Off to see the Taj Mahal!

My flight to India leaves in exactly four hours, and I have to call a cab in two, but it's been a few days since the last post so I thought at least I should write something before I leave. Not much to report, no visitors and such, but there was Chinese New Year. I pretty much tried to avoid Chinatown during that time, it's a madhouse, sort of like trying to go to the malls the weekend before Christmas. That and lots of discussion on who you're supposed to give money to (called Hong Bao, or "red packet"), and how not to give 4 dollars, because that's bad luck, and not eight, even though eight is good luck it takes four two's to make an eight so you'd better just give ten, nothing wrong with that. Oh, and there was Valentine's Day, where David and I went out for an over-priced six course set meal, but you get six full sized drinks with each course, and we had to pretty much wobble ourselves out of the place at the end of the night.

Since I've been glued to the TV for the last two weeks watching the Olympics, I don't have any new pictures, so I'll go back and post some general Singapore photos a took a while back. These were taken in Little India and Chinatown respectively. Enjoy, and see you in a week!

Thaipusam

What's that?

Oh, just a guy with 108 pots of milk hooked into his back.

This was the first of many of the jaw-dropping sights that we saw during Thaipusam, a Hindu celebration held in Singapore. It honors the Hindu deity Subramaniam, and devotees show the sincerity of their faith by, well, skewering themselves with lots of sharp things. And then walk a long way.

The devotees get ready by bathing at a local temple.

There is lots of prayer, incense burning, and beating of drums to get the participants pumped up and ready. They've already fasted and gone without sleep for a couple of days by now, and so they're already in a sort of daze.

Sometimes the people who do the skewering are professionals, usually they are not. This place is not for the weak of stomach. I think they start with the face and then move on to the back, etc.

This guy has meat hooks in his back, and is planning on hauling this portable shrine the whole way.

These cage-like structures are called "kavadi", can weigh up to 40 pounds or so, and are supported by, you guessed it, skin.

You don't have to be Indian, or even a traditional Hindu to participate.

The walk starts at one temple and then ends about 4km away at another temple. This may not seem like far, but remember that Singapore is usually 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Note also that many of the participants have their tongues and cheeks skewered, which makes it a bit difficult to take a drink of water.

Try this: Stick out your tongue, grab it with your fingers, and try to swallow. Now imagine your fingers are a skewer, and there is stabbing pain every time you do this. Hard core.

Young and old alike do this together, with the family following along and shouting encouragements along the way.

At the end, they go through the temple for the blessing, and then finally can remove the skewers. This alone can take an hour, especially if you're wearing an especially large kavarti.

And what do you do after completing a centuries old spiritual journey? Check your text messages you missed along the way, of course...

Fun with Mom and Dad - Part 5 - The Final Part

Have I talked yet about Mina? Have I mentioned how fun it was to see a little baby elephant walk around trying to undo the velcro on people's sandals? I'll spare you the 100 or so additional pictures I took of her, leaving you with this one. Tell me you don't want to scritch her head and I'll tell you you have no soul.

Okay, on to non-Mina related topics. We took a city tour on our last day in Phuket, visiting a local museum, shops, and temples. At the temple was this sculpture:

If you're thinking "Okay.... what?", you wouldn't be alone. The legend goes like this (skip this part if you couldn't care less about local legends, and don't be thrown of by the use of "cubit" - it's 18 inches): "This temple is known among the villagers as Wat Phra Phut, where approximately one cubit of the finial of a golden Buddha's head was told to have emerged from the ground. According to legend, this area used to be a pasture. One morning, a boy took his buffalo to graze here and tied it to the image's finial, unaware of what it really was. The boy returned home, fell sick and died, so did his buffalo. At night, the boy's father learnt from his to dig out the image. Amazingly, the ones who were digging, but not the viewers, were stung by a swarm of hornets from the dug up earth. The ruler of Thalang learnt of this miraculous incident and had a shelter built to cover the golden finial." The story goes on about how others fell to tragic deaths by trying to dig up the finial (that top knot on the Buddha's head). I have no idea what the moral of the story is, but anyway, there's a whole temple devoted to it.

Inside the temple there's other Buddha statues, covered with gold leaf. You give a small offering, and then you pick up the papers with the gold leaf inside and press it on whatever statue represents your zodiac sign. Here's mine:

After that we visited one of the local markets:

I was triple-dog-dared to try one of the local delicacies, but though it was tempting, I declined. A small sign next to the plate stated "Salted!".

Afterward, we were treated to a real lunch at an amazing mountain-top restaurant. My mom, who literally takes a week to eat a Snickers bar, even had seconds. Thai food is yummy. When it's not bug-related.

On the way out, we spotted this mother-baby pair. They fall under the "Who's Watching Who" category:

FYI, they're also building the tallest (seated) Buddha in the world in Phuket. [Ahem. You know what would be great? You people coming to visit and then actually getting to see this. Come visit!!!]

On that note, I'm going to leave you with our final sunset in Phuket.

And goodbye to Mina. Next time we see her, she'll be all grown up.

Okay, I can't resist one more picture...

Fun with Mom and Dad - Part 4

The big event of my parent's stay was a weekend trip to Phuket, Thailand. Taking a budget airline, the flight was $100 and took less than two hours. SE Asia is a great place to travel!

Our very first day we woke up bright and early and headed out for a boat tour of the PhiPhi Islands. Ever see The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johanssen? Don't worry, not many people did, but if you happened to catch it, this is where is was filmed. It's spectacular.

The water was a brilliant green, made so from the calcium from the rock formations.

Lunch was homemade chicken salad, bread and Pringles on the beach. Yum.

We went snorkeling at almost every stop, there are fantastic coral reefs all around. At the last stop our guide told us "If you want to see reef sharks, go toward the shore, if you want to see turtles, go the other way." Hmmm, let's see, turtles or sharks? I pick turtles. After about 45 minutes of fruitless searching, I spotted something huge below me, and gestured frantically to David. He came up to the surface and said, "What the heck was that besides bigger than me?" Turns out it it was a leopard shark. "Don't worry, it's not interested in us..." assured the guide.

I was not comforted, the thing had to be 6 feet long.

Being completely snorkeled-out, we slept in the next day, wandering out around lunch time to check out the beach and pool. Bars and shopping right on the beach, I love it!

My favorite part of the whole trip was definitely Mina, the baby Indian elephant who hangs out at the resort. She had just been rolling in the sand:

And then went for a swim:

She was adorable, trying to dive down in the shallow water, her back legs sticking up. If you gave her a tip, she would grab it and put it in her trainer's pocket.

Wow, sharks yesterday, elephants today, what's next? Turns out it was wildlife on a smaller scale, but no less fascinating...

Fun with Mom and Dad - Part 3

Dad commented frequently during his stay in Singapore, "It's not that hot today, really...". A statement that felt true until we did Little India and the Botanical Gardens in one day. Correction, they did Little India and the Botanical Gardens in one day, walking outside for hours at a time and coming back to the house completely wiped. And sweaty.

The Sri V. temple in Little India is always a feast for the senses. We were offered blue milk upon entering. At least I think it was milk.

I went home after Little India (there was a slight incident where I fell off a curb and had to go home to take care of a few scrapes), but they soldiered on through the Botanical Gardens, finally succumbing to the heat and taking a cab home. I told them they'd need the sweat towels at some point!

On of the other Singapore highlights was the Fish Spa on Sentosa. I made them go, I wanted to see my mom's reaction when she put her feet in the fish pond. She did not disappoint. (It's HD and may take a minute to upload, but the giggles are priceless...)

20 minutes in the fish spa was followed by a 20 minute foot massage. Ah, Singapore....

Fun with Mom and Dad - Part 2

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Next was a visit to the Singapore Zoo, which I'd also never been to. I was thrilled that my parents wanted to go, the zoo always makes me feel like a little kid, and being with them only added to the fun. The Singapore Zoo is pretty great, lots of opportunities to feed the animals yourself (no, not like the goats with food from the bubble gum thing, I'm talking feeding a fruit basket to a rhinoceros), and all the "cages" were natural barriers, making you feel like you were up close and personal with all the animals.

A gorgeous white tiger:

I don't know if this was the thiger who killed the guy in 2008, but I wasn't stupid enough to jump in the moat, so I felt pretty safe.

I get giddy when getting to pet things myself...

The Proboscis monkey falls under the "God has a sense of humor" category...

And this peacock was strutting his stuff around the rhinoceros pen. Not sure who he was trying to impress...

And we fed the giraffes! We weren't allowed to pet them, which was a disappointment, but have YOU ever been this close to a giraffe's head?

We also learned the difference between a leopard, a jaguar, and a cheetah. (Hint: Below is a leopard. They have different kinds of spots and they're all over the body, including the face.)

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this kimono dragon was huge. 10 feet and 300 pounds...

And the smallest bear in the world, the Sun Bear.

Mom having a heart to heart with the orangutan.

It was a hot and humid day (does Singapore have any other kind?), but I'm pretty sure we saw every single animal in the place. And we learned stuff, too!