Travel Virus

Last Saturday Chinese people celebrated mid-autumn festival with mooncakes. It’s full moon and the story tells to look at the moon to feel connected to the beloved ones that live far away… very romantic

On my way back to Italy I brought mooncakes to my family and friends, to share with them this Chinese tradition… my relatives enjoyed to try it but my friends did not…mmm… not global citizens yet!

Too bad I wasn’t in Singapore to see the celebrations! The Chinese garden was all decorated with lanterns for the event!

Several happenings in Singapore this weekend… the celebrations for the upcoming Deepavali (diwali), the festival of lights, are starting in little India, all beautifully decorated with colorful lights and bazaars… dangerous bazaars (on the left side of the pic) where i got trapped by the amazing colors of the Indian cloths! i love the Indian textiles, so colorful and elegant… i wish i could wear them everyday without looking like an idiot

In a few minutes the formula 1 race will start… I was hoping to be able to see it for free but it doesn’t seem possible, too bad. The circuit is just around the city center, along the route I usually take to reach the university, so basically I’ve been racing there! (See below)

Last night Jennifer took me for a nice dinner in a Swiss restaurant… yes so swiss that it totally looked like Manora, plus some decorative cows, waiters in semi-Bavarian cloths and alpin chalet interior design. Pretty fake but fun! We got spaetzle, roesti and cordon blue in pure Swiss style. It’s called Marché, at vivocity, you can even see Sentosa from there.

Today the Muslim Singaporeans, mainly Malay, celebrate the end of Ramadan. The main celebration was heal near Paya Lebar, with a huge crowd of people walking around the stands, buying anything from cloths, to food, to curtains, carpets, shoes, jewelery, house decorations and fancy head scarves!
It’s a very big happening for the Malay, there were soo many people!
There was also a CS gathering in a tapas bar in little India… quite inter-cultural: singapore+india+spanish tapas+malay festival… But I still prefer the indian food to the tapas

Today I explored the area around Bugis, toward arab street and the Gran Sultan Mosque (in the pic). After several months I’m here in singapore, I’m still amazed by the variety of cultures and their still strong distinctive characters that can be found here! It’s wonderful…. especially to see all these religions going well along together!
It’s ramadan and as you see in the picture there was a ramadan bazar, many people, lots of exotic food (including shrimp donuts and maccheroni), mainly ladies with wearing scarves and some talk show from the mosque!
Just behind the sultan Mosque you can find Arab Street, the famous place for buying textiles and silk. Indeed it’s very good, although the shops are a bit all alike. I think i made some good deals… they were also selling silk from Italy and from St. Gallen. St. Gallen???
Not far from the muslim heart of Singapore I stepped into a hindu temple (in the Bugis area) where there was a function for Krishna’s birthday. The temple was full of indians and indian-singaporeans, ladies with beautiful sarees, candles and hindu engaging music… but the most amazing part was to see the chinese-singaporeans stopping by and pray in buddist way in front of the temple!!
Awesome Singapore

I don’t have much to post because I’ve been working instead of enjoying Singapore, anyway the good part is that the aunty where I live, often offers me her delicious home cooked food!
She’s a great cook and I’m enjoying to have the luxury to try real Chinese food, not the restaurant one…
Today lotus root soup, rice, veggies and wonderful chili cuttlefish!

In Singapore the is always a reason to celebrate!

It can be buddha’s birthday, national day, christmas, chinese lovers’ day…

For taoists this month has been special because Hungry Ghosts are coming out, so they burn incense sticks and offer food on little altars, so that the ghosts go away. Probably some resemblance to our Christian’s day of the dead on November 2nd.

Now it’s the Muslim celebrate Ramadan and the Malay areas of Singapore are all equipped with colorful lights, bazaars, street food and street shops!

Just behind the muslim festival there was a christian gospel rally: it was quite surprising for me to see the very entertaining style of “seeing God’s love” – as a friend told me. There was music and the pastor asked all the people to stand and clap at the rhythm of the music, then there was a capella performance, quite funny. It remind me of the giornata dei giovani i attended in Verona a few times, but it seems that here it’s happening more than once a year and it’s not only for teenagers!

The the pastor told a very long story, translated on the fly in Mandarin by a Chinese speaking pastor, it seemed a TV show, quite entertaining!

The intercultural weekend finished with a cooking class, held by Jennifer – a real Singaporean – teaching me, a Taiwanese and an American couchsurfer how to cook (and eat!) Japanese Takoyaki

Believe it or not, this is also Singapore!
For me it’s the most exotic side of Singapore, where the traditional Indian culture is still real and not cleaned off by western emulation.
See anything strange?

Today I visited the highest peak of Singapore, Bukit Timah: 164 meters above the sea level – yes, it’s not a typo, just above a hundred meters!
Nevertheless it’s a good place where to spend the day away from the typical city life of Singapore, immerse in equatorial nature with giant trees, huge leaves and incredible humidity (for European standards).
The wildlife is also interesting: beside some huge (scary) ants we met several monkeys jumping and climbing trees. Three monkeys even had babies, so cute… well honestly quite ugly, but very expressive. The children were hugging their monkey-mamas almost like humans would do.
An unusual corner of Singapore.

Sunday August 9th Singapore celebrated its 44th birthday, as they say here. I think that’s a funny and more understandable way to rephrase national day. Events took place all around the city and a scenic parade in Marina Bay. At night they had some fireworks for five minutes (well… i need to invite them to the Notte d’incanto in Italy to show them some good ones…)
Singaporeans seem to be very proud of their nation and recent achievements (unlike Italians) and take national day very seriously! Monday was again a national holiday, and I visited St. Andrews Cathedral, right in the center of the city and above City Hall metro station, which seems to be very convenient to get the people go to mass
I was surprised to find a very modern church, despite being build 150 years ago: a considerable array of LCD widescreen TVs are hanging down everywhere in the church, to make you see the preist from close, i suppose. The garden features an entertaining fish pond, amphitheater, modern museum in a glass-covered building and a big gazebo with several tables and chairs. A peculiar oasis in the middle of a very crowded city.

Last weekend I had the pleasure to be invited to a local malay wedding, by my friend Jennifer, who’s colleague Maslinda was getting married. The wedding was organized at the ground floor of the condominium where they live, with buffet spicy dinner, wonderful decorations and live music. There was also an entertainer, that you can see in the picture: I had to come all the way to Asia to see a globalized wedding: Malay couple, getting married in Singapore in American style!