Singapore 6 Nov -11

6 November -11                The day of spiritual and religious enlightenment

On my last day in Singapore, I had the great fortune to once again have the pleasure of Elizabeth's company. :) She took me to 3 different Buddhist temples, and told me a lot about them and the religion.
While we were walking around admiring the beautiful interior of the first temple, Liz also thought me how to count to 10 in Chinese :)
After visiting yet another temple, we met up with Elizabeth's friend, an extremely nice German, and headed to Chinatown Hawker Centre for a meal before our last temple visit. And I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to Elizabeth for helping me out to try something else than fried rice with chicken (which I probably would have ordered) :P
Liz, if you read this, I'd really appritiate if you wrote a comment with the names of the food that we tried (if you remember) including that funny drink of yours ;)

Buddha statue

Entering our last temple.

There was a lot of people, but it didn't bother me. Once again thanks to Liz, instead of just touristy poking my head in, feel awkward and then keep going, I got a genuine experience. I got shown how to pray using joss sticks (incense sticks), and even got my fortune told.

By taking a container filled with bamboo sticks, asking a question, a prayer or a wish, then shaking it until one stick separated from the rest (it really did!), you got your answer. After that you gave the god/gods a chance to change their minds by asking if this is their answer, throwing the to red half moon shaped things, getting a yes/no/not sure answer. If it was no or not sure, you put your stick back in repeating the whole thing until you got a yes. When returning the sticks you got a note with your fortune (that matched the symbol on the stick that fell out), that you upon exiting the building burned in a small fire.

Me and Liz

Buddhist Fortune Sticks

The whole thing was just an amazing experience.

I really felt I had made the most of my day, and of my whole stay in Singapore, when I got back to the hotel, got my luggage and headed for the airport. :)