Festival February

This month Singapore has been in nearly constant celebration or the planning of celebration. Firstly, this year is the 50th anniversary of the creation of Singapore as an independent nation, and there was a big kick-off at midnight on December 31. Since then preparations for Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year have been frenetic. But this month didn’t just contain Chinese New Year, it also contained Thaipusam, the Hindu festival celebrated by Singapore’s Tamil Community.

The first night of Thaipusam. Procession of a lighted shrine down New Bridge Road

Thaipusam began on February 3rd this year and was celebrated by devotees by making a pilgrimage through Singapore and ending at the temple Sri Thandayuthapani, very close to our apartment. The festival lasts for a few days and involves, among other things, creating shrines which the men carry upon their shoulders as they walk and dance. I had witnessed something very similar at the temple in December and still am not sure what festival that was, but we enjoyed visiting the temple again and watching the festivities.

At the Temple

 

 

At the temple

Our daily walks take us past an area known as the Float@Marina Bay, a band of outdoor stadium seating fronted by a large paved roadway and then the float in the bay. Concerts are staged here as well as soccer games, and the graduations of new cadets in Singapore’s armed forces. For Chinese New Year the entire area was transformed, preparations starting in early January, into a street carnival complete with children’s amusement park rides, tons of food and local specialties, and on the float an amazing array of lanterns depicting the animals of the Chinese zodiac and figures representing fortune, and this year two huge peacocks. Even though the preparations had begun in January it took them every bit of those 6 weeks to be ready to open on February 18.The festival, called River Hongbao ran until the 28th and the last two days of the month also featured Chingay, a bit like a very restrained Mardi Gras, minus the excessive alcohol and heavy on the fireworks.

The “God of Fortune” lantern being built in preparation for River Hongbao

Peacocks being built in the seating stands of the stadium

The Float itself, adorned with a diorama of the Singapore Skyline

The entrance to the festival of River Hongbao

Looking down the avenue at the festival

Everywhere we went in Singapore in February there were elaborate decorations on the street lights, in restaurants and malls and the closer it got to the actual days of celebration the more you saw. But on the 19th, the first day of Lunar New Year, everything changed.

Children’s carnival games and rides

The Peacock lanterns lighted up

The now finished God of Fortune lantern lighted up at night. This lantern stood some 40 feet tall

Some of the interesting lanterns on display at the Float@Marina Bay

More lanterns

Strange tree lantern

The carnival avenue lighted up at night

Night time carnival

Carnival entrance

The town suddenly locked itself up (except for the street carnival), all the grocery stores closed, for two days! Restaurants closed, cabs were nearly non-existent, and the town seemed exceptionally quiet.

Carnival as seen from the Helix Bridge. Now you get a sense of how large the lanterns are.

Do you want BBQ squid?

Or Fried?

Ted chose BBQ squid

We went down to the Float at Marina Bay several times during the two days of official Lunar New Year celebrations to take pictures, eat some of the delicious food being sold and see the sights. Ted had some BBQ Squid and I enjoyed the Twisted Potatoes, as well as some yummy Kebabs and a few other delicacies.

Twisted Potatoes. So yummy!

I got them several times…..

Then on the 21st things began to open up again, and the festivities continued, traveling troupes of Lion Dancers would drive around town and do performances at different places around town, Chinatown was awash in different activities like Chinese calligraphy and puppet shows, and special dinners happened all over town.

Telok Ayer all dressed up

Lion Dancer performance set-up

Lion Dancers getting started

Lion Dance

I was lucky enough to participate in a reunion dinner hosted by my workplace, Upside Motion. Our dinner took place at Red House, a local eatery featuring seafood, as many Singaporean restaurants do.  Our group consisted of mostly Singaporeans with a few Malaysians, a couple of Europeans and myself as the sole American. Since this was my first Lunar New Year celebration my colleagues very kindly explained the significance of many of the dishes and also provided ample commentary on the quality of the dishes, most Singaporeans consider themselves fairly serious foodies. Our meal began with super tasty steamed peanuts that look a bit like large beans but taste heavenly. Then we had the yusheng, also known as lo hei, a tossed raw salmon and shredded veggie salad that comes to your table in parts. The parts are then added together and all the participants use their chopsticks to toss the salad, the higher you toss the greater your prosperity for the coming year. It’s a bit messy. But completely delicious. Next we had Sambal Kang Kong, a green kind of like spinach that is steamed and tossed in a chili and fermented shrimp sauce, Black pepper beef with bell peppers and onions, Jumbo Shrimp battered in what they call cereal, Chili Crab ( a local delicacy), duck, another crab and an array of other tasty dishes. I made it a point to sample as many as I could, but eventually ran out of room. But it was an amazing meal and I feel lucky to have had the chance to be a part of the dinner and sample so much tasty food and be a part of a Singaporean Chinese New Year.

As I have mentioned before, I’m too cheap to upgrade my blog to be able to include video here, so I’ll be uploading my travel videos to YouTube. You can find them by searching my name, or via this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSPO0tM4IM8cvXuMlCyV0tAI have a playlist for the travel videos and my YogAlign videos too. And as always you can follow me here, on my FB page, Instagram and Twitter. I’m learning though, so not exactly a whiz at any of them.

Next week we finally take some vacation and head to Chaing Mai Thailand for a week and then on to Malaysia for another week. I can’t wait to have the time to see some other parts of South East Asia and to share it all with you when I get home!

Sunrise view from our apartment.

Back on the scene

I haven’t posted in a while. I haven’t really been so very busy that I couldn’t take the time to sit down and write, but my brain has just been someplace else. Maybe it’s just that I’ve become used to being here, and the things I see every day are now commonplace. We have to work a bit harder, go a little further, to see and experience things that aren’t part of our new normal.

I’ve been interviewing for a job here in Singapore, which I believe I have found, as long as the Ministry of Manpower (known locally as MOM) has no issues with my dependent’s pass. I’ll be starting next week, teaching group mat and reformer classes (Pilates) as well as some privates. I had some reservations about working here in Singapore, mostly because I want to be able to travel when we decide to go someplace without inconveniencing a studio and their clients,  and also, I’m taking a new certification and I want to focus on that, and be able to take advantage of this amazing opportunity we have to be here. But in the end, I missed teaching and the social interaction of a workplace and I’m thinking that it will be a great way to experience another facet of living in Singapore.

We have been busy too, Ted with work and me with studying and taking our daily walks, making trips to the Southern Ridges, the Botanic Garden, the Gardens by the Bay and the many places my feet take me all over town.

In our walks we regularly get to see, and hear, all kinds of birds, like the Javan Myna, the White bellied Sea Eagle and the Brahminy Kite. Until recently though this was as much of the local wildlife as we had seen. This month we have been lucky enough to see a bit more. Down at the Gardens by the Bay there are numerous signs warning visitors to leave the otters alone if they see them. We thought it was a joke, as many times as we have been down there we haven’t ever seen any evidence of otters. But on a recent rainy day we were leaving the MRT station at Clarke Quay and were very surprised to see an otter out enjoying the rainstorm right out in the busiest part of the day in the a very busy part of town. Then, just a couple of weeks ago we found ourselves awake very early and decided to walk before the heat really hit, and down just where the signs are we saw not one otter, but seven! All frolicking and chasing one another. Apparently a mated pair made their home in the gardens just about a year ago and proceeded to have a litter of five pups, all of whom seem healthy and happy. If you are used to the kind of brushy looking otters we have in the PNW you might find these a bit sleeker looking, more like large, oily ferrets, but still recognizably otters.

Our last walk in the Botanic gardens was on a hot and sunny day and we were pleased to see, besides all the birds and butterflies, a few small lizards scuttling around and basking on the sidewalk. But we were surprised when we saw a monitor lizard about 3 feet long and looking a bit fearsome. Since Singapore is such an urban environment it is always a pleasure to see a bit of wildness.

 

 

A New Year

We are a week into the new year now, and I’ve given a lot of thought to 2015. What I might do, what I might see, how I want to improve and change. I’m not huge into resolutions because I think it’s pretty easy to dive in with the best of intentions only to have life overtake those intentions with the grind of routine or the temptation of habit. But I am an eternal optimist, convinced that any habit can be changed and that this life is our opportunity to use ourselves as the canvas in the creative process, refining the person we want ourselves to be, softening our edges, improving our patience and acceptance, reminding ourselves of our goals, however transitory they may be. Never finished and always evolving.

The person I want to be and the person I am are rarely the same. I usually have several personal goals going on at any one time, some of them realized, many of them not. Not always because I couldn’t achieve them or because I’m lazy, but because the goal changed part of the way there, or I achieved the goal only to realize that it was not, after all, exactly what I was looking for. It could appear that I am fickle in my endeavors, or that I prefer perpetual learning to the harder work of practicing forever some skill I have acquired, but I feel instead that it is my job to embrace change and to keep bettering my skills and habits, sharing what I learn as I go along. Being the bringer of change and information to those around me.

Because I took a non-traditional path in education and in my career, I’ve had to contend with not only the skepticism of employers and co-workers, but myself as well.  I spent many years avoiding traditional learning situations, feeling that they were just so arbitrary; hoops to jump through just so you could show that you understand how to jump through hoops. I simply didn’t understand the rules and social conventions that we have around education, and in truth, I always felt lost in the system, and didn’t achieve well in that system either.

Later in life I found that I actually loved learning, as long as it was an area of interest, and could in fact achieve very well. My area of interest lies mainly in the movement/fitness/health arena, which is pretty broad, but extends even further out into gardening, cooking, drawing and photography. None of those things are of course very lucrative career choices. Especially for someone who is more of a Jill of many trades than complete master of one.  I have been fortunate to have found the work I needed when I needed it and to have the support of my husband when the work I found didn’t align with our needs or goals.

I’ve been interviewing for jobs here in Singapore, and believe I have found a good fit in a local Pilates studio, I’m excited to be working with clients again. Thrilled as I am to have found a great studio to work from, I’m still looking for that situation in which I can work more holistically with people, draw from my broader experiences to help them realize their goals, help them weed through the plethora of information and methods to find something that genuinely works for them in a sustainable way so that the changes they work hard to make can be easy to keep. I want to share the information I find whether I get paid to do it or not. I want to keep learning and keep helping other people learn too.

So, 2015 is a year of learning for me, like a lot of other years before it. I’m taking a new certification that you will continue to hear about. I’m hoping to take some cooking classes and make more artwork. I’m working on my own body and mind now, unlearning some bad habits, and creating some new and better ones.  I’m hoping to share what I learn with anyone who finds themselves interested in what I can give, or maybe inspire you to examine yourself, your habits, your goals and give you the encouragement to keep trying to be the person you want to be, keep trying new things, keep trying to be better at the things you aren’t great at and be the absolute beginner, willing to learn a new way to be who you are on the way to being.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Christmas in Indonesia

We’ve been in Singapore for several months now, Ted since the end of September, and I’ve been here since early November. We had hoped when he took this job, a contract position as a flight trainer, that we would spend a lot of time traveling around South East Asia, so far that hasn’t happened. So, when Ted found that he would have about 10 days off around the holidays we got on the internet to see about going someplace. Maybe Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, or Borneo? All within a few hours flight time. And usually, flights are pretty inexpensive, but we had waited just a bit too long and there were no inexpensive flights to anyplace, and hotels were all booked anyway. Finally we discovered that the island of Batam, part of Indonesia, had some places available that weren’t yet booked and that we could take a ferry across. Without knowing much about it and Christmas fast approaching I booked us for just two nights at the KTM resort in Sekupang. A two night stay was just $168 US for the whole stay and included breakfast both mornings.

On the morning of the 24th we had our breakfast and packed up and walked over to the closest MRT station at Clarke Quay and rode the 3 stops down to Harbourfront. Singapore has a resort island, Sentosa, accessible from Harbourfront, as well as the park system the Southern Ridges, luxury housing, and lots and lots of shipping commerce, in addition to the ubiquitous luxury mall.

We had made online reservations with Batamfast for our ferry ride, paying about $90SGD for our roundtrip fare, so we hustled through the MRT station and the mall doing our best to locate our ferry company. Oddly, the company has poor location information on its website and it was luck and Google Maps that finally got us there. Once checked in we had just a little time to walk around before boarding.

Anyone from the Seattle area will hear ‘ferry’ and think of the large vessels that carry cars and people between the I-5 corridor and the neighboring islands in Puget Sound, but these ferries are dwarfed even by the passenger ferries in the NW. They are passenger only and seat maybe 100 people. They travel the roughly 12 miles between Singapore and Batam in about 50 minutes, wending through an incredible number of shipping vessels waiting their turn in the straits. Ted started counting shipping vessels in one small part of the harbor and got to 50 before long, and there were group after group of them, some several times the size of the usual vessels.

On the ferry on the way to Batam!

Arriving in Indonesia a short time later we discovered that you apply and pay for your Visa upon entry ($30SGD for the both of us) and then pretty much walk on out to the taxi queue. The ride from the ferry terminal to the resort was a rather steep $14SGD considering it is all of 3 km, but it seemed the only way to get there so we complied.

After living my whole life in the PNW and traveling mostly in Europe and a little in Central America, Singapore is a very comfortable fit. It’s clean, highly organized, urban, very western, most everyone speaks English, and though the traffic is somewhat more cavalier than Seattle it is more orderly than Rome. Batam on the other hand is not quite so mannerly. There is a lot of rubbish on the road sides and traveling by motor vehicle is not for the faint of heart. I saw numerous families riding mopeds, sometimes with as many as four people on them, whipping in and out of the traffic with cars traveling quite close together and lane markings completely disregarded. None of the taxis we rode in even had seat belts in the back and if there were any in the front the drivers chose not to use them. The mildew that is so prevalent on the walls in tropical places is cleaned and painted away in much of Singapore, but Batam is not quite so diligent in it’s mildew removal and it gives the feel of projects started, but then abandoned.

Ted on the deck of our cute little cabin.

Front deck attaching the cabins to each other.

Indonesian bidet.

The KTM resort sits on a little promontory in Sekupang and looks back across the shipping lanes towards downtown Singapore, which you can quite clearly see when the weather cooperates. Entering the gates you pass a Basketball and tennis court area surrounded by cute cabins of varying sizes. The resort rolls down the hill to a beach, with more cabins dotting the hillsides, and the impressive statue of Kwan Im, goddess of mercy, standing 75 feet tall and overlooking the restaurant, pool and beach.

Kwan Im, standing over the resort

At Kwan Im’s feet

After checking in we were given a ride back up the hill to our little cabin, simple and small but private and charming, with a lovely view out into the bay and the small islands just beyond. We had some lunch in the restaurant and had a leisurely afternoon, enjoying drinks on our deck as the sun set.

Very dramatic light.

Beautiful view from our deck.

Christmas isn’t widely celebrated in largely Muslim Indonesia, so there wasn’t much fanfare at any point during our stay, though the reception area had some decorations and several people wished us Merry Christmas. But since there is a Christian minority, Christmas is a bit of a public holiday and a number of families had barbeques on Christmas eve, enjoying each others company, the scenery and some fireworks. The monkeys also enjoyed the barbeques and we found them scrounging in the garbage on the way to breakfast. But the breakfast was lovely, with freshly made to order omelets, lots of fresh fruit, coffee, juice, cereal, sausage, fried noodles, rice and chicken feet.

After breakfast we got a cab into Nagoya, the urban center of Batam, to walk the mall and maybe do a little budget shopping. The ride in caused me to acquire a new gray hair, but we did arrive safely. The mall isn’t quite up to Singaporean standards in term of the offerings but we spent a few hours wandering around and looking at all the shops until hunger overtook us. There are ample restaurant offerings in the mall ranging from some of the western favorites like KFC and A&W, to more formal sit down places. We had some awesome fried rice and a noodle dish for under $6 USD.

Since it was Christmas we decided to do something fun for ourselves and found a reflexology place just outside the mall and requested two 90 minutes sessions. The price was right at just about $10 each! We were ushered into a low light room, seated into two recliners, and had our feet put to soak in warm soapy water for a few minutes, encouraging us to anticipate good things. That was the last time for the next 90 minutes that we felt relaxed. Our image of a fabulous foot and leg massage was replaced by the painful reality of intense pressure deep into the feet and calves. Only our optimism that the painful part would surely be over soon and the nice, relaxing part would start at any moment kept us in our seats. But the grim truth is that even a day later we were still groaning in discomfort. I’ve never had a reflexology session before, so I have no gauge by which to measure it, but I can only hope that there are more pleasant sessions out there awaiting us at some point.

The site of our Christmas reflexology beating

Exhausted by our foot beating, we snagged a cab back to our cabin and broke out the gin. We enjoyed another lovely sunset sipping our pains away.

Soothing our pained feet with a little Christmas gin.

The next day we enjoyed our breakfast, Skyped with some of my family and got ourselves ready to head back to Singapore. The resort provides a return ride to the terminal and we had already bought our tickets so the trip back was a breeze. Because Ted has a work Visa to Singapore and I am a dependent we have the ability to scan our passports and thumbprints, bypassing the long entry lines back into Singapore and we were back at our home by early afternoon.

Our first trip out of Singapore wasn’t quite what we had thought it would be, but we had a great time, enjoyed our holiday and were grateful to have the chance to explore another new place.

Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay is a huge park that sits on 101 hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres!) of reclaimed land between the Marina Bay Sands and the Barrage. Actually, everything from the Fullerton on out to the Barrage sits on reclaimed land. But, the Gardens is a pretty incredible place. Singapore has decided that it wants to increase public green space and make Singapore the City in a Garden, and it is well on the way.

Looking towards the Gardens by the Bay from the other side of the river just beneath the Singapore Flyer. The Barrage is visible at the end, just above the boat in this picture. Those two buildings are the conservatories and the tall structures are the Supertrees.

A closer view of the conservatories and Supertrees.

On our daily walks, or nearly daily depending upon the storms, we usually end up in the Gardens, and I’m not sure we have been in every part of them even yet, though we are working on it. The Gardens themselves are free to walk in and lead up to the Barrage, a dam built across the Singapore river where it meets the sea in order to keep the river water fresh as it is used for drinking water. You can spend many, many happy hours wandering the different areas of the gardens, which include water areas, a children’s garden, a succulents garden, a great food court with a green roof, and gardens representing the ethnic heritage of Singapore’s citizens.

Amazing and huge sculpture of a baby floating above the meadow

Part of the Hindu garden

The Supertrees from a distance. Part of the cooling system.

I’m just going to stop right here and warn those of you who don’t like lots of photos, and/or who don’t care for pictures of plants and flowers. The rest of this post has A LOT of pictures, many of them of plants.

Just one of the many sculptures within the park.

Some of the Supertrees with the Flower Dome behind.

The Garden also sports two gigantic conservatories, each one around a hectare each. The buildings are the largest columnless conservatories in the world and were designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects. The admission into the buildings is a bit steep ($28 SGD per person), but entirely worth it if you love either plants or architecture (or both). One of the conservatories is called the Flower Dome and houses 7 different gardens of a mostly mild to arid type, and an olive grove with very old olive trees, in addition to seasonal displays (Christmas! Lots of poinsettias!), an event hall and a bistro.

First view inside the Flower Dome, looking up towards the succulents and arid garden

Cacti in the succulents garden of the Flower Dome

Amazing succulents collection in the Flower Dome.

One of a number of sculptures within the Flower Dome gardens. This one is a wood carving from Timor.

Events hall within the Flower Dome. Love the lights.

The second conservatory, the Cloud Forest, is slightly smaller but also taller to accommodate the 5 story cloud mountain structure within it. The Cloud Forest features tropical plants and especially epiphytes. Both of the buildings and the gardens inside are, if nothing else, amazing displays of technical effort and planning, I can’t imagine what went into creating the spaces, let alone the collections, some of which are very large plants and must have required incredible care.

From the ground floor of the Cloud Forest, looking up the Cloud Mountain and part of the ‘trail’ leading down the mountain.

Close up side view of part of the Cloud Mountain.

Worker all roped up planting and weeding the side of the Cloud Mountain.

A green footprint was a requirement for the buildings as so they collect rainwater and circulate it through the cooling system, the Supertrees Grove is part of the venting and cooling system as well as being a very cool visual feature of the gardens.

Since our walks usually take us down as far as the conservatories we decided, after our first visit, to become annual members of the conservatories, which allows us to stop inside whenever we want. This means that when we are sweating like crazy and feeling overheated we can enter one of the cool, lovely domes and wander for a while in the chilly air until we feel prepared to sweat our way back home. Every time we venture in we see something we missed before.

At night the gardens are transformed into a nearly magical place by intricate displays of light in the Supertrees Grove, often accompanied by music (seasonal music….if I hear Mariah Carey sing ‘All I want for Christmas’ one more time I’m going to be sick). I can’t wait to see the Chinese New Year decorations!

Enjoying the Gardens!

Another wander around Chinatown

One day a week or so ago I had the day to myself and wanted to see a little more of Chinatown. The central parts of Singapore are all very walkable, especially if you wear an activity tracker and you are in competition with other people who walk a lot, not naming names, but you still know who you are. Anyway, it really isn’t far and I found myself in front of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple  on Sago Lane within 15 minutes of leaving our place.

Looking directly up

The Temple is quite new and a popular destination for tourists. It is a huge building with 5 stories and a basement, housing a lovely garden on the roof. When I arrived there were lots of people paying their respects out front and services underway on the ground floor.

Making an offering

I looked in on the service in progress, appreciating the beauty of the interior as well as the service taking place. But my real interest was in the rooftop garden, so took I the stairs, stopping at each floor to see the chambers, including the Buddha tooth relic, whose authenticity is hotly debated. On the fourth floor there is a very nice meditation area on either side of the room looking out onto the city.

The rooftop garden, you can see the prayer wheel just inside the opening

Arriving on the top floor you walk into a lovely garden with seating along the sides and covered colonnades, sitting in the middle and elevated is a room housing an enormous cloisonne prayer wheel.

detail on the prayer wheel

The garden is loaded with beautiful orchids in an array of colors, if you visit, be sure to make it up to the garden, there is a lift for those who would rather not hoof it up 5 flights of stairs.

I spent quite a while wandering around the temple, but eventually moved on and passed the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple on my way back through China town. This time there were fewer guests leaving their shoes outside, but still plenty. Hunger dictated that I pass the temple by again in favor of lunch, but I’m looking forward to spending more time checking it out rather than taking pics from the outside, colorful and beautiful as it is.

Shoes in front of the Sri Mariamman Temple

 

In my search for a restaurant I passed by this place and while I loved the name for it’s own sake, I wasn’t sure what might be on the menu, so for this time at least, I passed. Maybe next time.

Yeah, it’s already captioned

 

 

Just passing by

The other day I was taking a walk, in a round about direction, towards Little India with my neighbor Ylla. We hadn’t gone very far, just a few blocks from our apartments, before we passed the Sri Thendayuthapani Hindu Temple and it appeared that there was a festival or something happening so we decided to detour across the street and see what was going on. I still haven’t figured out what festival it was, or the meaning behind what we saw, but it was a well attended event with a lot of interesting features.

Moving a small shrine into the temple

Temple detail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The crowd was dressed beautifully in lovely, bright colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first such that we saw. If anyone knows the significance of this event please fill me in!!

At first all I could sense was the music, a rhythmic drumming with a lot of clapping added in and intermittent vocalizations, and the smell of incense, but my friend is much taller than I and pointed out a gentleman standing in front of us being fitted up with a contraption that resembled a small shrine on an aluminum frame. The frame rested upon padded shoulders and hips was was fitted out with bright decorations and feathers. Upon closer inspection though there was another component, the man was having large skewers poked through the frame of the shrine and embedded in his chest and back. Now, looking more carefully through the crowd we could see that there was a line of men with these contraptions fitted to them, all making their way through the temple complex and then eventually into the temple itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another pilgrim (?)

Beautiful decorations adorned each of these mini-shrines

More supplicants or shrines (?) making their way through the crowds

Lovely, bright finery on all the bystanders

detail of the temple

The crowd watched and stepped in periodically to help

Amazing.

We walked around looking at the people in their festive clothes and the temple and then my neighbor noticed that there were two men, well into the crowd who were being urged by the music and the onlookers to dance their way towards each other.

The dancer to our left. Arrow through his mouth, piercings through his temples, hooks in his back.

The two men wore pants, but no shirts, both had long, gold arrows piercing their mouths and hooks embedded in their backs.

The same dancer, now you get a look at the ropes attached to the hooks in his back. Men are on the other end of the hooks tugging the dancer backwards as he attempts to move forward to the music.

 

Attached to the hooks were long ropes that men behind the dancers pulled on from time to time, reeling the men backwards as they tried to make their way forward to the music.

The dancer to our right, facing the other man and attempting to move towards him.

 

We watched, amazed, for quite some time, taking in the spectacle before eventually moving on with our walk, intrigued by what we had just witnessed. Anyone who can inform me on what we saw, what festival this might have been or what it represents please let me know!

Hair, part two

So, those of you following along will know that we left off with the ‘before’ for my keratin treatment. That was three days ago. The process of getting the treatment took slightly less time than I was told, and all went smoothly, if you will pardon the pun.

When I arrived they put me directly into a smock and sat me down to decide which product to use. Apparently there is one that retains more of your natural body and one that is ‘heavier’ and makes the hair quite straight initially. I was inclined towards the one that retains more of the hair’s natural body, but he told me I should smell it first since anytime your scalp sweats or you wash your hair you smell the formula. The formula unfortunately smells quite strongly like compost. Louis, my stylist, tells me that it is supposed to smell like bananas, but maybe he meant composting bananas. Anyway, in the end we decided that we would go with the smoother, less smelly one and they took me back to wash my hair with some kind of special shampoo that supposedly gets your hair extra clean so the hair shaft can absorb the formula better. And just by the way, I got an excellent scalp and neck massage out that process. Then back to the chair to get my hair thoroughly dry.

Formula applied and setting prior to the drying

Once the hair was dry Louis brought out the formula and applied it very carefully and very completely to every strand of hair, going over sections several times to be sure every hair had been coated. Then the formula was allowed to set for a few minutes and then both Louis and his assistant took hairdryers and thoroughly dried my hair once more. At this point we were almost two hours in so we took a short break and I walked around for about 15 minutes before returning to the chair.

After the flat irons and before the final washing and drying

During the next phase, the formula is bonded to the hair with heat. So both Louis and his assistant used flat irons heated to around 450 degrees (!) and went over small sections of hair, and again went over them several times to be sure that each strand had been bonded. After they were satisfied that they had accomplished the process my hair cooled off and we went to wash it again. At this point I was offered an optional (extra $30 optional) masque for the hair to help prolong the effects which (being cheap, and unsure whether or not I will like the effects anyway) I declined. Then back to the chair once more for another round of hair drying. Louis ended the drying by using a round brush and a couple of large curlers to give the ends a little shape. Since it was the first time I was doing this I was allocated a discount, though they did try awfully hard to sell me some expensive shampoos and conditioners to help the keratin stay bonded to my hair, but I resisted. I was told to use only shampoo and conditioner that do not have Sodium Chloride and Sulphates, but being a good planeteer I already have those (thank you Nature’s Gate), and to use a hair dryer or some kind of heat on my hair at least once a week to prolong the bond. The process started around 12:30, and by 4pm I was walking back to our apartment with VERY straight and VERY smooth hair.

Back home with FLAT hair!

I haven’t yet washed my hair, though I have rinsed it out twice after a work out, and I’m still getting used to it. It almost looks a little greasy or too flat to me since I’ve spent all my life with poofy hair, but I am enjoying how it doesn’t frizz up and how much longer it looks all flattened out. Louis tells me that the first month it will look quite flat and after that, over a period of about 7 more months, it will regain more and more of it’s natural properties, the body, the curl, but also the frizz. I’ll keep you posted on the changes, and I’m sure my own feelings about the process will change as the formula washes out. Hopefully I won’t experience the hair loss or breakage that some women have, but I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I have a holiday party to get ready for, and I’ll need to wash my hair!

Hair, part one

Those of you who know me well know that I have a head full of unruly hair that often looks like I walked through a hedge backwards. Even on the best of days it is fuzzy with little hairs curling up in funny places while other parts are board straight. The humidity here is fairly high and constant so a bad hair day is just that much worse.

before haircut

I’ve worn my hair long for nearly all of my life except for a terrible pixie cut when I was five (it’s okay mom, I’ve forgiven you), a brief Dorothy Hamill period in my tweens, and one disastrous foray into short hair in my late 30’s. Short just doesn’t solve the problem of frizzy and unmanageable, it just makes it more work to get it out of my face. Also, since I have a fairly slender frame and maybe kind of wide shoulders, and not awfully feminine jaw line, the times I have had short hair I’ve been mistaken for a boy, even the time I cut it short in my 30’s, and that isn’t really what I was going for. So, I associate my long hair with at least looking feminine, if not tidy. I never mastered any of the female arts of proper make-up application, nail care or the art of blow drying or styling my hair and since it tends towards dry and frizzy anyway I try not to put any heat on it, meaning that ‘styling’ is down to washing it and going to bed with it wet. Various products that were recommended to tame the clan-of-cave-bear-hair have never lived up to my hopes and have cost far more than I care to think about. Since I’ve been here in Singapore I’ve pretty much only worn my hair in a bun since this gets it off my face and neck, and at least doesn’t look like just rolled out of bed. When it’s down it looks like I’ve just rubbed a balloon all over my head. But there isn’t much point in long hair if you only wear it up.

Pixie cut

It’s a drag being taken for a boy in as a woman in your thirties…..

I was due for a haircut anyway, so I did my research and found a few salons that specialize in caucasian hair, and if you think that isn’t a big deal you should read a few of the hair-horror stories from those who didn’t seek a stylist who understands the differences between asian and caucasian hair. Eventually I narrowed it down to two salons and went in to speak with the stylists. I’ve had plenty of poor haircuts in the states from people who didn’t understand my hair and the way it waves/curls/frizzes, so my hopes weren’t high. The first studio was nice, and the stylist was patient in explaining that my hair should remain long and should have a keratin treatment to smooth out the frizz and a proper cut, I thanked him and said I would do more research.

For those of you just as uneducated as myself in the mysterious female arts of looking nice I’ll explain that the keratin treatment and a good blow-out (I said OUT) is what makes all those celebrities look like they have super smooth, amazing hair. Hair and nails are pretty much made of keratin and so the treatment involves coating the hair with keratin and other more horrible chemicals (uhm, like formaldehyde. Yeah.) and then heat treating the hair (to about 400 degrees. Scared yet?) to set the formula semi-permanently onto the hair shafts. The coating closes the shafts, and prevents them from absorbing so much moisture, which is what causes the frizz in the first place. There are numerous, frightening stories online from women whose keratin treatment went terribly wrong resulting in everything from acute illness to hair loss and the need for severe hair cuts and regrowth. But, there are also tons of very happy ladies out there sporting lovely, silky tresses who are more than willing to shell out for their quarterly treatments. And, it doesn’t come cheap. Most salons charge between $300-$600/per treatment, depending upon how thick and how long your hair is. This information obviously resulted in a lot more research on my part and several more conversations with salons and stylists. Who needs hair trauma added to culture shock?

I eventually settled upon a stylist and a salon close by at Clarke Quay Central and decided I would get a haircut first and see how that went before making a final decision on the hair treatment. Louis sat me down and asked the kind of questions a good stylist will ask, what activities do I do, how do I want my hair to look, how willing am I to spend time styling my hair (not willing at all really), how much am I willing to put into products and tools (very little in all honesty, I don’t even own a hair dryer, or anything besides shampoo and conditioner and a few hair ties). Once we established how cheap and unskilled I am in dealing with my hair he began his cut. Two hours later I walked out of there looking like a very much nicer version of myself and have been very happy with the cut. During the cut we chatted about Keratin treatment options and by the time I left I had booked an appointment for the treatment, which is about a 4-5 hour process for someone with hair as thick and long as mine. Today is that day. My appointment with Louis and staff is at 12:30 today, with luck, by 5pm I will have several months worth of smooth, not-frizzy hair. Wish me luck!!

After haircut, but before keratin treatment

Black Friday shopping thoughts

I’m grateful that I’ve already celebrated Christmas this year before I left home. We called it ThanksChristmas since we were compressing the two holidays into one, and it was a lovely little celebration with great people, awesome food and a few little gifts. I deplore the way Thanksgiving as a holiday has been hijacked by Christmas shopping and that a holiday meant to be about sharing and being grateful has been reduced to eating as quickly as you can so you can go get in line to shop. The Christmas shopping/spending frenzy is insane at best and I am thrilled that I don’t have to be a part of it this year. But I’ll be honest, in circumstances other than the Holiday Season, I like to shop, and I think that I’m hardly alone in that admission. Shop, not necessarily to buy, just to look and see what’s there. Shopping for me is a little bit zen as long as I’m not looking for anything in particular. It’s kind of like weeding or deadheading in the garden; you see everything going on around you, and notice the details as they wash over you, but they don’t detract from the whole of what you are doing. I find it almost relaxing. I come from sturdy shopping stock on both sides of my family, and I’m no stranger to a mall, however, even I was unprepared for the number of retail outlets available in Singapore. Singapore must surely have at least one restaurant for every man, woman and child who are legal residents here; food establishments are thicker than fleas on a dog and it’s a wonder that anyone cooks or eats at home. But I think there must be even more retail facilities, and it seems like every one of them, from the MRT stations to the most high-end mall, has a 7-11, go figure. And maybe a KFC. Certainly a McDonald’s and a Starbucks.

Art school I walked past on Hill Street

Many stores would be familiar to a North American shopper, as above, but also, Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Crocs, Bata, Nine West, AND all the really high end stores like Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, Prada, Cartier, Dolce & Gabbana and of course, Birkenstock (who knew they would make the list? Maybe here today and gone tomorrow, but definitely here today). But also, there are malls filled with tailors, importers and small retail establishments that either make their own stuff or buy it made locally. Certainly there are plenty of knock-off and copy-cat places, plenty of touristy stalls with the same stuff you can find globally in any tourist place, but the sheer volume of goods is impressive. Within easy walking distance of our residence there are 3 large malls, move out a block or two more in any direction and there are two or three more. Many host salons, reflexology places, nail and waxing places, dentistry and day spas along side juice bars and coffee houses. Some are dedicated only to electronics, while others cater to a variety of services. Orchard Road alone must have a hundred malls (okay maybe not really 100, but a lot, maybe 30?), each one loaded to the gills with store fronts, restaurants, cinemas, and salons. Americans got nothing on Singaporeans in terms of shopping!

Some of the sights walking towards Little India

Walking towards Little India

But as I mentioned before, if there is something you need, and you don’t really want to pay top dollar, or you just want someplace to look around for a while, then Mustafa Center is your place. I walked up there the other day, taking in the sights along Hill street, where a number of churches stand, including the Armenian Church, the oldest Christian church in Singapore, and Chijmes, at one time a Catholic Convent.

Chijmes

Armenian Church

I meandered past the Bugis street shopping area, an interesting mix of shops and stalls packed, I mean shoulder to shoulder, with people. I made my way into Little India just in time for another heavy rain storm, hence the lack of photos of Little India itself, but spent a happy hour or two wandering the maze of floors and departments inside Mustafa. Once I emerged the rain had slowed enough to continue on home through Fort Canning park and rest my weary little feet. All I bought were limes, lime juice and some other sundry groceries. And, I’m grateful.

Across from Mustafa, small shops and restaurants fill Little India