Maureen and Daniel arrived around 12:45am (between Saturday night and Sunday morning)! I'm so excited to have them here visiting and to show them around Singapore! Also, Maureen, like a true friend brought us 3 big bags of Skittles and a bag full of Chickfila sauces--so pumped about these things that I miss!
We visited with them for a bit and then all went to sleep to get rest for a full day when we woke up. We headed out to Chinatown to see the shops, hawker center, and temples. In the wet market, we intersected a lion dance. Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries (like Singapore) in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese traditional, cultural and religious festivals. In Singapore, lots of shops hire lion dancers to come perform at their shop entrance for good luck, fortune, and properity throughout the coming year.
After getting lunch at the hawker center and seeing the lion dance, we headed to the Buddhist Sacred Tooth Relic temple in Chinatown.
Next we went to the hindu temple in Chinatown. Although I have been here before a few times, I feel like I learn something new and see a new detail each time. The Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple. The temple was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement in Singapore. Pillai was a government clerk from Penang who arrived in Singapore with Sir Stamform Raffles on his second visit to the island in May 1819. Pillai went on to set up the island's first construction company, and also entered the textile trade. He rapidly established himself in business and was identified as a leader of the Indian community.
From its inception, the temple served as a refuge for new immigrants, particularly South Indian Tamil Hindus. Besides providing an important place of worship for these immmigrants, the temple granted them shelter until they found work and more permanent accomodation. Historically, the temple was the registry of marriages for Hindus.
The focus of the main prayer hall is the central shrine of Mariamman, which is flanked by the shrines of two secondary deities, Rama and Murugan. The main prayer hall is surrounded by a series of free-standing shrines, housed in pavilion-like structures with decorated dome roofs, known as Vimana. These are dedicated to the following deities: Durga, Ganesh, and Shive. The shrine to Sita is the second most important in the temple, as she is central to the annual timiti or firewalking festival held in this temple. After exploring the temples, we stopped for a cocunut drink and then headed back to our apartment to change and go to dinner.
Maureen and Daniel were so kind to get us dinner and drink at the roof top bar and restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands hotel. We had been to the observation deck with Kara and Eddie, but it was a different and fun experience to dine on the roof top. And it was obligatory to order a Singapore Sling (the signature drink that originated in Singapore). It's a gin-based cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainese bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel. It was initially called the gin sling--a sling was originally a North American drink composed of spirit and water, sweetened and flavored.
Dinner and drinks were delicious and it was so nice to just relax and chat with Mo and Daniel for a couple hours on the breezy roof top with the pretty city skyline. After dinner we attempted to find the famous infinity pool. We got pretty close, but still not in :) With hotel rooms starting at $500 a night, I don't think we will ever be getting in it. We headed down to the front of the hotel to catch the light and water show over the bay. Having friends visit us is here is the best!
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