Pasar Malam in Singapore: The Night Market that operates throughout the day

Festive bazaars and night markets have been around for many years, with food stalls offering novelty stuff long they became more widely available here, such as the Turkish Doner kebab and the tea leaf egg. However, the humble pasar malam has come under much flak recently, especially in the case of the Geylang Serai Ramadan Bazaar, where rentals came up to S$25,000 excluding miscellaneous costs, for some stalls, over a 36-day period. It is important to note that the event organisers have clarified that this is not the normal rate, and most of the 800 stalls are rented out at between S$1,000 and S$6,000 for the same duration.

Theme Park rides at a pasar malam

What came to light through a bit of research, is that the cost of organising the said bazaar is in the region of S$5 million, of which around half constitutes the tender sum that will be paid to People's Association (PA) for the rights to organise the event.

Food stalls at a pasar malam

The tender sum for a Heartlands pasar malam of 110 stalls in Sembawang came up to over S$100,000 for a 22-day event. As the tender price forms a significant part of the cost of operating a pasar malam, operators and vendors are concerned that escalating costs and online retail trends may make the pasar malam irrelevant in the years to come. The high costs of operating a pasar malam stall also means that the pasar malam, which is 'Night Market' in bahasa melayu, has to operate throughout the day to generate more sales and to cover the costs.

Claw machines at a pasar malam

As somebody who grew up appreciating the pasar malam for its novelty, it would be a shame to see the pasar malam go the way of the dinosaurs. My own experience with recent heartlands pasar malam has been disappointing, with repetitive food stall offerings and similar food items being able to be purchased at the nearby shopping mall for half the price, and with a more generous portion. A larger scale pasar malam may feature rides for children, but once again, the fares for each ride are also expensive and not as thrilling when compared against theme park rides at Universal Studios Singapore and Adventure Cove. If the pasar malam is unable to reinvent itself to compete with a shopping mall (with already high market rental), then I fear that the days of the pasar malam may truly be numbered.

Is it the end of the road for the pasar malam?

References

'The Big Read: The million-dollar pasar malam industry and Singaporeans' love affair with it'

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pasar-malam-industry-love-affair-million-dollar-big-read-3436986?cid=FBcna

No Touching Please - Contactless sensor buttons

I chanced upon some contactless sensor buttons at elevators/lifts, most likely installed during the covid pandemic to prevent the transmission of virus and bacteria through contact of various surfaces in common areas.

This piqued my interest, as it is something that has been adopted out of necessity and yet makes so much sense, for a surface that is usually touched by many individuals throughout the day.

A quick search online revealed that there are several kinds of contactless button solutions: static infrared sensors with lights or a buzzer, and sensors with kinetic touches to replicate the actual pushing of the button.

Button with static infrared sensor

Button with sensor and kinetic touch (STUCK Design Pte Ltd)

HoverTap from NZ Technologies

Benefits of contactless sensor buttons for lifts/elevators include saying goodbye to the incessant hammering of the buttons, because, let's face it: pressing a button faster and repeatedly doesn't make the lift/elevator move faster, as well as a reduced risk of accidentally pressing the alarm and intercom buttons, which may still retain the tactile contact buttons as the frequency of use is expected to be low and to prevent accidental activation via sensor buttons.

There are currently many types of sensors designed in a lift/elevator, mostly to detect obstruction or motion around the lift/elevator doors, so sensors are not an entirely new technology or concept to be deployed.

According to Fact.MR, the global Contactless Elevator Market is valued at around US$1.85 billion in 2022, accounting for approximately 4.5% of the global elevator market. The development of smart infrastructure and refresh of elevators in old skyscrapers are expected to provide an uplift in the demand for contactless lift/elevator.

Probably one key factor keeping the adoption rate of contactless sensor elevators low is the premium one can expect to pay as compared to a 'normal' lift/ elevator, with premiums running anywhere between 50% to 150% of the cost for a standard lift/ elevator model. This is one space to watch, as individual sensors procured at wholesale prices are relatively inexpensive today. 

Let me know what you think about contactless sensor buttons! 

Water, Water Everywhere

 

When I saw this sight across the causeway, two things came to mind:

1. It's easy to read the water meter without having to get into the drain (a confined space)

2. Bad design, it's a trip and fall hazard and prone to damage by passers-by

Even worse, corroded pipes do not seem to have been removed when replacement pipes are laid, and are just sticking out of the drain cover.

It seems that most drains and water pipes and water meters in Singapore are designed differently.

Source: Guan Howe Engineering

Source: Wonderwall.sg

PUB, NEA and LTA are key stakeholders in the drainage system: PUB to ensure the functionality of the drains in conception storm water, NEA in ensuring no formation of stagnant water which may lead to mosquito breeding, and LTA in maintaining the drain covers as they form part of the footpaths. There are a total of 8,000 drain covers and manhole covers in Singapore.

Source: PUB

Water pipes also do not seem to run inside the drain and storm water and waste water are separately conveyed in the drainage system. Water meters are also usually installed at a convenient location for ease of reading. 

Just some food for thought.

What lies beyond this door?

 

Over the weekend and across the causeway, I chanced upon probably one of the most interesting doors. It didn't seem to lead anywhere and didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to satisfy fire regulations. What is the most interesting door you have ever come across?

Hello World v2.0

Inspired to resume blogging to share my personal observations and musings after chatting with a friend. It has been a not-so-brief hiatus and I look forward to exciting times ahead!

🌐👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Just back from the SMU Stageit production of 'A Sword has Two Edges', a rendition of the Lu Bu-Dong Zhuo feud featured early on in the classic 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' series.

Overall, the play was pretty good, having blended all the elements of suspense, action and humour pretty well into an enjoyable play.

Rating: 85%

Also, having caught the exclusive premiere of 'Thank you for smoking', I think it's an act by Big Tobacco to legally throw in a few gasping advertisements into a major Hollywood production, and in good humour at the same time.

Rating: 77%

Just My Luck

Rating: 82%

X-men

Rating: 80%

Updates:

Due to the passing of my beloved grandma in February, there has been no updates for the past three months.

Exams are finally over (Okay, so it has been nearly two weeks since), and it's now time to descend into the entertainment abyss (Read "Gaming zone").

Will be away from this Saturday, until the 23rd.

Just thought it would be good to rearrange some of the categories, to make the site more readable:
New Categories:

NSS@Home
NSS@SMU
NSS Muses

"All cats are bats
All bats are rats
>All cats are rats"
This is a valid argument! (Though unsound it may be)

Thursday, 26th January 2006

Supper with V Gang (okay, so only May, Ivan and Ruiyi turned up) at Simpang Bedok.

Menu for the day:
Chicken rice paprik (Black pepper chicken with nasi goreng)
Egg Prata
Chicken Masala Murtabak (Chicken Prata with cheese and onions)
Tissue/ Paper Prata (Cone-shaped prata)
Prata Bomb (Fattening Prata with lotsa butter)
Roti John Special (French loaf with sweet sauce)

After much deliberation, the judges decided in a 3 to 1 vote that the Chicken Masala Murtabak was the best order (with a unanimous 4-0 vote on the most disappointing item - The Prata Bomb). In second place was the Roti John Special. Considering the relatively reasonable ($5/person) cost of the meal, it's certainly worth another go in future.

After supper, I wanted to grab a drink, so we went to the Shop 'N Save nearby. What awaited me was a frantic search for bottled and canned drinks, as I spent five minutes racing up and down the various aisles before reaching the 'beverage' aisle. Lo and behold! 'Beverage' in supermarket language means "Milo, tin", "3-in-1 coffeemix" and "Teabags". Frustrated by the layout of the supermarket, I stormed out without making a purchase (I found out on my way out that drinks were sold outside the store).

Friday, 27th January 2006

Went to Marina Square's Long John Silver's for dinner with JM and ZR. From past (bad) experience, I decided against ordering any of the 'special' meals, instead opting for the safer Combo meal. JM tried the grilled fish rice (with rice and fries), and ended up having to wait fifteen minutes before being served. And the worst thing? He had TWO servings of rice and one of fries. Apparently, the counter staff did not inform him that 'side orders' were independant of the main item (fish AND rice), so he ordered rice anyway.

We're getting better at Knights of Valour and Photo Hunt. Woo... :)

Went out again with ZR and mum at one in the morning to engage in the Lunar New Year crowd at Serangoon Central. The G'Value store has been rebranded (It's now a Shop 'N Save outlet) and it now displays poultry in freezer-fridges.

6 mods, 5 credits, 4-day week ,3 exams, 2nd sem, just 1 of me.

Been busy with Biz law the past week.

Happy 21st Sharon!
Saturday was lunch at Junction 8 with Sharon (Sakae Sushi). We had handrolls, beef soup ('twas sweet! but very tasty) and unagi omelette. Yum yum. Unfortunately, I had to rush down to school for biz law meeting, which dragge on till 6.

TKD reunion dinner
Response was g-reat! 25 people atended the dinner (We were short of space, so a third table had to be set up). Following a sumpteous dinner of yummy fried baby sotong, deep fried fish and cereal prawns, we headed down to Marina Square (a short walk away from school. Hoorah!) where we proceded to play arcade games and pool while waiting for our turn at bowling. Sir Peter was an extraordinary bowler, after he showed us a thing or two about the finer points of bowling. :)

Yup, back to work on Biz Law!

Just a thought

"What's the main cause for backaches in modern Singapore?"

This question popped to mind as I was travelling on board a public bus on Friday night. Recalling the high incidence of 'chronic lower back pain' at Gedong, I was not surprised that I came to a conclusion that it is all about posture, and buses are partly to be blamed for the aggreviation of such conditions. Just look at how youths and teenagers are seating nowadays: Slouched to the shape of a capital 'U', they adopt this position so that it is more comfortable for their (long, and sometimes not very long) legs (or so they seem, for this position hyperextends the spinal chord, increasing stress on the back). Tsk tsk.

Had an insightful exchange with NTU's TKD group yesterday night, a collaboration between our coach and theirs, to gauge our standard as well as 'bond' as one martial arts family.

Got the chance to spar twice (3 rounds of 1 minute each), and was fortunate to be up against 2 rather defensive exponents. Techniques and strategies will be formulated over the next few weeks in the build up to the IVP (hosted by NTU this year) after the exchange training session.

NTU's team had a few SAFSA fellas, and a great deal of black belters (no kidding!). Christine had her face kicked (and her gums bled!), but other than that, no major injuries on our side.

***

After last Wednesday's extended schooling hours (From 8.30 am to 10.45 pm), I hope there won't be another day as long as this in future. Ever.

Our Business, Government and Society class was registered for the George Soros seminar at the Raffles City Convention Hall (George Soros & A Global Open Society - A Dialogue with a New Generation : Full commentary by Agagooga).

Am finding Business law more interesting. Probably due to the fact that I have managed to get my hands on the readings (Book, scripture, whatever you may call it) and actually got to read it. This is in stark contrast to the first lesson, where the Prof was, at least in my opinion, sprouting incomprehensible latin!

Yo, just a periodic update, to inform you that I am still around, albeit not as active as before (Before entering Uni, I must substantiate).

Term 2 has just begun for me, with the routine 4 day week (Thursday free!) and Wednesday Tae Kwon Do training to boot.

Just back from Toa Payoh Sports Hall, where the SMU TKD team just completed its latest round of grading. Went there from WWS and met up with the rest of the fellas just as they were about to leave Mac's for the Sports Hall. Only memorable event was Mel's pattern, which was very well done until the last section, when she made an erronous turn. I must applaud her courage and strong will, which saw her through the grading. All our fingers are now crossed as to who the mysterious three double promotions belong to (Yep, we sent a small contingent of twelve participants). Good job, fellas!

Next in line will be the TKD IVP, which will involve some really tough training and many more training sessions to be scheduled this Wednesday.

Ho ho ho

Guess who I met in Maple Story just now? Ha ha... couldn't have been more coincidental: Same Server, Channel and location - Jin Yu! So long haven't been in contact.

Maple Update:
Cleric (Level 36)
Archer (Level 11)
Rogue (Level 16)

The month long term break (recess, as they call it) is already a week old, and so far, much has been accomplished:

Monday
Went for the Waterways Watch Camp Enviro-Awareness 2005 (Camp 2) orientation (for faciliators). Yup, am no longer food IC... We tried dragon boating, and now I know why dragon boaters usually have HUGE muscles. Even though it ached considerable during the tenacious row, it was only after we went ashore that I realized one arm was inproportionately larger than the other. It could be the result of the rowing, but my theory was that it was simply swollen!

Tuesday
Attended a lunch session with President Howard Hunter of SMU for a rather candid and informal chat. Questions raised by a couple of late comers, however, were pretty formal and structured in tone, and hogged much of the second-half of the session. It ended up more like a press conference than an informal lunch.

After lunch, I zipped over the causeway to Malaysia for a two night stay in Johore. The main highlight of the night? A blackout! Whee... luckily we had candles, but couldn't find a lighter, so had to 'borrow light' from our neighbour. For five minutes, we relished in the candle-lit room. Then, to our dismay (after having acquired light merely minutes ago) and joy, the electricitywas back up again!

Started work on a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Wednesday
Day 2 of my Johore retreat. Lunch and much of the afternoon was spent at The Store, one of the largest shopping complexes in the area. Everything's rather affordable (half the price of similar stuff over here) with the exception of electronics.

Dinner was at the hawker centre near Bestmart. We had a pretty awesome spread of zi char, including two house dishes: The rojak chicken (unfortunately, the prawn paste was quite strong) and the fruit platter fish (which has quite abit of vinegar, so just a kind warning here).

Thursday
Final day in Johore. We had to rush back in the morning as mummy had something to attend to. So yup, no shopping today.

Friday
Decided to meet up with JM and ZR after lunch for a trip down to Sim Lim Square. ZR commented that there was something about the atmosphere that was not quite the same. Prolly was the absence of a significant number of flyer distributors at the escalators (Only two pathetic souls were present on the third floor, usually one of the more crowded congregation spots for them).

We ended up hunting around the place for the lowest cost Win XP OEM (Fuwell's quite reasonable) and walking all the way to Sunshine Plaza for the Wanton Noodles (At 3 bucks, there is great value in the quantity and quality of fried and soup wantons! Recommended!).

We were comtemplating having tau huay (soya beancurd) after dinner, but eventually, convenience and rationale thinking took us to Foodmore instead, where I had the barley and ginko nuts dessert. Yummy and sweet ending to a hectic afternoon. Heh!

28 November 2005

*Updates*

Just back from SMU, having completed my first paper - Stats 'B', which was a killer. Our Prof had posted up some sample questions on the intranet, but the questions we tackled this morning were a far cry from hers. Further probing into another class of hers revealed that they had taken a different paper (Theirs had 17 MCQs vs. 20 for us).

The past month has been spent rushing to complete deadlines as well as finding time to find meaning and life in varsity life.

Just a month away to the end of my term break (And it hasn't even begun!)

All I want for Christmas are:

- 12-figure bank balance :D
- 11 am breakfast (more like brunch) in bed
- 10 gold bars
- 9 online hours a day
- 8 hours of sleep a day
- 7 days-a-camping
- 6 hundred Gigabytes hard disk space
- Heroes of Might and Magic V
- Civilization IV
- Age of Empires III
- 2 GB XD Card
- 1 High-end gaming Platform

More to come after my final paper at the end of the week!

Today

Just concluded my LTB Presentation on 'A Leader I have Known'. It was quite successful (And according to Ariel and Kangwei, was better than my Comms presentation), with just a hiccup during Q&A.

Had lunch at the corner coffeeshop along Armenian Street, and ordered a plate of Char Kway Teow ($3), which tasted quite ordinary, shared some Ngoh Hiang Hae Piah (quite expensive, but the prawn crackers were quite nice) with Kangwei, Shouwen and Ariel ($6). Washed everything down with some barley, which according to Shouwen, tastes like 'the water they use to wash the dishes'. Ouch.

Yesterday

Met Debbie in school for the first time. Looks like Pick N Bite is a great place to chance upon friends.

Got back our Stats Quiz. Surprise, surprise... 92 percent. :)

Oh, but the embarassing thing is, my only 2 (rather careless) mistakes came from the MCQ and not the Open-ended questions... :P

All in a Day's Work

Am quite fresh from my first school-free weekend of the semester, which provided a much needed respite from my hecic schedule.

For a change, I met up with Ruiyi on Friday to hunt for Xuelun's present. As I was there rather early, I decided to check out the Library@Orchard. There is a really cool comics collection here (just like Jurong Regional Library, I'd say).

We had our lunch at the Takashimaya basement food court. The Vietnamese Chicken Curry was reasonably good.

After four hours ploughing through Takashimaya and the Heeren, I headed over to SMU for a Blurt gathering, followed by an introduction to the World of Warcraft ;)

Sunday started off with a lazy brunch with Xuelun at Paulaner Brauhaus (Millenia Walk). Food was great, booze (free flow) was in-house and rather light (despite the fact that it contained 4.5% vol of alcohol). It was a simple affair, with most of the usual group present. Buffet-style, great hash browns (authentic ones, at least!) and yummy sausages (88%)

After brunch (It was nearly 3.30pm!), I went home to prepare for dinner with Cousin Lily (which was at Serangoon Gardens Country Club's Jumbo Restaurant). Traditional Chinese crusine, set (table) meals with great value. (80%)

Current Cost of Integrated Casinos (Resorts) to hit S$5 billion
See here for Channel New Asia's take on the issue.

"...property valuers expect competitive price tender for the site and construction costs to add up to as much as S$5 billion..."

"...This will make the Marina Bayfront integrated resort one of the most expensive integrated resorts with gaming component in the world..."

As I see it, the eventual cost of the project will hit 9, 10 billion SGD if the bidding process drags on. Besides, the bidders might need to make space for provisions, expecially miscellaneous licensing and building permits (especially so since the Marina site will envelope the Marina Bay Waterfront and will no doubt be liable to the stringent judiciary requirements of buildings being consructed next to water catchment areas.

Underneath all the glam, potential operators should also carefully consider the hidden costs involved in the construction and running of the Integrated Casinos (Resorts). Mark my words, 10 billion is not too far off.

All in a Day's Work

Still recovering from flu.

FA Presentation went well this morning, which brought much relief to the team. Next up: FA Project!

The two-presentations-a-day scheme never worked out, and my Comms presentation has been postponed till Wednesday.

Had a super busy weekend, having been preoccupied with my FA presentation.

Also celebrated Grandma's 90th birthday yesterday evening at the RC below their flat. Turn out was very good, and several fellas had a go at karaoke.

Schedule is currently filled until the end of the week, so I'd better go hit the books (and the sacks) while I can. :)

All in a Day's Work

Still down with a bout of flu, but recovering speedily.

Had a pleasant surprise yesterday when I received an invitation to Xue Lun's 21st. My, we are certainly growing up fast. :)

On a lighter note, I joined dad at his group's 60th birthday celebrations, where they were recollecting the days gone by when they celebrated their own twenty first. Now enjoying fulfilling and relatively successful family lives, they are the epiome of The Singapore Story. Envy!

All in a Day's Work

Back from Tae Kwon Do training. It was a slightly more demanding session today (Had no time to relearn more patterns...) Oh well, finally tried to spar with sir. :) Ha ha... first sparring session since a long time ago... :P And earned myself a blister in the process... bah. But on a lighter note, it felt good to be back on my feet again. Heh...

Anyway, due to my less than friendly schedule, I do offer my sincere apologies on the less than informative write ups.