Thaipusam

In the early months we were here, a lady I met told me about the feast of Thiapusam. This feast is the celebration of the birthday of the Hindu deity, Subramaniam. From what I understand, this is the time of year when the Hindus who have appealed to this particular deity for certain favors fulfill the vows they have made to participate in this very specific form of self-flagellation in honor of her when these favors are granted. It is a form of thanksgiving, not penance. For me, it was like a 5-car pileup on the freeway. Horrifying, but morbidly compelling to watch. But just once, thank you very much.

'Little India' is the part of Singapore that, based on my months of observation, is a veritable hotbed of crazy stuff. They have fire walkers, parades, wet markets and silk traders. Their colors are brighter, music is louder and prices are better than anywhere on the island. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it is my feeling that the pulse of Little India beats stronger than it does anyplace else. Plus their food is fabulous and they eat with their hands, an acceptable substitute for chopsticks as far as I am concerned...I have limited the amount of curry I eat...after awhile it comes out my pores and my family can't live with me...but I digress.

I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and headed out. (Some of us who shall be nameless wimped out and found other things to do.) We went to the main road, where many of the participants were already decked out and had begun their 4km walk from one temple to another. They were carrying ornate 'kavadis;' big metal frames decorated with peacock feathers, silver blingy stuff and sometimes oranges and tangerines. I saw one guy carrying a fancy umbrella, but they all mostly looked pretty similar. Some looked kind of heavy - a conservative estimate would be about 30 pounds - and took 3 men and a boy to lift. Sounds pretty benign, until you factor in the way they carry them. Fellow believers, hopefully not guys named Louie who always wanted to be a doctor but never quite made the grade, put a series of fishhooks and skewers through the top layers of skin and attach ropes and pulleys to them. Then they attach these posts which they skewer through the love handles conveniently located in the lower back to this whole contraption. They perch the kavadi on top of all this support stuff and, surrounded by family and friends who I bet are all secretly happy not to be in the hot seat, set out down Serangoon Rd. It's a 4 km walk, and a lot of them plod along, looking pretty entranced or stoned or maybe just miserable, but a fair number of them were twirling and dancing and making quite the show of the whole thing. At the end they cue up, waiting to have all their bling removed. It was pretty darn unbelievable.

I didn't have the stomach to watch the dismantling, but I was pretty impressed with the endurance of the participants. I was glad I went and I certainly recommend it to anyone who visits Singapore. Anyone who cares to visit during next year's celebration....I will give you a train pass and a map and you can see it for yourself. Count me out, though. Once was enough...

Quite the Holiday - and I'm not lion!!!

I am a dyed-in-the-wool Catholic. I was raised in the United States, which, no matter what our current administration says, is a Christian Nation. All my life I have harbored the happy little delusion that everyone else is just like me. I was wrong.

It is Chinese New Year in Singapore. This is the time of year when all things are made new. Kids get new clothes. There are sweets and gifts and celebrations. It is the event of the year for the Chinese and they really know how to throw a party. For me, it is the thing that makes me acknowledge that non-Christian cultures are alive and well and the people who practice them are as committed as anyone...

All personal effects must be either washed or replaced. A friend of mine went to the dry cleaner in January and was told her stuff would take at least 2 weeks. "Chinese New Year," the owner told her unapologetically. Apparently he felt 14 days was a reasonable seasonal turnaround. Homes must be completely cleaned. This is partly for the New Year - family, friends and in-laws will surely be over at some point - and partly because luck can apparently be swept out of the house, wiped off the counter and dumped down the drain, so nothing can be cleaned throughout the 15-day holiday. The loss of luck in a drain or dustpan can haunt a family for a year. A terrible thing, that. Knives must be put away - if, when cutting say, an apple, a person cuts himself, he can bleed the luck right out of his body, also for a year. Gifts are given in the form of Hung bao - a small red envelope normally filled with cash. Cash must be doled out in even numbers - 8 is best. Not 4, though. 4 is bad - death, to be exact. Oranges are given out willy nilly - in pairs, since one on top of the other makes an 8. But they have to Mandarins, since the word for mandarin in Chinese sounds a lot like the word for luck or prosperity or wealth.

My favorite thing about the holiday is the Lion Dance, though. We had a little block party where these guys showed up. It was noisy and interesting and the kids loved it. So much so that I went out and bought a lion for Matt's classroom. I may get a drum too...

Last Days...

We filled our last days with our family together with as much fun as we could. We headed out to the Night Safari, Chinatown and Little India. We spent one day at Sentosa Island; an overpriced tourist mecca where we started on a luge ride and ended up sitting on the beach watching the kids have diving and splashing and belly flop contests. Phil won, but he was only willing to belly flop once... One day we went to Andrew's school to try out the bat he had received for Christmas and Phil and Matt ended up playing in a pick up baseball game where Andrew was elected field ump. Phil, who has not played baseball since 3rd grade, hit a double; Matt knocked in a home run. We went to dinner with friends, and spent a couple days at the wake board park where we watched the boys and the dads play on boards with varying degrees of success. (The moms were smart enough to hang on the sidelines, drink beer and take pictures...) The older boys went to Kuala Lumpur on New Year's Eve, while we stayed behind and spent the evening with friends. We talked, and laughed, and read, and played video games. We spent a lot of time being thankful for one another, and for this opportunity to see a place we never expected to see. It was quite the experience.

In the end, we took them to the airport so they could return to school. We miss them every day. We so enjoyed having our boys with us. Not a minute went by that we did not wish our daughter was there too, but in spite of that we had one of the best times together any of us can remember. And for next year - hopefully more of the same, but next time, we are hoping all six of us will be there...

Something Fishy.....

We returned from Langkawi the day after Christmas. We spent a day or so relaxing, opening gifts and playing X-Box. Since the big boys had just 10 days left here, though, we didn't want to waste much time...there was still much to see and we wanted to give them the full experience. Plus there were just a few things Phil had yet to see because we frankly saved them so we could get the maximum entertainment value. For us. One of these little excursions was the Fish Spa.


At the Fish Spa, there are three long tanks set up that are filled with a whole bunch of very benign looking guppyish fish. They swim around looking, well, benign. The truth is, these little critters are suckers for dead skin. Literally. According to Ancient Asian Lore; as in, 'We figured this out last year, we think on a Tuesday;' there is great value in sticking your feet in the water amongst these little cuties and letting them eat the dead skin off your feet. (Personally, I am of the opinion that the greatest value is to the people who charge the 30 bucks a pop to partake, but whatever.) It serves as an exfoliation, massage, and soul cleansing experience. For us, it was a spectator sport.


The boys are extremely ticklish, especially Matt. Since I stuck my feet in the very same water last summer, I knew how tickly this little endeavor is. We armed ourselves with the camera, promised the boys a good time and took them to the Spa. It was hilarious. At first, neither of them could keep their feet inside the water for more than a couple minutes. They giggled and laughed and had all the people in the room laughing right along with them.



They managed, finally, to keep the ol' size 13's in the water for the requisite half hour. Requisite because we pre-paid for the experience. They conceded that it felt pretty good - a little weird, but not intolerable. They pulled their freshly exfoliated feet out of the water and we headed back out. It was quite the experience for both of them; one we all agreed ya just can't find in the States...

Merry Christmas!

As part of our Christmas Adventure at the First Resort, we were obligated to buy the Christmas Eve dinner. The cost was not as prohibitive as it seems, based upon the exchange rate. (Contrary to my last post, the exchange rate is $3.35MR = $1.00US) The staff spent the day setting up a stage and tables along the shoreline along with serving areas and a stereo. We were looking forward to an evening of food, drink, and a break from the disco Christmas CD that had been playing ad nauseum for the past 5 days.

We got down there fashionably late, and staked out a place in our favorite waiter, Regie's, section. People were dressed to the nines. We looked, comparatively speaking, like inbred hillbillies. Lucky for us Ol' Regie didn't mind. He was missing his family and had decided we were it for the week...He kept us well fed and made sure we didn't get thirsty. The food was unbelievable, we had a visit from Santa, who I daresay flew in on his 3 Sheets with the Wind - I guess the sleigh was out of commission - and the stage sported a lovely young woman who could really belt out a song. It was the first decent music we had heard all week...

Details of the night are a bit sketchy, but suffice it to say we had more food that anyone should be able to justify eating, perhaps a bit more drink as well, and the night ended with all of us (even the sober ones...) in Santa hats, onstage, singing 'I Will Survive." If this is one of your favorite songs, be glad you were not in the audience...We Taylors cannot carry a tune in a bucket. Alcohol does not help. We had a great time, though. We missed Jenn and went to bed wishing she had been there with us. Would have been the perfect chapter ending to what was shaping up to be a pretty unorthodox Christmas....