Old Tutong Photo

I was looking through my father's old album searching for photographs to illustrate my third book when I came across this photograph. I thought this will go nicely with the maulud article in that book.

My father was an Assistant District Officer in Tutong in the 1960s. You can see him in the middle of the photograph in white with his interesting long shoes. That shoe we used to call as kasut pembunuhan. I don't know why. I thought it has gone out of fashion until I saw someone wearing it recently.

Anyway, the photograph is not so much about maulud but it is more about Tutong. If you look at the background, you can see old shops. That shophouse building has been torn down, someone told me burnt down, whatever it is, it has been replaced. The interesting information is that Kedai Haji Hasbullah, the famous maker of pulut panggang is still there.

What's more interesting is that the shop labels. All the Chinese labels are in Jawi. Nowadays labels are both in rumi and jawi. In jawi tended to be their translation. So you get Kedai Sumber Mulia or something like that. However in the 1960s, they just spelled the name of the shop in jawi. I don't which one I like but I know which one I remember.

Anyway, that's a glimpse of what Tutong looked like in the 1960s.