Festivals Galore

The past few months have seen a lot of festival and celebrations in this multi-cultural town. After hungry ghosts, there was the mid-autumn festival with lanterns and moon cakes everywhere. We tasted lots of different versions of moon cakes filled with a variety of different pastes: red bean, lotus, green tea, fruit and nuts and so on. We even had a tin of skinless mooncakes presented to us filled with ‘yolks’ of chocolate cointreau and ‘hazelnut-chocolate’ – very delicious.

One thing I now know about Ramadan is that it is only the first month of celebration. It is followed by Hari Raya Puasa- which I had thought was only a day or a long weekend, but in fact goes on for another month, and Muslim families visit each other and eat and celebrate together. We were invited for celebrations at two house holds, both teachers from my school. We were treated to lots of special Hari Rayi food, cakes and delicacies, which were all very lovely to try.

Most recently we have had Deepavali – the Hindu festival, which also scored us another long weekend. Little India has been ablaze with lights (as too have Geylang and Chinatown). We went down for a meal at our favourite Indian place then wandered over to Racecourse road to watch a procession of a wide variety of Indian dancers which was finished off with a spectacular Chinese dragon dance and fireworks. We also had the good fortune to be invited to Felicity’s friend Helen’s HDB apartment in Toa Payoh for Deepavali. She lives on the 12th floor with her 78 year old Tamil speaking grandmother – shrine to Ganesh in the bedroom. Curries and ‘murukku’ the traditional festive biscuits and pineapple tarts offered around, it was quite a night.

Actually, the boys & I were pretty exhausted as we had spent the day across the border in Johor Bahru. I forgot my Lonely Planet travel advice not to go on a long weekend. It was sheer hell getting over there – two and a half hours of queues, with all the Singaporeans heading to Malaysia for the weekend. Getting back was a breeze – 45 mins to clear two border checkpoints. This photo is on the Malaysian side looking back at Singers. The colourful thing that looks like a carpet is actually a sand mandala on the floor of a big Malaysian shopping centre - a speciality of Deepavali.

In the mid term break we also had a visit from our Melb friends, the Shergusons, which was great. We love having people over. We took them to a few of our favourite spots as well as venturing out to some new places including Pulau Ubin and a Halal restaurant up on the water overlooking Malaysia for some chili crab. The boys had a couple of trips to East Coast Park and got stuck into some wake boarding – their time was up and they nearly had the hang of it. I’m sure they’ll be heading back there any time soon.

Now up its exams and marking then at the end of term Felicity Xavier & Jordan are heading back to Melb for Christmas and I’m off to Zhongguo for a bit of an adventure – mandarin phrase book in hand.

Ramadan, Hungry Ghosts and 'Happy Teachers Day'!

We are just about at the end of our second term of teaching (and for the boys going to school) in Singapore. We are so much more acclimatised, some days even feel cooler and some of us, notably Felicity and Xave, even get cold in the air-con busses in the morning. Things have been moving along. we had a visit from my cousin Paul on his way back to China. Liverpool have been in town, Xave went to see them and gradually we are feeling more settled here.

One weekend took us down to Henderson Waves, a structure which joins two city parks, Kent Ridge Park and Mt Faber Park - where the cable car departs for Sentosa. Henderson Waves is a bridge, built in a wave formation that crosses above the expressways below and allows pedestrians to walk from one park to another, whilst admiring views out over Singapore. It was rather hazy when we were there, as this is the season when all the burning off happens in Sumatra.

Another area we have been to have a look at is Joo Chiat Road. It’s a bit of a night club area, but has many old magnificent shop houses that are very well maintained and painted in a range of both tasteful colours and gaudy pinks, oranges, greens, blues and purples. Our intention was to have a look around and eat in one of the Nyona restaurants that had been recommended, but as we were walking we came upon a run of Vietnamese cafes – so it was pho and rice paper rolls for dinner.

Ramadan began a week ago, Muslim teachers on the staff and kids in our classes now fast all day at school. They eat their food for the day before 5.30am in the morning and do not eat or drink again until after sunset in the evening. On the eve of Ramadan we ventured down to Geylang Serai to see the streets decorated with colourful blue and gold arches and all lit up with festive lighting. Dozens of food stalls were being set up along Geylang Road. People come out to feast at night, eating all manner specially prepared foods, sweet, savory and everything in between. It gets very crowded but has a buzzy atmosphere. Across the road were heaps of market stalls selling clothing, Arabian style curtains, statues, even cars and motor bikes. Perhaps it is considered more auspicious to buy during this month.
Alongside Ramadan, another Daoist festival now taking place is the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. There has been quite a bit of activity in and around the HDB blocks up where we live. I stumbled across a Peking Opera being rehearsed behind our local wet market last Sunday afternoon. They were getting ready for an evening performance. In many places, huge red and white canopies are erected and inside makeshift restaurants are set up. I am not totally sure what goes on but there are often baskets of groceries that seem to be set up for auction. There are also many altars with offerings of fruit, incense and flowers.
The boys & I went down to Balestier Road last Saturday evening and saw one area where a Chinese orchestra was playing and a table had been set up with places for the ghosts to sit and eat. Apparently, at a certain time of the year the gates of hell open and the ghosts come out to roam around. They need to be entertained and fed. Apparently it all used to be Peking Opera but now can include the occasional scantily clad women strutting their stuff. Even the ghosts’ tastes have modernized! In inconspicuous places along the streets, curbsides and on open grass areas we often see orange cakes set out with incense burning. It has been quite interesting seeing it all going on. It’s not a big out there festival but seems to happen around the HDB areas where the people live – which I guess makes sense.

Another celebration that has involved us in a big way has been Teachers’ Day. Actually Teachers’ Day is today and we had the day off – beat that Australia. It’s quite a big deal here. Both Felicity & I have had big staff functions. Mine was last Friday at a down town hotel where we were all treated to a formal eight course Chinese dinner – very swanky. Felicity’s was sixties style on Saturday night at a venue in Orchard Road and several of the gals on the staff danced out the night at the Rupee Room – a Bollywood style disco down at Clarke Quay. In addition to the dinners, we also had a big celebration at school with a scrumptious breakfast, concert put on by the kids and an early finish. Not bad for a Monday in the last week of term. The kids also present teachers with gifts such as home-baked biscuits, cards, sweets and other mementoes that they often make themselves.

So for our Teachers’ Day off today, we hit the zoo. Singapore Zoo was not a disappointment. The primate exhibits are sensational, with so many different varieties of monkeys in open style enclosures swinging through the tree tops. You can get quite close to them. There is a free ranging Orang Utang section where they are literally cruising across vines above your head. The tropical vegetation and layout of the zoo is also very well designed. The location is like a small promontory of land on one of eh reservoirs –so there’s heaps of water and green around. It was a very engaging day for all of us. We saw some absolutely massive pythons and watching the elephants bathe was delightful.
Other things that have happened, Jordy has started a Drama class at Stage 3, which is in an Arts Venue house in a lovely old Asian style house built around a central courtyard. He's really enjoying the classes and has met some new people who he enjoys hanging out with. We have also been exploring the food horizons in Singapore. Bryan is still enjoying the durian and has sampled D24, D48 and the Red Lobster. He's also tried Kway Chap - dared by a staff member. It's a local speciality and involves all sorts of bits and pieces of the pig. I won't bother to mention everything that's in it - enough to put you off your kway chap! Don't think its gonna become a big favourite. One that is though, you can see being made at our kitchen table - Kuey Pie Tee - exquisite little pastry cups filled with shredded turnip and a variety of condiments including sweet chilli, molasses, egg and corriander all piled on top. Outstanding!!

Felic says Hi.

Howdy to everyone out there in cyberspace who has the time to read this. If you want more pictures, I have a facebook page. Oh yes... I'm so techno savvy.....not. Well anyway find me and you can comment on my wall??? Ha Ha. See ya...Don't forget to drop by when you can. love FelicityXXX

June Holidays Report

We are all just back at work and school after the June break where we had not one but two visits from family in Australia and a trip to peninsular Malaysia. Here's a brief run down of events



We finished the term after exams and reports at the end of May. The boys both faced their first round of exams and given they had only been in this system for one term, did surprisingly well. On the first Saturday of the holidays Merry & Ian (Felicity's sister & hubby) arrived from Sydney. We spent a week with them in Singapore visiting Chinatown, Pierce Reservoir, Little India, museums, galleries and a few hawker stalls and markets in our local area. Felicity & I had a few days on deck at work which we tried to alternate and by Friday we were ready to head off to Malaysia.

Of course, I wanted to explore the local route into Malaysia, so we caught a bus from the back gate to the MRT, jumped on the train to Kranji station then took the 160 bus over the causeway and through immigration in to Malaysia. The only slight hiccup we had was not re-finding the bus after we checked out of Singapore. We ended up nearly walking across the causeway, until we realised we had actually gone too far and there was the bus flying past us. We had to do an about turn head back into Singers explain to the police we had taken a wrong turn, luckily we did not have to check into Singapore and out again the y politely escorted us across a corridor after double checking our passports. From there it was back onto the 160 and on to Larkin bus terminal to find a bus to Mersing.

From Mersing, we boarded the ferry to Tioman Island about 2.5 hours away. We disembarked at Tekek and were collected by a four wheel drive and headed up over the mountains to Juara a quiet village on the other side. The road was excitingly steep as we climbed up at dusk, me Xave and Jordy riding in the open back of the veichle. We stayed at Juara for 5 night at River side chalets, as pictureskew as you could imagine. The place run by an English guy and his Malay wife was set between a little river and the beach. Our cabins faced straight out onto the clear blue water - very comfortable and laid back.

We were there during the Malaysian school holidays, which were reputedly even busier this year due to the H1N1 scare - lots of people not travelling through airports but having more local holidays instead. Apparently the other side of the island was buzzing, But Juara was a blissfully peaceful haven. We did quite a bit of snorkel ling, some kayaking and jungle walking and ate at these very simple Malay restaurants on the beach.

There was a reasonable patch of coral not too far off shore right in front of where we were staying and we swam out to it a few times, lots of interesting fish and some good (but not great) coral. We also did a snorkeling trip to coral island, spending a great day on a boat cruising round the north face of the island and stopping off at some good snorkeling spots. Meredith suffered the only real setback of the trip, when she got bitten by sand flies and the bites swelled up into blisters for which she eventually needed to take some antibiotics.

From Tioman we ferried back to Mersing and had to arrange a 6-seater van to Jeruntut up in the middle of Pahang state - all the buses were booked out with local holiday travel. we spent one night in Jeruntut, a provincial town with many traditional wooden houses with Daoist shrines out the front of them. We stayed at a nice hotel and the owner took us round to a great local Chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning it was on to the pier at Kuala Tembling and into a long low boat for a 2.5 hour trip up the Sungei Tembling to Kuala Tahan, the entry point to Taman Negara National Park.

The first hitch - accommodation was not up to standard and I had paid for it in advance. This necessitated a trip back down to the jetty to haggle and argue with the tour operator we came up with. We then set off in the heat to walk around town to find other digs. We eventually settled at Rainforest Lodge which was of a much better standard.

Whilst the jungle at Taman Negara was utterly spectacular with massive trees with huge buttress roots and a dense understory, it was hot and very, very humid, so the walking was sweaty to say the least. We did a night jungle walk, the tree top (very bouncy) canopy walk, a rapids cruise and I ventured through the jungle one afternoon to a hide where people sit and watch for birds and animals. I think the other were in an air con hotel room playing cards.

From here we went to Kuala Lipis, for a night before training it back to Singapore and getting set up for Felicity's parents to arrive. Shirley and Roy came over for 10 days, and had an excellent time. Roy had worked in Singers year ago and was amazed at the changes. We spent the last week with them going to the Museum, eating at Kopitiams and venturing out on manageable excursions. Our condo even put on a Sunday tour out through the Singapore Farms, which we all went on. We saw a goat farm, Frog farm, fish farm and some veggie farms where we could buy fresh produce. The frog and fish farms were a little on the depressing side but the goat farm was OK.

So that was June 2009 in Singapore. For now its back to work for the second half of the year, and the next installment of life over here.