Ottsworld Travel Experiences » Singapore

Photo of the Week – Singapore

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:00:41 +0000

Thaipusam Festival Singapore

The Tamil Hindu festival of Thaipusam is only celebrated in 5 places in the world. I was lucky enough to experience it in Singapore in 2007. With my camera I was able to capture a close up view of the body piercings which are meant to show a family’s devotion to the god Murukan, the personification of wisdom. In this photo, the man was pulling a heavy ‘offering’ for 5km via these back piercings. Participants carry offerings for the Gods as an act of penance. However, to me it appeared as one of the most painful processes I’ve ever seen!

The unique and painful festival is celebrated this weekend on Jan. 30th in Singapore, Batu Caves, Penang, Jahor Baru, and Ipoh. (the last 4 locations are in Malaysia) If you are anywhere near these locations, I implore you to go check it out; it’s a day you’ll never forget!

To learn more about the Thaipusam, you can read my original post on my Thaipusam experience.

See other travel photos at Photo Friday with Delicious Baby

Photo of the Week – May 15, 2009

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:08:12 +0000

Uniquely Singapore

I traveled to Singapore last week to see my family and captured this shot of clothes drying at one of the many HDV complexes. A typical Singapore site, colorful clothes hung out on rods 20 stories in the air…not quite the quaintness of Europe, but definitely unique!

Too see the rest of my past Singapore photography, visit my photography site and get reaquainted with my Singapore Photography!

Family Time

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:37:35 +0000

Singapore Parks

I spent the last week in Singapore soaking up the familiartiy of family, western food, western driving ettiquette, and even a little country hopping for spa time. Since HCMC apparently shuts down for Tet, I decided to take advantage of the time off and spend some time with my family. All I can say is that I have no idea how I would be surviving here on my own if it wasn’t for family nearby that I can escape to. When I made the decision to come live in Vietnam, I did it with them in mind as I knew it would be an added perk to have them only an hour and a half plane ride away. Since I’ve been here 4 1/2 months, I’ve visited Singapore 3 times now! I love being able to drink tap water again, cooking in a kitchen, riding around in a car that follows traffic rules, going to the grocery store and buying poptarts…it’s really a nice little break from my life in in Vietnam.

In addition, and probably most importantly, it provides me a social outlet. People I can talk to that know me. I love meeting new people and making new friends, but that process has been very slow here in HCMC and for a social butterfly like myself, that is a bit crippling. Plus – there is a part of you that simply gets tired of telling you ’story’ over and over again. You long for the familiar faces and conversations of people that already know that story – people that you don’t have to worry about making a good first impression – people that you can literally be yourself around. That’s what Singapore is to me…my little family oasis.

A little American softball

I had a great week minus the fact that I somehow caught a stomach bug. Doesn’t it just figure that when I get out of the undeveloped country and get into the developed country then I get intestinal issues…maybe my insides were in shock – who knows. I spent much of the week in the bathroom, but I also spent the week seeing old friends, playing wii with my neices, playing cards, going to softball games, watching movies and American Idol, running in parks and on sidewalks (a true treat for me as HCMC doesn’t really have either that you can run in/on), and we grilled out food and I enjoyed baked goods! Ah…the joys of having an oven again!

My sister and I also decided to have a spa day with some of her friends. The one downside to Singapore is that it is expensive – it has western prices. For someone working on a SE Asia salary, this isn’t good for my pocketbook. So we decided to make a true day adventure out of our spa day and go to Indonesia! One of the fun things about Singapore is that it is relatively easy to get out of it and island hop to another country for the day. Singapore is surrounded by little Indonesian islands just an hour or two away; in addition you can easily drive over the bridge into Malaysia if you feel like getting yet another stamp in your passport.

We opted for the island of Batam Indonesia for our spa get away. We chose our spa, Tiara Mustika, and made a reservation for the day. A simple drive down the the ferry terminal with our passports, a credit card, and some good reading in hand is all we needed.

My family in Singapore

The ferry took one hour and an Indonesian visa was quickly obtained on arrival for $10USD. After that we had the spa sent a driver to pick us up at the ferry terminal and he whisked us off to spa bliss! For a mere $35USD we had a classic Indonesian spa experience that included 3 hrs of massage, herbal steam, body polish, boady mask, hydro bath and ratus (a strange incense experience). We easily made it back to teh ferry terminal, grabbed some food from A&W and were back in Singapore by 5PM.

My Tet holiday was spent in a traditional way – with family. It was just what the doctor ordered. A little taste and feel of home in the middle of Asia.

Sisterhood

Sherry — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:53:33 +0000

Photo: My sister and I

As I started to count the number of countries I’ve visited for my sister’s Red Hot Holiday Party invitation, I also counted up the number of countries she traveled to with me. Surprisingly, the number came to about two-thirds of the total. Sure – I counted a country if she flew into it (Kenya), or flew out of it (S. Africa) while not really visiting it – but hey – if she supported me in some way there, even for a day – then it’s worth counting. I still have a vivid memory of her dropping me off at my first ever hostel in South Africa as she left for the airport and I started my solo adventure. I was in tears, and she probably wondered if I would ever make it this far 15 months later. It was as if I was going off to college for the first time, on my own, no family to support me any longer.

We have been through some tough travel stuff together this last year – mainly the Kilimanjaro climb (or failure depending on who’s telling the story). Finding a hotel in Dar es Salaam just hoping that we wouldn’t get mugged, carrying luggage through knee deep water in order to get to our hotel in Thailand, 8 inches of snow on a narrow mountain pass in China – but it’s all been worth it…in the name of sisterhood.

I have integrated into her everyday life in Singapore and she (nor my brother-in-law) hasn’t kicked me out yet…which is pretty amazing! One thing that constantly surprises me is that she’s my biggest fan always promoting my travels, my vagabonding decisions, and my website. I think she’s probably hoping that one day I will sell a book and I will support her…payback.

I am most proud of the fact that she’s adventurous enough to come on these trips with me – even if it is for a small portion of them. No matter how impatient or pissed off we get at each other…unlike other travel partners – she’s family, we are stuck with each other. We often joke about the fact that we could run the Amazing Race as a team. I actually think we would be pretty successful, however it wouldn’t be without fireworks and disagreements. We have the same genes…but different things certainly set us off. I’m competitive, but she’s uber competitive with others and herself. We both have our moments of bitchiness…but I’m uber bitchy if I don’t eat and sleep enough. It would make for good reality television – but alas, you have to be living in the US to apply for the show…yes, I actually looked up the application requirements. After all – I am looking for a job…reality TV star doesn’t seem that far fetched.

I spent this Thanksgiving in Singapore with her family. As we went around the table saying what we were thankful for – the theme of ‘family’ rang true for everyone. From my perspective, as I’ve traveled all over the world – the theme of family and specifically ‘extended family’ is extremely strong in most countries. Families look out for each other – they take care of one another, they live with each other. For some reason – when I was in the US, I never really felt that it was a strong theme. Sure, family is important to Americans, but it’s definitely lower on the radar – behind work, achieving, money, home, and simply acquiring stuff. So I feel lucky to have been able to experience this more global bond with family. I’m showing my nieces that even though they fight with each other and charge each other money for going in the other’s room without permission, they may actually end up enjoying spending time with their sister as they become adults. They look at me as if I have 3 heads when I tell them this, but seeing Cyndi and I travel, live and have fun together is the best life lesson for them. I often find myself daydreaming about what they will be like when they get older, and how they will interact. I plot in my head all of the stories I’m going to tell them about how when they were kids how they fought for completely insensible reasons – all wishing they could be only children at some point. I often lecture them…you are stuck with your sisters – stop fighting it.

Photo: My nieces playing in Singapore ’snow’…basically suds!
I spent my last week in Singapore enjoying the nightlife in Clarke Quay, bonding with my nieces under a Singapore snowfall, and doing what I do best – party planning with my sister. We once again threw the annual Red Hot Holiday Party in Singapore. Word must have gotten out – as this year it was bigger, boozier, and better yet! Last year it was a welcome party for me and holiday party. Photo: Cyndi and Frank ready for the Red Hot Holiday Party! This year it was part holiday party, and part going away party for me, and once again, my sister was out promoting me all night, between jello shots, she would introduce me to people telling them of my travels. Thanks to her, I’ve made a lot of new friends in Singapore over the last year of in and out travel, it is really my 2nd home. My sister’s church priest even attended the party and was kind enough to offer me a place to stay at the friar’s and nuns quarters if my family ever kicked me out! I can safely say that I have NEVER been offered housing in a nunnery before…but it would probably make for a good story…hmmmm…

Saying that it is hard to leave my sister and family on this side of the world is an understatement – it’s gut wrenching. It’s similar to that first time in South Africa with Cyndi watching the car pull away wondering what my future holds. My sincerest thanks goes out to my sister’s family Frank, Bethany, Megan, Lindsey, and Mylen once again for taking me in, letting me sleep in the bunk bed, feeding me, making me do homework again, teaching me about family, and putting up with my inappropriate dinner conversations! It’s a good thing that sisterhood is a bond for life, else I might have been out on the street months ago!

Thank you

Sherry — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:50:49 +0000

Family!

I have immense joy in my heart around my time in Singapore, and because of that I have immense sadness that I am leaving Singapore. There are so many aspects to these emotions.

First off, there’s the obvious – it’s a great home base to travel around Asia. It has been simply wonderful for me to have a ‘home’ during this year of constant motion, a place to unpack my smelly bag, a regular bed, a fridge to open up and eat out of, a place to store my toothbrush, a place to store all of the items I’ve bought, a place to run a ‘regular’ running route, a place to basically have some semblance of routine and normal life again. I’ve also been able to make new friends such as Mylen, Mary, Brenda, and Gretchen. I’ve been able to see what life as an ex-pat is like – the ups, the downs, and I can appreciate the struggle that the families go through making a big adjustment in their lives.

Second, it has been wonderful to spend this much dedicated time with my nieces. This is quite a treat for me as I’ve always lived a 4+ hour flight away from them. I would go visit once a year on a holiday and normally had to ‘share’ my time with them with my other family members or their other family members. I would see them during Christmas, at an unusual event that was not indicative of their normal everyday life. However – this Dec through March – I’ve had them all to myself. I honestly think that I was a bit intimidated to have them all to myself in the past. It was always easier to share the time with other family members. However, now I’ve seen them at their bad times, their moody times, their bickering times, their sick times, their silly times, their wonderful times, and their vulnerable times. I’ve seen how they carry themselves every day, how they do their homework, how they interact with their friends, what their hobbies are, I’ve read books to them and with them – I’ve been a part of their everyday life. I’ve seldom spent time with kids, so this was really a unique experience for me. I’ve never been a baby person which is probably why I never had one! Sure, they are cute, cuddly, they smell good, but for some reason it never really appealed to me. I’ve always said that I like it when kids get older – old enough to have a conversation, to joke with, to teach, to go to the bathroom themselves and sleep through the night. Being with my nieces from age 13 to 7 solidified those feelings for me. I like kids. Being around them brought back so many memories of my own childhood. Seeing them fight with each other reminded me of all of the petty bickering that my brother and I used to do (however our arguments normally ended in him beating me up and me running crying to mom). I joked with the 3 girls that they would have to take care of me in my old age (ok – so maybe that wasn’t a joke), I hopefully taught them a few things that they didn’t know before – actually I think I taught them many things (maybe some things that they shouldn’t know!) I met their teachers, went on field trips, helped with school parties, went to sporting events and plays – I felt like a mom sometimes – and that was an ok feeling. I want them to succeed, I want them to be happy, but most of all I want them to experience the world and follow their hearts – hopefully I have provided a good example of that. This time with them was precious to me. I was surprised that every time I came back to Singapore and rode a cab ‘home’ from the airport – I was so excited to see them. Every time I left Singapore, I had a wave of sadness sweep over me about leaving them – this stunned me. I love those kids, and I hope that they will never forget the 4 months I ‘lived’ with them – as I know that I will never forget it. I hope that it shapes our relationship as we all get older.

Then there’s my sister.
When you grow up with a large age difference – 10 years – it’s hard to find common interests, but you are family – so you always have some sort of bond. I can’t express enough how great this time with my sister was. I hope that she enjoyed it half as much as I did. It was reminiscent of when I lived with her in small town Wisconsin, the summer of my freshman year in college. I felt like we bonded – and this time we weren’t drinking wine coolers out of a 2 liter bottle as we did back then! This closeness I feel is a strange feeling for me since my family is used to living separate lives – we are all very independent – maybe too independent. It’s suddenly strange to be dependent on one another again, but good. You realize that you have so much in common, so many shared memories, and so much history. I realized – this is what makes a family – a strong bond – I haven’t felt that bond for a while, and it was nice to have the comfort of that back in my life. I used to marvel at other people who had such strong bonds with their family – they would talk to each other weekly, see each other often, and generally be involved in each other’s lives. Now I feel that I understand it more. I have been to 12 countries in the last 7 months and Cyndi has been to 7 of them with me – joining me for a few days at a time (and I think in every country people thought that we were twins!). I hope that she has enjoyed this opportunity to travel and hang out together as much as I have.

Finally, there’s the shear gratitude that I feel towards Frank and Cyndi for letting me live in their home on and off for the last few months and become a part of their life. I ate their food, I utilized Mylen’s time and services, I shared a room with my niece, I used their bandwidth (and lots of it!), I had them shuttle me around, they helped me with my travel plans and electronics purchases, and they simply put up with me! I would marvel at how lucky I was most days – how lucky to have this opportunity. I feel like this time with all of them has changed the course of my life a bit, it has brought me closer to all of them and that will not fade.

It scares me to think about leaving my family on this side of the world – mainly because I don’t really know when I will see them again. I’m surprised that I have the same feelings as when I left NY back in September. I’m excited for what’s to come, but so sad to be leaving people I care about behind. During my stay in Singapore Frank was promoted and they found out that they will be staying on in Singapore for 3 to 5 more years. I am so happy for them – Frank works hard and he deserves it. He has more energy for work, family, and marathon training than I ever had! They have a great opportunity to live overseas and I’m thrilled that they get to continue it. At the same time though – I am sad – for selfish reasons of course. I have formed this bond, and I want to keep it – that’s hard to do when we are so far apart. It just makes me more determined to get back to Singapore again. So hopefully this isn’t ‘goodbye’, it’s just ‘so long for now’.

Sommerfeldts – thank you so much for all the joy you brought me in this journey. All my love – Sherry

Singapore – the good, the bad, and the weird la

Sherry — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:42:19 +0000

Photo: Spiral Staircase at Pagoda

View pictures around Singapore

I’ve spent approximately 3 months on and off in Singapore – it’s been my home base for SE Asia. I feel like I’ve got to know it fairly well – all of it’s ups and downs…and oddities. I’ve tried to compile a list of some of my observations:

GOOD:
Hi-Tech Parking – The parking garages are amazingly high tech. First off, everyone has a little card/reader in their car (like an EZpass), but it works for every parking garage or lot in the country…yup…every one of them. This makes public parking a breaze…you just pull into the lot, it automatically reads your card and assesses your balance. The gates go up and you park. Upon your exit – it reads your card again and deducts the cost from your account automatically. Granted – this isn’t rocket science – but the fact that you can use it absolutely everywhere is genius! Airport parking, grocery store parking, Zoo parking, city park parking, museum parking…just one card. The other great thing about parking garages here is that they have a system that tells you how many empty spaces there are left on each floor of the garage. You get this information fed to you on an electronic board when you enter the garage. You then go right to the floor where they have 11 spots open! You may be wondering how do they know what spaces are open…well…that’s the beauty of it…they have little lights above each parking space in the garage. They are either green (if the space is empty) or red (if a car is occupying the space). I’m assuming there is some kind of laser or motion sensor. This info is fed back and tabulated quickly to update the board within seconds. The best part is that you are driving through a packed parking garage and you can immediately find the empty space by spotting the green light above the space…ingenious!

Transportation Privacy -The public transportation in Singapore is also really great. They have an above ground subway called the MRT. It’s easy to figure out, clean, and good signage. As I was riding the MRT I noticed that the windows were made of fogged-over glass so that you couldn’t see out. The above ground train would go very close to apartment buildings, therefore the fogged windows made it so you could see into people’s 3rd story windows/living space…very courteous of them! However when I got on the train, I could have sworn that they were clear glass. I felt as if I were losing my mind…must lay off the beer for a while I guess. However, a few minutes later, I noticed again that they were fogged. As I watched these mysterious windows, fog and then unfog – I realized that the windows would automatically fog over when we passed an apartment building, and then unfog when there was open space to see. Brilliant!

Grocery Carts Corals – Singapore figured out a great way to ensure that grocery carts get back to the coral…a deposit. When you go to a grocery store and get a cart out of the big line of carts in the front – you have to put a dollar coin in a little slot on the cart and it then is released from the herd of carts and you can use it freely all over the store. When you go to the parking garage to load your car, the only way you will get your dollar back is to take the cart back to the coral and hook it back up to the ‘herd’…and your dollar pops back out!

BAD:
Customer Service – I had a number of people tell me this – but I was surprised as I always thought that Asia in general was supposed to have excellent service. I was flying to Lombok and was in the process of checking in with my eticket. After I got all confirmed and checked in – the final step was for the woman to ask me for my credit card that I purchased the e-ticket with. Hmmmm – that was strange…why on earth do you need that? She said that they need to see it in order to prevent fraud. Strange – I just showed you my passport, and you have matched that information to what you have in the computer (at least that’s what was running through my head). I told her that I didn’t have the credit card with me as my sister had purchased the ticket with her card over 2 months ago. She looked me in the face and said “then you’ll have to buy a new ticket.” Deep breathes….just relax….”I have to what?” Needless to say, it took about 15 minutes of arguing, with me and my sister both present to convince them that there was no way I was buying another ticket when I just checked in and gave you my passport. After all, if they were going to try to stop fraud on e-tickets – then they should start back on their website as the ticket has already been paid for 2 months ago!

Return policies – Since I was in Singapore for Christmas, I did most of my shopping for my nieces in Singapore so that if they didn’t like it they could return it easier. The main toy store in Singapore is Toys R Us…great…an American company that I am familiar with. I picked out some presents and put them under the tree. The girls happened to get 2 of the same games for Christmas, therefore we had to return one of them. We went to the customer service counter with our receipt on December 29th. We told them that we wanted to return this game because we received two of them and showed them the receipt. They proceeded to tell us that we could not be refunded out money because their return policy was ‘money back within 7 days of purchase’. For Christmas purchases this was insane – did they want you to shop on December 24th? They were closed on the 25th – so you lose one day right then. They said that we could pick something else out that cost the same or more….what a rip off. We argued with them about this for quite some time – but they will not bend the rules – even if the rules are ridiculous. All of this happened as I was reading their lovely Toys R Us ‘vision statement’ posted behind their customer service counter…”We want every customer to be satisfied”….ha, they don’t have any idea what customer service is! I can’t only pick on Toys R Us…as this was the norm for all retailers in Singapore.

Branded – I had been here about a month when I noticed that many cars had a large 6 inch sticker in the back and front window. The sticker simply had a orange, reflective triangle on it – like a warning sign. I asked Cyndi what it was and she said that it is a symbol that denotes a new driver. That seemed reasonable I suppose – I used to have a learners permit – but I didn’t have to stick anything in my window for the whole world to see – that seemed like a little bit too much information. Then she told me that they have to display this symbol for over a year! I was horrified that people had to carry this symbol with them for so long even after they passed a driving test! Plus, it didn’t matter if you had your license for 20 years, if you had a kid that was learning to drive – you still had to have the big sticker in the car. It was like a branding or sorts – one that said –“ watch out for me – I don’t know what I’m doing!” Cyndi just laughed at me and said that I was too used to my ‘freedoms’ in the states.

WEIRD:
Electronics – During the holidays as I walked around some of the malls in Singapore I kept seeing little booths advertising Massaging MP3 players – no I’m not kidding – here’s the marketing spiel on it:
The age of teledildonics draws ever closer with the OSIM iGoGo, a 128MB MP3 player that can communicate wirelessly with two massage units. Distribute these rectangular devices on those spots that get you hot (and/or those of your comely young companion), and turn the music up to 11. It’ll get you where you want to go. But aren’t the little massagers the wrong shape? Maybe there’s a more anatomically-correct version in the pipeline. It’s $437.
I love new gadgets – but no, I passed on this one – I know that’s hard to believe.

Practicing Hymns – Ok, I can’t tell a lie – prior to December it had been quite some time since I had set foot in a church. Since I was staying with my sister, I felt that part of my responsibility was to attend church with them on Sundays…it certainly couldn’t hurt I suppose. The first service I went to though was like no other service I have ever been to. They belong to a small Catholic church. The Priest came out before the service started and actually asked us to open the hymnal to practice the songs that we would be singing during the service. It seemed rather odd that the congregation had to practice the songs 4 minutes before that we were going to sing them. He gave us advice on when to sing louder and with more joy – then he started the service and we sang the same song again…but better I guess. During the sermon he asked us to close our eyes and fantasize about what we wanted out of our church… I fantasized about a Starbucks counter in the back…it seemed harmless. He told us to open our eyes after about 3 minutes and much to my surprise and terror – he started calling on people in the congregation to share with everyone what they were fantasizing about! I sat there as if I were in high school again praying that he wouldn’t call on me as I didn’t do my homework properly!

Parking – In Singapore, everyone backs into parking spaces. I have no idea why this is the case – but everywhere you go – there are never any cars that pull forward into to a parking space. Everyone backs into their parking spaces. I’ve yet to figure out why this is the case. As a side note – my sister is an excellent backwards parker now!

Baby Cake – In Singapore, when someone is expecting a new baby, you generally give the baby a gift/money as you would in the US. However, the strange part is that after the baby is born, the family gives you a photo of the newborn with all of the stats and a coupon for a free cake from a local bakery. Add this up…that can be a lot of cake coupons for new parents to give out…maybe they want everyone else to have to loose weight with them?!

La – Finally, one of the stranger things that I became acustomed to was that most Singaporians place the word ‘la’ at the end of a sentence – very similiar to Candians using the word ‘eh’.

Every country has it’s quirks – and one of my favorite things to do is to find them…kind of like a scavenger hunt! Singapore didn’t disappoint la!

Auspicious New Year – Oink, Oink

Sherry — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:47:48 +0000

aus·pi·cious (ô-spshs) adj.
1. Attended by favorable circumstances; propitious: an auspicious time to ask for a raise in salary.
2. Marked by success; prosperous
3. Term commonly used during Chinese lunar new year.

View photos of Chinese New Year activities

It’s impossible to be in any part of Asia in February and not run into the traditions of Chinese New year! I was all over Asia in February – so I got a extensive education on welcoming in the Year of the Pig! There are so many traditions around Chinese New Year it’s mind boggling. If you really want to know everything – then go to wikipedia and do some research. This post isn’t meant to teach you everything – just some of the things that I learned and was exposed to!

The basic atmosphere is jovial everywhere, the grocery stores are stocked with special Chinese New Year items, the music is all traditional New Year music – it’s basically like our western Christmas…minus the Christmas trees. I would find myself humming along to the Chinese songs after a while…a sure sign that I’ve been in Asia for a while! It’s a public holiday all around Asia for a few days and all shops/stores shut down – however the holiday itself goes on for 15 days. Everybody in Asia is on the move at this time – they are traveling to visit family. Let me tell you – when Asia is on the move…you are talking about massive amounts of people flying, driving, ferrying – you name it. It makes the day before Thanksgiving travel in the US seem like a little blip on the worldwide travel radar. Like most holidays around the world, one of the main purposes is to be around family. Chinese New Year is actually ‘kicked off’ with a Reunion Dinner the night before the holiday. Families get together and have a big dinner. The dinner sort of resembles a Red Party as everyone normally wears red – it is an auspicious color – the sign of wealth and prosperity. I even dawned a red outfit for the big day…luckily this was pretty easy since we just threw the annual Red Holiday Party and I am a Nebraska Cornhusker fan…plenty of red in my wardrobe!

The first thing I learned was how to say Happy New Year in Mandarin. I enlisted the help of my 7 year old niece, Lindsey for this. She actually did a wonderful job teaching me with pictures. She drew on her white board a picture of a gong, a woman, a hand fan, and a box of Chinese food. This translated phonetically into Gong She Fan Chinese. She told me that I needed to drop the nese from Chinese and I would have it. Gong She Fan Chi…see how easy that is? The correct spelling is Gong Xi Fa Cai. After a lot of practice with my niece – I took my new Mandarin knowledge on the road and started using it on Taxi drivers. One actually thought I could speak Mandarin…I quickly informed him that this was the only thing I knew how to say!

My sister invited me to a Chinese New Year luncheon with some of her friends. The purpose of the luncheon was to teach people about the traditions/meaning of Chinese New Year…it was a crash course for me…perfect! The first and most important thing to know about Chinese New Year is oranges are important! You will see oranges everywhere – always in groups of 2 – never alone – you always see them with a ‘buddy’. When you hand them to someone – you always hand them over with two hands and normally say Happy New Year at the same time. Why oranges??? It’s not that they are crazy about orange juice, it’s simply the word for orange sounds similar to the word for wealth…therefore you are wishing prosperity for someone when handing them two oranges. Cyndi and Frank have collected a huge bowl of oranges at this time of year…you really get so many that you can’t even use them all. If there was some way to make pie or brownies out of oranges – maybe we could use them up – but oranges are tough…orange pie is just not popular. Maybe my friend Ron (pastry chef) could whip something up and come to Asia and make it big! I think I just came up with an idea for the Food Network…they should do a special on how to use all of your oranges from Chinese New Year…I’m sure it would be a hit! I personally tried to make a dent in the oranges – but it was impossible…you can’t out-eat the rate at which they come in! Oh yea – and it’s considered very rude to re-gift an orange… you are stuck with them!

Photo: Yu Sheng Salad
At the luncheon we also learned about the meaning of the Yu Sheng salad. I had been seeing these colorful salads in grocery stores for a few weeks now. It’s not just a salad to have before dinner…no – this salad has special powers when tossed properly. When you toss the Yu Sheng salad it is a group affair. Everyone gathers around the salad with their chopsticks in hand and toss a bit of it up in the air with your chopsticks letting it drop back down to the container. When you are in the process of tossing – you verbally state your wishes or blessings for the coming year (think of it as blowing out your candles on your birthday cake). It was actually kind of fun…and messy! I hope that all of my blessings for my friends, family, and kitty cat made it all the way back to the states!

At this time of year you often hear the sound of drums…drums everywhere. In the neighborhood, in the mall, at the grocery store, at your favorite restaurant…it’s a constant ringing in your ears. With the drums come the lions….dancers that is. One of the most important traditions of Chinese New Year is to have a lion dance that wards off bad or evil spirits. The lion costume is made for two people – two very fit, strong, athletic people! The lion dances around the establishment to the loud beat of drums and grabs a hong bao (a red envelope with money – more about this later) that is hung up high. Normally it’s so high that the Lion has to do some acrobatics to get to it! The Lion also gets oranges as offering and quickly takes the oranges underneath their costume and peels them leaving them in some Chinese symbol on the floor. I saw many lion dances during the 15 days of Chinese New Year, but my favorite was the one that was done at my brother-in-law’s office! First off – it had been 6 months since I had been inside an office environment…as soon as I set foot in the cubicle maze, it made me panic a bit. The same gray walls, file cabinets, bad lighting – but halfway around the world…ugh. But the site of a lion and drums occupying the normal corporate office cracked me up! Everyone left oranges on their desks for the Lions. Maybe that’s what I was missing at my old job – a Lion Dance that would ward away the evil spirits…lord knows that my office could have used some evil spirit cleaning!

Photo: Frank in his ‘cleansed’ office with the lion!

Finally, one of the best traditions of the Chinese New Year is that it pays to be single…literally. Finally – I have found a way to make money on the road…Hong Bao! This basically means a gift of a red envelope filled with new money. Yes – it has to be new, crisp money…none of that krinkled crap. Hung Bao is given to all kids and ‘unmarried juniors’ during this time of year. Who knew that at 37 years old I would still be grouped with kids (yes – I am making the stretch that I’m a ‘junior’)…I guess it’s fitting since I still feel like one! Since the number 8 is considered very lucky – you normally find $8 in the envelope Granted – this won’t help me pay rent…but it does buy me a beer – and that’s really all an ‘unmarried junior’ like me needs!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone…and to all a good night (I couldn’t resist)!!!

Piercing Palooza: Thaipusam

Sherry — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:14:10 +0000

Warning – these pictures are not for the faint of heart! If you have any aversion to needles or piercings – then move on to my Orchid post instead. The Orchids are completely zen. A special note to my high school friend, Audra…considering you fainted when you got your ears pierced in high school, I think you would much prefer the Orchids! Read on at your own risk!!

Thaipusam Piercings

View Thaipusam photography

This week I attended a unique religious festival in Singapore. This festival only occurs a handful of places in the world, and luckily Singapore is one of them! I was so excited to go see this event, as I had seen footage of it on Globetrekker (my favorite tv show and dream job) in the past and have always been fascinated by it. When Cyndi told me that she got us tour tickets to go view it – I was ecstatic! I even treated my camera to a professional cleaning with the Cannon Service Center in Singapore in order to get the best possible shots!

Color Coordinated Lime Piercings

Thaipusam is an ancient religious festival of great significance to Tamil speaking Hindus. This version of Hinduism is one of the oldest religions going back 5000 years! The word “Thai” refers to the Tamil month of Thai (Jan – Feb) during which the festival is observed. “Pusam” refers to the star of nakshatra. The festival falls on the day when Pusam star is descendant, generally coinciding with the full moon day of the month. Now, I could go on and on about the history and stories of Thaipusam, but you can just as easily read that on wikipedia. Instead, I will give you my brief cliff notes based on my understanding of the festival. I can’t guarantee that all of my facts are checked, but it’s how I saw it, through my eyes and my lens. I know that most of you who read my blog would rather just get the cliff notes on it than read all the facts…so here goes…

The festival is basically a pilgrimage from one temple to another. They carry offerings to the destination temple to give to the Gods as an act of penance and provide an offering to the God, Murukan. To Hindus, Murukan is the personification of wisdom.

Carrying a milkpot

The offerings they carry with them are in the form of milk pots, dozens of various fruits, Kavatis, and Chariots. The milk pots range in size, and the large ones (the size of a gallon of milk) are normally carried by women on top of their head. Men also carry numerous tiny pots of milk and various fruits. When the festival originated, milk and fruit were considered precious commodities, so it was quite a sacrifice to give offerings of milk and fruit to Murukan. The Kavatis are large structures that resemble a tower of sorts, they normally contain peacock feathers and other god-like images attached to them. The Kavatis can weigh around 30 to 40 kg.

Finally, the chariots have various gods on them and resemble a parade float of sorts and probably weigh about 60kg. The distanced between the temples can be any amount of distance – in Singapore it was about 5k. For you runners out there…you are probably thinking…”5k, that’s not so bad. I carry Gu, and water bottles with me all the time and run 10 miles.” Oh yeah…one more thing I forgot to mention – the offerings these people are ‘carrying;’ are pierced to their body. All of a sudden a simple little 10 mile run in the park is sounding pretty good right now!

Man with traditional tongue and mouth piercings

We started the tour by going to the first temple to watch the families prepare their offerings. Each family unit normally carries their offerings as a group. Women do not get any piercings, they simply carry the heavy milk pots. The family unit normally pick a younger member of the family (maybe in their 20’s or early 30’s) to carry the heaviest offerings (the Kavati). Most every family has someone carrying a Kavati, however not all families pull a chariot. However, there are some uber-faithful families that have the chosen male carry both a Kavati and a chariot.

The ‘chosen’ male also normally has been fasting for the last 5 to 8 days – so I have to think that they really aren’t in a sane state of mind at this point (which is probably good). The family gathers around as a holy man from the temple conducts the piercings. The family loudly chants to gods as the ‘carrier’ is being pierced. I can only think that this is to distract the man from the pain in some way. The fact that they are hanging oranges off of a starving man is enough of a distraction in my opinion. I personally think that I wouldn’t notice them piercing my skin, but instead I would be focused on that orange and ripping it open and eating it!

They attach the Kavati to the person by piercing a number of metal rods into the torso skin to hold it in place. In recent times, many of the men wear waist belts in order to carry the the weight of the kavati on the waist instead of on the piercings. Photo: Man with kavati and no waist belt

However there are some old-schoolers out there that like to do it the traditional way…no waist belt and carry the whole weight through the body piercings on the waist/stomach. Often while the chosen male is having the piercings conducted amongst the chanting, he is also standing on wooden shoes/thongs of sorts…the shoes are made of nails….nothing is ever easy for this guy…really.

See, you think that you are having a bad day…just consider that you could be starving, standing on a bed of nails, and getting your body pierced in a hundred different places – your day is looking pretty good now! Some of the men even decide to walk the 5k while wearing the shoes of nails – needless to say, they kept a slow pace.

Face piercing

Finally, most of the chosen men also had a large piercing done through their mouth, forehead, and tongue. The piercing rods ranged from a small diameter like a fork tong, to a large diameter the size of my finger. To top it all off, they would then hang an orange or a lime off one end of the mouth piercing for extra weight. All of this self infliction of more ‘pain’ was to show their dedication to Murukan. The families often thought that the more they could burden themselves, the more devoted they were. They even went to the lengths of having family members pull against the chariot creating more weight for the chosen male to pull.

However, there is a light at the end of this painful tunnel. The religion has stepped in and has frowned upon the excessive acts of piercing and self inflicted pain – therefore banning some of these things. However, like any good rule out there, there are always ways around it and there are always people breaking them.

Man pulling chariot

Let me break for a second and try to anticipate the obvious questions going through your head while you are reading this…

Are these people in pain?

Is there blood everywhere?

Why in the world would they do this to themselves?

It certainly appears that the men are not really in much pain. They are said to be in a semi trance state so they don’t feel it. I honestly think that the fact that they have been fasting for 8 days plays a big role in this whole piercing business. They are probably already hovering between reality and trance due to lack of food. Then you have family members chanting in your ears, therefore making you even more delusional. Finally, the fact that they have been fasting means that they have lost weight – their skin is already hanging loser than normal, therefore the lose skin is being pierced, which may be less painful. There is no (or very little) blood that we saw. The people doing the piercing do know that they are doing, they find the right pieces of lose skin and pinch them and pierce the hook through the skin, they stay clear of any veins – they are professionals!

However, I will admit that I never did see any sterilization of the hooks being conducted, so that was a bit disturbing, but no one really seemed to care. As to why they do this…my only answer is why not? Every religion has their odd beliefs, and customs, who are we to judge a 5000 year old religion. Everyone was there of their own will, and honestly seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was quite honored that they let us mull around and shoot pictures like the paparazzi….they were very open to letting us view everything.

During the 5k pilgrimage, the whole family would walk together and support the chosen male by singing and chanting. There were certain points along the route that would pass other temples and they would then all stop and dance there for a while and then move on. Kind of like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade when the groups perform at the entrance to Macy’s for national television. Hmmm – come to think of it, maybe next year instead of people simply carrying the balloons down the street, maybe they should pierce them to their torso…just hope that it’s not a windy day!! I digress…

At the end of the pilgrimage they gave their offerings at the temple and there was much more dancing and rejoicing, and sometimes screaming and fainting. At one point we heard loud shrieking screams and it was a lady that was having an averse reaction to giving up her milk pot. A few minutes later, 3 other women were carrying out this teenage girl limp and unconscious – she must have fainted. Don’t worry, she came to shortly thereafter.

Bells worn around the ankles

After giving their offerings, the families were ushered into another large tented area where they could celebrate and remove all of the piercings and EAT! I thought that the removing of the piercings was harder to watch than the piercings themselves. Once again, this was a family process. The women normally prepared some food, or handed out food to people, and the eldest member of the family removed the piercings from the chosen man. As soon as a piercing was removed, the elder would put white powder on the open ‘wound’ – this seemed to stop the blood in some way.

We later found out that the white powder was actually burned cow dung…it was basically ashes of cow shit. I’m not really sure how sterile that is, or how good it tastes when put in the open wound in the mouth…but it seemed to do the trick. The Kavadi was slowly broken down and put away in a special little carrier to be ready for next year. The chosen men were often congratulated with hugs and hand shakes from the family and they seemed to be euphoric…I can only compare this to finishing a marathon I guess… happy that it was over!
Video: Removing piercings

Coconut Butt

The whole experience was eye opening, and hopefully the pictures and video help you visualize all of this, as it was really a one of a kind experience to be there in person. The festival/parade goes on for 24 hours, and thousands of families participate. I could have stayed all day and watched and took pictures…I think most of the time I was simply wide-eyed in awe. It certainly gives me something to think about next time I’m on a run and feeling crappy, like I can’t go on. I will simply think about the guy that I saw with 2 coconuts hanging off of his back onto his butt-cheeks. Many days when I run I feel like I’m carrying a couple of coconuts with me on my ass…but this guy really did it…he was my hero!!

Orchids – I’ve killed my share

Sherry — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:10:19 +0000

I love orchids – so delicate, so colorful – yet I’ll be damned if I’ve ever been able to keep one alive. My recent attempt was this last summer when I still had a job. I decided to buy an orchid to brighten up my dull office. I simply needed it to stay alive for 3 months, until I quit my job. The poor thing lasted about 1 month and decided to check out on me.

My sister suggested that we go to the Orchid Garden in Singapore and see the hundreds of varieties. I figured that they may not even let me in if they knew my orchid track record…but thankfully – they didn’t ask for my orchid resume.

Here are some photos of the Orchid Garden. It was everything I was expecting – delicate, colorful…and vibrantly alive! Enjoy!

View Orchid Photos

Family Ties – Singapore

Sherry — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:38:17 +0000

View Singapore Travel Photography

View snapshots of Singapore

I landed in Singapore ready to see something familiar – my family! I was ready to empty out and fumigate my suitcase, sleep in the same bed for multiple nights in a row and get in the Christmas spirit. However, after a few hours in Singapore getting the tour of my sister’s home, sitting down to a family dinner, helping nieces with their homework – I quickly realized – this is probably the most foreign place I’ve visited so far. The idea of eating a well balanced dinner at 6:30, having a family conversation, getting up in time to get kids off to school, going to church on Sundays, helping with homework (which I have miserably failed at), getting to bed by 10:00, watching Disney movies, and generally being a good role model…well – I don’t live in this ‘family’ world normally. I know that by now (at 36 years old) I am supposed to be completely at ease in this world…but I’m not. This has been a bit of a culture shock – but a fun one. It has brought back so many childhood memories and it made me realize just how different my life in NYC was. In NY I was still working at 6:30, I had my first cocktail by 7:30, dinner at 9:00, bed at midnight, and I never once hung around school age kids unless it was a holiday that I went home for. So – I guess it was about time that I entered this world for a while…

Let me introduce you to my family – my sister, Cyndi, is married to Frank and they have 3 girls – Bethany, Megan, and Lindsey. My nieces officially refer to me as the ‘Crazy Aunt’…I think I’m ok with that…it’s better than being the ‘Boring Aunt’. I love being an Aunt – I always have. I love the fact that I get to do the fun stuff and teach them important things like how to spot a fake Coach bag, how to say hello in Italian, and what thong underwear is. However, I secretly imagine that every night before dosing off to sleep that Frank says to Cyndi “How long is your sister planning on staying here again?” There is one more person to mention in my Singapore family – Mylene. Mylene is from the Phillipines and works for Cyndi’s family tending to various household activites. She’s wonderful…not just because she calls me Miss Sherry (which I secretly love), but she’s a wonderful cook, and has a great laugh to match her easy-going personality. In my new ‘temporary’ home I share a room with my 7 year old niece – I sleep on the bottom bunk. She’s a pretty good roommate…no loud music, she doesn’t wake up when I go to bed late, and no snoring. She does however have numerous stuffed animals that I have to add and remove from the bed everyday – but that’s a small price to pay for free lodging. Considering I have had no flirting with the opposite sex in my last 4 months, a stuffed animal to cuddle with occasionally is not neccesarily a bad thing.

Singapore Sling

Photo: The World Famous Sinapore Sling from Raffles Hotel

Singapore is located approximately 85 miles north of the equator off the southernmost tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Basically – this means that it’s HOT and tropical. On one of my recent runs I kept on having one thought come into my mind- pressure cooker. Running in Singapore is like running in a pressure cooker. I even looked up the definition for those of you that aren’t from the Midwest!
pressure cooker n. An airtight metal pot that uses steam under pressure at high temperature to cook food quickly.

Yup – I felt like a jar of food – being steamed under intense pressure – so much so that I was ready to burst at about mile 2 – where I promptly stopped to walk for a bit. My sister always said that it was very difficult to run in Singapore in the intense heat and hummidity – and I certainly believed her – but you have to experience it for yourself to really appreciate it. My sister also failed to warn me about the other hazards of running in the jungle land…snakes. We were running on a trail one morning I was gasping for air behind her not paying attention, when she suddenly stopped and I pulled up right before running into her. She turned around and said…snake. Sure enough a 5 ft. long snake was slithering across the path. Sure – I tried to remain calm…no problem – I see snakes all the time in Central Park…yeah right. Needless to say – the next time we went running through the jungle together – I took a shorter path on my own for a mile and the only thing I could think about was ‘what if I get bit by a poisenous snake?’. I had planned out a way that I could survive for at least 15 minutes by using my bandana/sweat rag as a turnicate and sucking the venonm out of the bite. Luckily – I didn’t have to put my survival skills to use!

One of my first big things to tend to when I arrived here was to help my sister throw my annual Red Hot Holiday Party. I was so happy that she agreed to carry on the tradition and she did an amazing job. Give an Ott a theme party…and we are in our element! This was a great way for me to meet many of Cyndi and Frank’s friends, the girl’s teachers, and the neighbors! I even taught Mylene how to make Jello shots – I think she’ll be taking that recipe back home with her to the Philippines one day! In fact, everyone like them so much that just this week we made Virgin Jello Shots for dinner one night. I liked teaching my young nieces how to suck jello out of a plastic shot glass…yup…that’s why I’m an Aunt and not a Mom. Any way you jiggle it – the Red Party was a success!
View Red Party pictures

My next big project was going on a field trip to the Rain Forest with Megan’s 4th Grade Class. This was my first dose of masses of hyper kids running around. This was a big wake up call for me! I was in charge of 4 of them as a ‘parent helper’…a title that I never thought I would be adding to my resume…but who knows. We carried out our assignment in the pressure cooker temps and found and photographed various vines, insect evidence, ferns, and fungi.
Then we took a little tour of the park with a guide. During the tour the guide spotted a viper…yes, a viper snake on the railing and showed it to us from a distance. Making a point to tell us that we would most certainly die if it bit us. This little deadly green snake was only about 12 inches long and blended right into the mossy railing…it was quite terrifying to me. However when the 10 year old boy next to me asked if he could touch it – I wanted to scream at him….”Hello…McFly….didn’t you hear the guide say that you would DIE?!” Once again…this is why I am an Aunt, and not a Mom. Plus – 2 snake sitings in the matter of a week was my limit.

Photo: Singapore Birdpark Resident

The next responsibility I had been given was to do a presentation for Lindsey’s 2nd grade class on my trip to Africa. OK – no problem…I’ve done millions of presentations at work…give me the PowerPoint and I’ll get that done ASAP. In true form – I procrastinated on it until the night before. So – I stayed up late and decided to work on it. I picked a background for my slide and started the title page, then on to the list of bullet-pointed topics that I would be covering in my 20 minute presenation……oh……wait a minute….these are 7 year olds, not corporate executives. Crap….I realized that I’ve never had to gear a presentation to such a young audience! I needed to strip this down to bare bones…they won’t stay with me for a title page and bullet points…I needed pictures, I needed safari animals, I needed goofy stories…I needed a drink. One vodka/soda and that got me a bit more in tune with the 7 year old mind. Of course I was still working on the presentation the next morning up to 15 minutes before my sister had to take me to school. I got to the classroom and walked in and had a twenty 2nd graders turn around and stare at me…wow…this was going to be harder than any Steering Committee presentation I had ever done before!
Photo: Me in the school cafeteria with the 2nd graders!

I decided to focus on telling them about the Samburu Tribe I visited while on safari, and talk about all of the animals that I saw. I told them stories about the elephant charging the truck, I told them about the hungry lions, I made them guess the animal names, I showed them the Samburu school children and the mud huts they lived in. I loved it. They raised their hands to ask me questions. One little boy actually raised his hand to tell me that he knew a joke about a giraffe. So I said – ok – let’s hear it…
“Why is a giraffe’s neck so long?”
“Why?”
“Because their feet stink”
It was at this time that I started to amuse myself by thinking that if all corporate presentations were this fun to give that I might have actually stayed working! They all had to ask me one question at the end. But first – the teacher made them all take 10 seconds to sit quietly and come up with a really GOOD question to ask Aunt Sherry. I got questions about what I ate, what I wore, where did I go to the bathroom (that was my favorite one of course!), and how to make an elephant sound (I actually tried my best to do one). At the end the teacher thanked me and they proceeded to all clap and give me ‘fireworks’, ‘Greats’ and ‘fantastiks’. It would take too long to explain what those fireworks, greats, and fantastiks were…but trust me…they were very cute. I even told them that no one at work ever had ever clapped for one of my presentations!
I proceeded to go to recess with the kids and then had lunch in their cafeteria. I felt like a giant among munchkins – but it was fun to see what it was like to be a kid again. Granted – it looked like complete mass chaos to me on the playground…but it beat eating lunch at your desk and checking email any day!

The kids are off school now, I attended all of their Holiday parties and concerts at school, even helped decorate some cookies. So now it was time to start to explore parts of Singapore!
Cyndi and I went to Raffles Hotel – the home of the Singapore Sling – this was a must see/drink on my list of Singapore things to do. I figured this was a good way to break up some of the holiday shopping! The next day we went to the Tiger Beer Brewery with Cyndi and some of her friends. They had a great gift shop and a fabulous company bar where we enjoyed some free beer. I think every corporation needs a company bar! Who’s in favor????

This week we went to the Bird Park. I didn’t have high expectations for a bird park – but it really blew me away. You could get super close to the birds, they did tricks, put on shows, and even let you feed them. I had fun getting out my camera and putting it to use again. Therefore you will see tons of bird pictures in my photography link this time! Bethany bought some bird food at the Lory Park and they birds nearly attacked her! We all had fun watching them land on her and follow her around! My favorite birds were the flamingos….it was as if a lawn somewhere in Florida came to life in Singapore.

My last big adventure was to finally go and get my hair cut and re-colored (Shock/Horror…I’m not a natural blonde!!!). Considering that I was used to having this done every 6 weeks in NY and I had been on the road for 3 1/2 months now – it desparately needed attending to! Somehow though my comment to the hairdresser about “I’d like to keep it blonde” got lost in the translation and I am now a brunette. When I got back to my sisters after becoming a new brunette, my nieces were a little shocked…luckily no one cried. Apparently last time Cyndi came home with a new haircut Lindsey cried…I think I would have lost it if that had happened to me! Once again – this is why I’m an Aunt and not a Mom.

Now we are hunkering down for Christmas Day. Lindsey asks me every day how many days until Christmas – I can feel her excitement building – she is about ready to burst. I used to be one of those kids…the kid who was so Christmas crazy that I couldn’t even function the closer it got. My parents made me sleep with my brother on Christmas Eve…he of course hated this as I would bug him all night with questions. It’s fun to be here, with family, and with kids at this time of year – I couldn’t have planned this any more perfectly in my year of travel. I do look forward to getting back on the travel circuit and seeing Asia with some crazy adventures throughout Thailand. However, there’s no place I’d rather be this Christmas Eve. I’ll be picking out my favorite stuffed animal to sleep in my bunk bed with, tucking in my nieces, and recalling fond memories of my own childhood.

Photo: Woman at the Bird Park…she looks so calm – I loved this shot!

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