Accidental Tourist - 500px photo walk around SIngapore Chinatown

One of the ways I try to continue shooting in my own country is to take photo walks. For the past few months, I managed to bag 2 international walks by joining the 500px photo walk in September and the Scott Kelby Global photo walk in October (another post). 

The 500px photowalk was a first for me - Led by Wilson of Singapore Photography Interest Network aka SPIN, the participants took a romp around Singapore Chinatown area. 

Starting at the new Telok Ayer MRT (Downtown Line) (named after the Hokkien (dialect) that used to populate this area) a pit stop at Thian Hock Keng Temple (an iconic temple in this area -as it is the oldest Hokkien temple in Singapore back when I did another walk in 2012 - http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2012/10/accidental-tourist-october-2012-walking.html) before heading out to the main Chinatown area via Amoy Street market. 

Some trivia about this location: (extracted from http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_656_2004-12-31.html) 
Malay name: In Malay, telok means "bay" and ayer means "water".
Chinese name: The Hokkien name for Telok Ayer Street was Gwan Sun Koi, where koi meant "street" and Gwan Sun referred to the name of a shop along Telok Ayer Street. Telok Ayer Bay was also known as nan wan or "southern bay" by the Chinese.
 
It was the usual humid hot day for sunny Singapore but the walk was made better with good spirits and good company. Once into Chinatown, a stop over at the beautiful Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (one of those places I have taken frequent visits - http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2013/06/accidental-tourist-annual-vesak-day.html and http://accidentalsingaporetourist.blogspot.sg/2010/06/accidental-tourist-vesak-day.html) 

Teatime stop at the new Chinatown Food Street area before heading upwards to catch the Mid Autumn opening ceremony and traffic jams. The night ended on a high with light trails and evening light. 

Thian Hock Keng Temple

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple - Mid Autumn Festival Celebrations

Mid Autumn Festival Celebrations

More photos available on my Flickr account - https://flickr.com/photos/56563125@N00/sets/72157647315190372

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond! 

Accidental Tourist @ Annual Vesak Day Shoot

This year is my 4th set of photographs depicting the Vesak Day celebrations - previous postings made earlier in 2012, 2011 and 2010. 

I have been faithfully documenting the '3 steps 1 bow' ceremony held at Bright Hill monastery (aka Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Temple) as I am deeply humbled by the experience every time. 

Although I am not Buddhist, I have full admiration of the inner strength required from those who undertake to  perform this deceptively simple '3 steps 1 bow' ceremony every Vesak Day. I heard from some worshipers that the attendance for this ceremony has risen over the years and it is getting more and more difficult to get the tickets for performing this ceremony. 

For every shoot during this ceremony, I am constantly reminded that it is often not the physical strength but a case of mind, devotion and perseverance over physical body strength.

On the actual Vesak Day itself, I took an early morning trip  down to a temple I visited last year called Lian Shan Shuang Lin Temple in Toa Payoh, hopped over to Thekchen Cholin Tibetan Temple at Balestier Road before ending my Vesak Day temple shoot at my favorite temple in Chinatown, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. This is also the 1st year that my Vesak Day shoot has been marked by heavy rainfall....well, there's always a first time for everything :) 

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond!!

Accidental Tourist - Singapore Walks conducted by the Original Singapore Walks

I discovered that an interesting way to spend the mornings in Singapore is to go for some of the morning walks organised by the Original Singapore Walks http://www.journeys.com.sg/ Their walks start around 9.30am and ends around 12pm. 

I got myself a 3-day pass at a discount of $78 (usual $90 or $30 for each walk) and went for 3 morning walks with them from Monday to Wednesday. It is definitely a different experience to walk around the city I call home and being able to act like a real tourist :) 

The walks are enjoyable as they are often history/ facts peppered with many personal stories that the guides shared while growing up in Singapore. As much effort and time was done to research the facts and plan the itineraries, I am obliged to not share most of their stories and routes taken but safe to say, I am extremely pleased with the coverage (both in terms of locations selected and stories shared during the walks). 

I would like to share at least 1  (un)known facts I found particularly interesting for each of the walks. For the walks covering Chinatown and Little Indian, it was revealed that the Indian community were first allocated the areas around Chinatown to settle as part of the town plan formulated in 1800s during Raffles time. They subsequently found it to be unsuitable for their main trade of cattle farming so they shifted to the current Little India site which was flanked by the Rochor canal and the Kallang River area. That is why the oldest Indian temple is located in Chinatown. The Chinese on the other hand first settled in Rochor area but relocated to Chinatown as they found that the soil was unsuitable for padi farming. For the walk covering colonial Singapore, an interesting fact indicated was that the Raffles Hotel is actually the sole remaining structure of what was once a cluster of bungalows set aside for European section of the Raffles town plan. 

As usual, some pictures of the places visited during the walks. 

Till the next time, onto the world and beyond! 

Accidental Tourist – Vesak Day 2011 (May) Shoot

This is a back post of the visits that I took over Vesak Day holidays.

I decided to trod by the Bright Hill Temple and the Tooth Relic Temple in year 2011. This is a continuation of last year’s Vesak Day photoshoot. I am in fact hoping that this will be a staple in my photography shoots & I will be able to take different types of shots at the same locations.

Here are 3 pictures taken at the Bright Hill Temple –  I was early enough to witness the arduous “3 steps 1 bow” ceremony that is only held at this temple on the eve of Vesak Day:

 full prostration is carried out by all devotees in this ceremony

 Monks saying their prayers before the ceremony

closeup of the Head monk having a moment 

My sentiments after witnessing this momentous grueling ceremony where the devotees essentially had to prostrate over the floor or bow once every 3 steps? I have nothing but respect for these devotees who do it as a mark of their faith.

On Vesak Day, I went to the Tooth Relic Temple bright & early. I had hoped to catch the early morning prayers but only to realize that it will only be open to the public at 9a.m. Nevertheless, I had a nice walk around as it was quite peaceful even on this very important day for the Buddhists:

 Tooth Relic Temple in all its glory

 not a Chinese devotee but just as welcome into this temple

 closeup of the guardians placed outside the temple

Compared to last year’s visit, I took in the temple at a much slower pace as the temple is definitely less crowded (likely due to the timing). But nevertheless, the feeling of peace and tranquility the minute I step into this place never fails to amaze me. 


Till the next time, off to the world and beyond!

Accidental tourist - Vesak Day celebrations in Singapore

For Vesak Day, I took a leap of faith and went to places I never ventured before….together with my friends, we stepped into Chinese temples and I saw a world that's totally alien to me even though it's in my backyard (literally at times). To a certain extent,I was a "fish out of water" as I didn’t know whether the temple devotees will object to my presence holding a camera and taking photos of the religious activities during this special day for them...

In the night before the Vesak holidays, I hopped down to Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (better known to me as “Bright Hill Temple”), one of the largest temples in Singapore and best known for it’s “3 steps 1 bow” ceremony held only during Vesak Day. I am challenged in using my DSLR for the 1^st time at night but I do need to “practice, practice, practice”.

The temple’s website showed many many places I didn’t manage to go in my short 2-hours there but here are some photos.

Photo of one of the temple towers in bright lights

Photo of 3-steps-1-bow ceremony

(out of focus) Photo of a man praying before Buddha

On Vesak Day itself, I went down to the other side of Little India at a temple called “Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple” or “Temple of 1000 lights”. This is an earmarked historic site by Singapore National Heritage Board. It’s a Thai-Buddhist temple with a 15m Buddha. Again, I have never been anywhere near here all my life (this is becoming a “story of my life” statement) so we decided to drop by there….3 photos showing what we saw:

Photo of 15m Buddha surrounded by hundreds of lights

Photo of worshippers putting down incense sticks outside temple

Photo of devotees placing gold-leaf on statute of Buddha

Of course, I did the thing that most people will do in such places, I did my gold leaf placement and wish for good luck and health as well!!

Opposite this Temple of 1000 lights was another temple called “Leong San Buddhist Temple” or “Dragon Mountain Temple”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t capture any nice photos of this place. I totally blame this on my limits as a photographer as it was definitely a shame since as the temple has some lovely sculptures on its roof….

But there was a dragon dance troupe that came by while I was at the location so I will be showing some shots of the dragon & lion dances instead:

Photo of dragon head coming out of temple – it is a bit orange

Photos of the dragon dance troupe hard at work

Photo of the pink lion that followed after the dragon dance

Next was a MRT train ride down to Chinatown for a trip to the “Buddha Tooth Relic Temple”. Its website is quite impressive so do hop over if you have some time: http://www.btrts.org.sg/. Again 1^st time venture in there even though I heard much about the huge complex of some 4-5 floors with a roof top garden coupled with the largest cloisonné Buddha Prayer Wheel in the world. It houses a museum together with a shopping gallery cum library within its premises. During Vesak Day, the priceless tooth relic is displayed for veneration. Here goes the photos:

Photo of the front entrance

Photo of the countless candle tea-lights (again only during Vesak Day)

Photo of girl tying on prayer knot by monk

Personally, I feel that I do not do much justice to this gorgeous place with my 3 photos cos it’s quite beautiful in that place and pretty impressive.

Anyway, till the next time...Onto the unknown and beyond.....