Clearly now in my run-down period, eating up food supplies
beginning to have a mammoth sort out and pack. Finishing things off or at last
trying to. Very busy.
This week it was Thaipassam, which is when Hindus have a great Thanksgiving celebration. I thought (wrongly as it turned out) that it was a public holiday so decided to go along to Little India to see what was going on. It was very hot as the monsoon has at last broken. Gone are the days of grey skies and incessant rain. I explored the crowded little streets of shop houses, crammed with stalls selling everything under the sun. The big displays of blossoms and flower buds were especially noticeable. Very fragrant. You could smell them some way off. Everyone in their Sunday best so to speak I did a temple or two, the last Chinese merchant’s house in the area and the brand new Indian Heritage Centre (school parties being told stories of Hindu deities)
Talking of which I chanced across a procession of Thaipassam devotees carrying portable shrines supported by an array of steel rods stuck into their flesh, like this chap. It looked incredibly painful but none of them seemed to mind. Indeed this chap below even did a little jig for his chanting and drum-banging followers which must surely have made things worse.
No blood anywhere- even the pierced togues and cheeks. Weird. But it was all very joyful and conducted in that typically shambolic Indian way where everything seems to work out in the end, but looks as though it will degenerate into chaos at any moment. Mothers pushing kids in wheelchairs chatting to each other as though they were in a check out queue in Morrisons. Sudden stops and starts. People walking past the wrong way drinking coca-cola. Quite an experience ! After all this, I needed a beer and found a quieter side street with a pavement stall where they sold cold Karvali (same name as the Indian navy’s current submarine class ) super-strong Indian beer at just over a third of the price you pay in town. A bit woozily, home.
But I have also had the chance to get some sea-time in. First of all, with a friend a 4 hour trip out to Raffles lighthouse, the Southernmost point of Singapore. This was fun. A great guide, full of enthusiasm, proud of his 72 years - the one in yellow on the right. Here we are lined up for the inevitable group photo.
From here one stands under the palms and looks at Indonesia, all the while knowing that the stretch of water between is one of the busiest seaways in the world. Indeed, moored ships were everywhere to be seen. Remarkably, despite all that, turtles still regularly turn up to lay their eggs on the diminutive beach here, largely because their grandmothers did, and their grandmothers before them. The lighthouse is automatic but is still manned by two keepers. Their function is to keep the place looking neat and tidy (a Singapore trait), ward off interlopers from across the water and look after the turtles (who get moved to a safer place these days).
The other trip was with the Navy and much more demanding. We bounced along in an ‘optionally uncrewed surface vehicle’ (a sea drone like the ones the Ukrainians have used against the Russians). Not really uncrewed since it was operated by two man crew who were deployed ashore. We were practising the high-speed interception of a terrorist boat. Strange to sit in what would have been the CO’s seat and to watch the systems work apparently all on their own. Great stuff. Fortunately, I was not amongst those stricken with sea sickness. ‘These things aren’t built for human beings,’ we were told. Came back a bit sunburnt.
The other event was saying farewell to my class. I got on
very well with them I think, and came away with tea from Indonesia, China and
Thailand ! The best Singapore class I have ever had. A good note to end on,
perhaps.
