Sitting on a stool and sheltering himself from the scorching heat with his umbrella, 60-year-old Mr Goh is busy trying to make a sale out of the $4 tap dancing shoes with a customer.
“Miss, (do you) want to buy shoe? This one (is) for dancing. $4 only,” he said, in an attempt to convince the customer. With a flick of her hand as a way of saying no, she started off to another vendor. Taking his last shot at selling the shoes, he tried to persuade the young woman by telling her that she could try them on. He did not succeed.
Mr Goh’s scenario is similarly played out here in Sungei Road, otherwise notoriously known as Thieves’ Market, as it was once said that the goods were obtained through illegal means. The street is bustling with different dialects as people were weaving through cars near the entrance.
Popular with tourists and foreign workers, Sungei Road is the place for anything under the sun. From electrical goods, to religious relics, clothing and yes even pornographic DVDs and wooden dildos; this bargain hunter heaven has been operating since the 1930s.
At a little corner sat a senior craftsman, his fingers blackened with soot as he hammered a piece of metal. Singing along to a Hokkien song on the radio, his arms were lean enough to put men half his age to shame.
Like many of the merchants here, Mr Goh is a retiree. Making a sale here is hard, he claims, “On a good day, I get $10, but sometimes I don’t manage to sell anything at all.”
As for the illegal goods rumour, he averred that his were obtained when people gave away their unwanted things to him.
Only discovering Sungei Road about a year ago upon walking by, Mr Goh says that he likes working here as he knows many of the merchants. “I don’t have a job. At least I have friends here because it gets lonely at home,” he states in Mandarin. He confessed that his family disapproves of him selling-hand goods here but he insists that he will keep doing it. “I will continue as long as the government allows peddlers to go on with their business.”
Among the sea of the older crowd, there are also younger customers like Nur Ain Nadia. The 19-year-old student was told by friends that they are many ‘treasures’ to be found here.
“I’m hoping to get something nice, like vintage bags or accessories since it is the trend now,” she explained. Nur Ain Nadia also likes the fact that most of the goods are from a certain era. “At least here, I can get authentic vintage goods, unlike those that are remake by the stores nowadays and they sell it at such a high price,” she said.
Sungei Road may not be as glamorous as the malls found here in Singapore, but it is certainly part of our heritage.
By Nurul Syafiqah
