Monday, January 17, 2011

Pongal celebration at St John's Island

We were invited to celebrate pongal in st john's island by naveen's colleagues and their relatives.Although we were the only non tamil couple we decided to go.


St john's island is 30 min away from Singapore by ferry, since the island is isolated and had not been commercialized yet there were no food courts available so food had to be taken.



There were 40 of us so I knew it would be fun even though I don't know anyone there.We reached the island by 12. The place was very quiet and I think we were the only group there.Accommodation was available in the form of dormitory which I felt was quite clean. There is nothing in the island apart from a place to stay,so it can get quite boring if someone has plans to stay there for more than 2 hrs.But its a nice place to get away from city life and it gives great view of city. since we were a group of 40 people I knew we wouldn't have to worry about getting bored.


After lunch there was pongal celebration.Pongal is celebrated thought Singapore mainly by tamil population here.


There are also processions held wherein cows take part.I have heard their is strict guidelines for the cows to come on street as I think Singaporeans are not used to seeing cows on roads !!!

Anyway coming back to topic ,after the celebration was over it started raining(Singapore climate is weird. it been raining almost daily . and no its not rainy season.There are no seasons here.Summer,rain,winter(in office) all can be experienced in a single day).

Evening was dedicated to antakshari and the funny part was since we dint know tamil we were allowed to sing in any language though naveen is not a big fan of these games I think he enjoyed this unique antakshari.



After dinner we all decided to go near beach.The night view of city from the island is amazing.Singapore felt so small from there. The beach,the night ,the moonlight and the night view of city all come together to give a romantic touch to this island.


The next morning after the breakfast we left our camps(well dormitories are called camps here) and went towards the beach.


New games were invented and new rules were made. It was fun as we took part in everything.



By the time we left the island it was 12 and when we reached Singapore it was raining(its frequency doesn't surprise me anymore)

2 days well spent on the island.

1 comment:

Renevic said...

I want to read more about this island for almost a week but unfortunately didn’t get any until this this very moment. I’m glad I stumbled to your post about St. John Island. Lot of information and consideration putting in my itenerary.

Thank you for the post and enjoy ticking off your to-do list! Happy Travels!

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