Happy Deepavali!!

From Wikipedia:

Diwali or Dīpāvali (Sanskrit: a row of lamps) is a significant festival in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and an official holiday in India. Adherents of these religions celebrate Diwali as the Festival of Lights. They light diyas – cotton string wicks inserted in small clay pots filled with oil – to signify victory of good over the evil within an individual.

In Hinduism, across many parts of India and Nepal, it is the homecoming of Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest and his victory over Ravana. In the legend, the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (dĭpa), thus its name: dīpāwali. In South India, it marks the victory of Krishna over Narakasura. Over time, this word transformed into Diwali in Hindi and Dipawali in Nepali, but still retained its original form in South and East Indian Languages. In Dravidian languages it is called as Deepavali and the same is used in Malaysia and Singapore.

In Jainism, Diwali marks the attainment of nirvana by Mahavira on 15 October, 527 BC.

Diwali has been significant in Sikhism since the illumination of the town of Amritsar commemorating the return of Guru Har Gobind Ji (1595-1644), the sixth Guru of Sikhism, who was imprisoned along with 52 other Hindu kings at Fort Gwalior by Emperor Jahangir. After freeing the other prisoners, he went to the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in the holy city of Amritsar, where he was welcomed happily by the people who lit candles and divas to greet the Guru. Because of this, Sikhs often refer to Diwali also as Bandi Chhorh Divas – “the day of release of detainees.”

The festival is also celebrated by Buddhists in Nepal, a majority-Hindu country, particularly the Newar Buddhists.

In India and Nepal, Diwali is now considered to be a national festival, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians and Nepalese regardless of faith.

On the day of Diwali / Deepavali, many wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks. Some North Indian business communities start their financial year on Diwali and new account books are opened on this day.

Mr Whattaworld would like to greet all his Hindu friends a Happy Deepavali (or Diwali) – the festival of lights this year falls on a Saturday so there will be no holiday from work here in Singapore. However, for us in the company, there will be an additional off in lieu credit which will accrue into our leave balance. This could only mean more holidays for me… 😉

Happy Deepavali!!

One City Three Festivals

Each year here in Singapore, the cultural enclaves of Kampong Glam, Chinatown and Little India come alive in a festive mood to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Deepavali. Along with it are various performances, bright lights, street bazaars, free walking tours and culinary delights.

The Singapore Tourism Board has been promoting the One City Three Festival Event for the past two years already. This festival aimed to showcase the unique heritage of this small nation to both tourist and foreigners (such as me) who are living in Singapore.

As mentioned, free-guided walking tours in the three ethnic precincts have been prepared for everyone interested. This 45 minute tour is available daily from 18 Sep – 11 Oct (except 19 Sep and 3 Oct).  All you have to do is show up and register at the meeting place 10 minutes before the tour starts.

 

Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Kampong Glam

5:00pm 6:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm

Meeting place: Malay Heritage Center

 

Mid-Autumn Festival

Chinatown

4:30pm 5:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm

Meeting point: Chinatown Heritage Center

 

Deepavali Celebration

Little India

6:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:30pm

Meeting point: The Verge (formerly Tekka Mall)

 

If you are not available on the various schedules above, you can be able to do some exploration at your own pace by downloading the self-guided walking map HERE. 

If walking in not your cup of tea, the breezy open-top light-up bus ride is available for you to enjoy the festive lights and sounds in three places mentioned above. This hour long bus tour is available at just 5 SGD. Just like the walking tour above, this is available also from 18 Sep – 11 Oct (except 19 Sep and 3 Oct). The bus departs half-hourly at the Chinatown Heritage Center beginning from 7:30pm until 10:00pm.

I recommend these festive deals to all those tourists who will be coming over to Singapore and even those working here. It is fun, and most of all it doesn’t cost too much. Definitely in the next few week, I will be donning my tourist hat and will be taking advantage of these offers while they are still available. 😉

Experiencing the Singapore F1 Grand Prix

I have always been a fan of the Formula One Racing. I can still remember during my high school and college days, my dad and I would often save selected Sundays to watch an F1 Race live on television. During those days, as far as I can remember, the races rotated mainly on the rivalry between Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen.

The first Singapore Grand Prix to be part of the Formula One Championship happened in 2008, it was well received by fans around the world, as it was the only race to be held at night. The venue for this event was the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Sadly, I was not able to join the inaugural race last year.

Moving forward to the event this year, at first I did not have any interest at all in watching the race live as it was a bit costly to get good tickets. However, I said to myself, why not just experience watching even just the Friday night practice session with a walkabout ticket?

I got our tickets just some days ago at around four in the morning while I was on my way to the apartment from work. The driver of the Mercedes taxi and I were having small chats about the upcoming race and I briefly mentioned that I wanted to watch the event on Friday but I did not have the tickets yet. He offered me two single day walkabout tickets for 100 SGD (retails at 38 SGD per piece but as of that time, it was already sold out), I didn’t accept it at first and offered a much lower price. My haggling didn’t do wonder here as I only managed to shave 5% off his offer. Nonetheless, I got my ticket and decided to call an early weekend in order to watch the event.

Friday Walkabout Ticket

The 2009 version of this event promised to be even bigger from the first one with huge foreign acts such as Beyonce, The Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt, and among others taking part in the inaugural F1 Rocks concert taking place on September 24 to 26 at the Fort Canning Park. Inside the venue, there are several performances as well by notable names such as The Backstreet Boys, Chaka Khan and the Philippine’s very own Rivermaya Band.

Mr Whattaworld started very early for this event; I was already inside the Marina Bay Street Circuit at around 4:30 PM, very early considering the 1^st round of practice starts at 6:00 PM. At this time, they were holding a practice session as well for the Aston Martin Asia Cup. I just stayed for a few minutes within the racetrack and after that I roamed around and take a look at the various stalls inside the venue.

taken before entering Gate 3

There were various activities awaiting patrons inside; for those that are interested in purchasing F1 memorabilia, there are various booths all over the place selling original goods. I myself got a Felipe Massa Puma Ferrari T-Shirt. A bit pricey at 70 SGD but I liked the design and the color.

expensive memorabilia...

my most expensive shirt to date...

The various sponsors such as LG and SingTel had their very own booth inside. All of them had different tactics to lure the possible customers inside their booth. Singapore Tourism Board had its own booth their as well, a good move since there were a huge number of tourists coming in just for the night race who might be needing some assistance.

guess who I met...

Food were also available inside (albeit a very inflated price); a whole variety of cuisine can be ordered within with a portion of the street very near the Padang Field converted into an open air hawker like eatery.

sign to ensure you don't lose your way inside

The two-practice session started on schedule and lasted 90 minutes each; we were very lucky enough to get good spot wherein we were really very close to the racetrack. The only drawback though was we were standing the whole time. It started out dull at first with cars appearing one at a time. Good thing though that after a while, it became more interesting with several cars popping in successively. The sound of the car engine and gearbox was both very loud and very different. A friend of mine said that the joy of watching the race in more on being able to hear the deafening sound and from this experience, I could say that he was partially true.

excited for the 2nd round of practice

Although we got an excellent view of cars passing by, there was no way we could know what was happening from the other side of the racetrack apart from the two race announcers talking on the PA system. The roars of the car engine though always overpower their live narration. This was the reason why we were not aware that Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber crashed out of the practice session.

I tried to get some photos of the cars passing; unfortunately my camera has no match for the speed of drivers.

a Ferrari in action

this I believe is Brawn GP

i think that was a McLaren...

Overall, it was an evening well spent. I went back to the apartment partially deaf from the engine noise but was very satisfied. Finally, I was able to watch a Formula One Grand Prix Session live, such a truly marvelous experience. I am looking forward to the 2010 version in which I hope to get some grandstand tickets by then.

money well spent!

Swedish Meatballs for Lunch

A lot of my friends and relatives from all over the world have been raving about the delicious taste of the Swedish Meatballs served in the restaurant of IKEA stores. One Sunday afternoon, I decided to give this a try. 

There are two IKEA outlets here in Singapore; there is one in Tampines, more than an hour away from my apartment, and the store in Alexandra Road, which was just approximately less than 10 minutes away by bus. I decided to go to the outlet in Alexandra for obvious reasons as it was more convenient for me.

IKEA Store in Alexandra Road, Singapore

It was already lunchtime when I woke up that Sunday; I initially thought that my timing would be perfect, I would be arriving there at around 2 in the afternoon and the lunch crowd would have dispersed by then. Damn, I was wrong!! When we arrived, this is what I saw…

in Singapore, long queue means good food...

I decided to queue with the crowd, as we were already very hungry at that time. It took me 20 minutes before I was able to get my orders and another 5 minutes before I was able to pay for it. The set-up in this restaurant is like a cafeteria; you queue up, get your food and pay for it.

ordering food, cafeteria style...

The waiting was comparable to that time I tried eating Tian Tian Chicken Rice some weeks back. We ordered the 15-pcs Swedish Meatball (SGD 8.00) , 6-pcs Chicken Wings (SGD 7.50), a cup of Java Rice (SGD 2.00) and a refillable cup of cold drinks (SGD 1.50).

The meatballs were topped with gravy and were paired with French fries. It was supposed to be mashed potatoes but I asked the person serving if I can have fries instead as we are not fond of mashed potatoes. The dish also came with a small serving of lingonberry jam (honestly though, I don’t know how this would compliment with meatballs and mashed potatoes). It was a simple meal but it was a good one especially when paired with the java rice I ordered.

the world famous Swedish Meatballs

The chicken wings were still as good as how I have tasted it last year when I was still visiting as a tourist here in Singapore. Actually it tasted more or less the same as the ones they sell in Lau Pa Sat but the clincher for this dish is the size of the chicken wing – it was really Scandinavian size I should say. 🙂 Despite its size, the chicken wing still remains juicy and tender. I paired this with ketchup mixed with Tabasco sauce.

big crispy chicken wings

We were very full when we finished our food. As a result, in order to melt down what we have just eaten, we decided to stroll around and look at the wonderful displays inside IKEA.

sarap (delicious) to the bones!

An hour later, we decided to head out and go back to the city. I got a surprise that day when I saw that there was still a long queue in the restaurant counter, this time it was much longer than the one I queued in 90 minutes earlier. It probably just goes to show that the people here in Singapore do really love the food in IKEA. 😉

IKEA Alexandra

317 Alexandra Road

Singapore 159965

           

Pinoy Lah!

Any plans of visiting us here in Singapore soon? Look no further and check Pinoy Lah – a new online project by the Singapore Tourism Board, which was launched yesterday at the Podium Mall in Mandaluyong.

click here to visit the website!

Although this new website does not provide yet a very comprehensive list of what to do here in Singapore, the basic travel essentials as well as some travel stories should give every Filipinos an idea of what to expect in this small island state.

From a page in Pinoy Lah:

What’s LAH got to do with it?

You know how we use ‘Po’ and ‘Opo’ here in the Philippines? Well that’s how Singaporeans use their ‘LAH’. This is the most famous of Singaporean expressions used at the end of sentences for emphasis. “OKAY, lah” or “SORRY, lah” “Very funny, lah”

And yeah, if you register on the website and answer a very short online survey before the deadline on 16 October 2009 you might stand a chance to win one of the 12 MP3 players, which they are giving away. Click HERE for a chance to become one of the winners.

If you have further questions regarding Singapore that is not tackled in the above website, please feel free to direct it to me and I will try my best to answer it. 😉