Sleepless in Singapore: A Series of Fortunate events (Waning: Long!)

Jan 24, 2008

Singapore is pretty famous for its Hindu Temples.. It has some very old (around 150 years old) hindu temples. Sri Mariamman Temple is apparently the oldest temple built in Singapore. So, a trip to three Hindu Temples was organized by the Hindu Society of NUS and I had signed up. It was last saturday at about 9 am. I arrived at the meeting point at 9:35, which was a bit late I suppose :P. The entire bus was held up and I got some intimidating looks from people as I entered it. They were waiting for me cuz some my friends had told them I'm coming.. So, we finally left at about 9:40 am and headed towards Sri Mariamman Temple. It is located in Chinatown and is quite big.. It has the look of a typical South Indian temple with the mantap like architecture in front and the like. You have to wash your hands and feet as you enter any South Indian temple.. I was surprised to see that many North Indians were not familiar with this custom. They don't do it in North Indian temple, but it is mind boggling to see them soo ignorant of the South Indian culture.. I've witnessed their ignorance in many things like this, including the pronunciation of our names, where some of the places are located (a couple of people I've met in Canada think Bangalore is a state.. so when I say I'm from Bangalore, they ask me, "from what part".. and when I tell them Bangalore is a city.. they start arguing!) Anyway, I will rant about the ignorance of North Indians later.

The temples are pretty traditional with the ganesha mantap on the left side, the main diety in the centre and the other dieties surrounding it.. The people conducting the tour took us in some random counter-clockwise order around the temple.. But, it was pretty well organized overall and a lot of the information they gave was new to me as well.. It is a tamil temple catering to the tamil population (which comprises the majority of the Indian population here). There was a mixed wedding going on there.. The guy was Indian and the girl looked Chinese. It was nice to see the Chinese dressed in sarees and traditional Indian jewellery.. The wedding was being done very traditionally with the nadaswaram and the drum playing in the background.. Reminded me of the weddings I used to attend in Bangalore almost every other week. I still havent tried the banana leaf food though, but I saw some people posted up pics of them eating dinner on a banana leaf. It is hilarious.. All these white people trying to eat with their hands (I'm no better.. I was told by a 4 year old that I should practice eating with my hands!).

The most interesting part is that we have all these cultures back in Toronto. There is a little India, Chinatown, etc and people never make an attempt to visit all these exotic places in their own backyard. Me included, we had to travel across to world to become open minded and gain the willingness to try different cultures. Another thing that is important to point out is all these mixed marriages that are happening here. The society here is much more accepting of other cultures than any other society I've been in. In Canada, there is a wide variety of ethnicities and each have their own specialties.. But I guess people have gotten used to the segregation and don't seem to get out of their comfort zones. The thing about Canada is that people are too new to the country and they do not feel very welcome in the Canadian Culture.. so they seek refuge in their own culture and their own "kind", which I guess sticks with them.. Maybe in about 3 or 4 generations, people in Canada would become more accepting.. But so far, even in Singapore I have seen some inward hate for a particular ethnicity [my hall mate was telling me that he hates this particular ethnicity and whenever he has to referee a fencing match (he is a fencing expert) in which a person from that ethnicity is playing, he always makes sure that the person loses!].. but the overall society has been generally more mixed and accepting than Canada.

After Sri Mariamman temple, we went to Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, which is a very similar temple. The South Indian Architecture, the washing of feet, the various temples starting with lord Ganesha were all the same as Sri Mariamman Temple. This temple also had a wedding going on and it was also mixed. The boy seemed to be a mix of Tamil and maybe Malay and the girl seemed Chinese. It was nice to see them following the traditional marriage customs in a temple. Overall, the Hindu temple trip was well organized by the Hindu Society of NUS and I got to see and learn a lot of things. After the temple, we branched off and about 10 of us went to a proper North Indian restaurant to have lunch. We had nice naan, various types of gravy and lassi. It was very filling and satisfying.

My initial plan for the day was to visit the temples, have lunch, then go to VivoCity Mall for a "Muscle Wars" bodybuilding show. However, what ended up happening was completely different and unexpected. After the lunch, we walked around Little India for a while looking and shops and such, then made our way to Chinatown where there were a lot of decorations for the Chinese New Year. So we saw that, then just walked around till we got back to Sri Mariamman temple. There was this very interesting store I saw in Chinatown. It looked like a Chinese guy sitting in the fancy store selling all kinds of bangles, t-shirts, etc.. but the music he was playing was Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam! It was very funny to see him sitting there.. There was this girl who was one of the organizers of the trip and she sort of looked chinese or malay.. I guess she was mixed or something, but her name was Vigneshwari and she went by 'Vicki'!

After Chinatown, we dispersed and became a group of 5. Looking for an MRT, we walked around Chinatown, into random malls and markets. It was very interesting. Finally around 5 or so, we found the MRT and left for VivoCity, the biggest shopping mall in Singapore. We went there.. it was indeed HUGE.. The Muscle wars was like in the terrace, but it was over by the time we got there.. but no worries, the scenery from the terrace was excellent and the mall was pretty amazing. There was some show for Chinese new year or whatever and there were martial arts performances, dances, music.. It was pretty amazing. It is great how we found such great things by just aimlessly walking around the city. Singapore is a place where you can do that and there is always a story to tell (as you can see from the length of this post).. But wait, I'm not done yet. If you have read this far, I congratulate you! Enjoy the video of VivoCity Mall as a reward!



After VivoCity, we became 4 from 5 and proceeded towards The Merlion (Symbol of Singapore) and Suntec City (The largest fountain in the World!).. but we went to the center of the city first and walked around Singapore downtown. It was prolly the best thing I've done so far in Singapore! The buildings are absolutely AMAZING! The architecture is incredibly artistic and unique. There was this building that had such sharp edges that one can get cut in half if they ever happen to lean next to the edge! Then there was this other building (If you can make out from the picture in left) it had like a curved edge.. simply amazing. Then, we got to the place with the famous Merlion. Merlion is a statue of a creature that is half lion and half fish. It is the symbol of Singapore. When we got there, my friend Ernesto described it most appropriately: "This, right here, is Singapore".. The picture of the Merlion with the skyline in the background would alone draw tourists from around the world. I've been to many similar downtown areas with equally famous skylines: Toronto, New York City, Montreal, etc.. But I must say, that Singapore skyline would have to be my favourite. It is absolutely amazing, what with the ocean next to it and all. You have to excuse the pictures.. they are taken from my cell phone and they definitely don't do justice to the beauty that is Singapore. After Merlion, we made our way towards The Durian, which is a theatre where all the famous shows in Singapore happen. It is designed in the shape of the Durian, which is deemed to be the king of fruits. We walked around there, then made our way to this harbourfront where we were treated to a free concert from a local Singaporean Rock Band called "Early in the Morning".. They were actually very good. I wouldn't mind checking out their album. We watched the band for a while, then made our way to Suntec City! (The night was still young.. it was about 9 pm at this point, and we had done SOO MUCH!!!)

It was a mission getting to Suntec City. We could see the building, but didn't know how to get there.. We walked around for an hour or so through random hotels, saw another wedding haha (We saw a total of 3 weddings that day).. This one was in a big Hotel and it was very formal. We were trying to get to Suntec City by walking through all the buildings and tried not to go outside.. But ultimately, we were forced to walk outside, and we entered a mall where we ate dinner at McDonalds. The mall was pretty nice. Finally after about an hour or so, we made it to Suntec City, but the fountain was closed.. but it was HUGE!! not tall, but the area covered by it was pretty big and it is indeed the biggest fountain in the world!

Finally, fearing we would miss the last bus, we started making our way back to NUS. We caught the MRT and came back to Clementi station, but the last bus had departed. It was not 3 of us and we are contemplating walking some more! But we ended up taking a cab and came back home around 12 or so... This was the best day I've had here in Singapore and one of the best days of my life! If you have read my entire post, I wholeheartedly Thank You! and even if you haven't, thank you for trying.. The intents of these posts are many fold: To record my travels in Unique Singapore, to Entertain and tell a story, and finally in some cases, make you think.. So, I hope I have accomplished my goals. Stay tuned for more to come.. This was only one day in Singapore.. I am here for 4 months!!!