Continuing with the new idea of going through the neighbourhoods during my childhood, I decided to do one on my grandmother’s (from my mother’s side) old house and neighbourhood. Image source: Google Street.
This is the main road facing my grandmother’s house – the one just next to the bus stop with my grandmother’s close friend’s house next.
Today both of the houses and some other shops in the neighbourhood have been demolished and in place, there are only commercial buildings. In actual fact, one reason for my grandmother and my uncles to decide to move out was due to this main road which over time have become too busy and dangerous. Long gone the time when we can cross across the road casually.
The sundry shop where we used to buy our soft drinks is still there. It was not an old shop as it was someone’s house before that – an old Indian uncle used to stay in the house all alone but when he passed away, his next-in-kin decided to sell it off to be converted into a sundry shop.
The neighbourhood shops in front are still there including the fruit stall where we used to get our fresh sugarcane drinks. This plot of shops rests in the middle of PKNS low-cost houses which makes it strategic and easy for the neighbourhood.
In the morning, there’s a Chinese Aunty who sells nasi lemak (Chinese version with vegetable curry and chilly paste) and fried noodles and on the far side, you can get soup noodles. My grandmother is one of the earliest to wake up would often cross the road and get at least 2 packets of nasi lemak and fried noodles.
At night, one can get good Chinese food freshly cooked here. I still recall my Dad taking us for dinner after he comes back from work with us tucking into hot Hokkein noodles whilst he relaxes with a can of Carlsberg Special Brew. Image source: Google Street.
Right at the back of my grandmother’s house is a Chinese neighbour – the Chinese Aunty is a good friend of my grandmother and often comes over to share recipes. This Chinese Aunty has a restaurant at the front and some chickens in chicken coops in the back.
She is the one when we need chunks of ice whenever we have festive and hosting a party. To think back now, I realised how unhealthy the ice has been but we all survived.
There was 2 other sundry shop in the neighbourhood here – one is a Chinese sundry shop and another a small sundry shop run by a handicapped Indian uncle. Image source: Google Street.
I cannot believe that this sundry shop at the back neighbourhood of my grandmother’s house is still there and without any changes.
This is THE shop that we often drop to buy our asam boi which would be wrapped in a Yellow Pages paper by the old uncle wearing a singlet and short pants. Image source: Google Street.
This is at the Seri Kembangan town centre which is next to a clinic which is also our favourite family doctor. This road is the short cut that my grandmother will use to reach the town’s wet market from the house.
This particular road is on a steep gradient which posed no problem to 2 gutsy ladies who had walked all the way from home. To go back home, if the basket was full and heavy, my grandmother would take the bus instead (before we had bus service passing the house, she had to walk back home using the same route). Image source: Google Street.
This the actual centre of the town where all the public buses will stop before starting off the journey to the KL city. The town centre was also the place we can get anything and everything from school shoes, camera shops, clothes, fast food, etc in this neighbourhood – well you get the point.
This section of the town is also next to the wet market where my grandmother walked daily to buy the vegetables and meat to cook the meal of the day. So in the morning, just imagine how busy this street would be with people with baskets and bags of vegetables, etc. Image source: Google Street.