Vesak Day is celebrated by Buddhists in a variety of forms and on slightly different dates across SE Asia and beyond.  It is the celebration of the birth, enlightenment, and death of Guatama Buddha.  The dates are based on the different Asian calendars and it is usually celebrated in related to the full moon.  Wikipedia has a nice summary of Vesak Day.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak 

There are some basic aspects of Vesak Day that I really admire such as bringing happiness to others, especially children, the elderly, and handicapped.   Worshippers plan a trip to the temple that day to buy incense, pray and offer flowers in worship.  Traditionally animals have been let free on this holiday in a symbolic act of liberation.  This is to signify the liberation of those in captivity against their will.  Singapore had a government announcement to encourage people to let bugs go as a gesture instead of any other animals.  Vesak is also a day where many Buddhists will eat a totally vegetarian diet.

I really like this description of how to celebrate Vesak Day and pay homage to Buddha from Wikipedia:
 " Tradition ascribes to the Buddha himself instruction on how to pay him homage. Just before he died, he saw his faithful attendant Ananda, weeping. The Buddha advised him not to weep, but to understand the universal law that all compounded things (including even his own body) must disintegrate. He advised everyone not to cry over the disintegration of the physical body but to regard his teachings (The Dhamma) as their teacher from then on, because only the Dhamma truth is eternal and not subject to the law of change. He also stressed that the way to pay homage to him was not merely by offering flowers, incense, and lights, but by truly and sincerely striving to follow his teachings. This is how Buddhists are expected to celebrate Vesak: to use the opportunity to reiterate their determination to lead noble lives, to develop their minds, to practise loving-kindness and to bring peace and harmony to humanity."

Living in Singapore has truly been an adventure.  This weekend Corey came over from Phuket to hang out with me.  We rode the MRT to a local attraction we've been wanting to explore- Haw Par Villa.  
This interesting (and slightly weird) place was originally known as the Tiger Balm Gardens as it was the brainchild of Aw Boon Haw, the creator of the medicinal salve Tiger Balm.  
Aw Boon Haw originally built a villa on the property overlooking the sea for his brother and business partner.  Over time the brothers developed the Gardens, a Chinese mythology theme park.   It is a wonderful parcel of land landscaped very attractively, but also packed full of well over 1000 statues and dioramas that depict a variety of Chinese myths, primarily with a focus on the merits of Chinese values.  This is by far one of the strangest things I've seen in my travels.   The entire place was fascinating!

Although the actual villa that was built in 1937 is no longer standing, the old garage that housed the brother's cars remains.  By the Chinese horoscope I am a tiger and this car is my idea of a sweet ride.

One of the most intense sections of this quirky park is the Ten Courts of Hell.   It is a walk through, built like a cave filled with dioramas depicting the punishments awaiting sinners when they land in hell.  Quite sobering!
The last scene reveals that hope should prevail as when you are completed with your torture and punishment you do get to come out the other side and be reborn.  A spin of the wheel and your past life determines if you come back as an animal or human and in what circumstance.  Here is a slide show of some of the dioramas and more.

On our way home from the Gardens we stopped by Chinatown and visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  The monks were doing prayers at one of the external doorways and we stayed to listen for a few minutes as the sounds are always enchanting.

We also ended up the day with some chow at the Maxwell Hawker Centre.
Corey had not yet been to this famous locale.  For those of you unfamiliar with eating in Singapore, the best places to eat are often in a place called a Hawker Centre.  These are huge covered buildings with open sides, filled with booths that are basically mini take-away restaurants.  There are groups of tables in between rows and rows of booths.  These places are ideal for trying new things as you can buy individual dishes from a variety of stalls.  A dish usually runs between $3-6 dollars!  One of my favorite things to drink in Singapore is the fresh lime juice that is sold at these stalls but often a beer just hits the spot.  


Corey has just taken off back to Phuket,  I will be seeing him again in a few days as I fly his direction again soon.  Stay tuned for more adventures.  I head back to the Philippines soon and then off to mainland China.  

So, I do keep a fairly regular blog on this site.  It's primary purpose is to keep family and friends up to date on our wanderings.  As a somewhat regular "tweeter" I ran across a contest for amateur photographers and figure, why not?  
The mission is to create a blog with photos that fall under these categories...  
Let's see what Black's thinks of my examples of Wild, Fast, Panoramic, and Epic:

WILD!

FAST!

PANORAMIC! 
This was taken from a beach in the Similan Islands, Thailand.  We were on a live aboard dive boat over Christmas.  
A gorgeous place, where even mermaids may be spotted...

As you may have noticed from the last post I got to spend a few days with Corey in Thailand.  We had a ball!  The Songkran Festival was just amazing.  While I was there we had a chance to go aboard the USS Hopper.  It is a missile defense ship for the US Navy.  Corey is a member of the Navy League in Phuket and if a ship is in town he often gets an offer to go aboard.  Luckily this time we both got the grand tour with about 10 other expats and locals.  It was really interesting.  I have been on an aircraft carrier but never a boat with as much fire power as this one for it's size.  Here are a few more pictures.  

Here is one very silly selfie from my 2 week trip to Oz.   Just before landing back in Thailand I had the opportunity to visit Australia one last time for CareFusion.  I spent 2 weeks in Sydney providing training to newbies and also my replacement.  On the weekend between training weeks I took a quick trip to Redcliffe to hang with some of our pals in Queensland.
My time in Australia went by way to quickly but truly reminded me how much I enjoyed living there and all the lovely friends I have made. 
Sending much love to Oz always!!!  

After spending time with Corey, I looped back quickly to Singapore to pack my bags and flew off to Manila, Philippines.  This was my very first trip to this lovely nation of over 7000 islands.  So far it looks like it won't be my last.  
My week zipped by as it was full of work and not a lot of play.  The one thing we did, thanks to my hosts, was eat a plethora of Filipino food (and sit in traffic).  The food is amazing!  Very different, a blend of as many nations as have influenced the region.  Some dishes were very Spanish, some Asian, and some reminded me of Fiji.  Lots of meat and a tasty local beer called San Miguel to wash it all down.
Did I mention that it is HOT in the Philippines?  And I thought Singapore and Thailand were broiling.  Manila brings it to a new level.   The traffic rivals some of the worst I've seen...  but the people are kind, generous, and extremely friendly.   I was called Ma'am constantly and although I still wish it were "Miss" it is very lovely.  
I didn't have time to explore but these few pics are from cab rides where I was greatly entertained by the local modes of transport.  Jeepneys are big bus-like vehicles made by a company called Sorel (sp?)  They are as individual as their owners and I could spend all day looking at them.  Tricycles are basically motorbikes with side cars.  They are unique in that they have a structure around the sidecar that makes them even more functional.  Up to 10 people have been seen draped all over a tricycle but the usual load is between 4-6. 
I look forward to returning to the Philippines and hopefully Corey and I will squeeze in some diving there as well.

Yep, it's Bruce Lee on the Promenade in Hong Kong.  My last stop on a whirlwind work trip.  I do love that city!  It is just so busy and colorful both day and night, I could walk for hours.  
Most of my time again was spent working but I did have some wonderful meals with work hosts.  One night we went to an amazing Chinese dinner and the next day for lunch they took to me to a famous cafe.  It is called Tsui Wah and there are a few all over the city.  It reminds me of a US style diner but of course the food is Chinese although the menu is quite varied with even some sandwiches and more.  
One day I had some down time and had been eating too much so I took a very long walk.  For some reason I really can't get lost in Hong Kong, it's a pretty logical city for walking and is quite safe.  Some of my pics are from this walk.
One night on my own I went to a very local style eatery.  I had a big plate of clams and another big plate of broccoli.  I was in heaven as of course I washed it down with a big Tiger beer!