Down Memory Lorong (Part 2)...

Continuing from yesterday, I had exited Lorong 16 and was now on Geylang Road and heading eastwards towards Lorong 32, where my old home was. Along the way, I tried to identify what's new and what's old. I don't remember if this (Goddess Kwan Yin?) statue atop a Chinese temple was there before I left Geylang:

Buildings in Geylang typically had narrow frontages but extended some way back. Many duplex apartments also had spiral staircases near the back lanes. Here's a modern makeover with an uncovered courtyard and a (no longer spiral) staircase that I came across:

Ah, spiral staircases spotted!...

I am no expert on ornate facades but I hope no one tears down the one with the blue door trim (or stick an aircon unit through the door!):

 What an interesting name! "Sam Seng" colloquially means "gangster"...

Getting closer! This is the mosque (in the distance, with its minaret) that awakened us each morning with its call to prayers...

 

Lorong 30... hey, this corner was where our favourite chicken rice stall was!...

I then crossed the road to get to the other side (even numbered lorongs are on one side; odd number lorongs on the other side... now you know why the chickens in Geylang crossed the road). I am now at Lorong 31. This corner was where our favourite wanton mee stall was, served by a sprightly old woman. Again, the stall is gone. In its place a coffeeshop...

But at least the coffeeshop has a name as intriguing as Lim Sam Seng's!...

Before I crossed the road again, I snapped this pic of the bus stop I had stood at to wait for the buses... to get to school, to town, etc. It does not seem to have changed...

Finally, the entrance to Lorong 32 and a long-perspective view of the lane itself:

This is not exactly the most upscale neighbourhood but what a name for this condo... Le Shan Gardens! (this condo is new, at least to me)...

Another aesthetically-pleasing upper-storey wall, with pretty window frames. I used to admire them as I walked by...

No 29B. After this and the next few Sixties-era double-storey unit would be the condos, or so I thought...

Look carefully... wedged between two condos is this hold-out (No 49). My goodness, when we were all negotiating with the developers way back in the early Nineties, this guy refused to deal. He's still there!...

My own unit, No 53/53A, has been absorbed into this condo, Casa Emerald, which has the address 51, Lorong 32. This means Nos 51/51A all the way to 59/59A (the last unit nearly at the end of the lorong and also the home of my sister How Lui, her husband Ah Chiang and their sons, the Chio brothers) have all been absorbed into this new address...

I'll stop now and will have to continue with a Part 3 tomorrow. That's when I discover something sentimentally familiar at the back of Casa Emerald.