Another photo from 1974/5, this time taken from Sentosa Island, only reached by ferry then and no development. At the time the OCBC building was under construction. First two side pillars were erected then the floors were winched up between them Ground breaking architecture at the time. This really does show the difference in 48 years, much of the water in the photo has now been reclaimed.
John wrote about the heavy, short storms. Looks like the city is suffering under one!
Expat life then tended to polarize around English colonial pastimes like the Stage Club. I wasn't interested and tended to circulate among the ethnic communities. Most of my photos haven't been scanned and they are in France, but I have a few:
I loved Chinese opera, no, not so much the music but the sights and the artists' costumes and makeup. These street theatres were set up in a day and taken down the next after one evening performance. I used to go back and side stage to photograph them. Keep this thread alive and I will scan some photos!
Many of my colleagues said, why don't you join the sailing club? I took one look at the little boats and, being a petrol head I had a 16ft speed boat built in one of the kampongs. With a 75hp Johnson this could easily swamp a dingy! So we went exploring:
There's probably no water there now, just reclaimed land for Changi Airport. We used to take the boat to the north shore and cross over into Malaysian water and water ski up the winding mangrove swamp creeks. After a couple of years of doing this I bought an Admiralty chart and discovered our favourite creek was named Crocodile Creek! Somewhat alarmed we sold the boat as there were fewer places to go within Singapore and Indonesian pirates were kidnapping boats for ransom to the south of Sentosa.