Happy Halloween

Today we celebrated Halloween in my M2 Listening and Speaking class. Yesterday, Aj. Ryan, Aj. Kate (the new and so far very good replacement teacher), and I went out to buy candy for our class. We teach the same subject, but different groups of students at the same time.

I wrote in the last post about how we want to teach more of a culture class. The students already know a lot about Halloween from American television and movies, but we taught them more about its history and celebrations.

Except for the few who have lived in the United States, our students had never been trick or treating before. Today in class we told them that they were going to get to go trick or treating, but of course you can't get any candy without a costume! We brought paper that the students could use to make masks, then turned them out into the school. Each student had to visit the other American teachers at Mathayom. They had to show their masks, say "trick or treat" and answer a question about the Halloween lesson to get their candy.

two students answering a question for candy 

This was the first week that we've gone completely off book, and at first we were a little nervous about completely scrapping the textbook and writing our own original lessons. Although I chose the textbook for this year, I'll admit that it turned out to be quite boring. This week went very smoothly! So far it seems that the students are enjoying the new structure of the class, and it's much more fun for the teachers as well. You have no idea how boring it is having to listen to the same audio tracks for three hours in a row! This is much, much better.

Mae Nak Phra Khanong: A Thai Ghost Story for Halloween

The course material for my M2 Main class is too easy for my students. I'm given the top students to teach, and I even have several native English speakers in my class. We can cover the unit material very quickly in a few periods, so I often have to come up with extra exercises to do. This week, in the spirit of Halloween, I asked my students to get in groups and write a ghost story to tell me. In exchange, I would tell them an American ghost story the next class (I told the story of the Winchester Mystery House). Most, if not all of my students are terrified of ghosts, so some of them had their own "encounters" to write about. Several groups however wrote different versions of the same story - possibly Thailand's most famous ghost story. Intrigued, I looked into this story to learn more about it. I decided to recount this story as a special Halloween post. This is the legend of Mae Nak Phra Khanong (Lady Nak of Phra Khanong):

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During the reign of King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the mid 19th century, there lived a beautiful woman named Nak who lived in Phra Khanong district of Bangkok with her husband Mak, whom she very much loved. The young couple was overjoyed to learn that Nak was pregnant with their child, but their joy was short-lived. Mak was called to war leaving his wife alone. Sadly, both Nak and the baby died during childbirth.

Mak was seriously wounded in the war and kept away from home for a long time while he was nursed back to health. When he returned to Bangkok, he was overjoyed to be reunited with his wife and daughter, unaware that they were both ghosts.

The family lived together happily for some time. One night while preparing dinner, Nak dropped a lime which rolled under the porch of their wooden house. She carelessly reached out to retrieve it, passing her hand directly through the floorboards. Mak noticed this and became terrified. He fled his home, pursued by the ghost of his wife.

Mak ran to Wat Mahabut temple, where the ghost, being unable to cross over holy ground, could not follow. The distressed Mak consulted the abbot of the temple, a powerful exorcist who agreed to brave Nak who in her grief had begun terrorizing the local people.

The monk trapped the ghost in a clay jar, and threw it into the Chao Phraya River. This didn't hold the angry spirit for long however. The jar was soon discovered by a pair of fishermen who unwittingly release her back into Bangkok. The venerable and wise monk Phra Somdej Toh was called to confront Nak's vengeful ghost. He captured her and bound her spirit to a holy waistband. The monk spoke to Nak and assured her that she and her beloved husband would be together for eternity in the afterlife. Upon hearing this, Nak voluntarily departed the mortal realm.

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The waistband was passed down through the years, eventually coming to Prince Chumphon. The legend says that the holy waistband is now in the possession of the Royal Family. There is now a temple in Bangkok honoring Mae Nak. 

This story is a very well-known one in Thailand. Everyone loves a good ghost story, and the Thais are no exception! In fact, Thailand is famous for its ghost stories. This one is especially popular because many people are inspired by Nak's (literally) undying love for her husband.

Melaka

I arrived in Melaka on a nearly empty bus from Singapore just before noon. I had left early in the morning, and the bus had made good time, arriving at my destination in Malaysia within four hours.

Melaka

Melaka (Malacca) has a really interesting history. The city has a European feel due to its years as a colony of Portugal, the Netherlands, and Britain in succession. I dropped my bags at my hotel and walked out to the Melaka riverwalk. Melaka isn't a huge city, and all of the historical and cultural sites are more or less within walking distance.

lots of Malaysian flags on display -  I later found out that it had recently been a holiday

The first place I visited was the Church of St. Francis Xavier. This Gothic church was built to commemorate the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) who spent quite a bit of time in Melaka. The namesake of Pope Francis is called the "Apostle of the East".

Church of St. Francis

The church holds services in many languages, including Portuguese and English. It was very quiet inside the sanctuary, although there were a few people inside praying. I was careful to be quiet as to not disturb them while I looked around.

Leaving the church, the nearby Dutch colonial buildings are easily recognizable; they are all painted red! The most famous buildings from Dutch rule are the Stadthuys (the old administrative building) and Christ Church.

Christ Church was originally constructed as a Dutch Reform church after the Dutch seized control of Melaka from the Portuguese. It was re-consecrated as an Anglican church when the British arrived in 1835, which it remains to this day.

Neither the Church of St. Francis Xavier nor Christ Church however are the most important church in town. That honor goes to, despite being a ruin, the Church of Saint Paul. Built in 1521, St. Paul's served as the home base for St. Francis Xavier himself as he undertook his missions across Asia. St. Francis was buried at the church after his death in 1552 before being moved to Goa, India. At this time, the bones of St. Francis' right hand were removed for the creation of a relic.

The church was briefly used as the Dutch Reform High Church until the construction of Christ Church, when it was subsequently abandoned. The British used the ruins as a powder magazine for a while, but the old building generally was left to deteriorate.

Now a historical site, a statue of St. Francis was constructed in 1952 at the church. Interestingly, the day after its unveiling, a tree fell on the statue breaking off his right hand - the same hand which was removed from the body of the real St. Francis.

St. Francis Xavier

The church is just a shell now. The roof of the sanctuary is gone, but the old Dutch graveyard has been kept up. There are lots of interesting old gravestones to look at. I visited the church around dusk. The old graveyard was a little spooky.

Things seemed to close early in Melaka. I got some rest and an early start the next morning. I first visited the Independence Monument, a free museum detailing Malaysia's independence and unification. Malaysia is a federation made up of thirteen states or sultanates and ruled by a king elected from among the Malaysian sultans. The sultanates are ruled by hereditary sultans, and the states, where the monarchy was abolished by the colonial rulers, have governors. Modern Malaysia was formed in 1963 after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. Singapore was very briefly a constituent territory of Malaysia, but was quickly expelled. The Sultanate of Brunei was invited, but declined to join. It is currently a sovereign country on the island of Borneo.

Independence Monument

Next I went to the Sultan's Palace. The original palace was destroyed in a fire, but has been rebuilt following the original design. It is currently a museum about the history of the sultanate.

Sultan's Palace

Before I left Melaka on the afternoon bus back to Singapore, I visited Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (Temple of the Green Cloud). Founded in 1645 to serve the spiritual needs of merchant-traders from China, Cheng Hoon Teng is Malaysia's oldest temple. Worshipers can practice the "Three Doctrinal System" of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

The mostly open-air temple is incredibly ornate. Although Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, there is a significant Buddhist population as well. I found that like Singapore, Malaysia is a religiously diverse country.

After the incident in Indonesia, I had the foresight to book my return ticket to Singapore in advance. There was no need for me to worry though. The bus back to Singapore only had four passengers! I got back to Singapore just after dark with a few days ahead of me to finish thoroughly exploring the top sites of the tiny country. Melaka is a quiet little town packed with history. I feel like two days was plenty of time to explore, but there were several museums that I didn't get the chance to visit. It was a different change of pace from Singapore, and I really liked Melaka's atmosphere.

Singapore's Little India and Arab Quarter

My hotel in Singapore had a great location- centrally located, just a minute or so walk from the MRT, and only a short subway ride to many major tourist attractions. I was in Singapore's most colorful neighborhood: Little India.

Little India is one of the original districts planned out by Sir Stamford Raffles. During the early days of Singapore, hundreds of laborers were brought from the prisons of the British Raj. The laborers originally brought over were usually small-time criminals. In Singapore, they enjoyed a large degree of freedom, usually assigned as a team to a task and were not required to check in very frequently.  For the most part, they eventually served their time and decided to say on in Singapore. Today, the Indian population is an important demographic in Singapore.

Little India is epitomized by its colorful shops and the entire neighborhood is painted in a rainbow of bright colors. I explored the district a bit and stopped to check out some Hindu temples.

Ganesh seems to be a very popular god. I saw several of these shrines around Little India, mostly at shops or markets. Additionally, he's very popular in Thailand. 

Ganesh

I took some time to wander through the alley markets that sold colorful trinkets. From some signs posted around, I learned that this special Diwali street market was set up for the weeks leading up to the festival.

When I was in Singapore the Indian community was getting ready for Diwali (Deepvali), the Hindu Festival of Lights. The streets in Little India had been decorated with bright LED displays which made the area glow neon. Though it was still a few weeks until Diwali, there was a feeling of excitement around the neighborhood.

On my way back home to my hotel after diner one evening, the sound of some drums and a brassy horn caught my attention. There was some sort of procession going on at one of the temples, and a group of men were carrying a deity atop their shoulders and dancing back, forward, and side to side in unison.

I didn't know what they were celebrating, but these two guys seemed to be in charge:

Kampang Glam, the Arab Quarter is not too far from Little India. The main attraction in my opinion is the area's most impressive landmark, the Masjid Sultan.

Masjid Sultan

Built in 1928, the Sultan Mosque is now recognized as a national landmark and a symbol of Singapore's Muslim community. I had no idea how diverse of a country Singapore is. Parts of it feel very Western, while some areas of Singapore just blocks away feel like a different place and time altogether.

Changi and Eastern Singapore

February 8, 1942: Nobody expected the Japanese to attack from Malaysia. The British military commanders never expected Singapore to fall under attack at all. While the Second World War was picking up in Europe and Africa, Singapore became legendary for the parties that went on in spite of the war. It seemed so far away.

But the Japanese did attack. The British military was prepared to defend from the sea, but when the much smaller Japanese army that attacked Singapore came overland from the north, they quickly overwhelmed Singapore resulting in the largest British surrender in history.

The Japanese quickly rounded up the educated and wealthy Chinese and systematically executed them on Changi Beach. The colonial administrators and Allied forces were carted off to eastern Singapore to the notorious Changi Prison.

Changi Beach

I took the bus out to Eastern Singapore to visit Changi Prison. It took quite a long time to get there, and at first I missed it and ended up in Changi Village, a sleepy little seaside village that felt very different from the rest of Singapore. I ate lunch and got back on the bus to the prison .

Changi Chapel

The Changi Prison Museum was unlike other museums I've been to. The exhibits were made up of personal accounts of the Allied POW's who were held there, and admission to the museum came with an audio guide of the actual POW's telling their stories, decades later. The museum recounted what it was like in the days leading up to the Fall of Singapore, during the Japanese occupation, life at the prison, and during the Japanese surrender to the British forces at the end of the war.

While most of the prisoners were British or Australian, there were a number of American soldiers held at the prison as well. Life at the prison was hard. The Imperial Japanese Army was not known for treating their prisoners well, and hundreds died of disease and malnutrition. They were allowed some freedoms though. The POW's were allowed to paint murals at their prison chapel. One of the chapel murals was especially moving, given the cruelty of the Japanese guards who were just obeying orders from their superiors.

Pulau Senggarang

After spending several hours on Pulau Penyengat, I left for the main island, Pulau Bintan. I only planned on staying in Indonesia for one day, and I wasn't ready to head back to Singapore yet. There was another island I had heard about called Senggarang. To get there I had to take another little wooden boat, but this time I was the only passenger! I paid a boatman to take me to the island and wait for me while I explored.

Pulau Senggarang is completely different from Pulau Penyengat. The docks at this island are located at Chinatown, a really colorful neighborhood built on stilts over the water. As I walked along the quiet and nearly empty boardwalks, I looked into the open red-painted houses. Nearly all of them had some sort of family or Taoist shrine in the front room. There are two main attractions of interest on this island. The first is Vihara Dharma Sansa, a nearly 300 year-old Buddhist temple.

I was amazed by the lack of people and how quiet it was on this island. It was so different from the crowds and noise of the main island, Bintan.

A short walk up a hill brought me to the temple's main Buddha image.

The other attraction on the island is the Banyan Tree Temple. In the main village on Senggarang, there is an old house that once belonged to a Chinese man who lived there in the early 19th century. The house isn't particularly special, except for the banyan tree which has grown over it.

Banyan trees are sacred in Buddhism, and sometime in the last two hundred years, the little house came to be seen as a sacred spot. It now houses a small shrine.

It was late afternoon, and I was about ready to head back to Singapore. I took one last walk along the boardwalks of the little seaside village to where my boatman was waiting for me.

the village on stilts

my boatman preparing to leave

I took my ticket to the ferry terminal to board the 4:30 boat back to Singapore. When I tried to board my boat however, I was informed that the ticket wasn't good for several weeks and that I should have pre-arranged a boarding pass. Then they told me that the boat was completely full and that there was no room for me. It was getting late, and I started to panic. I didn't want to get stranded in Indonesia overnight. First I went to the office of my original ferry company. They were unhelpful. At this point I was approached by an Indonesian ticket scalper named Eddie who would both completely irritate me and ultimately save me.

He took me to another ticket office to get a boarding pass at the normal price for 6:00 on the last boat of the day. I ended up selling my old ticket to him for a quarter of the original price, but at least I would be able to leave. He offered to take me around the island for some shopping, but I was in no mood for that. I was mad about having to pay for two tickets to get home. I went through customs and hung out at the port's duty free shop as I enjoyed a cold drink and some cookies on a harbor-front balcony. 

Sindo 6 to my rescue

After a stressful afternoon I enjoyed the chance to relax. Ultimately my Indonesian adventure was a good one, and if not for the ticket issue I wouldn't have had any problems at all. As I watched the sun set over the Straits of Singapore I thought about how I had almost not come to Indonesia, and how it turned out to be a good experience for me. Exhausted, I returned to Singapore after dark and slept very well that night.

goodbye, Indonesia

Pulau Penyengat

I awoke early and took the city bus to Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, where I bought a ticket on the earliest boat. Two hours later I exited Indonesian customs and arrived with a 7-day special economic tourist visa in Pulau Bintan, a dirty and noisy island city where I was immediately accosted by a cacophony of guides, money changers, and dozens of other locals trying to separate us tourists from their money. Many Singaporeans come to Bintan to shop or relax at the luxury resorts in the north of the island, but I wasn't here for that. After a short visit for some advice and a good free map at the very helpful tourist office, I quickly left the town of Tanjung Pinang on a 15-minute wooden "bum boat" ride to the much smaller, quieter, and nicer Pulau Penyengat Island.

The island is very small- small enough to cover on foot in a few hours. Walking around, I immediately caught the attention of the locals. As I stepped off the rickety wooden boat onto the dock and consulted my map, a family approached me. They didn't speak any English, but through gesturing they told me that they wanted to take a photo of me. I asked to take one with them too. I thought this was pretty cool, but it would get a little tiring after the seven or so times this happened to me!

new friends in Indonesia

The first place I visited was the palace of Raja Ali. While technically a royal residence, the house itself was quite small. The exterior seemed to be freshly painted, but the inside was completely empty.

Further down the road I stopped to visit the old customs house, now just an empty wooden building built in a traditional Indonesian style. There were some families picnicking inside. Without saying anything, one family offered me, a total stranger, a can of lychee soda. It was a hot day, and their kindness and generosity was very appreciated. Outside I had to smile for many more photos, and was feeling like a local celebrity. Finally, one guy spoke English. He told me that western visitors were incredibly rare on the island.

Since Penyengat seems to receive very few visitors, the ruined castle of the sultan king is just completely open to explore. There's no guide, entrance fee, or anything. The island has been petitioning to get its sites listed for UNESCO World Heritage sites, but for now it's really cool because you can climb all over the ruins and explore them on your own.

I stopped in for a garlic chicken lunch at a beachfront restaurant. While I was eating, the local police chief drove up on his motorbike to say "hi" and offer me a cigarette, which I politely refused. He stopped to chat for a few minutes, but didn't know much English. Word of my arrival was really getting around!

As I walked around the island, kids kept running up to say "hello" then running off again, proud to have spoken English with a foreigner. Soon, people were even greeting me by name "hello, Michael," which was pretty cool! Everyone knew who I was. This really surprised me actually, because the tourist office I had visited earlier had directed me towards this island and given me a map of all the sites to visit. I would have thought that lots of western visitors had come here, but it seems they mostly go to Bintan Resorts to relax on the beach, go shopping, or visit the luxury spas.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. When you arrive or depart from Penyengat Island, the first and last site you see just off the dock is the giant colorful mosque, Masjid Raya Sultan Riao.

I was wearing shorts, so it wouldn't have been appropriate for me to go inside, but I walked around the outside as the midday salat (call to prayer) sounded.

I left the island feeling like a local celebrity. It was a really strange experience, although definitely a positive one. To be honest, I really hesitated about taking a day to visit Indonesia. It got a one-page mention in the "day trips" section of my Singapore guidebook. When I researched online lots of forums advised against going to Bintan, saying it's a waste of time and money unless you plan on just staying at the beach. If I'm being honest, I kind of just wanted to check another country off of the "Where I've Been" map, but the trip turned into much more than just visa collecting. 

It turns out that Indonesia is a very welcoming and friendly place. At least in Penyengat, the people are some of the friendliest people I've ever met. I was a complete stranger on their island for just a few hours and the locals made me feel completely welcome and comfortable. This was one of the coolest and most unexpected experiences that I've had abroad.