• CSHH and Thieves Market

    Singapore is always developing and evolving at such a high speed. There were times when I left Singapore for a 2 weeks vacation, returned surprised that I could hardly recognize some parts of Orchard Road. Old buildings scraped, making way for new buildings and businesses.

    We heard Thieves Market at Sungei Road will be closing down soon. This flea market has been around since 1930s and will soon step into history. My friends and I decided to make a trip before it enter past tense phase.

    Before we do that, of course we had to fill our stomachs first! It was my first time visiting Chye Seng Huat Hardware (CSHH). If it wasn’t for my friend, I wouldn’t have known such a place existed behind the big metal doors of the building.

    Banana Cake tasted not bad, quite fluffy. Of course the quality can’t be compared to those of Paris Baguette.

    My almond croissant was a bit too hard for my liking. I couldn’t cut my knife through it without threatening to shake and bring down the entire table. It was impossible to share this piece of croissant with my friends. Ended up I had to pick up the whole piece and bite. I’m not sure if this is the ideal taste they wanted their customers to have.

    My friend’s espresso with milk tasted alright. At least better than my daily brew.

    My daily brew is by far the most awful coffee I ever had, and I think it is way too overpriced for the quality. I did a search online and it seemed that everyone is complaining it is too sour for anyone’s liking. Okay probably not everyone but there’s a handful! Or maybe I simply don’t know how to appreciate (Shrugs). On a side note, the presentation of the drink is cute!

    My friend ordered a ham omelette with mushrooms and it took more than half an hour to arrive. When we enquired why the omelette was taking so long, the staff simply replied “There is a lot of customers.” Seriously?

    I’ll be frank here that I don’t think the entire CSHH is so big that we needed to wait more than half an hour for an omelette. How long do you need to whip up an omelette?! In addition, where’s the sympathetic apology we should be hearing due to the long wait? The staff doesn’t even bother to help check our order and expect us to continue waiting endlessly.

    Only when we approached the second staff, we got an answer as to why the long wait. The staff had mixed up our orders. There! This is the reasonable explanation! I nearly dropped tears of comfort when I heard the second staff say “sorry” to us.

    So no photos taken for the omelette. My friend was too hungry and we were in no mood to take photos anymore.

    Both food and drink were acceptable in terms of taste, nothing fantastic. Service was awful. I’m not sure if I wanna give it another chance.

    Chye Seng Huat Hardware
    150 Tyrwhitt Road Singapore 207563
    Tel : +65 6396 0609
    Opening Hours: 7am – 9pm (Monday – Thursday), 9am –  10pm (Friday – Sunday)

    After this not-so-fantastic brunch we had, we headed off to Thieves Market under the glaring sun.


    As it is a flea market, items were spread out on the floor without price tags. Feel free to look and touch the items. If you are interested, then ask the price. You can also try price slashing with the seller if you think prices are too high.


    As you can see there were all kinds of items on sales. Watches, spectacles, soft toys, shoes… etc

    The old phones we used to have before all the smart phone devices appeared. So nostalgic!


    The kind of phone every household used to have. Now that everyone has at least a mobile phone, my house doesn’t even own house lines anymore.

    We used to own one typewriter too! Mistakes were irreversible with typewriters. There used to be “pen erasers” used to “erase” the words we typed wrongly on paper. All the erasers do was to damage the surface of the paper so that words were illegible and we typed new words over it. Awwww~ Good old memories!

    This friendly uncle was selling old graduation photographs of kindergarden kids.

    My friend took the opportunity to ask more questions. It seemed like none of them was aware when exactly they would be ask to leave. They pass every single day as though it is going to be the last.

    Ending the post with my favorite photo of the day.

    An advice to the people who intend to visit the Thieves Market, please be careful of your personal belongings.  Do make a trip before this part of Singapore enters into history too!