From the mosque, we travelled to the temple of the Goddess of Mercy. I went in briefly to offer a quick prayer for everyone's health. The temple of very busy, with a lot of believers inside, and a good amount of beggars.
Out of the temple, we went to the old row houses on Muntri Street. These houses are very long and deep. One of these belongs to a friend of my grand-mother. "Brother Nuan" and "Sister Chuaye". I saw the house, still with the name plague "Lee Choon Nuan" hanging over the front door. Mr Lee was a gold smith. His wife "sister Chuaye" was my grandma's friend. They used to visit each other, and I would follow once in a while to visit. The house was abandoned now, assigned as a national heritage area. I remember the front parlor was the work area, where Mr. Lee would see his customers. Beyond that is the sky well, and sister chuay and family will live in that back area. They have three daughters, Ah Foon, Ah Me, Ah Uu, two of which were spinsters. I believe the married daughter was Ah Uu, who later moved to Kuala Lumpur, in the Petaling Java area. One day, on the way to or back from work, she was caught in a cross fire of a mad man, and died.
Sister Chuaye was a constant source of entertaining conversation amongst my brothers. She was very tall, lean, and talkative. We were always amused by her. I heard she only recently passed away, out-living my grandmother by some 30 years.
From there, we crossed Love Lane, and I went to check on my first primary school, Shih Chung primary school. The school, the first Chinese primary school opened in Penang, is still in operations. As you can see in the picture, it is a very small school. There are two stories in the building, and I think there may be only 6 class rooms in the building. The school is so small, that during my days, we have to move to another, bigger building, for year 3 to 6. This school was only for primary 1 to 3.
My favorite teacher was my first year teacher, Miss Chong Hwai Fung. Miss Chong's older sister was a teacher there as well. In primary 5 and 6, I befriended Miss Chong's nephew. In any case, during my primary 1 year, Miss Chong was my favorite teacher. I would stay late after class, and clean the black board for Miss Chong. She had, at the time, a black Ford automobile. Since I stayed late, she would drive me home in the Ford. I got to sit up front, and played with the hand-cranked front wind shield, and look at the turn signal, which was built into the b-pillar, and when switched on, would pop out like a little wing, a lighted rod, indicating your desire to turn one way or another. I loved that car. For some reasons, I was given detention one day, so I had to stay late as well. I must have cried during detention, and she felt bad for me, and I received a ride home in the Ford. I can still remember that car vividly.
Our next stop was the Hai Nan Association temple, and the Temple of Ma Jou. These two temples are next to each other, and next to the primary school Ee Hwa (Benefiting to the Chinese). The Goddess of Ma Jou, according to Kong Chan, is favored by the Taiwanese as the protector of sea-farers and travellers.
Our next stop is the coffee shop on Penang Road, next to the Odeon theatre. There is a food stall that sells Loh Bak. This hawker is famous for the loh bak. The business has been handed down from father to son, and has been in business for many years. We ordered shrimp pancakes, tofu, squids, loh bak, and a thousand-year-old egg. Since it was getting warm (around noon), I ordered an iced coffee, and Kong Chan ordered an iced Barley, sweetened.
From there, we went to Campbell Street, and looked at the stores on both sides, until we passed the Cintra Street junction. Kong Chan wanted some Chinese sausages for cooking later in the day, so we went into a grocery store called Kong tuck. They have sundry supplies, like black mushrooms, nuts, dried fruits. Kong Chan picked out some sausages.
The next door is a newer store that sells similar items. I walked in, and noticed they sell canned pork. Seng and I were talking about how in the old days, we used to eat canned pork, and loved it. I cannot find canned pork in the U.S. anymore, so I have not tasted them for many years. I recall the canned port hogs were good, so I asked for two. The store keeper is a very good salesman. He starts pointing out other cannot pork products, and at the end, I bought two of everything. We divided the purchases into two bags, and I gave one bag to Sui Fun, and the other to Siew Seng.
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