With Club friends L to R ; Tan Sian, me, Kelvin Wee, Gillian Khoo, Audrey Tan
My parents joined the Singapore Swimming Club (SSC) in mid 1974, my brother and I were then enrolled in the swimming program helmed by coach Neo Chwee Kok, one of the top swimming coaches in Singapore. As a late entrant into swimming, I was not much of a fast swimmer, partly due to my body shape (thanks to the Indian 50% gene) which left me with a belly, skinny legs and arms and starting at age 11, I had to play 'catch-up' with the much younger kids - some starting as young as 5 years old.
Fortunately, after about 1 year of swimming, I was able to represent the club in the Sanya Samaki regional swimming competition amongst the ASEAN countries. There was SSC, the Penang Malaysia Ikan Bilis Club, Thailand's Bangkok Sports Club, Philippines Manila Polo Club swim section and Indonesia's Jakarta Swim Club. The first swim competition I took part was in 1975 in Thailand, and in those days, the entire swim section
headed by Swim Manager Mr. Henry Chan and the whole group of dedicated and fun-loving parents arranged for us to go to Bangkok by coach bus. It was a delightful regional experience for me and my brother, as I was 13 and visiting neighbouring countries was a great eye and brain opener for me. I was fortunate to travel to Europe (London and Greece) in 1973 - courtesy of my wonderful father and saw with my pre-teen eyes the cultured West.
In December 1975, Club's swim section took off by bus from Singapore, through KL and Penang - those heady days there was no smooth North South Highway. I remember vividly the horribly filthy toilet (no flushing system at all, just a hole in the ground !) where are the human waste was piling up in the hole and the disgusting odour, ugh ! That place was the piss stop called Ayer Hitam (Black Water) and tour buses would stop at the eating centres and we would all bundle out into the dusty open air food centre just to stretch our legs and go to ease ourselves.
I remember vividly us using Malaysian currency, (I think after separation from Malaysia in 1965 Singapore established its own Singapore dollar) and although Singapore's economic growth was tremendously large (something like 15% year on year from 1974 all the way to 1985) the early to mid 70s saw our Singapore dollar having the same valuation as the Malaysian ringgit. That meant that in the early to late 70s, $S1 or 1 Singapore dollar was equivalent to 1 Malaysian Ringgit. Today, some 40 years on, the S$ 1 is equivalent to
RM 3.2, which reflects on how strong the Singapore economy has grown all these years compared to our neighbour.
The first night en route to Bangkok, we all stayed at a hotel in Hat Yai. It was really a 'cowboy town' then. Another vivid recollection I had was when we stayed at this hotel in Hadyai, after dinner, the teens (boys and girls) were all camped up in our rooms playing blackjack or something when we heard loud "bang ! bang ! bang !". My first instinct was that someone had pushed down a large metal cabinet and it had bounced on the floor. My logical mind told me that that was not possible. Then it dawned to me that those were gunshots in the lobby of the hotel !
My Mum and the other lady chaperones rushed into our room and after checking we were all accounted for, went down to take a look. Apparently there was some altercation between businessmen and shots were fired. We were shocked and I dare say, no one ventured outside that night !
The next day when we checked out we found out that the businessman was drunk and he let loose on some hotel staff. Fortunately no one was injured or killed, but it brought me to the realisation that this big world was full of uncertainties and people with guns and other 'bad things'.
We set off for Bangkok the next day, and the rest of the trip is another story.
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