for the first 200 metres travelled or so.) However, there was a catch - passengers had to share the car with any strangers picked up along the way. Those could well be the very first cab sharing days, a move necessitated by the difficult economic circumstances then. That was certainly long before any smart aleck taxi CEO even thought of the idea of sharing cabs.

In the November 2007 issue of Lifestyle (an NTUC monthly magazine), there is an article titled "Pirates And Sons". It is about an interview with one Mr Seet Lip Phuang, 78, who was a pa ong chia driver in the 1960s. Mr Seet became an NTUC Comfort taxi driver in 1971 and only retired 8 years ago. In the article, he reminisces about his days as a pa ong chia driver.

Despite charging ridiculously low fares, Mr Seet could still make some money and raise a family of 5 children. That was possible mainly because the car cost him only $200 (to buy, not to rent) and diesel cost only 50 cents a gallon (about 3.8 litres). Of course, the cost of living then was very low too. Although $200 was probably not considered as a meagre sum of money to Mr Seet then, it was still a comparatively cheap price to pay for a car. It was a deliberate move as much as a strategic one to buy a cheap car to be used as a pa ong chia. I remember a family friend's son who drove a pa ong chia in the 1960s too. He was caught more than once by the authorities. Each time, his car was confiscated. (In Hokkien, it was called cheong kong.) Later, he became an SBS driver.

You can read Mr Seet's story here.

(Also read another Victor's article in yesterday.sg about the notorious Pa Ong chia here.)

Are There Any Idyllic And Picturesque Places Left In Singapore?

Just a few days ago, there was a Today article asking "Is Singapore getting too crowded?" I most certainly agree. I can feel it everyday when I drive to work and back. The expressways are always chock-a-block. Come Monday, I can even feel my wallet getting lighter when I pay more for ERP (Electronic Road Pricing, not Everyday Rob People). Yet there are plans to increase our population to 6.5 million. And we are still 1.8 million short! But I digressed.

Sure, there is still old Toa Payoh town and the last kampong in Singapore but I don't think they will be around for very long.

The beach is nice but it is too crowded:




There is still yet another place in Singapore that I discovered recently which has an idyllic charm. It has wide open spaces which are seldom seen in Singapore nowadays. Which wide open space is not being earmarked for yet another HDB development, condominium, office space or shopping centre?





The road leading to this area is deserted and scenic:







There are some very nice colonial bungalows here, like this one:



Even some that look like old kampung houses:



Complete with a toy house:



On a Friday afternoon, I even saw two newly-wed couples having their outdoor photo shoots there. It is certainly a choice location for a photo session. (Kenneth and Etel, please note.)

Here's a little quiz for you. From the photos, can you tell where this place is? (This should be an easy question for taxi drivers and wedding photographers alike. They are therefore disqualified from taking part in this quiz.)

Quality Of A Korean Product "Exposed"

Previously I blogged about the "Korean invasion" of Singapore.

Almost 2 years ago, I bought a brand new Samsung Digimax L50 camera from a fellow Renault Car Club forum member. He had just won it in a company dinner lucky draw. At that time, the camera's recommended retail price (RRP) was S$499. (However, as is usually the case, most camera shops charge some 20 percent less than the RRP. One shop in Sim Lim Square was selling the camera for S$415.) In comparison, a similar made-in-Japan camera was selling at about S$600 then.

Most of the photos in this blog were taken with the Samsung camera. The quality of the images taken by the camera was passable, though not terribly impressive. (Ahem, of course a good photographer can make photos taken with an average camera look better.)

Then about one year ago, the camera suddenly broke down. All photos taken with it looked grossly over... well, exposed, like this:


As the camera was still under warranty, I brought it in to the Service Centre and they repaired it without any charge. They told me that the lens barrel was replaced and it would have cost me more than $100 if the camera was not under warranty!

After the repair, the camera worked fine... until last Friday, that is. Perhaps, I would find it easier to accept if another defect had surfaced, especially since the camera was heavily used for almost 2 years now. But dammit, it was the same old problem!!!

I decided not to repair the camera this time as the warranty period had expired. It was just not worth spending so much money for repairs, especially when my experience was that the defect could very likely recur not long after. I intended to shop for another camera.

Last Saturday, I was browsing at Best superstore in Century Square when I saw the 7-mp Lumix FX12 selling at S$369. In contrast, the lower-end 6-mp FX10 was selling at S$409. What an anomaly! I thought that the price tags were inadvertently switched. Honest as I am, I confirmed with the salesman that it was not a mistake in pricing. He clarified that there was no mistake - the FX12 was on offer. It was a very good buy as he would include the following freebies with the deal:

1. Extra original battery (worth S$75);

2. 2GB Sandisk SD card (worth S$37); and

3. 1GB Toshiba SD card (worth S$19)

With the above giveaways, it was like charging me only about S$238 for the camera alone! My resistance simply crumbled. "Okay I will take one", I said without much hesitation.

So this is my new camera:


And here are the some photos taken with it: