As you know from previous posts I recently went on a month long trek through south east Asia. Before I left on my trip I was a bit nervous about all the things going wrong on an extended trip such as that - especially since I was a female traveling alone. However, once I started my adventure and got into traveling mode all my worries melted away and I had a great time. There were definitely a few highlights to the trip and I'll write a post about them after I upload a few photos from each country I visited. It probably will take some time to get everything uploaded and posted but I'll try to do it sooner rather than later so I can also post a few entries about life in Korea.

Below are a few photos and experiences from my first stop - the city/state of Singapore.

Singapore has the distinction of being the first English-speaking country I've ever visited outside of the USA. I'm fortunate to speak the language that is the current international language of business and travelers so traipsing around foreign countries is a bit easier for me than say, the Russian family I met in Laos with limited English. However, I guess I've just grown accustomed to some of the communication issues when traveling abroad because it took me awhile in Singapore to realize it was so easy to get around. Signs are in English (with Chinese, Malay and Tamil translations) as were menus and nearly everyone I encountered spoke English fluently. I think I'll definitely have to add a few more English speaking countries to my travel itinerary for the future because it was wonderful to be able to communicate easily and effectively.

I only spent a day and a half in Singapore because the country is incredibly small (it's a city-state) but very expensive in comparison to the rest of south east Asia. I focused most of my time there on two areas of interest - flowers and Indian culture. I spent most of Sunday exploring the beautiful Botanic Gardens and later on in the vibrant Little India neighborhood.

Located in the city sits the 183 acre Botanic Gardens. The gardens offer refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city enticing visitors with its lush grassy lawns, quiet lakes and intriguing public art. For me the highlight of the gardens was the orchid garden - a small section of the larger gardens which boasts a variety of brightly colored orchids.

I spent a couple of hours in the garden Sunday morning and relished  not only the beautiful flora but also seeing the locals enjoy and take advantage of all the garden has to offer - something that reminded me of Chicagoans and the lakefront.

Singapore is a diverse country with a population made up mostly of Chinese, Malay and Indians. One of the reasons I wanted to visit Singapore was because of it's large Indian population. My research was on diasporic Hindu traditions in the United States and I was curious to see how Hinduism was praticed in other countries. Unlike in the United States where the majority of Asian Indians are  highly educated relatively recent immigrants who are employed in professional jobs the Indian community in Singapore dates back over a hundred years and inhabits a variety of socio-economic roles. Though I was there only for a day and a half I managed to visit 3 different temples and observed that Hinduism in Singapore was practiced much more closely to its Vedic roots than it is in the USA.

I spent part of Sunday in Little India - enjoying some really tasty food, peeking in to shops and visiting temples. The neighborhood was almost exclusively Indian and the smells and sounds were reminiscent of India which I traveled to last year.

Of the three temples I visited Singapore's oldest temple, the Sri Mariamman Temple, isn't located in Little India but instead on the periphery of Chinatown. I visited this temple multiple times during my short visit to Singapore because of it's close location to my hostel. I was able to observe the priests conducting a daily ritual in addition to people worshiping at the temple. The experience gave me a different perspective on diasporic Hinduism which is useful for my own research.

For a small fee you can take pictures throughout the temple which was elaborately decorated with statues of animals and gods. The temple is unlike something most people in the U.S. have seen so I wanted to share a few photos.

After a month of travel I'm back in Korea. I wasn't able to update my blog while I was in Laos and Cambodia so I've posted a few photos below (one from each city I visited) to tide you over until I'm able to post entries about my trip. I might be able to do it this weekend since it's Lunar New Year, a national holiday in Korea and therefore I have 4 days off ... however, I might also want to just relax and enjoy a few days of not having anywhere to do or anything to do.