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Published: February 6th 2011
It is I once again!! And at last I have a little time to tell you about Chinese New Year, which is just as well as I'm going to Vietnam the day after tomorrow and tomorrow looks to be a busy day so probably will not get a chance to blog.
So back to what I was doing on the 3rd of Feb. Me, Jasmin and Jasmin's mum all headed over to China Town to experience the start of Chinese New Year. In China Town there were stalls after stalls after stalls, selling just about anything you can think of, including some pretty bright and colourful Chinese New Year decorations (see attached picture with the beautiful Jasmin pointing out one of the decorations on sale). I was told by Jasmin's mum that this is the best time to do your shopping as the prices drop as the night progresses. If you can hold out until 3-4am you can get some real bargains. The smells and decorations were interesting and at some points slightly overwhelming (the smell of bean curd springs to mind...yuck!) but it was beautiful to see the temples so lovingly decorating, lit paper lanterns hanging everywhere added a
Ang Bao
Some of the beautiful red packets I was given for luckmagic feel to the night. At midnight, after the required count down, some spectacular fireworks were set off and went on and on. After the fireworks were done it was time to fight our way through the crowd and head home to sleep ( by that point I was desperate for some sleep) because none of us felt quite up to staying up just to catch a bargain.
Chinese New Year- day 1, 3rd of Feb (there are 15 days in total and on the 7th day it is everyones birthday according to Chinese tradition!! So I expect messages on my birthday guys :D )
After a lovely lie-in, it was time to get up and dressed in something red; which is good luck on Chinese New Year, huat, ahhhh (which mean fortune and is a vocal lucky charm to bring you wealth), and it was off for visiting. Visiting is literally where you go visit all your friends and family and eat A LOT! People take two oranges (and they must be mandarin oranges) with them to give to the family they are visiting. The oranges symbolise wealth as the colour orange is close to the colour of
gold, so the giving of oranges in essence means that you hope that wealth and fortune come to the family in this coming year.
When you arrive at the house you are visiting, it is shoes off before you get in the house (which means there is a sea of shoes outside everyones front door, giving you a good indication of how many people are inside) and as soon as you are through the door you are escorted to a table ladened with a mountain of food amidst a chorus of 'gong xi fa cai' (the traditional saying said at new year, though I'm told it doesn't actually mean happy new year....). Absolutely none of the food was recognisable (to me at least) when I arrived at Jasmin's granny's house but the tastes where pleasant on the whole if often quite spicy. 'Pok Pok' was the strangest tasting thing that I tried there, and it is bean curd made to look like meat and the closest thing I can think of to describe it is a solid form of soy sauce. So as you can imagine, it is very salty!
When you are visiting and you see someone
The Singaporian President
The indian guy is the President!! for the first time in the new year you are given a red packet (ang bao). These are given to unmarried people for good luck and as Jasmin says, these are the ultimate perk of being unmarried in Asia as the red packets contain money. Everywhere I turned up, I was given a red packet along with Jasmin. It felt so odd to me accepting money from people that I had only just met, but it is considered extremely rude to refuse to take ang bao and you are refusing the luck that the person is trying to give you. To date, I have receive over 100 SGD, which is around 50 pounds, from near strangers, which just shows how generous the people here are. It is a lovely thought, the giving of luck to the young people around you, and it makes me sad that in England New Year's is just about getting drunk. Here, New Years is about seeing friends and family and truly wishing everyone luck and prosperity in the coming Year.
In the evening, Jasmin and I went to one of her friend's houses to gamble, as apparently that is what all self-respecting Chinese person
Soaked
Us soaked at Istana while looking round the president's gardens does during the New Year. And as you have probably guessed, this too is all about luck and gaging what your luck will be like this year. It is also a very quick way to lose all the money you were given for ang bao. We eventually arrived home at 3am, both of us 10 SGD (singapore dollars) poorer.....
Chinese New Year - Day 2, 4th of feb
On the second day of Chinese New Year, Jasmin and I headed to Istana, which is the Singaporian Presidents residence. It is only open on a couple of days during Chinese New Year and that is just about the only time in the whole year that it is open to the public. We arrived in time to join a huge queue out in the humid sun. I can't say it was particularly pleasant waiting in to go through the gates, sweat running down my back....yuck! Eventually we got through security, where I had to pay 1 SGD for being a dirty foreigner and Jasmin got in for free! We made it through the main gates to see the Singaporian President out shaking hands with a small crowd of people. I got
my picture of him but Jasmin wasn't too bothered about seeing him and definitely didn't want to shake his hand (Jasmin says the guy has no real power and so doesn't actually do much for Singapore), so we headed off into the gardens to have a look around. Within a minute of leaving the President the heavens opened and it started to pour. Jasmin and I appeared to be the only ones without an umbrella and so were soaked in a couple of minutes. At least the rain refreshed me and hid the sweat patches I had been emassing, although it did leave us looking like drowned rats. Typical to Singaporian rain, it only rained for about five minutes or so and then the skies cleared....so it rained just long enough to ensure that my underwear was wet along with everything else. Still, being wet didn't really bother us as it was still warm, so we continued to wander around the gardens full of flowers, decorative ponds, enjoying ourselves and taking pictures. Deciding that we didn't much fancy paying for the pleasure of actually going into the residence we headed off to the nearby starbucks (very cultural I know) to
hydrate ourselves with a yummy frappacino.
Afterwards we headed to Esplanades (where all the concerts and operas and such like take place in Singapore) to watch a lion dance. This was quite a treat as lion dances are generally only performed during Chinese New Year. The lions are beautifully decorated with eyes that blink and sometimes even ears that move. The lion is made up of two dancers wearing a lion costume, who synchronise their steps to create the movement of the lion. The 'lions' jumped from podiums, climbed poles all the while drums where being played in the background. This really added to the atmosphere though I imagine it's main purpose is so that the dancers can keep time together. At the finale, the drums went wild and as a giant popper went off sprinkling the whole area with confetti, chinese banners appeared in two of the lions' mouthes. So alas the dance had ended.
We then decided to walk along the waterfront and look at all the decorations and rides there for Chinese New Year. There were hundred of people to fight through. All around there were rabbits (this being the year of the rabbit in
case you didn't know, coincidently MY YEAR :D ), not real ones of course but giant rabbit statues, rabbits made of lights, giant floating carrots.... You get the idea. It was all pretty insane and over the top but really interesting to see.
At 8pm we headed off to Vignesh's house (my other Singaporian housemate from Rome, more commonly known by you guys as Louis) for yet more gambling. I was beginning to learn that gambling was taken pretty seriously in Singapore by people my age and is to them what going out drinking is us back in England. So the night passed with me watching a huge amount of money change hands (between friends!!) and trying to unravel the mystery that is mahjong. Ironically, I have actually played Mahjong before, but you have to understand, you have never played or truly seen mahjong played properly until you watch the Chinese play it. Singlish flew across the table, a baffling mix of English, Mandarin, Malay and regional Chinese dialects that left me understanding no more than half of what was being said or going on. I will say this though, they have infused in me a desire to learn
to play mahjong like they do, rapidly picking up and throwing tiles down, and all Chinese words included (like 'Pong' which you say when you have collected 3 of a kind or 3 in a row, but have collected the last tile from the table as opposed to picking it up as part of your hand on your turn). Yet again it was gone 3am when we made it home. Jasmin 40 SGD poorer and me no poorer having opted to leave mahjong to those who know how to play it. (Although I did play on round while being heavily supervised!)
Chinese New Year - day 3, 5th of feb
It was on this day that I managed to get myself burnt and as Jasmin's sister, Elaine, eloquently put it, I looked like a cooked prawn... (and still kinda do for that matter). That is definitely something I will never get used to, how bluntly Singaporians say things. At a family thing, I heard Elaine saying to her cousin that he'd got really fat and had better not sit on the chair as he would most likely break it! You might be thinking it is just Elaine who is
blunt, both of my examples having come from her, but in truth, I have heard just about every Singaporian I've met say something that I would have thought too rude to say, but Elaine's comments are the only ones that have stuck in my mind.
How did I get burnt? Well obviously, the day was spent out in the sun. Jasmin and I got up at the seemingly ungodly hour of 9am (ungodly after going to bed at 3am). The plan for the day was to go to Henderson Bridge and then on to Sentosa Island.
Henderson Bridge is this modern bridge (the longest pedestrian bridge in Singapore...which isnt really that long at all) designed to look like waves. The bridges waves were created by a mathematical formula (thats especially for you ali) which all in all creates a pretty awesome effect (check out the pictures). The bridge is in a national park where there are butterflies and lots of birds (which we didnt actually see, only heard) including golden orioles. After taking our fill of the bridge and the surrounding nature it, it was off to Sentosa Island (which is where I reckon I got burnt).
First impression of Sentosa? Like a disney land island. When you arrive you are herded to this area where there is a casino, universal studios singapore and all these rides and amusements. It took us a while to escape this area (Jasmin reckons this is because, once they've got you there they don't want to let you leave until you have spent all your money) but eventually escape we did, and we hopped on a bus that took us to the man-made beaches. The beaches are nice, if a little too perfect, with bars and even a wave pool so you could practice your surfing, lining them. Jasmin came up with the bright idea of hiring some bikes, which was lovely while we cycled alongside the beach, but as we quickly ran out of beach to follow, Jasmin proposed we head up this bike path that was started with a slight hill. Bad plan!! By the time we got to the top of the multiple hills on this path, we were shattered and dripping with sweat, faces bright red (and not due to sunburn). Exercise in humidity is such a bad, bad idea. We decided to park the bikes and
Lion dance at Sentosa
The finished result after about 5minutes of the lions 'sleeping' and spitting out debris at the crowd. It says 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' walk along some trails in an attempt to cool off and return to a more normal colour (which i later found out I wasn't going to do for at least a couple of day, me being pretty red still a day later....). The trails weren't very exciting and in places really over grown. However, we did see a common sun skink, a tail-less lizard, but i didn't manage to get a picture, as Jasmin, who first spotted it, screamed and ran away, effectively scaring it away too.
We then gave up on the trails, collected our bikes and enjoyed the brief ride down the hills we had struggled so hard to climb. We returned our bikes and then headed to the nearest beach bar to get a drink and were lucky enough to arrive just in time to see another lion dance. This time there were no podiums to jump or poles to climb, instead the lion danced and picked things off the ground. The lion picked up oranges and a melon (and for some reason a load of Jagermeiser too....) and peeled them and lay then out to say 'Gong xi fa cai', which is what everyone traditionally
Burnt
Jasmin and I with our cocktails at the breach bar. Me very burnt.... says during Chinese new year, meaning to wish a person wealth. While the lion(s) were creating this message they were spitting out the debris at the crowd.
It was then off to do some more quick visiting (in which everyone was shocked at how red I was. It seems chinese people don't get burnt) before heading back out for a friend's birthday party. Yann celebrated her birthday at Marina Bay, which is the new hotel and casino in Singapore. We headed up to the 57th floor (which was the very top) to go to the Chocolate buffet to eat amazing chocolate creations and drink champagne. Outside the bar was an infinity pool that spanned the whole of the top of Marina Bay (Marina bay is made up of three separate towers, and the top floor spans all three towers!!) and had a spectacular view out over Singapore. It was an amazing night though I did feel a little sick by the end of it, as Jasmin and I had not had time to have dinner before going to the buffet, so technically the buffet ended up being our dinner, consisting purely of chocolate and alcohol........
Chinese New Year
Chocolate Buffet at Marina Bay Sands
Not sure how well you guys can see it, but every surface is covered with a different chocolate creation at you could eat as much as you liked of!!! - Day 4, 6th of Feb (Happy Birthday Helen!!!!)
Today was a very chilled day (thank god!) where all we really did is go for brunch, then shopping for Yann's birthday pressie and then over to Kelly's house for dinner (Kelly is Jasmin's bestfriend). At Kelly's house we ended up doing the Chinese New Year salad thing, where everyone stands around a table, chopsticks in hand and collectively picks up and mixes the shredded carrot, radish and other ingredients, all the while yelling out happy new year and wishes for the year ahead (my wish was for an awesome time travelling and to come home safe with lots a great memories). Then we sat down and ate the salad (a sort of starter), after which dinner arrived on the table. In Singapore everyone sits around the table and just grabs what they want from all the dishes on the table with their chopsticks (pretty challenging if you are me and you are paranoid you are going to accidently drop everything you are trying to grab on the table or into other people's bowls. This dinner was the most challenging to date. I ate Sea cucumber for the first time, and
is something I hope to never eat again. The texture is spongy and the taste beyond my powers of description. Lets sum it up in the one word....HORRID! However, the worst was yet to come. I accepted the offer a dried, preserved oyster, thinking it was a pretty safe bet as I like normal, fresh oysters. I soon found out the dried oyster makes me almost physically sick! It was a real struggle to finish it without being ill or showing what I was really thinking about it on my face. After that trial was lotus root and pork soup, which sounds harmless enough, but I personally thought was foul. My stomach went on strike and after about 5 spoonfuls out of this huge bowl, I had to give up and say that I was too full to finish it. Thankfully, not too long after this meal we headed home for a relaxing night (allowing me to write this) as Jasmin has work in the morning.
Some personal observations about Singapore
1. Singapore feels kinda claustrophobic. Everywhere looks the same and one district merges into the next, making you feel like it is just
one big city instead of a country. As you drive along you feel like you are just going round and round in circles.
2. There is absolutely no countryside, so no real boundaries from town/district to town/district....
3. They have decorative palm trees, hands down one of the coolest trees I've ever seen. (I will take a picture of one for you helen)
4. You have to take your shoes off before going into anyones house. It took me a little getting used to as I'm used to taking my shoes off once you've got inside. You don't have feel silly trying to get your shoes off out in a hallway or on the street.
5. Everyone just about lives in apartments, which i reckon is the reason for my next point;
6. The lifts make me feel sick as they move so fast. The lift can go from the 57 floor to the bottom floor in about 5 seconds.... because everyone lives in flats the Singaporians obviously feel the need to have super quick lifts.
7. The official language of Singapore is English but in reality is Chinese, or at the very least
a very chinese singlish.
8. You can tell who are the newly arrived Chinese and Indians to Singapore as they stare at me like I am some kind of alien. The rest take Westerners in their stride.
Right, Finished!! This has taken me three hours to write (no idea why it took so long as I didn't write THAT much) and it is now 1.52am here so after I manage to upload some pictures to this blog I am off to bed.
Until next time guys!!! Remember to comment or send me a text telling me what you've been up to.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Boop!! Sounds like you're having a lovely time :)