Culture Vulture

One of the best things about studying abroad is getting to understand and observe different cultures. This is a specifically culture driven time of year with Chinese New Year being just around the corner. Through different events and speaking to classmates I`ve learned a lot about the traditions of Chinese New Year.

Two weeks ago I attended the lighting ceremonies to kick off the Chinese New Year in Chinatown. This ceremony included illuminating the decorations and they had performances by acrobats, lion dancers, hip hop dancers, etc. This was all complemented with fireworks and firecrackers (don`t get them confused!). We knew it had to be good when the President of Singapore arrived to take in the festivities.

Yesterday, I had the chance to take in another Chinese New Year event, the 9th Annual International Lion Dance Competition. The competition was comprised of 8 teams from all over Southeast Asia. It is hard to put into words the extraordinary talent that was at the competition. Here is a taste of what the competition had to offer.

In 2 weeks Chinese New Year will be celebrated, with public holidays on Monday and Tuesday. The city is in full Chinese New Year swing, with decorations everywhere and selling of goodies and gifts for the new year. 

On top of Chinese New Year, yesterday was also Thaipusam happening right at my doorstep in Little India. This Hindu ritual, sees people carrying milk pots or attaching "kavadis" and spikes pierced on their body as offerings. The people take a long walk to the temple, in which they are followed by their family. This website can do a better job of explaining the traditions better than I can. 

I`ve really enjoyed learning and being a part of the cultural experiences and look forward to observing others that are to come! 

48 Hours in Penang

48 hours in Penang; sounds like a bit of a movie title doesn't it? Well it's how I spent my first weekend outside of Singapore, in Penang. Penang is a part of Malaysia, and lies on an island just off of the north east part of the country. One of my classmates Niko joined me on the trip, which took about an hour and twenty minutes to fly to from Singapore. 

On Thursday morning I had class, and as soon as that was finished I was on my way to the airport to catch the flight to Penang. 

We arrived around 5:30 and caught the public bus to the Georgetown, which is the part of the city where we would be staying. The public bus to and from the airport was the only easy method of transportation during our time, so for those on a budget I would recommend just taking the public bus to and from the airport. Our hostel was located on Love Lane, a street lined with a bunch of hostels, guest houses and coffee shops. The hostel was called the 80's guesthouse, and had a ton of old-modern architectural beauty like a 100 year old wooden staircase, concrete and wood floor, wooden doors. It was certainly my aesthetic style! 

Upon arrival to our room we met two Australian girls who invited us to join them for dinner at the night market, which was just around the corner from our hostel. The night market was essentially like the hawker stalls in Singapore, with varies food stands lining the perimeter of the courtyard. I had Char Kay Teow, a traditional Malaysian noodle dish which was on the must try list for Penang. As we ate they had various tv screens playing the Australian Open tennis, which made me laugh about the globalization of the world. After dinner we went for a brief walk around to see the ocean and then headed back to the hostel for bed. 

To start our first full day in Penang, we caught a city bus to see the hilltop temple. On our way to Penang we had been told by a local about the Hindu festival, Thaipusan, that was going on. As we approached near the temple the streets were lined with elaborately decorated booths. The actual festival was not until Sunday, so things were not quite in full swing yet. To get to the temple we had to climb 513 steps. I know this because of the sign at the bottom that warned of the number of steps you had to climb to get to the temple. Once at the top we were graced with beautiful views of the city and a magnificent temple. We went inside to have a look around, and to much delight it was one of the daily prayer sessions happening. From my understanding because of the festival it's a special time of prayer so people bring offerings in the form of cows milk. During these prayer sessions there is live music taking place, while the statue of the God is washed, set on fire and then doused with the cows milk that was brought for offering. It was quite the unique experience to see first hand and gain some understanding of the religion. 

After a lot of struggle trying to obtain a method of transportation to our next destination we finally got a taxi and arrived at Penang Hill. The hill is the tallest point in Penang and you get to ride a funicular to take you up and down. The views from the top are amazing, as you get a full view of the city.

As we were taking photos of the view, from a distance I saw monkeys climbing down the trees. I lovvvvve monkeys, so I ran over to go see them. These monkeys were clearly after one thing, food, as they were digging through the garbage cans and pulling out all sorts of bags of garbage to rummage through for food. As I wanted to capture my moment observing monkeys I asked Niko to take a picture of me while I stood about 1.5 meters away. As I was posing for the picture, I heard a bit of a hiss from behind and I looked back to see the monkey I was about to pose with coming towards me. I shrieked and started running, as the monkey chased after me. After a couple meters I think he knew I got the hint and backed off, while I was terrified from approaching the monkeys again.

We watched the monkeys from a distance for a little while longer, before moving onto other parts of the hill. We tried coconut ice cream and saw two temples before riding the funicular back down to the ground. 

Before heading to the next temple, we grabbed lunch at one of the road side stands. We tried Mee Goreng, another thing on the list of foods to try in Penang. 

Then we took the trek up to Kee Tao Sim, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. The temple was decorated for Chinese New Year, with thousands of lanterns. The premise was huge and was quite the sight to see! By the time we had walked around the temple, I was pretty exhausted for the day so we headed back to the hostel for a rest and to get ready for dinner. 

 For dinner we went to a local Indian restaurant, recommended by a local women we had spoken to. Look at all the food for only $15 each! That is another thing that has been very much noticed in Penang, everything is about a third of the cost of Singapore! 

Afterwards we went for a walk around Chinatown and little India, which was a buzz! One of the other things that should be noted about Penang is the drivers are insane. 50% of the motor vehicles on the street are motorcycle mopeds, which follow no rules of the road. We saw several drive on the road medians and disobey red lights. On our way home as we were about 10 steps away from our hostel, we saw two mopeds collide nearly head on. Thank goodness there were no serious injuries, especially given the speed the one was travelling at. But it was quite the shake up and true introduction to the streets of Penang. That was about all I could take for one day and headed to bed!

The next day started on foot, as we walked around Georgetown which is a UNESCO heritage site. There are so many gorgeous buildings to take in. In addition, Penang is known for its street art. Map in hand we were armed to see all the Penang street art had to offer. 

Along the way there are these metal sculpture installations, which tell you about the history of the point you are standing. A very interesting way to learn about the city! My favourite was to learn that Jimmy Choo started his career in Penang; who knew! 

One of the other major sites in Penang are the jetties. These are essentially little villages built on stilts out in the water. We got the chance to explore two of the jetties. One is built up to be a bit more touristy with shops and restaurants, the other contained houses and even a dog "sanctuary". 

 

The rest of the day was mostly spent cooling off in the hostel and checking out some more unique sights in Georgetown before heading to the airport. A pretty successful 48 hours, if I do say so myself! 

STEPH'S SUMMARY OF PENANG 

Who's the place for: arts and culture lovers 

Where to stay: Georgetown! The best hostel location is lovers lane. I love our hostel 80's Guesthouse! 

Don't miss: Walking through Georgetown on foot to see the buildings and street art 

Can skip: Hilltop temple; was cool to see but was very out of the way to get to 

My memorable moment: getting chased by a monkey on Penang Hill. Don't get to close if you go! 

My biggest tip: getting around Penang (outside of Georgetown) didn't prove to be very easy, either by bus or cab. The hop on, hop off bus tour seemed like a good value for money just purely for the ease of getting around.

How three weeks in Singapore can fly by...

It seems like I just landed in Singapore, but in reality 3 weeks here have already flown by. This is in part to being so busy with school and exploring Singapore.

The first week, was really busy both with school introductions and sightseeing. I had the chance to meet up with my classmates for the first time. There are 18 exchange students in total, from all over the world. We had some both formal and informal introductions during the week, which included a trip out to Clarke Quay on Friday night. 

 Throughout the first week I got to see some new parts of Singapore, which included Little Arab,  Little India and Chinatown, all very bustling, interesting and diverse places!

Little Arab

Haji Lane in Little Arab

Temple in Little India

Chinatown 

Sri Mariamman Temple in Chinatown

I also had the opportunity to visit the famous Gardens by the Bay, which lies behind Marina Bay Sands. The area consists of a large area of gardens representing, each having plants and decorations from different Asian nations.

The garden also has 2 indoor domes, which you have to pay to visit. The one climate controlled flower garden is the largest glass greenhouse in the world. It is decorated with different themes through out the year. I managed to visit at the tail end of the Christmas display. The other dome is a cloud forest, which is home to the worlds largest indoor waterfall. It houses an indoor mountain, which teaches you about the different levels/areas of a forest.

The final attraction at Gardens by the Bay is the Supertree Grove. The Supertrees are vertical gardens which provide different ecological benefits, including solar power. At night the Supertrees light up, and 3 times throughout the evening there is a light show to music. This is definetley a must see!

The second week was when classes started, but there was still time to do further sightseeing. With a classmate, we visited the Asian Civilization Museum, which had some cool historical artifacts from different parts of Asia. One of the most interesting was a display of artifacts recovered from an old shipwreck in the Indian sea.

 

One of the other cool sights this week was the famous Singapore Merlion. The body symbolizes Singapore's beginnings as a fishing village and the head represents Singapore’s original name, Singapura, or ‘lion city’ in Malay. The Merlion offers some fun pictures to be taken.

One of the other touristy things to do, is to take a boat ride around Marina Bay. The boat takes you up the river past Boat Quay and Clarke Quay, and you can see a lot of attractions along the ride.

One of the attractions I had heard a lot about was the night safari at the Zoo. Most animals are most active at night, so it makes for a good sight to see. You can walk or take the safari tram around. On the tram, the animals come really close and almost look fake in some regard.

At the direction of a classmate, we found out that on Sunday evening the Israel Symphony Orchestra was putting on a free performance in the botanical gardens. We went and enjoyed the music in the park as the sun set. Unfortunately, we weren`t smart enough to bring a picnic like the others surrounding us at the park, but it was still a lot of fun.

On our way to school during my third week (second week of classes), we stumbled across Haw Par Villa. I had heard a bit about it as an old abandoned theme park. The free theme park, depicts Chinese mythology and folklore. Although I didn`t understand much of the folklore, the colorful fun statues has made this one of my favorite sites in Singapore.

Tiger Beer is the signature beer of Singapore, so we decided to take a trip to the local Tiger Brewery. Having been on brewery tours before, the basic fundamentals of this tour were nothing special. The grounds in itself were very cool though, with oversize beer bottle models and a pub looking like it came out of the 1950`s. We were also very fortunate to get taken over to do some taste testing at Archipelago Craft Brewery.

 

Fort Canning Park is a popular landmark in Singapore, which lies in the middle of the Central Business District. Historically it was known as the forbidden hill. This is due to the belief that ill will befall any who entered the hill as it is the place where Sang Nila Utama the king of Singapura were laid to rest as well as a palace which once stood on the hill since the 13th century before Portuguese raiders burned down the island in 1619. On Saturday I walked around the part, which was full of people running, picnicking and some practicing yoga. Remnants of historical landmarks/buildings are still present in the park.

The Southern Ridges is a 10-kilometre stretch of green space spanning the hills of some of Singapore’s most popular parks and gardens, which are connected by picturesque ridges and pathways. There are wire bridges/walkways suspended between the trees that offers great views of the forest and the wildlife within it.

From the Southern Ridges you can reach the Henderson Waves. The Henderson Waves, a distinctive wave-like structure consisting of a series of undulating curved 'ribs', is Singapore’s highest pedestrian bridge. 

Onwards from Henderson Waves, I reached Mount Faber. One of the highest points in Singapore, it overlooks Sentosa island and part of the city. 

My last stop of the weekend was Sentosa Island, with a group of classmates. Sentosa is like the Disneyland of Singapore. The island is divided into 3 different "sections". The first is the real touristy area called Resorts World, which houses Universal Studios, an Aquarium and a waterpark. The middle section has a giant version of the famous Singapore Merlion. The last section has a line of beaches on the ocean. On this day we started in the beach section. One of the main attractions here is a luge track. You take the chairrail up to the top of the hill and then zoom down on the luges. We had some fun racing down the track, with loser buying ice cream. 

After our fun on the luge track we walked along the beach and then continued to walk around the other parts of the island.

To cap off the third week in Singapore, we headed to one of the most iconic buildings in the city: Marina Bay Sands. At the top of the tower, there is a bar that is usually very exclusive, but on Sunday`s before 8:00 there is no cover charge and they let up on the dress code. We dressed in the best clothes that we had, which isn`t much that you bring to travel around South East Asia with. Drinks at the bar are insanely expensive (around $30/drink), but we figured it was a once in a lifetime expense!

With that the first 3 weeks in Singapore came to a close and what a ride it has been so far!