Needles Through Flesh: Singapore Thaipusam
Don’t worry, I’ll get to the needle part…
To continue what I was writing in the last post– we had a local fruits night, where we tried jackfruit, pomelo, mangosteen and the famous durian. I thought it was so awesome to try new things. The mangosteen was the best and looks like this: this. To open it, you have to hold in between the …what is that called… the lower part of your palms, and you squeeze firmly and it pops open. Inside is a white fruit that is shaped like garlic but tastes very nice!
Yesterday we went to Orchard Road, which is a main shopping area. We also went to the Embassy to try to sort out my credit card issue since my wallet was lost. We walked all stinking day and my feet were killing me. Later I found two nice big ripe blisters. Want to see that again? RIPE BLISTERS. Yum!
So last night was the Thaipusam festival. It was …..WOW. In a word: overwhelming. Thaipusan is a Hindu festival where people stick needles and skewers through their skin. READ ON!
So last night many people from the hostel got together and walked down to the festival around 10:30 pm. There were tons of people and it was hard to get in. We went through a gate and they told us to take our shoes off!! I almost wanted to go home. So I took off my sneakers and socks and walked on the gravel, grass, and sand like the hundreds and hundreds of others. If I don’t get warts or some kind of foot disease, it is a miracle.
So we get in and the air is THICK with incense and smoke, and people are everywhere sitting on the ground burning incense sticks stuck into bananas and doing all sorts of ritualistic things with fruits and milk and cloth and whatnot. Some people doused themselves with water and had paint on their face. People were yelling and clapping and chanting. We could see the “Kavadi,” which are these big metal cage-looking things that the participants have strapped onto them. We walked around barefoot in watery dirty grossness, air full of smoke, people yelling and crowded, the most humid and hot atmosphere ever.
Then we saw Puck from the Real World. (“Did you see anyone stick shit through their head yet?”) It really looked and sounded like Puck, and we are still undecided if it was him or not.
So we made our way around and saw some men jumping around crazily. Also saw men and women with needles through their tongues and cheeks and tiny ones between the eyebrows. You could look around and see crowds forming around a few people, and we were trying hard to figure out if they were piercing yet or not.
The actual procession didn’t start until late in the night, but it goes through the next day.
After being there a long time, and since I was getting dizzy from the air, and realizing that the procession wouldn’t start for hours, we tried to exit. EASIER SAID THAN DONE. We had to push and fight our way through and finally we got out. It was crazy and intense and so hard to believe we were there.
In this picture are women with vases of milk on their heads. Unfortunately, I don’t know the significance of this…but there was milk everywhere, being poured into containers and on people.
The streets were lined with some people waiting for the procession. We went back to the hostel and passed out. Then, early today we went back out and got to see the men wearing the actual Kavadi on their bodies. They were spinning around and chanting as they apparently had been doing ALL night!
Singapore as a whole has been great, aside from the heat. It is SO efficient and safe. The subway is AWESOME and an idiot could figure it out. It is amazing how clean the city is as well. I have seen two cockroaches though–a huge one scurrying across the street and a little one that decided to run across a map in the subway right as I pointed at it.
Tags: Singapore
Kelly
sounds amazing so far… where are you able to get access to the net? at the hostel?
that is probably the nerdiest question to ask when someone else is on vacation.. haha
Wow! Kelly you have already had some fascinating experiences!! I am sorry about your wallet. That really blows. The fruit you had in Little India sounds yummy. Although I enjoyed reading about it, I have decided no needles for me!! Make sure you are taking lots of pictures because I want to see everything when you get back!
Agreed–Kelly, what amazing experiences. I would be walking around open-mouthed and slack-jawed. Amazing. The pictures will be amazing, I’m sure. Keep enjoying yourself! And keep us updated!
Awww, sorry to hear about the blisters… *I’ve got some good stuff to put on blisters… – I hope you do too!?!*
As we wait for yous guys’ pictures, here’s a Swedish clip about the crazy Asian needle piercers (from Malaysia) *it’s too bad the video doesn’t show how the guy hangs in those hooks he’s got in his back…*:
http://wwwb.aftonbladet.se/vss/streaming/tv_fonster/0,5208,m0ny040205thai,00.html
(the highest quality video you can choose is 380k – the 500k & 600k versions cost money)
/Carl
jenny-yes, I use the net at the hostel.
Hi everyone and thanks for posting!! yay!! Hopefully I will have more time in Bangkok (cheaper internet access) to post some pics.
hey… Thaipusam was intense wasnt it? I was at the Batu caves outside of Kuala Lumpur. I dont think I could have done it even if they do claim that the devotees feel no pain, dont bleed much, and arent scarred. still… giant skewers. EEEK!