Face of the Day

Albert Mall, Singapore

Face of the Day

Albert Mall, Singapore

What Wat? Khalsa Dharmak Sabha, Sikh Temple, Singapore

 What Wat? A once a week look at Wats and other places of worship within the region.

Khalsa Dharmak Sabha is a Sikh temple situated on quietly beautiful Niven Road, near Little India in Singapore. It first opened on Kampong Bahru Road as a club before registering in January 1924 as a temple and charity. 

Undated (pre-WWII) photo from the Sabha's early days.

The current site was purchased for 16,000 pounds in 1936 and the original building was renovated and then enlarged before being demolished and replaced by the existing building in 1996.

Many Sikhs took shelter in the Sabha, when Japanese forces attacked Singapore in December, 1941.



A Punjabi school was housed in the Sabha from 1946-1947 and a year later an English school was opened on the site, as was a Punjabi school for girls which operated from 1948-1954.

New Book: Singapore, ASEAN and the Cambodian Conflict 1978-1991 by Ang Cheng

In his new book, Singapore, ASEAN and the Cambodian Conflict 1978-1991, Ang Cheng Guan explores the resolution to Vietnam’s 1978 invasion of Cambodia.

His book is reviewed here

  'Ang’s new book is as full of nuggets as his previous works. Sometimes they are rather difficult to uncover, and, though this book concludes with a masterly summary, he does not always help us...
And here

'This important study of the shifting diplomatic efforts around the response to and resolution of the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia is based on the records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, a key player in the complex diplomacy in the region at the end of the Cold War. The study provides a detailed account of the policies and decision-making of Singapore, as well as the diplomatic maneuverings of the other major parties and powers involved in the Cambodian conflict.'

Spooky Singapore Skytrain

To enable me to catch my early flight back to Phnom Penh from Singapore I had to board the airport skytrain from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1.

It starts at 5am.

I was the only person catching it.

It was eerie. No one drives these trains, and no one was on it.

A little disturbing.

Singapore Superior

It seems in Singapore the type of deodorant you use reveals your national identity and your country's developmental status.

Whilst travelling through rectently, I tried to purchase a crystal deodorant stone.
One pharmacy assistant's eyebrows raised.

'Oh no', she said. 'We are advanced here. We use roll-on deodorants.
You will only find those sorts of deodorants in Malaysia. We are far more developed.'

How snobby! And nevermind that the crystal works a whole lot better and is without the irritating aluminium.

Interestingly, the Thai also produces it's own crystal which, presumably in the eyes of the Singaporeans, shows their lack of development and/or class, too.