November 15 - Singapore
We slept in yet again despite Jon's intention to watch Sports Center. He decided that sleep was more important than football and turned off his alarm.
Hell has frozen over.
Around lunchtime we called Michelle to see if she wanted to do a late lunch with us. She did, so we arranged to meet on our subway platform at 3:15. We had to mail our sub-lease renewal via FedEx and they came and picked it up from us at 2:30. Then we went to Aljunied MRT station to meet Michelle.
Litte India
We took the MRT to the Bugis station and walked to Little India. Yesterday was New Year in Little India, so most of the shops were closed, but we found a yummy vegetarian restaurant called The Woodlands. Jon ordered some rice and banana leaf concoction and I had some sort of pancake with potatoes and curry inside. The man who served us was very nice and patiently explained each dish, including all the sauces that were served. It was very yummy and incredibly filling.
Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple
After lunch, we walked up Serangoon Street to see some of the temples. The first was the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, which is a Shaivite temple dedicated to Kali. If you tuned in to connal.com in August, you may recall that we visited another temple for Kali. The difference is that this temple doesn't do the bloody sacrifices with which they worshipped in Nepal. (See August 11). The temple was built in 1881, but it was very contemporary because of modern enhancements. The figures on the upper wall have been repainted in the past 2 years with vibrant colors, and the inside of the temple is floored in brand new tile. Despite the fact that bloody sacrifices aren't done here, the statues of Kali were still pretty gruesome.
Bubble Tea
From the Kali temple, we walked up the street to another temple. On the way there we passed a little store that was selling Bubble Tea. This is a Chinese tea on ice with little black beans on the bottom of it. I think these beans are tapioca, but I can't quite recall. At any rate, it's very refreshing and quite yummy. Michelle talked me into having an almond one and Jon got the chocolate tea. Bubble tea is served in plastic glasses with a plastic seal put over the top of it so we can shake it around to get the black "bubbles". There is also a very thick straw served with the tea, because one must be able to suck the black bubbles up through the straw. This is very important. It turned into a game for us to see who could fish out their bubbles first. We didn't really care who the winner was, though.
Michelle and Heidi with Bubble Tea
Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple
The second temple we went to was the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple. This temple dates from 1855 and has statues of Perumal (Vishnu) and his consorts Lakshmi and Andal, as well as his bird-mount Garuda. Similar to Sri Veeramakaliamman, it was very contemporary and not nearly as lovely as the temples we saw in India. But I suppose that this is to be expected.
Leong San See Temple
We walked around the corner to see the Temple of 1000 Lights, but it was closed. So we called it the Temple of 1000 Locked Gates instead. Across the road was a Buddhist/Taoist temple called the Leong San See Temple. The temple was very Chinese and wasn't very exciting (compared to Tibet, that is), but we were very entertained by the monk covering his car out front. We walked around the inside for a few minutes, and were about to leave when the monk started beating on a drum. This sounds rather simple, except that the drum was suspended from the ceiling and so the monk was sitting on a 6-foot ladder in order to beat on it. On the other side of the room, a man waited expectantly for his cue to pull a bell cord. So we waited around for the drum beating to end to see the man ding the bell. We wondered if it was prayer time, but didn't hang around to find out.
Michelle
Hanging out with Michelle was a great way to spend an afternoon. She's from Berlin although both her parents are American. Her mom Nella lives here where she is principal cellist for the Singapore Symphony. Her father plays for the Berlin Philharmonic. So Michelle has talent and artistry coming out her ears. She's an aspiring artist, and is working on putting together a portfolio for application to art schools. I have to say that spending the day with her was enlightening. She sees things in a different way than Jon and I. Our lackluster business minds completely miss the colors and shapes that she picks up. So we got some beautiful photos because of her creative and original eye. Jon was thrilled. Here's an example:
By the time we were done with our Little India Tour, it was 6:30. We saw Michelle off to the MRT and went to the Internet Cafe where were stayed for about 2 hours. Then we headed back to the room to pack up our stuff and go to sleep.