Asian women and The Peranakan Museum

People who know me well will laugh about this entry, since I'm not exactly known for being big on museums. I really want to like it, but in most cases I get bored out of my mind. My parents tried a lot with both my sister and me, but the only thing that really stuck was The Museum of Natural History and The Maritime Museum, both situated in Gothenburg. In addition, not that the quality of any of the two is in any way low, but I'm guessing that the reason they became favorites was most likely linked to the quantity of the visits. Sometimes I swear I thought of the aquarium of The Maritime Museum as part of our personal living room. I even remember the rather cunning name of their alligator: Smiley or 'Smilet' as he was called by the locals i. e. 'The Smile'. Hence, if we ever get a pet gator, that's what I'll call her.

Anyways, as a grown up I've really tried educating myself with various exhibitions at The Tate, Musee Du Louvre and Casa Museum Gaudi along with Fundacio Joan Miro, Museu Picasso de Barcelona and Mori Art Museum to mention a few. Most of it is tragically lost on me. The only time I seem to appreciate art is when it's either gritty (stuff like Goya's 'Saturn Devouring His Son' or even Carl Larsson's 'Midvinterblot') or interactive (give me Universeum or Sagrada Familia any day).

In short, I was quite surprised I even agreed going to (I always try to sneak off) and let alone was actually rather fascinated by, The Peranakan Museum in Singapore. The themes were in short marriage, food and how to make it as a woman of mixed origin in a very different Singapore compared to today.

According to Wiki, the Peranakan or Nonya cuisine combines Chinese and Malay influences and Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese migrants inter-marrying local Malays and settling, in amongst others, Singapore. The Malay word 'Nonya' refers to respect and affection for women of prominent social standing

 A Peranakan bride 

 The jewelery are described..

..in this text and are full of symbolism..

 ..as well as these Pagoda Trays, used to bear gifts from the families of the bride and groom

 The museum was a complete explosion of beautiful patterns, colors and sparkles; this is a wedding bed

 Some of the items were extremely delicate and there was definitely a striking presence of strong, female characteristics

 Another beautifully carved mirror frame, maybe not in so many colors, but absolutely exquisite

A wedding process with the female participants closest to the camera..

..where this was a wedding garment of heavy embroidered silk worn by Peranakan Chinese brides decorated with phoenixes and peonies  

A beautiful pattern which looks like it would belong to any modern campaign 2012; butterflies were a sign of the wedded couple getting many children

 

Coming from very interesting as well as both exciting and amazing settings in most of the temples and castles in Japan, where many are displayed just like museums, the difference was huge. Besides the Geisha culture, which in a way is very much under wraps since it's still an ongoing form of art, the Japanese culture scene is in many cases directed towards the Shogun/Emperor eras with predominantly male leading characters. Hence it was very nice to have a historic walk, looking through the eyes and perspective of Asian women for a change

 An altar from a wealthy Peranakan home..

 

..with a few of the male deities which were common

I got the feeling that on one hand it was extremely rough being a woman during these times, but on the other filled with excitement, passion and happiness, just like today. It made me get yet another revelation of how thankful I am to all those women who in the past fought for my present reality. Without you, my life today would not be possible.

Homo-, bi- and transsexual with Pink Dot

Ever since we went to Thailand the first time and I understood what the term 'lady boy' referred to, I've really been wondering about rights for HBT (homo-, bi- and transsexual) individuals in Asia. Here, a lot of the countries have both religion and culture, which in most cases makes living in an relationship which is not heterosexual, impossible.

I have not been able to voice this at all really being in Asia, which of course is disturbing for opinionated individuals being raised in a country like Sweden. However, even in Sweden, which is supposed to be one of the countries where the debates on equality between genders and freedom of speech and marriage has come 'furthest in the world', there are still hate crimes each year. In addition, there have been very strong reactions to for instance gay marriages in church and there are also to this day people who have negative opinions regarding female priests. Hence, the equality debate has obviously quite some distance to go. Still, you can't legally fire someone or refuse them to rent an apartment on there mere basis of them being gay, even though I'm sure this happens frequently. 

To me the whole debate, especially in Asia, is very ambiguous. In Japan it's for instance perfectly alright to have 'man bags' i. e. male handbags, it seems like a law to have pink bling-bling on your phone if you are a salary-man and most TV presenters I have seen so far have been men dressed up like women. But when you ask if that would be considered gay or transsexual, people look at you as if you've lost your mind. You are also only warned about one area when you move to Tokyo: Ni-Chome. When I asked our agent Kato-san about it, since I assumed the crime rate was high there which is the most common reason for others warning you to move to specific neighborhoods, he laughed quietly and said: 'No, no, Colin-san, but many man-bars'. I replied a bit surprised: 'Oh, you mean strip clubs?', which wasn't exactly a shocker, since washeries, love hotels, strip clubs, maid cafes and hostess/host bars (mostly kept rather out of sight unless you were in the heart of Shinjuku) were basically everywhere. He then looked very uncomfortable and more turned to Jonas and said: 'Maybe man-who-likes-man-bars'. It took a few seconds for both Jonas and I to get it and then we replied at the same time: 'Ah, it's a gay district!'. Kato-san then sighed and said: 'Yes, yes, many bad' and that was that. There was absolutely no way he would show us anything even near Ni-Chome.

Another example, was when we now went for diving and one afternoon relaxed having Thai massage. I suddenly noticed that the hands belonging the woman who was assigned to take care of me were the same size as my feet. I didn't think much of it, until she started whispering to me rather than talking. At the same time I noticed her feet being several centimeters longer than mine and I put two and two together. I then turned to Jonas and said: 'Do you think your masseuse is a woman?'. He looked at me as if I just had said 'I think I want to have fresh babies for dinner', then browsed the girl in front of him quickly, raised his eyebrows and sighed:  'What.. what?'. So I continued: 'Well, I mean do you think is it a man in women's clothing or is it a woman like me?'. There was still no verbal response, so I continued: 'Because.. I'm pretty sure my masseuse is a dude'. He looked at me in disbelief, then at my girl, smiled and said: 'Oh, yeah, you're right, it's definitely a dude. She has really big feet'. We were quiet for a bit and then the pink elephant (I thought this saying would fit in marvelously well here) had to be addressed, so I asked: 'Why do you think I get the man and you the woman..?' Afterwards I started thinking we maybe had had that slightly stupid (but never meant to be ignorant) conversation only because we weren't that used to men in women's clothes. Not because we were afraid or felt uncomfortable. 

One of my best friends in Barcelona was a drag queen though, so I have spent quite some time around men in dresses, but that's still very different from a man who seemingly only wants to live as a woman. My friend and his crew were further much more focused on their drag performances being an artistry and were often quite over the top being in their work clothes. However, when they were not performing, most of them dressed like any other guys around. This made me wonder even more, since if we spotted the masseuse most likely being a man quite quickly, there's no way her employer could not have known.  Therefore I assume being openly HBT in Thailand is perfectly legal.

This lead me to really start thinking: what a weird region of the world it'd have been in the Scandinavian corner, if it was OK for for instance a woman to be married to a man in Gothenburg, but they might both have been penalized with imprisonment, fines and caning if they had openly shown their love in Oslo. At least in my reality, that's more or less equivalent to what's going on in the APAC (Asian Pacific) region. In addition, I think I've written this before, but just to make it perfectly clear: caning is a corporal punishment, when you hit people over their backs with thick bamboo sticks, having sharp cuts in them, so they will inflict as much damage as possible. Allegedly you can only take three rounds in one go and most people are sentenced to more than ten strokes. That apparently also means that as soon as you pass out, you are sent away to recover, which normally takes a few months. You are then called back when you are healed and again beaten until you pass out. This is to have the effect of you never repeating your crime. 

There are so many stories about people being treated in discriminating ways on the pure basis of whom they love, and this is why it's so important with events like Pink Dot. I was quite surprised that celebrating/demonstrating for equal rights for HBT people in a country like Singapore would be possible (where amongst others 'sodomy' is illegal, which is another word I actually had no clue what it really meant, until I came to Singapore), but oh how wrong was I. Fortunately.

This was the beginning of the 15 000 people strong group (+ Swedish husband before 'pink transformation')..

..gathered in Hong Lim Park..

..in the middle of town..

..to support the cause of inclusiveness..

..diversity..

..and freedom to love (now Swedish husband after 'pink transformation'). Of course we wanted..

..to be part of it (now also Swedish wife after 'pink transformation')!

The sun started to set and one of the drag queen entertainers made the audience laugh so hard, that at least this participant almost poured an entire glass of pink something over her husband ;)

Then it was time for another marvelous act, with more than ten extremely beautiful men (and I think a couple of women) in sparkly costumes to give us everything from tap to cancan 

Finally came the moment everyone had been waiting for: The Pink Dot..

..which was basically comprised of all the participants gathering as close together as possible, shining..

..pink flashlights (or normal flashlights with pink cellophane over them; needless to say, all pink cellophane was sold out in the entire region) towards the Furama Hotel and its pink heart in one of the windows (can you see it in the far?)

Overall, it was a small group compared to for instance the European Pride Festival or the Gay Parade in Sitges, but it felt like the most important stand I've taken so far coming to Asia. We'll definitely be part of it next year too

 Happy Pink Dot everyone and check us out in action on http://www.youtube.com/pinkdotsg!

Last day in Thailand, back to Singapore and Happy Midsummer!

The last day we just spent checking out the resort, chilling out by the common pool, talking about our trip and what we wanted to do the same or differently next time. In the future we will probably book a hotel at Koh Tao 2 weeks advance (where it was also possible to stay at the dive center if you were OK with just a simple room with shared facilities). We would then fly from Singapore directly to Koh Samui and take a catamaran boat to Koh Tao and rent an ATV (don't take taxis in general, since over priced and slow as well most drivers we had were utterly mad). We would them warmly recommend to book dives with Crystal Divers which are both professional and practical; they for instance serve breakfast in their restaurant from 06.00, so that you can safely make it with the morning tour at 07.00. Regarding packing we both agreed on always taking with us our own fins. snorkels (if you are going snorkeling, since you really don't need it for diving) and masks for convenience. In addition, J&J's baby shampoo was truly outstanding preventing fogging in the actual masks and worked much better than spitting in them. For me it was ideal to bring an extra long sleeved sweater if wanting to go deep and the DEET mosquito spray was amazing. You also need a lot of sun block if you are sensitive or basically just stay in the shade at all times (like me). Adapters was a bit of a hassle, but Swedish or Japanese plugs work in Thailand; however bring both, since they alternate depending on where you are. All surfaces also become extremely hot and you do need flip flops wherever you go; if you are going diving though, most of those surfaces are also very slippery from baby shampoo and sun block. We saw several people slipping and taking rather nasty falls and most instructors had either footwear in natural materials, while I found it great to use my aqua shoes. The latter also prevents getting blisters from borrowed fins and we actually saw some divers using socks if they had borrowed whole fins.

We started the day with a breakfast in the vicinity of Singaporean High Tea.. 

..and my eyes were way too big for my belly; I was full until late afternoon

The resort was really beautiful, placed just on the tip of a quite steep cliff..

..again surrounded by that amazing turquoise water

My husband had proper support throughout the walk ;)

The private beach was OK, but there had been so many nicer ones at Koh Tao..

..while it had a small pier which you could possibly snorkel from

 

We ended up just walking on a small exploration on the reef since is was low tide, looking for things that made popping sounds. It was quite loud, but we couldn't find what it was, so we gave up after 20 minutes of searching. Well, Jonas was searching. I was on a safe distance on the pier. Turning stones around, possibly encountering slithery stuff that have crawled under there for a reason..? Will stay clear of that activity any day

Strolling from the beach up towards our little house had quite a few spectacular views with beautiful colors..

..different architecture..

..and the weather was perfect for a day outdoors with just enough (lagom!) wind to keep us cool

We then strategically placed ourselves by the infinity pool..

..again with amazing backgrounds..

..and colors

Then we had to get ready for our trip back and quickly jumped into our last clean changes of clothes..

..rushed into the restaurant to get a speed lunch; here we were also astonished about the 'Chunky', 'Mozzavella Cheese' and 'Black Olive Bell Pepper Chin' you could get as topping on the pizza. Also the 'Garic' was a favorite; however, this was at least understandable. I'm still confused regarding the bakery at Chaweng Beach selling 'Crap'. They must have meant 'Crepes' or 'Crabs'. I think

We checked out with no difficulties and got into the private hotel taxi, taking us straight to the airport

Well there, there was half an hour delay and we of course had to have one last Chang and wish each other happy midsummer. Again!

In addition, I just couldn't resist taking a pic of the couple next to us; if we at any point though Jonas' tan was bad throughout the week, the redness these two were sporting was not far off from matching my red bag in the lower right corner. Both of them just looked cooked

We did learn some new tricks in Thailand this round as well, where one of the general rules are: don't be in a hurry. Ever. We thought we had it down from Japan, but are now convinced that Thai peps have a completely unique time zone. Things also get done with varying results, but people are mostly quite friendly, compared to Singapore, where results vary a lot too, but the speed of getting food or sorting out paper work is mostly fast. However, people are often rather rude. In Japan it could be both fast or slow but almost always giving smashing results and people were constantly very polite.

Overall language level is quite bad for Thai people speaking English; they neither don't really know for instance Chinese or Japanese either, which makes it a bit hard sometimes for foreign tourists. 

Finally and a very good tip: don't forget you EP or DP if want to get back into Singapore.


Happy Midsummer all!

Q Signature Samui Beach Resort, Moet and dreadlocks

Then it was time to check in the last night at Q Signature Samui Beach Resort at Moo Bo Phut Surat Thani on Koh Samui. And that's an outstanding address ;) Overall, Q Signature Samui Beach Resort was amazing regarding all possible facilities under the sun like gym, SPA and pool tables along with a private beach, huge rooms equipped with absolutely everything you can possibly need staying for weeks and several bars and restaurants. However, the expression 'alternating current' had a slightly different meaning here, since there was in fact no electricity for about 3 minutes, then full blast for another three, back to none again throughout the day. Hence the whole 'alternating' business. There were also highly interesting temperatures regarding the shower water (either it was imported directly from the north pole or almost boiling), the reception staff which had a very weird attitude and the amounts of broken sun umbrellas were quite impressive. None of the latter really mattered to us, but it was not what we expected at a luxury resort and we were quite happy we hadn't payed full price. 

Coming straight from a diving trip, we probably didn't fit the description of their everyday clientele when we arrived

We were still showed to our suite, which was more like a little house with a very classy decorated living room..

..and the whole setting was built in a terrain manner..

..with the bedroom half a stair down from the top area..

.. which again had very tasteful decoration and lovely colors

The bedroom opened up and out to a private back yard with a sun deck..

..another little lounge deck with really cute rocking chairs, in front of one of the ponds..

..on both sides of the deck

 Our pool had little elephant statues spraying water (rather ridiculous) and a jacuzzi part.. 

..which of course it had to be tried out..

..followed by a nice relaxing stay in the sun. For five minutes ;)

All in all, we were quite pleased with our new stay and the hits just kept on coming..

..as we checked out the rest of the house and the sun set over Koh Samui

The bathroom was enormous..

..including a walk-in shower, leading out to..

..the outdoor shower..

..and the jacuzzi

Considering this was the current natural-dreadlock-hair-situation I had to face, refusing to use shampoo if I'm on an island hopping vacation, and we were planning on a restaurant visit..

..the products in the bathroom came in very handy

Along with a very nice bottle of champagne it really did the trick bringing us back to civilization!

The staff in the restaurant were really great and the live performer absolutely fantastic, along with amazing starters such as cheese baked mussels..

..and tiger shrimps in garlic, sweet basil and cream