April 4th, 2005
One more day till we leave for Bali, Indonesia! But, still so much to see and do here in Singapore. Today is all about Temples and (gaget hunting for Buffy and Jer). The weather was not cooperating enough for us to plan the trip to the Jurong Bird Park, but hindsight tells me that everything happens for a reason. (You'll see later in the Bali post-don't worry, it's coming....)

The one nice thing about not having clear sunny weather, was the lowered temps brought on by the rain. Singapore has passed thru it's rainy season, but with very little rain, and much higher temps that what is normal. So, the cool rain was actually quite welcome, as it made being out and about much more tolerable, and hopping on and off trains and into AC, sometimes believe it or not, chilly. So, rain or not, we ventured back out into the city to find some Chinese Temples.

Chinatown here we come!

The first temple we visited was very simple in design.


I was told that the pronounciation of the first word is "hook".

When you came thru the door, which you had to step thru, like an up and over opening in a wall, and then around another wall, you came to this very simple space, open to the sky, so while it is raining, you hear the raindrops in the stone pot in the center.


Open to the rain.

Inside the space was this old metal locked chest. The locks were big and heavy.


Cool old lock.

Coming thru the second opening in this first temple, you came into another simple space, with a bamboo tree growing and again, open to the elements. It was a really nice place to just sit and hear the rain.




I love the rustic feel of the brooms around here.


This was the most ornate place in the temple space. This is the alter, with a pot in front for placing incense sticks.

After a quick and quiet visit to this temple, we headed for the next one.

The second Temple was the oldest Temple in Chinatown, and much more ornate, right from the beginning. The tiles on the floors were vibrant and most floors were different patterns. There were a lot of gold decorative carvings up in the ceilings, and accents and alters where ever you turned around.



Notice the legs on this shrine pot. And in 3 Chinese Characters reads "Shrine Happy Heaven" or from Right to Left, "Heaven Happy Shrine".


One of the legs.


A painted figure on a door. Lots of gold and the details were etched into it.


Jeremy aspires to have a beard this long. : )



There were stone tableaux on some of the walls. Chinese characters were carved into the stone, and then filled with gold paint...



...and some with red paint. Though we have no idea what these say...


An alter diarama. Only one of many in this Temple.



I loved the feel of the iron pot and the contrast of the color of the back wall and the business of the tile floor and bottom fifth of the pink wall.


A decorative bell on the roof of the shrine pot.


Near the main area of the Temple was this ornate shrine figure.



Reminded me of Medusa only in a different way...Guan Shi Yin Pu Sa (Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara) "Bodhisattva of Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes".


It had to be added!


A nice ornate shrine offering area.



And among all the glitter of gold, and the details of diaramas and stone tableaux and the business and colors of the different floor tiles, I found comfort in a simple stone carving on our way out. Ahhhh

After stopping by a few small shops, (every camera shop Jer and his Dad could find-- a-hem!) we ended up at our third temple of the day. This one, sat right in what seemed to be the heart of big modern buildings. But once inside the walls, you felt like you were taken back in time a bit.


Temple in the city.



Inside the walls were strings of conical incense burning and on each side of the courtyard were two offering stoves.


Inside, offering papers and incense sticks burn.



On top of the temple roof, there were these incredibly ornate scenes that seemed to be constructed of pieces of metal, and tile. The figures were only about a foot tall, but the entire roof line was a scene of a village.



Inside the Temple there were ornate hand carved stone carvings. Bill and I each snapped off a few pix before we were told that pix were not allowed inside the Temple. Ooops!


Dragonface.


Tiger scene.

After leaving Chinatown, we decided to take a walk over to the waterfront of Boat Quay.(pronounced 'key') Boat Quay and Clark Quay were parts of the old town as you'll see the looming buildings in the background. Boat Quay and Clark Quay are also just lined with places to eat.


Boat Quay


Boat Quay from a different angle.


Rickshaw driver nap.



You can walk up and down the Quay and pick what you want to eat.



We crossed over a bride and headed towards the other side of Boat Quay and found this fun sculpture along the wal. A group of naked boys, jumping in the river.



Once on the other side of the river, we found a museum. A stone statue adorned the front courtyard area.



This was just a fun angle to take a pix. Notice the carved totum statue in the midst of the bdgs.



We passed by this beautiful restaurant that had 4 gorgeous cut crystal chandeliers hanging inside. When we asked if we could come in and see them, we found this awesome wood carved statue with beautiful fabrics hanging behind it and a floral offering in her one hand.


Jer and his Mom infront of Boat Quay.



Up and down the waterfront you can get a bumboat ride. Here we found a bumboat driver hanging out.

We decided to go back to Little India so Jeremy and his Dad could look for these watches, one that had an altimeter, and one that calculated the tides. And we decided to find some more awesome food in Little India and then to call it a night, b/c the next day we were to leave for Bali! As if we hadn't already trekked all over Singapore today.

We went in search of some good vegetarian, cheap Indian food for dinner. Our search took us along back streets that neither Jeremy nor I had been before. We found a brightly colored nightlife filled with the smells of Indian food and music and shop owners who were all still quite busy for being so late in the day.



There were several of these stalls on the street with folks busily making floral offerings. The flowers and leaves were fresh and they smelled as beautiful as they looked.


Fresh floral offerings.



An Indian grocer was still open and had these awesome tubs of fresh spices to weigh and sell.


Rows of fresh veggies.

We ended up doing a major behind the scenes tour in the last few days with Jeremy's folks. It was great fun to show them around the places we frequent often, and then to explore new stuff with them. The only way we would have ever got so many great shots of things close up, (people included) was b/c of Bill's zoom on his camera and his relentless pursuit of that "National Geographic" award winning shot.

The next few Blog entries will be of our trip to Bali, Indonesia! We took over 1400 shots (between Jeremy, myself and Bill snapping away) so it's going to take some time to get thru and organize my thoughts about it. Give me a few more days, and you will not be disappointed! And, if anyone wants to come and visit, we'd love to go back to Bali with you....soooooo..........

© December 6, 2008