Hello Everyone! I shall tell you more on the enriching and exciting trip we went on to learn about the Burmese, Thai and Filipino Enclave in Singapore.
First, we went to Sasanaramsi, a burmese buddhist temple in Singapore. There were two magnificient lions at the entrance of the temple. I do not remember much about it because i did not record a lot of things. When we entered the temple, there was a huge, magnificient buddha statue made of jade in the hall. Many people where kneeling in front of the buddha statue and praying silently. There was a monk sitting at the side of the hall and people were receiving blessings from him. I learnt from the tourist guide that the monk was sitting in a chair and the people were kneeling in front of him because the buddhists consider it disrespectful for their heads to be level with the monk's head.
When we went to the second level, there was also another buddha statue there and there was a portrait of the founder of the temple. We also learned about the development of the temple through the posters pasted on the wall. There was also this cute boy with a crew-cut hairstyle and the tourist guide warned us not to go and touch his hair as buddhists consider it disrespectful for somebody else to touch their hair.
After i visited the temple, I realised that buddhists are very disciplined people as even small children had become monks. To be a monk, the person must be very disciplined so that he can stick by his own principles.
Next, we went to Golden Mile Complex to learn about the culture of the Thai people. We visited this supermarket in the complex and there was not much difference between NTUC supermarket and the thai supermarket except for the things they sell. The thai supermarket mainly sells products from Thailand and even the labels are in thai. I think that it was a good idea to have the supermarket in the place because immigrants from Thailand who miss the food from Thailand can buy the necesssary ingridients in this supermarket and make the food themselves.
I think that building Golden Mile Complex was very thoughtful as it enables thai immigrants to mingle around with other thai people. It also enables to rekindle the nostalgic memoies of Thailand.
The next stop for the journey was Peninsular plaza, where we learnt about the culture of the myanmar people. The shops there were really interesting and we learnt a lot about their culture. First we went to a shop where the cashier showed us around. We were amazed at the handmade purses and wallets and the cashier told us that the myanmar people were specially talented in handicrafts. He also showed us the unique vegetables on sale and showed us how the myanmar people eat betel leaves- first they rub calcium hydroxide on the betel leaves and eat it together with areca nuts. This is also a common practice among the indians. We also viewed the pretty traditonal dress and slippers of the myanmar people.
The final stop of the journey was Lucky plaza. We learnt a lot of about Filipino culture there. We got a view of the traditinal dresses of the filippinos and we also got to see some of the filippino food as there were lots of restaurants in the plaza.
In all, the trip was a fun and enriching experience for us and it also helped us to learn about the various cultures in Singapore!
