Day 9

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Got up bright and early in order to take a trip to one of the small islands off the coast of Singapore - Kusu and St. John's. The harbour was very busy with water taxis bringing people off the large container ships and tankers that were docked off the coast.

Kusu Island is very small and has very little on it at the moment: a Taoist Temple and a Muslim Holy Place. We arrived and had planned to spend an hour there before travelling onto St. John's. Had a look at the temple and shrines and all the terrapins that are kept there. On the 10th of this month, a hundred thousand people will flock to the island (over a month) on a pilgrimage. The shrine is supposed to bring good luck, longevity, wealth etc. and there were lots of people busy tidying, cleaning and painting buildings on the island in preparation. The Muslim place was a bit of a trek up a tree covered hill and is a place where women go who wish to bear children and increase fertility - decided to give this a miss!

Went to catch the water taxi to got o St. John's but we had misunderstood and it took us back to Singapore, so never got there! Spent the afternoon wandering around the numerous religious artefact shops near our hotel and then headed to China Town. We went to the Buddha Tooth Temple which was incredible - two enormous statues of Buddha Maitreya and Chenrezig in the main hall, but lined with other middle sized buddhas and then thousands of tiny ones all around the walls that people have sponsored. On the roof top was a huge painted prayer wheel with a rail on that you circumambulated and pushed round - rather like a roundabout but without the ride! and a lovely green roof top garden. The garden was walled and the walls were literally lined with about 20,000 little buddhas each framed in a tiny case and lit from behind, so at a first glance they looked just like tiles. Pretty amazing!

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