Collin Ng's Blog

When I read the news on the recent sinking of a Korean ferry boat, it inevitably jostled my memory back to Royal Pacific which sank on 23 August 1992 near Port Dickson and I was one of the survivors too.  Sadly, there are some similarities between the two ill-fated vessels.  It happened more than two decades ago but nobody seems to have remembered that fateful incident now. I was the operations manager of Starlight Cruises which was the owner and ship manager of Royal Pacific, a 13,000 gross tonnage passenger vessel which can carry up to 600 passengers.  It was a Greek-owned vessel and flying on Bahamas flag.  It was a ferry which was just converted to a full passenger vessel slated to ply in the Straits of Malacca and home-ported in Singapore.  Cruising was at its infancy stage in the late 80s going into the early 90s in Singapore and the region.   It was our maiden voyage where we were supposed to do a 2-night "cruise-to-nowhere" along Straits of Mal...

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, it was considered a luxury to watch television, let alone owning one.  Going back sometime in the mid to late 60s in MacPherson estate where we used to live, I still remember only one household owned a precious black & white television then.  Ours was a typical one-roomer type of flat that faced each other along the common corridor.  Life was tough for all but it was a close community. Our neighbour was kind to let us watch the TV program together.  Most of our doors were never closed and as kids, we used to play and run along the common corridor.  It was noisy but nobody complained.  When it was time to watch, our neighbour would open their door and welcomed us all in.  The whole hall would be filled with children and adults and everyone was so glued to the television set.  One of the most popular TV programs was the Cantonese show from Hong Kong.  I can still fondly remember characters like Chan Poh Cho...

It happened more than three years ago.  It was a sponsored trip to run a marathon in Medoc in France by the French Tourism Singapore Office.  I truly enjoyed the marathon.  After the marathon in Medoc, I planned to visit Paris for few days before returning home.  Anyway, it was my first trip to France and I was all excited about it. I took a domestic flight from Bordeaux to Paris and I remember I arrived at about 1500 hrs.  I have heard too much about Paris and I was very wary of strangers.  There were few who tried to come near me on the pretext of helping me at the airport arrival hall and I ignored them completely.  One of my mistakes was to put almost everything in my haversack.  My laptop, my passport, my wallet comprising my cash and credit cards and handphone were among those important items squeezed into my haversack.  I had a large suitcase with me too.  I thought I will immediately re-organise my things once I have reached h...