Memories of Petaling Street

Petaling Street, swiped from cheeseong on Flickr.

Simonlover's recent post about Petaling Street prompted me to write a short post of my own. Truth be told, it was a favourite haunt of my besties during university days. They would drive down from UKM and we would make an excursion there. We would usually dine there, be it the old Kam Lun Tai with their cranky waitresses or the super tongue-numbing BBQ fish stall. It amazes me that when they tell you to come back after thirty minutes, there really would be a table open when you come back. After food, we would brave the Saturday night crowds. On Saturdays, stalls would be open in the middle of the road, making it very tight to navigate around. If someone in front of you stopped to haggle, you would have to squeeze by. In those days, the stalls were still manned by Chinese, not like today's Little Bangla feel. My bestie loved to purchase the counterfeit watches and jeans. Haggling was also like a pasttime for him. He had it down to an art. I always hated the process. Haha. Perhaps we would also stop at the famous air mata kucing stall (my friend got pick-pocketed there once) or stop at the corner Kwoong Woh Tong shop. Sometimes, if we were there in the mornings, we would watch the migrant workers walk up the down the cheap motels at the pre-war shophouses looking for release. Unlike Simonlover, I had never bought a single porn DVD from there or had any encounters with leng zai's. I would just ignore the porn peddlers. So gwai, hor? LOL. Lets not forget about the old bookstores and the flower sellers. And the whole feel of Petaling Street transforms during the run-up to CNY. The smell of pork fat would be in the air (over-powering the smell of chestnuts roasting) as dried meat vendors rush to increase production. Plenty of decorations for sale especially at the wholesalers where the lanterns seem to overflow from the shops.

Would Petaling Steet really be sacrificed? Is heritage and culture THAT cheap? The government should really consider the abandoned Plaza Rakyat site for the MRT plan. Might as well make use of that eyesore. Hopefully Petaling Street will survive this.