The festival of Thaipusam is one of the most dramatic Hindu festivals and is now banned in India.
Male devotees go through the careful spiritual concentration first in order to ready themselves for the penance by piercing their bodies with heavy spikes supporting loaded structures called "kavadi."
A Kavadi is a wooden arch decorated with fruits, pots of milk, or flowers. Some drive the kavadi through their tongues, cheeks, and bodies - definitely not for the squeamish!

Devotees, in honour of Lord Subramaniam, march for 3-kilometres from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple located on Sarangoon road to Sri Thandayuthapani in Tank road.
There are supporters gathering around the devotees chanting prayers, clapping their hands, and encouraging those devotees all along the way until they reach their destination.

Thaipusam was an amazing festival and we followed the procession all way to the final temple, were they removed their piercings and kavadis.
By this time, the sight of all the piercings and the throngs of people were too much, so we headed back to the hostel.

The pictures aren't too gory, but some may find them a little disturbing. Don't blame us if you faint!

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Pulau Ubin [ Sunday 23rd January 2005 ]


Pulau Ubin is only a short ferry ride from the jetty at Changi Pier, by bumboat. The bumboats set off as soon as there are at least 12 of you. Once there was enough, we were on our way over.

There's not that much to do on the island of Pulau Ubin, except hire a bike and explore it and visit some of the old villages.

So, we got 'biked' up and headed out first to the Buddhist Temple. There were a few monks knocking about, mainly just sat around and relaxing. One was just reading the newspaper - he never made it past Page 3!

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Singapore [ Friday 14th January - Thursday 27th January ]

We left Bali behind and jumped on the plane to Singapore. The airport at Changi was really impressive and the airport staff were so friendly, which we've not experienced anywhere yet!
The passport control guys enquired how long we were staying in Singapore and we told them we were staying until the 27th, so they wished me Happy Birthday for the 24th. Well impressed.

Heading through the airport arrivals lounge, there's free internet for everyone. Bonus!
Signs lead exactly to the MRT terminal, where a guy was on hand to offer any help that you needed.

The MRT runs like clockwork, as does every part of Singapore. I think we're like gonna like this place!

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Lee's Birthday - 24th January 2005

I awoke on Monday to find that Joo had decorated my dorm bed with banners and then handed me my pressies.
We were planning on a trip over to Sentosa Island, but I didn't really fancy it.

Instead, we went over to Sim Lim Square for some shopping. Sim Lim is the gadgets mecca of Singapore and as it was my birthday, Joo let me have whatever I wanted - well almost.

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