Family fun at Istana Gardens

While staying home during the Movement Control Order (MCO) I’ve been busy completing long-delayed home-improvement projects.

A photo session at Istana Gardens during a visit at
Chinese New Year; I'm that girl holding wide her skirt!

Among the tasks on my list was to reorganize and declutter my wardrobe, the cupboards, kitchen cabinets and finally, the storeroom.

With my wardrobe project successfully completed, I moved on to the cupboards to sort through souvenirs, books and albums.

I must confess that very quickly I became distracted by old photo albums.

As I was trying to assemble the loose photographs into albums, I discovered collections of interesting photographs which when put together, would tell meaningful stories.

For a start, there were numerous photos of our outings to the Istana Gardens.

Johor Baru’s famous botanical garden was designed with a layout that was inspired by a gracious English garden.

At the fish pond with a fountain in its center

Sprawled across 53 hectares or the size of five football fields, the botanical gardens was so named after the Istana Besar or Grand Palace, the main building among the complex of buildings here.

Designed in the neoclassical style, the palace complex of buildings was completed in 1866 by local artisans under the supervision of a European architect.

Johor pioneer and builder, Wong Ah Fook, was credited for building the Istana Besar among other landmark buildings in Johor Baru.

While the buildings of the Istana Besar were completed in 1866, they were extended and refurbished several times and its Throne Room is still being used for royal and state ceremonies.

Cousin Malcolm at Istana Gardens

The Istana Besar was out of bounds to the public, but the botanical garden was open to all and daily the park would be thronged by various groups of people that ranged from tourists, families, dating couples, students to exercise buffs.

From dawn to dusk, the park would be dotted with people but by twilight, the guards or park-keepers would cycle around to remind lingering visitors to please make their way to the exit.

Photos of outings and picnics planned with the extended family also proved that the park – especially the playground at the top of a hillock – was also our favourite spot.

When my siblings, cousins and I were living with our grandparents in our school-going years, Aunty Polly and Aunty Sylvia would often take us on outings to the Istana Gardens.

These spur-of-the-moment outings were unlike the trips organized with the extended family.

With our aunties who devised our own racing games

In the evenings when the weather was fine, we would bring scraps of stale bread to feed the fish in the ponds; there was one with a fountain in the middle and another in the Japanese Garden.

The charming Japanese Garden features a traditional Japanese teahouse complete with a landscaped garden, believed to be presented by the Crown Prince of Japan to the Johor Sultan in 1936.

The playground was equipped with swings and see-saws, and nearby, perched at the summit of the hillock, was a grand gazebo designed in wrought iron.

The gazebo was a popular destination for school picnics because it had concrete floors to sit on and provided shelter in case of any passing showers.

This public park was opened to all, so it was particularly busy in the evenings and on weekends.

Mum and dad at Istana Gardens

With other children waiting for their turn to play, we learnt to take turns to play on the swings or see-saws, remembering to let others have a go too.

Sometimes our aunties would devise our own games on the grassy fields close to the playground. Besides racing each other, we would form teams to run relays using rubber flip-flop slippers as our batons.

When Aunty Sylvia was participating in National and International badminton tournaments, her centralised training was with her personal coach, her father (our grandfather), who would bring her to the Istana Gardens for her physical exercise training.

I would sometimes tag along and I witnessed how grandfather encouraged Aunty to run up and down the gentle slopes in the park to develop her physical strength and stamina.

Guided by grandfather, this was a regular workout at the park for Aunty Sylvia.

Of course, I tried to join her in the training, but my short legs could hardly keep up with her strong stamina and steady momentum…

With Auntie Annie [2nd from Right] at Istana Gardens

In those days, the Istana Gardens was in fact, the place to go to for morning walks and evening jogs.

Regulars would park their cars along the roads and enjoy their exercise, walking or jogging along the shady network of roads or staircases within the park.

Our uncles and aunties were among the regulars who had their own favourite spots and circuit along the network of roads to exercise in the Istana Gardens.

When I was with them on these exercise trips, I observed a special sense of camaraderie among fellow exercise enthusiasts who would pause to acknowledge each other even as they went about their exercise routines.

The regulars would notice if one did not turn up as often and their chit-chat would involve asking after each other and why they were absent from the exercise routine.

Eating some snacks with Auntie Annie who was back
in JB when her son, cousin Derek, was almost due

I can remember our circuit which had a road that bordered the Johor Zoo and we would often stop for a close encounter with the friendly deer who wandered close to the fence to watch us humans!

After Aunty Annie and Aunty Polly were married and they moved to live with their husbands, they would come home to grandfather’s house at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng, when their babies were due for delivery.

I believe this was because the aunties knew that the best post-natal care would be in their father’s house with the security of their mother’s confinement advise and the nourishment of a homecooked traditional diet to help them regain normal strength again.

I also remember the room downstairs – which used to be Uncle Billy’s room before he was married and moved to his own house – was turned into a guest room where the mother and baby would stay during their confinement month.

At the Japanese Garden with Auntie Polly [3rd from Right]
when her daughter, cousin Bernice, was almost due

Again, from old photos of our heavily pregnant aunties, I was reminded that we used to visit the Istana Gardens to enjoy the park, usually in the evenings.

These were fun times when we brought along snacks or fruits to eat, and bread to feed the fish.

And while the children would feed the fish before enjoying the playground, the adults would walk around the park, maybe at the fishpond (with a fountain) and the Japanese Garden.

From the photos of our parents posing at the grand staircase of the Istana Besar and other sites in the park, I saw that the romantic grounds of the Istana Gardens with its manicured lawns, were a popular destination for dating couples.

On special occasions like Chinese New Year when everyone was dressed-up in new clothes, the family would also head to the Istana Gardens for a photo session.

Three-year old me at Istana Gardens

One of the most unforgettable photo sessions in the Istana Gardens must be on Uncle Victor’s wedding day when the videographer chose the Japanese Garden here as the backdrop for outdoor photography/videography.

[It was then trendy to record weddings in a video tape.]

I was among the bridal party who went along for the photo session and we had fun watching how uncle was directed to “run” across the Japanese bridge towards his bride!

I put “run” in inverted commas because later when we viewed the video, we had such a laugh because the videographer had turned uncle’s run into slow-motion, with his slo-mo action played against the soundtrack of Careless Whisper, a pop song by Wham! which was then currently popular.

The Istana Besar was renovated in 1982 and opened as the Royal Abu Bakar Museum in 1990, with the buildings refurbished and painted White, topped with tiles of Blue.

I had the pleasure of exploring the Treasure Rooms, the Hunting Room, the Throne Room and the adjoining Dewan Cina or Chinese Hall to see its priceless exhibits.

Facade of the Istana Besar with view of the Throne Room
and grand staircase that led onto a field in Istana Gardens

I thought it was an exciting destination to bring visitors to enjoy a glimpse of royal artefacts collected from the Johor Sultans’ travels and the impressive gifts that were presented to the successive Sultans over the years.

For me, it was pure nostalgia to walk up and down the grand staircase that led directly into the Throne Room because it was the same staircase where our parents posed for a photograph back in 1953.

Meanwhile the opposite side of the Istana Besar overlooks the Tebrau Straits – also known as the Straits of Johor – and was designed with a similar wide staircase that once led directly to a wharf or landing place by the Straits.

Just take a moment to imagine that before major land reclamation works were done along the Johor Baru coastline, the Istana Besar was situated at the edge of the Straits.

Mum and dad seated on the steps of the grand staircase
of the Istana Besar in Istana Gardens, 1953

In January 2012 the Museum was closed and the Istana Gardens no longer accessible to the public.

In recent years, the Istana Besar was used for state events including the funerals of members of the Johor royal family and the coronation of His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, the Sultan of Johor.

Now visitors to JB can only view the façade of the Istana Besar (from a distance!) through its grand gateway at the main entrance on Jalan Ayer Molek.

The Istana Gardens was certainly a safe and familiar place where generations of our family had the privilege to make many happy memories.

Now we are only left with old photographs to reminisce upon because we no longer have access into these gracious gardens.