At a tender age of 3, Mohamed Sukiman Bin Bakar was taught how to swim by his father at the reservior. Even though the water was about 5m deep, his father just pushed him into the water and made him pick up the skill of swimming independantly.

On rainy days, water will overflow the drains in front of his house. They would put up planks to contain the water. After that, kampong kids will swim there. On those days, they could not go into the pool as his grandfather wouldn’t unlock the fence and it was too difficult to climb pass it.

 

During the season of fruits, there would be all sorts of fruits which we could just pick up. It was like a fruit market. There was durian, guava, rambutan and many more. To him, the place was a swimming pool. There was a diving board which they always used. During the weekends, the British would go there to swim. His grandfather or father will then have to open the gates. If there was nobody there, all of the kampong kids will just jump over the fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the day at around 1-2 pm, they would wait for birds to come by to drink water. They would set up traps on the trees like rubber and gum to catch the birds. When the birds rest on the trees, they would be stuck .They then would then cook and eat the bird. He also had a slingshot which was made from the trees near Mount Faber. They used it to shoot the birds, not one by one but four at once. His friend even shot a parrot which he kept. There were cuckoos, kingfishers, woodpeckers,and many more. When the sun was too hot, the birds would rest there because it was so cooling.

 

Something which Mohamed Sukiman Bin Bakar  found weird was that there were no snakes. They had no toilets in our kampong so they had to go to the reservoir to release urine but never did they see a snake. They also caught a lot of spiders to ‘fight’ against each other. They played all the kampong games, such as marbles and kites. 

 

Mr Mohamed Sukiman Bin Bakar left the place when he was 23, at 1968.