Thiapusam: Hindu Festival of Thanksgiving

Rick having just returned from India at 7:40 a.m. was game to join me on a Thaipusam Tour. Thaipusam is a religious festival of great significance to Tamil speaking Hindus. The festival was brought to Singapore and Malaysia in the last century by immigrants from South India and Sri Lanka.

The principal deity in whose honor the festival is celebrated is Lord Murukan. In Hindu Mythology, Murukan is said to have originated from Lord Siva’s third eye (the eye of wisdom) and hence is worshipped as Siva’s son. To Hindus, Murukan is the personification of wisdom.

The most popular legend to explain the origin & purpose of celebrating Thaipusam is that Lord Murukan took on Taraka an evil chieftain who was too powerful to be subdued by other gods, and killed him in combat. He used a vel (spear) to kill Taraka. The vel has become the symbol of victory over evil. The skewers that pierce the tongue and body of the devotees on Thaipusam are in the shape of the vel (spear).

We boarded a bus down to the Little India area of Singapore and headed for the Sri Perumal Temple to see the devotees getting ready for their celebration and walk. We saw many men preparing by getting hooks and spears attached to their backs, arms, face and tongues. Many of the men carried Kavadi’s or “mini temples” on their bodies. Once the devotees are ready they go into the temple where they dance and then start the 5k walk through the streets of Singapore to the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple. Once through this temple they get to take off the kavadi’s and all the hooks and spears on their bodies.

There are some women that participate; they carry heavy pots of milk on their heads. Some men even wear shoes of nails. It was an amazing sight. We were amazed that there was not more blood. It was not a bloody experience. After the hooks and spears came out of the body an ash like powder was dusted onto the body and they sucked on limes for the wounds in the mouth.

The entire experience was fascinating and I will definitely go again next year.

CAMBODIA

Cambodia was wonderful! I loved everything about it. Rick, Caitlyn and I took a 3 day trip. W had 2 days of sight seeing. This one of my favorite places in Asia. Siem Reap has only been open/safe for tourists for about 10 years. They have about 115 hotels and a “downtown” market area and Pub Street. What they have accomplished in the past ten years is commendable compared to many of their surrounding neighbors. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot basically decimated this country. You can see the strength of spirit & determination in these people. They were lovely!! Literally and figuratively.

The temples are amazing and I predict in the next 10-20 years tourists will not be able to see, walk & climb where we went. There are several nations that are helping the Cambodians preserve these wonderful temples. Eventually for preservations sake I don’t think people will be allowed to get as close as we did.



My impressions were; the airport is nice, clean and modern. Transportation is cheap; it’s cost $10 USD to get to and from the airport and $1 per person to ride on a “tuk-tuk” around town. We were able to take a “tuk-tuk” from our hotel into the market area for dinner and shopping. Although they have their own currency they prefer U.S. dollars so that made it really easy. Shopping was cheap and they had interesting items to sell; silk scarves, art-work, jewelry, clothing, etc. Cambodians must love dogs because they were everywhere. All the dogs we saw were lying in the sun sleeping! The people were beautiful, sweet and friendly. The children were endearing. I had taken some small toys and candy to hand out. Most of the children were so appreciative bowing and saying “Thank You”. Very sweet!! There were some beggers…..mostly children; I had been warned about this. Mostly they just wanted to sell you something around the temple area.

The first day we toured 4 main temples and watched the sunset from atop one f them. There were monks all over the Angkor Wat area. We even saw young boy monk. He was interested in getting some children to play with him. We also saw Aspara traditional dancers at our hotel. There are many carvings of Aspara dancers at the temples.

The 2nd day we went on a boat ride on the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia. Wow! Most of these people were Vietnamese who had moved to Cambodia. It was apparent the Cambodians did not like them. They were very poor people living on boats in floating villages. They had a church, school, basketball court & restaurants all floating in the water. This is where we experienced the most beggars. The children would come up to you in little metal tubs and beg for 1US dollar. Some would get visible upset and shout if you didn’t give them money. I gave them my candy & toys. The people did everything on the water; repaired boats, planted flowers, kept pigs and chickens, had dogs as pets. It was so interesting how they lived in floating villages.

After that we toured a school for the deaf. The students were taught trades so they could make a living. We also visited a museum; saw the royal place and a temple dedicated to the Cambodian people whom lost their lives at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. During our visit we saw the visible effects of the landmines that were left behind. Many people are missing legs or arms.

Both nights we took a tuk-tuk to Pub Street and ate Mexican food. If you know my family you know they LOVE Mexican food and can sniff it out anywhere we go. We’ve had great Mexican food in Japan and now in Cambodia! It was a wonderful trip and we had some quality time with Caitlyn. I’m learning as my children are growing up we are spending less time with them but when we are together we are spending quality time and making great memories

Hey Hey for the Monkey's!!

On December 26th we all decided to go hiking at Mac Ritchie Reservoir here in Singapore. They have a Tree Top Walk that Rick had been wanted to hike. The 6 of us piled into 2 taxis’s and headed to the main gate. It was sunny, humid and hot….imagine that! From the looks of the map we had to hike 7k just to get to the start of the Tree Top Walk. Can you say; “Cassie was not happy with her bum heal to have to walk that far” But she went…ever the good sport! (That’s for you Lindsay & Caitlyn).

We found our way to the entrance of the trail and were greeted by a band of monkeys. They had babies that were adorable but these monkeys were just roaming around the park, like squirrels or dogs or birds. And there were a lot of them. We all had a ball taking pictures of the cute but wild monkeys and then started up the trail. One baby monkey decided to climb on Rick’s shoe. The little cutie then proceeded to pull on the hair on Rick’s leg and play with his shoe lace. Then all of a sudden the little guy tried to go up Rick’s shorts!!! It was amazing and really funny. Rick finally got the baby monkey off him and we stared our trek.

Did I mention it was hot & humid? It was, thankfully I had bought Rick & I these scarf like neck ties that you soak in water and it keeps you cool for up to 3 hours. We tried them out for the first time and they did work at keeping me from getting totally red in the face from all this exhaustion and heat! After a really long while we got to the end of the trail and had to get onto another trail just to get to the entrance of the Tree Top Walk. Caitlyn was leading the way; she must have thought it was a race. Amanda was her buddy, then the two lovers (Lindsay & Ryan) and last Rick and I the old slow people. Him with is bad back and me with my plantar fascitis.


Finally, after seeing a few more monkeys we made it to the start of the Tree Top Walk. It was a suspended swinging bridge that only was supposed to hold 30 people at a time. As our luck would have it the guy monitoring that didn’t give a shit and I know we had more than 30 people on the bridge at once. Several of us were a bit uneasy or shall I say panicked!! Unfortunately for us the family in front of us didn’t care that there were over 30 people behind them and took their time taking loads of pictures and walking slow. Did I mention the bridge was single file? Well except for the Asian family that decided to stop in the middle and we all had to navigate around them. No Lindsay I will not get on my soap box and tell the world all my stereotypes about Asians.

We made it to the end but I’m not sure it was worth all the hiking and sweating it took to get there. Then we had to trek all the way back the way we came! Needless to say we walked over 10k that morning. Why can’t I seem to lose weight when I’m doing all this walking and sweating? This makes no sense to me! Can someone explain this and no family don’t tell me it’s because I eat ice-cream or chocolate!!!

We found our way out and Rick phoned for 2 taxi’s, but alas the taxi’s couldn’t find us and we got to wait in the sun & heat. Ryan, Lindsay & Caitlyn got the first taxi that came our way and Rick, Amanda & I had to walk out to the main road to hail a taxi. Overall it was a good family activity and seeing the monkeys made it worth while. Next time I’ll just go to the head of the trail and see the monkeys and then taxi home. Think I’ll skip the hiking. Rick says he’ll go there and run when Amanda & I are in the U.S. this summer. Good for him.........

Don't they look HOT?

24th Anniversary Weekend in Indonesia

On Saturday December 19th Rick and I took what was supposed to be a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore to Bintan, Indonesia. The 45 minutes took 1.5 hours, (something about not having a berth for us in Bintan). I guess that means we were in a holding pattern like on an airplane for at least 30 minutes. There are 2 classes of seats, economy and 1st class. 1st class is twice the price and since we had never taken the ferry before I booked us economy seats for the ride over and 1st class for the return on Monday. Actually, there were only 1st class seats available on Monday. I figured that way we could try out both and then decide what was best for future journeys.


The day was dark and rainy…….as soon as the boat got underway it started pouring and was generally very nasty out. The boat was rocky and reading was making me queasy. While I was queasy the poor old Indonesian man across from us was visibly sick. He was retching up a storm, sputtering and coughing. I can’t tell you how many sea sick bags he used. Brought back fond memories of the Navy for Rick and of his roommate Erne.


We finally arrived and were met by a driver who took us in the torrential downpour to the Banyan Tree Resort. Our room was not ready so we decided to have lunch first. This was a beautiful 5 star resort but……….to get anywhere you had to take a golf cart. We waited for our golf cart and were driven to lunch. We had a nice lunch over looking the South China Sea. Then we were driven back to the lobby and were able to check in. To my amazement for no reason (Rick said it was my good Karma) our room was upgraded to a 2 bedroom villa. It was AMAZING, we have stayed in some nice places but this villa takes the cake so far. We had our own private infinity pool and hot tub. Both overlooked the South China Sea! It was still raining to beat the bands but it didn’t matter our room was spectacular! Later in the day when the rain died down some we were able to get into the hot tub. Which was amazing in and of it’s self because for the past several months were have been sweltering in the Singapore heat and would never dream of getting into a hot tub. It was actually cool enough to want to get in the hot tub. So there we sat over looking the sea in a drizzling rain and were so………relaxed.

That evening we were sitting in the outdoor living room reading and ordered room service. We kept hearing these loud bangs on the roof of the living area. Rick looked up and there on the high ceiling were like 20 fruit bats. No lie, it was an entire neighborhood hanging out there for the evening and they kept dropping their fruit!! After dinner in the outside dinning room we also noticed a rat running across the floor……….These creatures prompted me to decide NOT to be using the outside tub that was off our bathroom!

See the BATS!

Sunday December 20th was a wonderful day, the sun came out and the trade winds were blowing hard that it was actually almost cool. We spent the day lounging around our pool, enjoying the hot tub and Rick had his first ever massage!! We had our 1st ever couples massage. That night we had an enjoyable dinner at the resorts Mediterranean restaurant. In fact I thought it was one of the best meals I have as so far in Asia.

View from our pool/hot tub.

Monday the 21st was our 24th anniversary. We spent 2 hours at the beach pool before taking the ferry home. The 1st class seats were very nice; leather, you had a separate waiting area, got to board the boat first and didn’t have to hassle with immigration. Not sure if it is worth double the price, but at $40 sing dollars each it was still a bargain.

Waiting for a taxi at the ferry terminal during rush hour was another story! NOT fun, we finally got a taxi and headed home.


For our anniversary dinner we took Amanda, Caitlyn and Ryan (Lindsay’s boyfriend) in search of the best burgers in Singapore. I think we found them at a little street bar were you sit outside, drink beer and can order juicy BEEF (gotta make sure what you are getting) burgers and yummy French fries.


Rick and I both agree this was our best anniversary trip! I keep thinking how are we going to top that next year for our 25th!!