Haw Par Villa

In just the past 4-5 days we have been seeing and going to ever more amazing, beautiful and crazy places, I can't keep up the blog. Today we went to visit Haw Par Villa, which would fall under the CRAZY category. 

This 'villa' is a 'theme park' previously known as the Tiger Balm Gardens, built in 1937 by the two brothers whose fortune came from the medicinal Tiger Balm sold everywhere in Asia. They wanted to portray scenes of Chinese folklore, Confucian teachings, legends and history so as to benefit society. 

It goes on and on with fabulous and grotesque dioramas and grottoes, culminating in the Ten Courts of Hell. This is the (very) graphic portrayal of the judgement upon dying that a soul must endure. Each of about 50 sins has its corresponding punishment all rendered in 3-D bloody plaster dioramas. Not for children or for the faint of heart. 

I didn't photograph the Courts of Hell (it was dark in there) but here are some shots of some of the other  parts of the park:  

Crab woman.

One of a half-dozen huge apes.

Fish woman fighting in a sea battle.

Attacking tiger.

Pigsy being naughty. (We learned all about the character Pigsy.)

Mermaids being playful. 

Three giant masks.

Dragons in the clouds.

Johor Bahru

Yesterday Lex and I went to Malaysia. It is only a 30 minute bus ride (and $2-3 fare) to get to the northern shore of Singapore and cross the bridge to Johor Baru, 'the southernmost city of the Eurasian mainland'.

On this map you can see Singapore in the lower center, just off the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Johor Baru is not shown on the map but it is a big city, Malaysia's second largest with nearly 2 million in the metropolitan area.

The difference in the two cities is not quite as severe as San Diego and Tijuana but does have those contrasts. Malaysia is more 'wild West' while Singapore is much more controlled, manicured, polished and efficient.

We arrived at the modern bus terminal, walked out and encountered Southeast asia: muggy heat (no surprise there) traffic, broken streets, some litter, shabbiness. Singapore, by contrast, is like tidy, organized Europe, inside a sauna.

The residents of JB are about 44% Malay, 42% Chinese, 9% Indian and the rest, other minorities. Everyone we met was very friendly. After about 15 minutes of wandering, we entered a small Chinese temple and were graciously encouraged to enter. It was pretty basic, but had the incense stand at the entrance and a half-dozen or so people walking in for a few minutes to pray. We went inside to sit and take in the peace and quiet a while.

Across the street, and half a block down, was a Sikh temple where we were again invited in by the guy at the door who gave us a guided tour (in his very basic English) of this 2 storey building. Downstairs just inside, it looked like a huge dining hall with a large kitchen off to one side. Upstairs was the prayer room -large, open, carpeted, with an altar at the center rear. Again, a half-dozen men or women were entering and praying for a few minutes as we walked around with our guide. Back downstairs in the dining hall, he offered us a meal or tea. Since it was still morning (11am) we decided to accept only the tea and he brought us some delicious sweet milk tea.

Here is the kitchen.

It was explained to us that Sikhs never turn anyone away who is thirsty or hungry. No matter what race sex or religion, all are equal in God's eyes and share the same rights.
We really enjoyed what we saw and learned here at this temple.

Around the corner, another temple this time, Hindu!

Oh, the colorful images here are each crazier than the next:

           

We sat inside to enjoy the cool shade and breezy marble floor. After about 5 minutes, a ceremony began with LOUD bells and drums and a clarinet-like instrument. Half a dozen people were following priests around as they lay brilliant flower wreaths and ghee-butter lamps on and in front of several colorful gods. We didn't take photos of this but here is the main part of the temple where it took place:

After leaving this temple we wandered down toward a tree-lined street that looked like it was going to be pleasant to walk on. We were hoping to go and visit the main history museum of the area, when we were approached by a middle-aged man who started giving us directions and advice on how to visit the city. He walked us to the water's edge, were we could look back to see a panoramic view of Singapore  and told us that to see the sights we wanted to see, we would have to hire a taxi who spoke English. He hailed us a taxi, and, well, he had a few hours to spare, decided to go along with us to guide the taxi to the various interesting places of the city. This gentleman was very interesting, and he did take us to see various sights, including this mosque/tomb of the Sultans:

By the way, Sultans still 'rule' here in the different states of Malyasia. Nine Sultans take turns to become  King of Malaysia for 5 years. They are just figureheads, like the queen of England, and there is a parliamentary system, but they live lavish and some say debauched lifestyles paid for by the government. 

We also stopped at a fabulous outdoor lunch buffet.

Well, after about 2.5 hours of a whirlwind tour .... and this guy was truly hyper, we were taken back to the bus depot and told to pay the taxi $175! Whoa, no way did we bring along that much with us, and it was a shock that this would be so costly. We paid what we had, $100, keeping only $6 with us so we could get back to Singapore. We hadn't even brought our ATM cards because of the pickpocket warnings. As we left our guide and the taxi, it slowly dawned on us that we might have been scammed. Ok, we were scammed. Bill later did the math looking up the taxi fares and we probably should have only had to pay $70. Luckily we hadn't brought a penny more.

Never mind, it had been a great day and we topped it off with a rousing 90 minute game of tennis at our courts. Tennis in Singapore, it's like playing in a sauna.

Chinatown, Temples and City Planning

The MRT pops right up into the middle of Chinatown!

We bypass the shopping and head over to visit some temples: this beautiful Buddhist temple, incense burning at the entrance, and a Hindu temple. Since Alexis writes about both in her blog, http://www.alexishamburger.blogspot.sg/2012/06/temples.html I will go on.                    

As we continue wandering through Chinatown, we play around with the bronzes honoring or remembering life in the past that appear here and there in these little mini parks.

We then leave Chinatown and wander past some fancy hi-rises,

until we arrive at our next destination, the URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) Center, an amazing interactive city planning department with a three-storey exhibit demonstrating and explaining how dynamic city planning is carried out in Singapore. Yawn, you might say but no, this museum was fascinating in the story that it tells about how Singapore, a small island city-nation is constantly planning, building, improving and transforming itself in very innovative and sustainable ways, questioning and balancing the needs of a city (transportation, commerce, energy, water supply, infrastructure) with the needs of its human inhabitants: recreation, nature, neighborhoods, and all the things we desire for good 'quality of life'.

They've planned tree-lined connections -foot trails and bike paths- for people to pleasantly access the many different parks and nature reserves. They save or recover built-up land by consolidating into one building several functions that go well together and previously had been housed in separate structures, such as combining a library, an indoor sport center and a small food court into one multi-level building and connecting it by overpass or underground tunnel to a school. As a result, there is more green-space today than 20 years ago.

A few days ago we visited a new state-of-the-art concert hall which at mid-day had no operas or symphonies performing but was in full use for its other functions: a lending library dedicated to fine arts and performing arts, classes and workshops for teens in dance and music, spas, restaurants and cafés. I thought it a bit odd that these other functions were housed in this elegant building, but now I understand the philosophy. Five million people live on a small island. Urban planers have to think out of the box.

A Little About Singapore

 Our second day in Singapore we decided to go to see where it all began, as a British settlement at the mouth of the Singapore river. That is where in 1819 a British guy named Raffles set up a colony and trading post on this little island off the southern tip of Malaysia, a convenient place, considering that the Malay peninsula (hanging down from Thailand) bisects the sea-route between China and India. This trading post became what is now the core of a gleaming downtown, a city dedicated to business, trade and banking. Aside from being one of the busiest shipping ports of the world, Singapore is also ranked by the World Bank as the world's easiest place to do business.

To get there we took the MRT (metro rapid transit) which is spotless, trains arrive every 5 minutes and stations are two minutes apart. This station happened to be decorated up and down its length with hundreds of blooming orchids!

The Singapore river is only a few dozen meters across and we walked over on this iron pedestrian bridge called the Cavenagh Bridge. Back in the day, the river was highly polluted and clogged with 'bumboats' which moved people and goods (or tried to, you should see the old photos, they look like a total logjam of flotsam). In 1977 they launched the Clean River Project which resulted in what is now a lovely river park promenade but to honor the past, there are bronze sculptures of the people and activities that took place along the river centuries ago. Here is a tableau of an Indian and a Chinese coolie loading an oxcart.

Here are the kids playing and jumping into the river from back in the day.

So our main destination, aside from viewing the river, its colonial past and futuristic present, was to visit the Asian Civilizations Museum, a truly amazing place where we spent most of the day learning so much about Asia, stretching from western Asia (Turkey and Arabia), south Asia (India), Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, etc.), and China. What was missing, and thank goodness, we were wiped, were the 'Stans' of the former Soviet Union, Asian parts of Russia and East Asia (Japan, Korea). 

Caligraphy, religions, hill tribes, processions, ancestor worship, rice cultivation, textiles, carvings, metals, art... Lex writes about some of these in her blog: www.alexishamburger.blogspot.com

Ooops, I almost forgot we ended the excursion with a lovely ice coffee sitting by the shore of Marina Bay overlooking both the Merlion statue -a symbol of Singapore that is half lion, half fish- and the incredible Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Truly a spot so scenic that brides come here to pose for their wedding photos.

The Marina Bay Sands is a luxury hotel with a 'ship' sitting on top of a trio of 55 storey towers. The ship is a 2.4 acre park with an infinity pool.

First Day in Singapore

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Singapore! Arrived at Changi Airport with Bill and Alexis at 3 in the morning of Monday, June 4th. From the taxi window it is too dark to see much, but from the temp (81º) and humidity (81%)  outside at this time of night, it promises to be a tropical place. I slept a lot on the flights (we departed mid-day on  Saturday!), so I am up and ready to go even though it is 6am and still pitch dark. Bill and Lex, well it looks like they are going to do much of their sleeping today!

The taxi drove us 40 minutes across the island to our condo/apartment complex. We have a two-bedroom apartment in one of four 15-storey towers called Dover Parkview. We were instructed to call a number from the airport upon arrival so that someone would come over to let us into the building, and sure enough a sleepy young man named 'John' was sitting on the front steps ready to take us upstairs and show us into the apartment. It took a bit over an hour to go through all the essentials with John, such as setting up the wireless connection, the phone, the door key cards, some apartment policies regarding use of the facilities and a complete inventory walk-through (i.e., Living/Dining Area: "Sofa set, door bell, standing lamp, air-con with remote control, iron and ironing board, television, ceiling light, dining table," etc....)

It was about 5:30am when he left, and Bill and Lex went off to sleep. I wasn't tired and wanted to stay up to see the sunrise but about an hour later, it still being pitch dark, I gave up and decided to pass the time sleeping for a bit. At 8:30 I woke up to the sound of a tropical downpour that lasted about 10 minutes and I decided to go out exploring. So, leaving a note as to my intended return, I set out to explore the condo grounds and also go out scouting for a nearby market.

The humidity is pretty intense, but amazingly it isn't bothering me so much. Maybe because in the two days we've been here there hasn't really been any intense sun, so the temps are only in the low 80ºs. Since it is kind of like a greenhouse, plants and flowers thrive everywhere. There are huge trees lining  every street and these trees are hosts to huge ferns, orchids and all sorts of epiphytes hanging along the branches. The many street overpasses are landscaped in beautiful light lavender bougainvillea clipped into long rectangular hedges. It is very Hawaii-like.

I came back in around 11am and made a lot of noise so Bill and Lex would wake up and we could go out to get some food! We ate lunch at an informal outdoor place across the street and then down the block went to a small market to buy food to have at home. We then decided to accompany Bill over to the university to check out where he will be working: Nan Yang Technological University -NTU.