Week 1: Chinatown

This week I ventured out to explore Chinatown.  By myself, of course.  And I loved it! Chinatown itself was pretty cool, but it felt so good to get out in a foreign country again and have the freedom to explore and discover.  I got lost several times and loved that, too.  Well, of course I had a map with me.  Had I not gotten lost, I wouldn't have discovered some of the things that I did discover.

The first day, I looked at a couple places on a map that I wanted to go to.  I was able to see some medical halls (they sell Chinese medicine, natural herbs and formulations. Also, there are doctors in these stores that examine you and prescribe medicine or natural herbs and minerals (they will even grind pearls for you because it's supposed to improve your skin)), a few of the markets, and an artist's gallery/shop.

I spent an hour wandering around and saw a pretty amazing temple. Then, I headed back to this artists' gallery I'd wanted to visit. One artist is a painter, the other is a carver. And, I got to meet them both! Because it was a weekday morning, I was the only visitor there.  That gave me an opportunity to meet the artists and learn a little bit of the history behind their specialized talents, which were taught to them by ancestors, who learned from other ancestors, and others and so on.  Then, I met one of their friends who was quite chatty.  At first, I was anxious to get out of there so I could see other things.  But then, I thought, "This is what I truly want! To talk to locals, get to know their stories, eat the local food, learn about their history. I can always do the touristy things later." It was fascinating talking to this man.  I learned so much about the area. And, I had the opportunity to hear his story. 

I had one of the artists paint my last name in Chinese, on a scroll that can hang on a wall. He explained that each Chinese character not only represented a sound, but it also represented the subject. So, there may be several characters that mean the sound "Chi" (as in my name), but only one of them did he feel fit me, the subject.  There were three characters for my last name. One for the sound "Chi",  meaning never to go without, well taken care of, auspicious and fulfilled. No need to worry about hunger. It is a picture of an open mouth with food going inside.  The second character was for the sound "P" and looked like a stick figure and a large eye at the bottom. It means the man or woman is the apple of each other's eyes, or beloved.  The third character was for the sound "Lee" and looked like a plant. It represented Jasmine. I'm not sure of the rest. So, in short, he said it was 1. Noble 2. Beloved 3. Jasmine.
I thought that was a bunch of crap that he says to everyone, but another person who reads Chinese verified what it said.  So, pretty cool souvenir.  I planned to see more, but got a call from Madison's school asking to pick her up because she was sick. Sure enough, sistah had a 103 degree fever all weekend.  Oh, and yes, I am still trying to get all these conversions straight. Fahrenheit to Celsius, pounds to kilos, miles to kilometers. Its not fun.

The fact that Madison was sick kind of skewed the weekend plans. We had a great tour scheduled for Chinatown Sat morning, but needed to reschedule. And, we were going to see the town lit up with hundreds of lights at night in anticipation of Chinese New Year. But, instead... Mark cooked a yummy breakfast in the morning. Then, I was going to go to Chinatown by myself while he watched the kids.  I needed a little break, but more so because it was my birthday. So I spent most of it by myself, which felt a little weird, but I ended up having a blast.  First, I mapped out everything I wanted to see. Packed up my camera and purse and off I went.

Upon exiting the train, this festive and loud entrance awaits. There are stores on both left and right, one after the other, appealing to tourists selling anything "Chinese" you could think of... I DID get a cool decorative pillow and a fab camera lens I've wanted, so I was happy.

Traditional Rickshaw - still used as transportation throughout Chinatown today. After CNY, I want to go on a rickshaw tour. They're supposed to be amazing.

Chinese lanterns on and on and on... These streets are known as the "Night Market". They seem to have all sorts of markets here in S'pore. Wet markets, dry markets, night markets...

Sri Mariamman Temple: Singapore's oldest Hindu temple, est. 1827.

 Entrance leading inside the temple

CNY decoration - Year of the Snake. This snake is made of hundreds of paper lanterns that light up at night.

There are several traditional "Medical Halls" in Chinatown. 

And this was taken right before I was told no cameras allowed. Oops.

The history of lotus shoes is fascinating to me.

If I could count the number of times I hear "prosperous", "auspicious" and "lunar"...

That's what it says...??

Thian Hock Keng Temple: The oldest and most important Hokkien temple in Singapore. The main temple is dedicated to Mazu, the Taoist goddess of the sea and protector of all seamen, while a second temple at the back is a Buddhist one dedicated to Kuan Yin, the enlightened existence of mercy.

What the...?

Outside one of the medicine halls

Buddha Tooth Relic: The temple is based on the Tang dynasty architectural style and built to house the tooth relic of the historical Buddha.

Maxwell Food Center: A well-known food center with over a hundred food stalls to eat from.
A little vocab lesson. Food center = eating area outside without air conditioning.  Food court = eating area inside with air conditioning.

 Food stalls to the right and to the left. This is just one of many wings of this food center.

 The famous wet market is located in the open air basement of the Chinatown Complex. Here, you can find everything. Like a farmer's market times a million per cent. If you can eat it, grow it or catch it, they've got it.  Heck, even if you can't eat it, grow it or catch it...somehow, they have it.  Unfortunately, I missed most of the action which typically occurs in the morning when all the fishermen bring in their catches. But I still saw some pretty gnarly things. And many of them were either alive or fried. So, if I wanted an eel or a frog, do they kill it right in front of me and then give it to me? Talk about fresh. Fried sea horse? They got it. Frog legs from live frogs? Yep. Fresh eel? oh yes. Insects and worms? Of course.  Fish eyeballs? Heck yeah! Chicken feet? Duh.

 I was allowed to enter in this temple (shoes off) while a ceremony was taking place. This temple is over a century old, making it one of the oldest Hindu temples in Singapore. I'm not exactly sure why or what kind of ceremony this was, but Hindus were walking in a circle around the main leader and around the offering they were giving to a certain god for I don't know what reason. Someone would enter into the temple with offerings of fresh flowers, produce, and other goods. Or, they had the opportunity to purchase them inside the temple itself. The leader would take the offering and offer it up to their god/s. It was really neat to be able to see something so unique and sacred to another culture.

 Soft serve...awesome.

 And in the middle of all these temples...a Methodist church! I just had to take a picture of it.


Below are pictures of a Buddhist temple I was able to go into. All women must be covered, so since I was wearing shorts, I was given a sarong to wrap around my legs. This temple was incredibly (a little overwhelmingly) ornate.

People would kneel down in the center of the room, first. Then, they would go around the whole temple and deposit 10 cent coins into various golden cups. I have no idea why.

 Aw, he's saying I love you.

Dude...if I had this many arms, I could get SO much done. A must-have for every mom.

The Durian is a fruit regarded as the "King of Fruits" in southeast Asia. It is covered in thorns and has a horrible odor so extreme, that it's been banished from bringing it inside hotels or public transportation.

 Night Market

A "Wishing Tree": Before CNY, you can go to this special tree and make a wish for the new year. A small mandarin orange is on one side, and a card is on the other, attached to each other by a red string. You first write your wish on the card, then throw the orange up in the tree. If it sticks, then your wish will come true.

 My wish!

Finally, I returned to our condo to find a beautiful birthday cake had been delivered, given to us by our condo complex management company! It was pretty fancy. Thanks to them, I had a cake on my birthday!a