Poignant messages from customers to kopitiam

Time to move: The Hainanese coffeeshop at Hutton Lane will be relocated to Leith Street, some 800m away from the current location.

GEORGE TOWN: Traditional Hainanese coffeeshop Kong Thai Lai, which will soon relocate after operating at its current premises in Hutton Lane here for almost a century, has been getting great goodbye messages from its customers.

Its regular patrons as well as first-time local and foreign guests have been penning such messages on its interior tiled walls since June when its operator, Tan Jeng Seow, decided to let his customers ink their memories of the place.