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Pasar malam
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For the first time in years , Yan and I ventured into a pasar malam ( which means night market in malay , for all ye ignoramus ) and immediately i was swamped by memories.
If you were born anytime before 1987 , chances are , you would have been one of those who often looked forward to pasar malams and thought the prospect exciting when you were in primary school all the way until your lower secondary years.
Pasar malams back then were nothing like those today.
The Pasar Malams of yore were incredibly crowded , mostly with throngs of young Bengs and Lians with similar copper colored hair and blonde fringes spouting hokkien vulgarities with flourish rubbing shoulders with you.
When i was still a young Lian residing in Bedok Reservoir , my best friend cum neighbour would often call each other excitedly whenever we saw the first signs of a Pasar Malam , like the scaffolding-like metal being put up on the pavements.
"Fiona !! NTUC there goin to have Pasar Malam leh !!! Quite long also !! Wah lao shiok ah!!"
"Really meh !! Wah biang , hope have fun fair also !!"
We would then anticipate for the Pasar Malam to be set up for the next few days as usually it would start on a Friday , lasting all through the weekend.
Because it was all the rage back then to be seen wearing a Tasmania Devil tee shirt ( usually one size too small for the tight fitting look. Yes , even for guys ) with black denim bell bottoms and the pointed comb sticking up from the back pocket , we would all get our fashion staple from the Pasar Malam .
Yup , those 3 for $10 kind with the extremely lousy prints that would fade after two washes but of course being the young brainless Lians and Bengs that we were , we couldn't care less.
After paying for our togs which would be stuffed haphazardly into a cheap plastic bag , we would stroll happily along the Pasar malam , bobbing our heads to the latest techno hits with extremely annoying and meaningless lyrics like
1) Butterfly ( Ai yai yai i'm your little butterfly ! Green black and blue made with colours in the sky ! Er yai ee yar ee yai where's my samurai ?)
2) Sea of Love ( Don't you ever let me go don't you ever let it show i will die in the sea of love ! )
3) The Final Countdown ( Its the final countdown ! Teng teng teng teng teng teng teng x 100 )
4) Be my lover ( La la la di la la la dum Be my lover won't you be my lover !! )
And of course the ever famous one that you can never stop humming to
5) Blue ( I'm blue da ba dee da ba de be dee dee la la la wtf wtf wtf da bee da be da)
All these from the makeshift pirated CD stalls and we would all crowd around them , buying the latest techno compilation CD that actually has the same tracklist as the one next to it , only with a different cover . Ha. Stupid us.
Hungry from all the spending , we would finally indulge ourselves with food , usually one Taiwanese grilled sausage and a cup of bubble milk tea each.
Then we would walk all the way back to the start munching on the greasy stick of lard which has probably been re-grilled for like a million times.
I remember going to a Pasar Malam with my neighbour once when i was in Sec 1 , both of us wearing our secondary school blouse , a pair of extremely skimpy cotton shorts that made us look like prostitutes and.. get this.
PLATFORM SLIPPERS.
Ouchhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
It was bad enough to see the pre-pubescent young us pottering around looking half naked.
To see our gangly legs not unlike an ostrich's trying to balance themselves on 3 inch high foam platform slippers?
Obscene.
And to top it all up , we thought that we were damn chio and would pretend to be irritated whenever young Bengs "zoot" at us.
"Wah lao !!!so erxin still dare to zoot at us. Knn" ( "Yay finally someone zoot at us !" )
It makes me grimace even to think about it. But hey , at least we had fun back then.
So yup..
Fast forward to today.
Deserted Pasar malams with the occasional couple milling around .
A single pirated CD store providing the only source of music by churning out dated techno hits.
One-stop renovation stalls specialising in window grilles like wtf , who the hell will think "Oh sweetie , our window grill is falling apart. Lets go and find a Pasar malam shall we?"
10 imitation Ramly burger stalls.
100 fruit stalls , all selling durians. ( Lai lai lai ! Durians shan ge shi kuai !! Lai lai lai lai !! )
Where are the Pasar malam QC people !?
It was so unlike the Pasar malams of yesteryear , where the stalls only sold food , food , food , clothes , clothes, clothes and maybe mattresses.
Yan and I shook our heads and since she was also an Ah Lian back then , we cried and thumped our chests for the loss of our beloved Pasar malams.
By the way , my msn is screwed up.
Oh well , time to head out.. Good bye !! =)
