A New Start

FT: China Oilfield buys Awilco Offshore

China Oilfield buys Awilco Offshore

Published: July 7 2008 08:47 | Last updated: July 7 2008 20:00

The rig grab continues. High oil prices and dwindling resources have put a rocket under the price of equipment and services providers and triggered a wave of consolidation. On Monday, the Chinese joined in: China Oilfield Services agreed to pay $2.5bn for the equity of Norway’s Awilco Offshore.

The 19 per cent premium to Friday’s close looks disciplined, but stretches to 42 per cent based on the undisturbed share price on May 29. It is higher still benchmarked against the start of the year, when talks kicked off. COSL is paying an enterprise value of 9.4 times next year’s forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, on the rich side compared with some deals in the sector. However, several of the rigs do not come online until 2010, when the forecast EV/ebitda multiple falls back to seven times.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

CPC hopes to revive ties with CNOOC - May-06

Tight supply lets CNOOC shrug off slowdown - Jan-29

Chinese go where western firms fear to tread - Jan-28

Energy: Beijing learns to tread warily - Jan-23

CNOOC looks at Australia deal - Nov-15

Resource nationalism: State groups give majors a run for their money - Nov-09

Picking off assets now appears smart. Further deals are likely as oil service companies, after two decades in the doldrums, reap the benefits of better times. One barometer of the changing dynamics is the rental for deepwater rigs: rates have more than doubled to $500,000 a day over the past three years. Oil majors are increasingly utilising deepwater rigs such as those produced by COSL and Awilco, as the “easy” onshore resources are depleted, forcing them to explore further afield. Yet there are just around 180 such rigs, according to Wood Mackenzie, with a further 90 under construction for delivery by 2012. Long lead times and big price tags act as a natural brake against massive over-capacity. Besides, most rigs being built are already spoken for. The bigger risk is that lease rates will fall as oil majors seek to rein in costs.

The lengthy negotiation period between COSL and Awilco suggests no-one else was prepared to cough up a comparable sum. If so, perhaps the tide is already starting to turn.

ST; TABLE TALK: WITH FAREED ZAKARIA Political leadership for a new global order

Home > Review > Others
July 5, 2008
TABLE TALK: WITH FAREED ZAKARIA Political leadership for a new global order
How might Singapore deal with a world in which people are richer than ever before and many players are jostling for supremacy? The editor of Newsweek International, Dr Fareed Zakaria, proffers his thoughts
By Cheong Suk-Wai, Senior Writer
A SINGAPOREAN taxi driver's chance remark set Dr Fareed Zakaria thinking how best he might write about a world in which people are richer than ever before and many players are jostling for supremacy. Meeting The Straits Times in his London hotel suite earlier this week, the editor of Newsweek International recalled how the cabby pointed to the Republic's new ferris wheel, the Singapore Flyer. 'I looked at it and I said - I suppose in a somewhat patronising voice: 'How nice, you have a ferris wheel.' 'And he turns around and says: 'Sir, that's the largest ferris wheel in the world'.' A month later, he was being shown around the South China mall in Dongguan, when his host told him that the 9.6 million-sq ft complex was the world's largest. Dr Zakaria did not buy that at first. He thought The Mall of America in Minnesota still held that title. (Actually it is only the 18th largest these days). Dr Zakaria recalled: 'At that point I decided I had learnt my lesson. I began to realise these anecdotes I had been hearing about this country growing and that country growing were adding up to something quite significant.' So he decided his new book - his second after the best-selling The Future Of Freedom - would examine how the world's new thriving countries will change the character of international economics, politics and culture. Dr Zakaria's big, hawk-sharp eyes, which are very alert indeed, give the lie to his relaxed demeanour. His laptop pings away with news updates on a side table while we talk. Everything about him tells you he is his own man - from his powder purple polo T-shirt, an unusual colour choice, to his Indian-accented English, although he has been a naturalised American citizen for many years now. He was in London for the launch of his new weekly current affairs show on CNN. Called Global Public Square, it premiered on June 1, and the first episode saw him interviewing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Conservative Party leader David Cameron. The son of an Indian politician and a newspaper editor, Dr Zakaria is a Harvard political science alumnus. He had the ear of such luminaries as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger from early in his career. But he really made his mark with his 2001 essay, Why They Hate Us, which he wrote just after the Sept 11 terror attacks on the US. His weekly column in Newsweek is now required reading for anyone interested in global affairs. The way forward THIRTY years ago, if anyone from Brazil, India or Mexico had predicted his country would soon be revving the world's economic engines, he would have been brushed off as a wishful thinker at best. But today, these countries are charging into the future after having embraced capitalism. As a result, three billion new players are competing for the world's ever-dwindling resources. Indeed, as Dr Zakaria points out in his new book, The Post-American World, the economies of 124 countries, including 30 African states, are now growing at the rate of at least 4 per cent a year. Compare that with the only 35 countries that enjoyed that sort of growth 30 years ago, he says, and what you have is 'the birth of a truly global order'. Singapore, he adds, is handling this brave new order very well. 'What Singapore has done very adroitly is to have moved up the value chain - to have said that 'okay, we can't compete with other countries in cheap labour, and so we're going to do value-added products, we're going to try services, we can compete (in) these areas, we're going to move to the next level'.' He applauds the Republic's 'very clever' forays into such areas as tourism, film-making and software design. And all this, on top of managing good relations with both the United States and China, he notes admiringly. But he adds that Singapore is the only rich country in the world without a fully functioning multi-party democracy. That will hobble its advance in the long run, he believes, because people 'want not only economic rights, but also freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of thought'. 'You may get lucky with a particular autocrat, but what happens after him?...If you could guarantee me in advance that you'll get Lee Kuan Yew, that's a whole different thing. But there's no way beforehand to know that you're going to get a leader like Lee Kuan Yew.' He adds wryly, wondering whether this would get into print: 'I think that the political system is rigged in favour of the People's Action Party (PAP). Some of it is formal...Some of it is informal. But all of it is largely unnecessary.' Singapore is already 'a very open society in many ways', he points out. 'I often say this to people because they have an image of Singapore which is essentially incorrect...It is a place where you would certainly feel as if you had many, many freedoms and liberties...It has been lucky in having very wise leadership.' But it has to widen its political outlook much more, he insists. 'Singapore's leaders have succeeded more than they realise. They created a modern society, and in creating that modern society, they must now also trust it more than they do.' He adds: 'That, in some ways, is the genius of democracy. It turns the relationship between governed and governors into a two-way street, and that will make for a much greater degree of sense of loyalty and pride in Singapore for the next generation.' He muses: 'It's funny: Whenever I meet senior Singapore government officials, I will sometimes mention this. And they'll go: 'Oh, no, no, it's not a real problem, don't worry.' And I'll say: 'You know, younger Singaporeans do feel frustrated.' And they'll say: 'Oh, I don't know if you are right about that.' 'And then, as I'm escorted out by one of the young aides to the senior government officials, they will tell me: 'By the way, Dr Zakaria, you are 100 per cent right. We are very frustrated'.' 'And these,' he notes, 'are people in the heart of the political structure.' Dr Zakaria is quite sure that if the PAP held what he calls 'open competitive elections', it would do 'quite well'. And as for Minister Mentor Lee's view that a non-PAP government would act irresponsibly by exhausting Singapore's coffers, Dr Zakaria says: 'You can produce checks and counter-checks. Nobody's talking about giving day-to-day control of Temasek (Holdings) and the Government Investment Corporation to Parliament. You can create institutions that are independent and therefore somewhat sheltered from day-to-day political control.' Tackling global crises AND political control, by the way, is what he feels the new global order needs in a big way. Great global growth brings with it great global worries. And therein lies the rub. The current lone superpower, the US, is not only being outstripped by new players on the economic front, it has also lost its intellectual and moral high ground since it invaded Iraq in 2003. On top of that, though food, fuel and weather woes have spilled over into the international arena, most countries are still thinking of how to solve these problems locally, when what is really needed is greater global consultation, cooperation and compromise. 'We have crises now. The question is whether we have the leadership.' China, he feels, is not ready to fill the vacuum America has left for two reasons. First, there is considerable scepticism about China, particularly in India, Japan and Indonesia. 'It's not as if the world is hungering for Chinese leadership.' Second, if China or any other Asian economic dragon wants to lead the world in the way the US has in the past 60 years, it would first need to present 'a compelling vision for other people to buy into and say, 'You know, we like the way Asians think about the world'.' 'It's not just about money,' Dr Zakaria insists. 'It's about setting an agenda, making people feel that there's a vision that you want to work towards.' For that reason alone, he thinks the US can still play a pivotal role. It can bring the world together to work out solutions to problems like energy and global warming. Asked which US presidential contender is better poised to lead in a post-American world, he plumps firmly for the Democrat, Senator Barack Obama. He finds Mr Obama's willingness to challenge settled wisdom in Washington - like his willingness to talk to US 'enemies' - 'refreshing'. 'And though he was criticised for it, he stuck to his guns,' notes Dr Zakaria. 'I think that was very impressive.' Mr Obama's rival, Senator John McCain, on the other hand, is 'a Cold Warrior', says Dr Zakaria, referring to the Republican's less than friendly references to Russia and China. 'That is just the wrong vision for the future.' Dr Zakaria himself is a long-term optimist about the post-American world. 'At the end of the day, the power of two to three billion people for the first time consuming, investing, producing, dreaming, inventing and problem-solving is very, very powerful,' he proclaims. suk@sph.com.sg

Home > Review > Others
July 5, 2008
Dr Zakaria on...
FIRM GROUND: PAP supporters pitching in during the 2006 election campaign. OPPOSITES?: US presidential candidates John McCain (left) and Barack Obama. -- PHOTO: THE BUSINESS TIMES PHOTO: AP   View more photos Economic and political rights: People want economic rights but they also want political rights. They want property rights but they also want freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of thought. You may get lucky with a particular autocrat, but what happens after him? The great problem with the idea that an autocracy is a good idea is that most people don't end up with Lee Kuan Yew. They end up with Mobuto or Marcos or Mugabe. If you could guarantee me in advance that you'll get Lee Kuan Yew, that's a whole different thing. But there's no way beforehand to know that you're going to get a leader like Lee Kuan Yew. I think that for societies that are not yet at an advanced industrial state, there are considerable questions as to whether introducing multi-party democracy right away produce stability. In places like Iraq we should have had a much greater emphasis on stability and order, rather than holding as we did four or five different elections. But in the long run, for a rich country, there are very few alternatives. Singapore is the only rich country in the world that does not have a fully functioning multi- party democracy. And Singapore is a very unusual case. First of all, it is a very open society. It is also a very small country that has been very lucky in having very wise leadership - and there's no way to guarantee that. One-party rule in Singapore The system needs more checks and balances. You need the prospect of losing power to produce a certain degree of discipline. The Singapore Government They've done a very good job, but younger Singaporeans do feel frustrated. They feel the society, the political system is too closed and it's too much of an insider's club. A sense of belonging What makes somebody a Singaporean in a world in which you are going to need people who have come two years, three years ago? How do you make them think of themselves as Singaporeans? Part of it has to be, I think, that they feel they are full participants in the destiny and political structures of the country. I can tell you that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thinks a lot about this, because he and I have had several conversations about this. China Whenever you talk about the rise of Asia, you're really often talking about the rise of China. But the rise of China produces very complicated feelings in India and Japan. So there might actually be forces within Asia that can act and counteract these things. India I feel very frustrated watching India, because I think it has extraordinary potential. Indian society is so ready for globalisation (but) the Indian state is so scared and backward-looking and corrupt and caught up with its own phobias and ideologies from a different era. The 2008 US presidential race One of the advantages of this (long) process this time around is that the crazies are out of the race. There were a lot of candidates that had very disturbing views about the world, very confrontational, very nasty and would have taken America down a very dark road. And they were all thoroughly rejected by the American public. Mr Barack Obama He's a creature of the world as well as a creature of America...So this world is not a completely alien and slightly menacing thing to him, it's something that's part of him. Mr John McCain He remains a very old-fashioned figure. He has an almost Victorian view of the world.

FT: NOL is weighing up anchorage in Hamburg

NOL is weighing up anchorage in Hamburg

By Robert Wright and John Burton in Singapore

Published: July 1 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 1 2008 03:00

It was one of the highest compliments a senior executive could pay a rival.

In a private letter to senior staff sent late last year, Eivind Kolding, chief executive of Denmark's Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping line, exhorted them to improve profitability.

If Maersk Line had the same cost structure as APL - the container line owned by Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) - filled its ships as fully and carried the same types of cargo, it would be two-and-a-half times as profitable, he wrote in a letter seen by the Financial Times.

This admiration for NOL is widespread throughout the highly cyclical container shipping industry, where few operators have proved as adept as APL at ensuring ships are consistently full and the rates charged to customers consistently high. NOL made pre-tax profits of $586m on $8.16bn turnover for the year to December 28 last year.

Yet NOL is now the frontrunner to take the risk of acquiring Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd from Germany's Tui, Europe's largest travel group, to combine it with APL, according to people involved.

The deal would create the world's third-largest container fleet. Most observers think that NOL's only realistic competitor is a group of businessmen associated with Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd's base, who would like to buy it to keep it German.

Although NOL is two-thirds owned by Temasek Holdings, the cash-rich Singapore state investment company, analysts warn that NOL may be taking on too much debt if it concludes the deal.

NOL has a market capitalisation of S$4.8bn (US$3.5bn), while Tui is believed to be seeking at least $6bn for Hapag-Lloyd. "This would imply NOL assuming a net debt/equity of 1.9-2.6 times," said Citigroup in a report.

Vincent Fernando, a Citigroup analyst, questions NOL's eagerness for the deal when the shipping industry is weakening. "There is no urgency in NOL buying Hapag-Lloyd. There are not a lot of companies chomping on the bit to buy it," he says.

Other potential buyers, including Mediterranean Shipping Company of Geneva, Taiwan's Evergreen Marine and Hong Kong's Orient Overseas prefer organic growth. Meanwhile, France's CMA CGM says it wants to buy only niche regional lines. Maersk Line is still recovering from its botched integration of P&O Nedlloyd.

Raymond Lim at CIMB-GK Securities in Kuala Lumpursays: "The market will pay more attention to whether NOL can get Hapag-Lloyd at an attractive price rather than the debt level, but Tui is driving a hard bargain."

Analysts say shareholder concerns about NOL's move would be eased if Temasek helped to finance the bid or decided to renew its 2004 effort to take NOL private by buying out minority shareholders as part of the deal.

NOL has not commented on whether it is preparing a bid, but the company is known to have been looking for economies of scale by growing bigger.

A takeover of Hapag-Lloyd would give the Singaporean group access to the important German export business that is vital to Hapag-Lloyd.

Such traffic would provide balance to a business that has been dominated by Asian exports since NOL's founding in 1968, says Mark McVicar, transport analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort.

Hapag-Lloyd has one of the best balances of any container line between the volumes of cargo it carries in each direction on its voyages.

Many other lines carry almost exclusively empty containers or only low-value waste products on their return journeys to Asian exporters.

Mr McVicar says: "If I'm Siemens and I've just sold a whole load of power equipment to Asia, I only make one call about shipping it.

"It's to Hapag-Lloyd and I know they will give me incredible levels of service."

Hapag-Lloyd is far stronger than NOL on routes between Asia and Europe, across the Atlantic and in trade to and from Africa. NOL's main strength is in transpacific trade between Asia and North America.

However, Thomas Held, NOL's German-born chief executive, will have to handle the integration carefully to protect the Singapore group's profitability. As a larger line, NOL would face a greater challenge balancing the need to keep its ships full with the risk of taking too much low-value freight at cheap rates.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

ST: Marriage - an unsettling experience

Home > Our Columnists > Column
June 29, 2008
Life Lines - Anthony Yeo Marriage - an unsettling experience
In this fortnightly column on life issues, veteran psychotherapist Anthony Yeo talks about the pros and cons of saying 'I do'
People believe that June is a good month for marriage. Somehow this is the month for weddings, and with the recent series of activities in conjunction with enhancing family life in Singapore, marriage is certainly in the air. Weddings are usually much celebrated events often attended by enthusiastic guests, including single or unattached adults. Along with the carnival spirit infused into the celebration are those well-meaning married guests who inevitably accost singles with the inevitable 'So, when is your turn?' query. Single adults know all too well what this means and often respond with polite responses such as 'You'll know when it comes' or 'I guess it's not time yet'. Somehow we tend to believe that marriage is for everyone and, all too often, unattached adults are singled out as targets for prospective coupling in marriage. There is also a commonly held notion that to get married is to 'settle down', in contrast to being unmarried suggesting that the latter is to be saddled with an 'unsettled' state of life. Somehow there is a prevailing idea that this 'unsettled' state is synonymous with being uncertain, fickle-minded, frustrated or incomplete. With all the earnest drive to promote marriage in Singapore, singles tend to be unsettled by the idea that fulfilment and happiness in life is to be experienced primarily in 'marital bliss'. This prevailing idea seems to defy my observation of the many couples who have sought help for marital conflict. Each time I encounter married people afflicted with marital woes, I am reminded of how marriage tends to be an unsettling experience. I have also been left with the unsettled feeling, wondering why so many had chosen to be married when they could have had a less stressful life if they had stayed single. Of course, the other unsettling feeling is the painful journey I traverse with those who have the courage to go their separate ways. As I ponder over this issue, I sometimes wish that marriage was not held in such high regard, with less focus on the romantic ideals of a peak experience that marriage seems to promise. Those who contemplate marriage would do well to confront the reality that marriage can be an unsettling experience rather than one where couples live happily ever after. The way I see it, marriage promises to be unsettling as couples need to be prepared for a lot of adjustment to living with someone quite unfamiliar to oneself, learning to adapt to each other's idiosyncrasies, growing together as partners in life and coping with all the demands that marriage and family life brings. It is also prudent to be aware that romance, if it is ever experienced, is not everlasting and may in fact fade months after the honeymoon is over. Conflicts are inevitable and there will be many issues to be negotiated, such as relationships with the in-laws, work-home relationships and friendships with those outside of marriage. The more I work with couples with marital conflict, the more I am concerned that marriage should not be entered into lightly. It is also fallacious to believe that life will be incomplete and unfulfilling if a person is not married. There is more to life than marriage and no one should be made to feel deprived of what life offers if the choice is to be single . GET YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED If you have any questions about marriage, write to suntimes@sph.com.sg, with 'Life Lines' in the subject line. Anthony Yeo, a consultant therapist at the Counselling And Care Centre, will answer selected questions. ... more

AsiaOne: Debunking the myth of the Chinese-educated

Debunking the myth of the Chinese-educated

Teo Han Wue Sun, May 18, 2008 The Straits Times

For many of us in Singapore, the Shanghai Book Company store is living history. It's so entrenched in our memories that recent media reports of it being under threat of closure came as a shock in Chinese-speaking circles. Whether the 83-year-old shop will conclude its final chapter and fade into oblivion will be decided on Thursday, when the two main shareholders - Mr Chen Mong Tse, the son of its founder, and a China book export company - meet to settle their disputes. Whatever the outcome, those of us who went to Chinese schools in the 1950s and 1960s will remember it fondly. <p> &amp;lt;A HREF=&quot;http://ads.asia1.com.sg/event.ng/Type=click&amp;amp;FlightID=16520&amp;amp;AdID=19898&amp;amp;TargetID=2065&amp;amp;Segments=1,81,238,564,1000,1543,1779,1780,2000,2355,2404,2410,2428,2431,2433,2472&amp;amp;Targets=2065,1720,2838,2847&amp;amp;Values=30,50,60,80,93,101,110,130,150,186,196,209,266,942,990,1480,1487,2253,2446,2807,2865,2908,2920,4074,4103,4118,4120,4334,4337,4342,5599,5611&amp;amp;RawValues=&amp;amp;Redirect=http:%2f%2fclk.atdmt.com/SJK/go/snxxesia0820000001sjk/direct/01/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;IMG SRC=&quot;http://view.atdmt.com/SJK/view/snxxesia0820000001sjk/direct/01/&quot; WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/A&amp;gt; </p> Ask any 50-something person literate in Chinese - especially graduates of the former Nanyang University - where they went at the weekend when they were students or young working adults, and most will readily say: 'Shanghai Shuju.' The more romantic ones will recall how they dated and met friends for long afternoon chats in the coffee shop on North Bridge Road at the junction with Cashin Street, called Yuelan Ting (Moon Orchid Pavilion), after browsing in the Shanghai Book Company store next door and upstairs. Yuelan Ting was a salon of sorts where many an intellectual issue was debated, ideas of a new book born and even matrimonial matches made over a cup of coffee. Apart from the works of authors like Lu Xun, Ba Jin and Guo Moruo, on the shelves of the bookshop were Chinese translations of the works of Shakespeare (complete plays), Goethe, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Balzac, Cervantes, Whitman, Twain, Tagore and so on. There were also Chinese books and magazines on local subjects, including Malay language and literature. Way back in 1925, two young men - Mr Chen Yoh Shoo and Mr Wang Shu Yang - started the bookshop. They had arrived in Singapore from Shanghai two years earlier, and noted that the exciting new books and magazines they had seen in the Chinese city, a trading port and a hotbed of modern ideas, were not available here. It was the era of the May Fourth Movement (1919), and students in the many Chinese schools in Singapore and other parts of South-east Asia were inspired by the new cultural trends taking place in China. The movement called for intellectual revolution and socio-political reform to rebuild society and culture, after China became a republic in 1911. As the young were thirsting for new literature by writers from China, the bookshop's business grew rapidly. Its founders found their new venture so successful that they quickly opened branches in Kuala Lumpur (1926), Surabaya (1928), and Jakarta (1935). The shop sign Shanghai Shuju, designed with characters in the art deco style fashionable then in Shanghai, bears the evocative logo with the shop's name propping up an open book from which grows a tall coconut tree. It expressed the aspiration to nurture the intellectual growth of the community in the Nanyang (South-east Asia). True to its mission, Shanghai Book Company started its publishing business after World War II because supplies of books from China for the Chinese schools had been disrupted. Besides, with emerging nationalism in the region, the Chinese community began to identify more with their adopted homeland by publishing books and textbooks relevant to local conditions. It was during this time that Shanghai Book Company made even greater contributions to educational and cultural development in South-east Asia. The textbooks it produced were distributed to countries such as Malaya, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia. From 1957, in line with the growing importance of Malay as the national language of Malaya, the bookshop also published a significant number of books, dictionaries and magazines on the Malay language, literature and culture. Malay language expert Lim Huan Boon wrote Singapore's first Malay-Chinese dictionary and had it published by the bookshop. He also helped edit some of its other Malay books. Those books were a great help when I myself was learning Malay as a student in a Chinese school in the early 1960s. I remember reading about modern Malay writers such as Masuri S.N. and Usman Awang in a magazine published by the Shanghai Book Company. Such efforts showed a distinct awareness of the multicultural reality of Singapore and Malaya on the part of the bookshop. They also reflected the Chinese-educated's enthusiasm for learning about a language and culture other than their own. That explains why, almost without exception, all the non-Malay Malay scholars in Singapore are Chinese-educated. Today, Shanghai Book Company is only a bookshop, just like many others in Bras Basah Complex where it is located now, and no longer what it was in its heyday when it published books not only in Chinese but also in English, Malay and Tamil. It ceased its publishing function due to changes in education policies and the phasing out of Chinese schools in Singapore. If it closes, I will not be sad, as long as its history as a Singapore cultural institution is not forgotten. Its history eloquently debunks the popular myth that the Chinese educated are inclined to be conservative, less open and less cosmopolitan, or worse, chauvinistic. Shanghai Book Company has fulfilled its mission in history. Like the coconut tree it aspired to be, Shanghai Book Company has borne many fruits that have grown into trees in various places. The writer is the executive director of Art Retreat, a private museum.

ST: Endangered landmarks

Home > Saturday Special Report > Story
June 7, 2008
Endangered landmarks
TAN HUI YEE looks at some special buildings and structures currently not protected
THEN: Pandan Valley condominum -- ST PHOTO: NR SOR LUAN   View more photos Pandan Valley condominium Ulu Pandan Road Then: Built in 1978, this was one of Singapore's first condominiums. The pioneering design by Archurban Architects Planners made use of the natural contours of the valley to create a spacious condominium with terraced gardens. The development was also built up to a lower density than the maximum allowed to create more open spaces for residents. Architect Evi Syariffudin, 29, who has been living there for 24 years, likes the fact that the gardens and other communal facilities are nestled within a valley. 'It may not look luxurious, but it's an architectural masterpiece.' Now: Surprisingly for a private condominium, Pandan Valley is something of an 'education hub' as its retail podiums brim with small set-ups providing all sorts of extra-curricular classes for children. Future: Apartments there fetched between $809 psf and $1,000 psf from January to April. There is talk that residents are gunning for an en-bloc sale. If that succeeds, the condo could be torn down. Queenstown Community Library Margaret Drive Then: Completed in 1969, it was the first full-time branch library in Singapore. Generous use of glass windows allowed the reading rooms to be lit with direct light, while clever orientation of rooms allowed the library to stay cool with natural ventilation. The queues to borrow and return books used to snake outside the two-storey building. Now: A major renovation in the 1990s moved its trademark central staircase (below) to one corner and the children's section has shrunk as young families have moved out to new towns served by newer branch libraries. Mrs Kiang-Koh Lai Lin, the National Library Board's director of reading initiatives who worked at Queenstown library from 1980 to 1982, says: 'The library really served a function at that time. Nobody can demolish these memories - how people grew up with it, how they used the library. It's good enough that we have helped so many people acquire reading habits.' Future: The lease of the building comes up for renewal in 2010. The former thriving Margaret Drive neighbourhood around it is shrinking. The polyclinic next door has been relocated and the blocks of flats opposite will be demolished under a HDB resettlement scheme by end-2011. The HDB plans to incorporate a market with a parabolic-shaped roof nearby into its future plans for a new generation estate in the area. It is not clear if a library will be part of the new scheme of things. Singapore Improvement Trust flats Dakota Close, Dakota Crescent, Old Airport Road and Jalan Enam Then: The 17 intimate brick-clad blocks in the area were built by the Singapore Improvement Trust in 1958 and handed over to the HDB management in 1960. Some of the two- and three-room flats in the area come with breezy balconies. The cluster has an eye-catching variety of designs created out of low-cost materials, like crushed stones set in panels that line external walls. Now: Some of the flats are let out to lower-income residents, while others are under the care of managing agents. Resident and odd-job worker Choo Yew Seng, 46, has lived there all his life. He says: 'The rooms are bigger than what you can find in new flats, and the environment here is very nice. I hope they can conserve them.' Future: The HDB says it has no plans to redevelop the blocks, so it is safe for the immediate future. Former Ministry of Education headquarters Kay Siang Road Then: Built in the late 1960s, the sprawling modern complex comprises a 12-storey main block, a seven-storey annex, an educational television production building and four three-storey blocks. Now: In 2000, the MOE moved to a new site in Buona Vista after the URA earmarked Kay Siang Road as a site for residential and commercial development in the long term. After it moved out, however, part of the site was used as temporary premises by Republic Polytechnic, and later the ill-fated University of New South Wales Asia. That section of the compound is now occupied by the Youth Olympic Games organising committee, while another part which used to house TV studios has been overhauled by New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia to become a 'New York shabby chic' campus for budding filmmakers. Future: The complex (right) is safe for the time being, given the long-term plans of both institutions using it. Tanjong Pagar Plaza Tanjong Pagar Road Then: This high-rise 1,116-flat Housing Board project was designed as a mammoth self-sufficient development with an internal courtyard and a hawker centre, market and banks on the lower levels, and flats going up the 27 storeys. Blocks 1 to 5 were built in 1976, while Blocks 7 and 8 were built in 1979. Now: The HDB flats in the heart of the city are much sought after by home buyers, while white-collar workers from nearby offices throng its shops at lunchtime. Elderly folk exchange gossip in its courtyard, while giant orchid motifs adorn the side panels of the blocks. But to many residents like Mr Mark Chee, 40, it's just a very convenient place to live. The businessman laughs when asked about the architectural value of the development: 'There is nothing special about it. It's nothing impressive.' Future: The seven blocks have been scheduled to have their lifts upgraded, which means that the flats will stay for now. Golden Mile Complex Beach Road Then: Built in 1973 and conceived by Design Partnership, the much-feted example of an early mixed-use building houses apartments, shops and offices. This 'vertical city' has a sloping slab form which aids natural ventilation and shades a concourse above the shopping podium. The signature terraced design of apartments - all of which come with balconies with a sea view - maximises natural lighting within each unit. Long-time owner Ande Lai, 60, who runs a photography shop, says: 'This design is like a typewriter, where all of us are able to see the sky...If you have good neighbours, you can stand at the balcony and talk to each other.' Now: Many professionals who moved in when it was first built have left. They have since been replaced by foreign tenants. Some owners have covered their balconies to create more space, resulting in an unsightly mish-mash of metal sheeting on one side of its facade. The retail section is known for its authentic Thai food and groceries, and the lively Thai community that gathers there to eat and chat on any given day. Future: An apartment there fetched $864 psf in January. Owners have made plans to sell the building collectively. If it succeeds, the building may go. Singapore Polytechnic (former) Prince Edward Road Then: Built in 1958 to house Singapore's first polytechnic, the handsome complex featured an 150- seat auditorium supported by four stonewash columns which doubled as an entrance porch. Within the leafy compound of the institution on the edge of the Shenton Way financial district, many technologists and professionals were trained to support Singapore's industrialisation efforts. Now: Singapore Polytechnic moved to its new Dover campus in the late 1970s. In 1994, the state tendered out the space to developer Bestway Properties (right) for use as offices. Today, it is home to MediaCorp's TV12 and a host of other firms. Future: The lease of the building comes up for renewal next year. It is not clear what are the Government's plans for the site. Bestway director Anthony Tan says: 'Other institutions like Harvard University keep their buildings, too. In time, when Singapore Polytechnic becomes one of the best around, (but the building has been demolished), we'll feel like we're missing something.' Havelock Primary School (former) Ganges Avenue Then: Believed to be built in the 1950s. This is possibly the last remaining single-storey school compound in Singapore. Now: The Boys Brigade has been using the premises as its headquarters since the mid-1980s, with a lease that is renewed yearly. The charming, laid-back compound has many kinks: Rotted wooden doors fall off their hinges. It's difficult to find replacement tiles when the ones on the roof break. Termites once chomped through books in the storeroom. But the building attracts film producers looking for period settings.Boys' Brigade executive director Desmond Koh says it'd be willing to put more money into refurbishing the premises if the building is conserved and the organisation can stay there for the long term. Future: With the lease renewed every year, it could be turned over for redevelopment at short notice. Property consultant Ku Swee Yong from Savills Singapore thinks it could be used for new homes as there are an increasing number of condominiums sprouting up in the vicinity. Nan Chiau High School (former) Kim Yam Road Then: It was designed by James Ferrie and Partners, and built at a cost of $2 million in 1969. The C-shaped complex, which used to house 2,700 students at its peak, hugs a five-lane running track and two basketball courts. Classrooms were flanked by corridors on both sides and distinctive pointed roof vaults capped its auditorium. Chemistry teacher Tien Chee Wai, 37, recalls: 'Everyone could see everyone in the building. It was very open and airy.' Now: The school moved to Sengkang in 2001 and its former premises in the gentrified River Valley neighbourhood have been vacant since. Future: The site has not been identified by the authorities for any particular use. But property consultant Ku Swee Yong from Savills Singapore thinks it could be used for art galleries or cafes instead of condominiums since the surrounding district is too crowded with homes. Telok Kurau West Primary School (former) Lorong J Telok Kurau Then: The compact four-storey building was completed in the 1960s and is typical of many built by the Public Works Department during that period. The use of materials like brick and precast concrete vents give it a distinctive look and tropical feel. Telok Kurau West eventually merged with Telok Kurau East Primary to form Telok Kurau Primary and relocated to Bedok Reservoir Road. Now: From 1986 to 1995, the building housed the then-LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts. In 1997, it became studios for about 30 artists under the National Arts Council's arts housing scheme. Performance and installation artist Amanda Heng, who occupies a ground floor studio, says: 'You need all this - some space where you can see the sky and be quiet. Being quiet in Singapore is very difficult these days.' Future: The lease on the building is up for renewal next year. After which it could be redeveloped. Bus stop Old Choa Chu Kang Road Then: This particular concrete design, created in the 1970s, served generations of military men from the army bases around sleepy Old Choa Chu Kang Road. It was where young men bade lingering goodbyes to doting sweethearts and caught their last glimpse of civilian life before they booked into camp. Now: The elegant concrete and metal structure looks none the worse for wear even after multiple coats of paint. It is the oldest bus stop in Singapore. Future: It will not be around by 2011. The Land Transport Authority is replacing it with a new one that will incorporate facilities like lighting and bins. But architectural writer Dinesh Naidu says: 'Its an artefact, and it'll get more valuable with time. Someone should kidnap it, if it really has to be replaced, and park it somewhere. It's going to be a great fixture for some museum or park - maybe an urban history or transport museum or an outdoor rest area or part of some sort of art installation.' VOTE & SAVE YOU'VE studied in them, lived in them, worked in them, and travelled past them. But have you realised how important these early modern icons are to Singapore's landscape? Tell us which landmarks you will like to see conserved. Cast your vote. View all thumbnail Photo 1 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Pandan Valley condominum -- ST PHOTO: NR SOR LUAN View all thumbnail Photo 2 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Pandan Valley condominium -- ST FILE PHOTO View all thumbnail Photo 3 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Queenstown Community Library -- PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES View all thumbnail Photo 4 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Queenstown Community Library View all thumbnail Photo 5 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Singapore Improvement Trust flats View all thumbnail Photo 6 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Singapore Improvement Trust flats -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM View all thumbnail Photo 7 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Former Ministry of Education headquarters -- ST FILE PHOTO View all thumbnail Photo 8 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Former Ministry of Education headquarters -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN View all thumbnail Photo 9 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Tanjong Pagar Plaza -- PHOTO: HDB View all thumbnail Photo 10 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Tanjong Pagar Plaza -- ST PHOTO: NR SOR LUAN View all thumbnail Photo 11 of 21 « Prev   Next » OLD: Golden Mile Complex -- PHOTO: URA View all thumbnail Photo 12 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Golden Mile Complex -- PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER View all thumbnail Photo 13 of 21 « Prev   Next » OLD: Singapore Polytechnic (former) -- ST FILE PHOTO View all thumbnail Photo 14 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Singapore Polytechnic -- PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR FOR THE STRAITS TIMES View all thumbnail Photo 15 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Havelock Primary School (former) -- ST PHOTO: ALAN LIM View all thumbnail Photo 16 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Havelock Primary School -- ST FILE PHOTO View all thumbnail Photo 17 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Nan Chiau High School (former) -- ST PHOTO: EDWIN KOO View all thumbnail Photo 18 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Nan Chiau High School (former) -- ST PHOTO: EDWIN KOO View all thumbnail Photo 19 of 21 « Prev   Next » THEN: Telok Kurau West Primary School (former) -- ST FILE PHOTO View all thumbnail Photo 20 of 21 « Prev   Next » NOW: Telok Kurau West Primary School (former) -- ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM View all thumbnail Photo 21 of 21 « Prev   Next » BUS STOP: Old Choa Chu Kang Road -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

大姐 and 小妹

they were here!!

FT: In laksa heaven

In laksa heaven

By Madhur Jaffrey

Published: May 24 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 24 2008 03:00

In the middle of Adelaide, bounded by Gouger and Grote streets, is Central Market, the city's pulsing heart. Built in 1869, as a food market it has outlasted Covent Garden in London and Les Halles in Paris. With its mix of cafés, sweet shops, meats, the freshest fruit and vegetables, and the occasional strolling players, it offers families a glorious one-stop mix of food, shopping and entertainment.

Central Market reflects how Australia has changed from being an outpost of the western, meat and potatoes world to somewhere that has become deliciously cosmopolitan with a very Asian slant.

On my first visit, about 11 years ago, I went looking for laksa. Having been told that Asian Gourmet, a small café at the market, cooked fresh pots of this Malaysian speciality daily, I hurried there as fast as I could and left with a smile of total satisfaction.

Imagine a large, steaming bowl of rice noodles with prawns and chicken and bean curd, immersed in a reddish, lemon grass-perfumed coconut curry sauce, as fiery and flavourful as a human hand can produce, topped with a mélange of raw, crunchy vegetables and herbs - bean sprouts, cucumber bits, sliced red chillies, spring onions and Vietnamese mint - served with a side of chilli sambal and lime slices.

This is curry laksa. There are many regional variations of this soupy, Malaysian noodle dish. I was introduced to my first bowl in Penang, the city's very own tamarind-soured assam laksa. Here was Asia's answer to southern France's fish soup, a very exotic version, where, instead of the dollop of the garlicky rouille on top, the soup had been showered with a fine julienne of a pink, highly aromatic, wild ginger flower and slivers of fresh, sour pineapple. I was won over on the spot. How was I to know that a few days later, a plane-ride away in Kuala Lumpur, I would be seduced by its sisterly southern version, curry laksa.

Since that time, I have been looking for laksas everywhere. I have made a quick meal of them at Malaysian airports on my way from here to there, I have eaten them in Singapore where they have a devoted following and then, to my great delight, I found them in Australia.

The family that prepared it was Malaysian, part of a wave of south-east Asian immigrants that have been arriving in Australia for several decades. Some set up small restaurants but others, more importantly, took over farming in the 1970s from earlier waves of older Greek and Italian immigrants. Kitchen gardens with Asian vegetables and herbs began mushrooming in Adelaide's western suburbs, noodles began to be extruded from machines at small Asian-owned factories and small workshops went into the business of producing bean sprouts.

Today, in Adelaide and its environs, where one in five "locals" is of foreign extraction, it is not uncommon to run into a Vietnamese farmer. I find myself driving north-west from Adelaide to Virginia where Hien Le has recently won the Australian Hydroponic Greenhouse Association National Young Achiever of the Year award. It was his father who was the migrant, a butcher with a piggery who arrived in 1981 and began to dream of a hydroponic farm but lacked the mastery of English needed to see it through.

The son has fulfilled his father's dream. In the humid greenhouses, Vietnamese workers quietly tend to hundreds of vines, seemingly rootless, magic stalks growing upwards and then outwards for easy harvesting, each loaded with either pendulous cucumbers or a bounty of tomatoes. In the semi shade of the cucumbers are spring onions, sorrel, Vietnamese mints and basils.

The bean sprouts, in another suburb, are harder to get to as the Chinese owner has perfected some unusual techniques to give the sprouts a longer shelf-life (10 days) and suspects that I might be a spy. He relents in stages, first sitting at his desk in a silent, Hamlet-like stance, tilting his head this way and that to read my real intentions, then unlocking just one room for me, then another and then another. I will not give any of his secrets away. I can say that on the whole, he sprouts his mung beans (which are grown in Queensland) just the way I do in my New York kitchen. In a seven-day process, these beans are soaked, allowed to sit in dark covered, rectangular colanders where they sprout as if underground and develop their white "tails", and are finally washed to free the original beans of their green skins.

In an effort to find the best laksa in Adelaide today, I return to the enclosed Central Market. With Lucia's Fine Food nearby to provide a fine cup of espresso afterwards, Asian Gourmet is there and still good.

I walk on the outer rim of the market, along Gouger Street, past an all-Asian supermarket, to Kopi Tim (168 Gouger Street.) The curry laksa sauce, flavoured here with dried anchovies, may be had with rice or wheat noodles or a mixture of the two. It is very, very good. I drain the last drop. Nothing could be better.

Well, not exactly. There is yet another spot to entice the laksa fanatic. It is in a recently created area in Central Market known as the Food Court. Let not the word "court" give any wrong ideas of exclusivity. In Singapore and Malaysia, food courts are plebeian affairs, of the people and for the people, created in the 1970s and 1980s to take street food hawkers and their carts off the roads, clean up their acts and put them in air-conditioned, sanitary and controllable surroundings.

In Adelaide's Central Market, the Singapore-Malaysian food court model has been imported, wholesale. It is large, crowded, noisy and impersonal, a massive rectangular hall lined with food stalls. You stand in line to buy your food at the stall of your choice and then take your filled containers and cutlery to shared tables and eat. No table manners required. Slurp at will.

Here, there is a food stall named Laksa House. It boasts a world of laksas, including seafood, vegetarian and, for my money (under A$7) the best curry laksa in town.

I ask for curry laksa with mee hoon noodle soup. I am given a bowl that could easily serve two, with a side of chilli-shrimp paste sambal and a chunk of lime. I teeter to the nearest table with my load. Pink prawns float about in the red liquid along with slices of chicken and melt-in-the-mouth, pasta-like forms of fish paste. The fried chunks of bean curd, having soaked in the numerous flavours and aromas, are now all soft and spongy. I stir a spoonful of the sambal (a pounded and sautéed mash of red chillies, dried shrimp and onion) into my laksa, squeeze some lime juice over the top,