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We went to Haw Par Villa with Lyndia and her brother. Haw Par Villa is a private park which is open to the public. On the grounds, there are many statues and such of scenes from Chinese folklore, as well as a gory exhibition of the Chinese 10 courts of Hell. Since Seph has never been to see any of Singapore's sights, the visit to Haw Par Villa was highly anticipated! ^_^

This site is a good place for pics and info. You might like to check out the link as the pictures shown here are of the interesting things we'd seen, but didn't really have an idea of the story behind. (My apologies, the link is now dead, but I'm keeping it as reference in case the webauthor decides to put the page up again.)


Note! The pictures shown actually came from three different cameras.
Most are Seph's, but a lot were also Lyndia's and her brother's.

It actually started raining really hard on our way there. -_- But it was a good thing the rain didn't stop Lyndia's brother from wanting to see the place. When the rain eased up, armed with an umbrella each, we stepped out of the car. After just some steps though, it started to rain heavily again. ^_^; So we waited at the entrance a while. I had thought that maybe I wasn't fated to see Haw Par Villa. But after a short while, the rain eased up and became a light drizzle, and soon went away.

On the way into the park.

Looking at the map. Though in truth, I didn't really pay that much attention to the details on the map. ^_^;

And so we headed in...

This is one of the many...erm...tablets that give you some information about the statues/sculptures/scenes around the place. In truth, they are only really helpful if you had some idea of background regarding the folklore featured. Otherwise, the information doesn't tell you much. Well, it helps, and I guess if you want more, you can always try searching online. ^_~

Here's the statue of the old man talked about in the tablet. Let's see what we can read from the tablet: "This statue of an old man holding a stick and pointing with his right hand welcomes visitors to the garden [I'd been calling it a park]. The man's gesture represents the Chinese saying _______ (give advice to those who are lost), symbolising a reminder not to stray from the right path in life." Sorry, I never did take a pic of the whole thing, and again, I didn't bother reading it that carefully so I have no idea what the rest says. ^_^;;

Because it had been raining, I'd decided to leave the dolls behind. I didn't want Razkil to get wet, and even though the rain stopped, I didn't think we'd be able to take pictures of him sitting on anything without wetting his pants. So I left him in the car. Lyndia, though, asked if we could bring Ferrahn. I didn't see any harm in that since his catman was so small we could easily put him in our bags if it rained again. And it was a good thing we brought him along. ^_~ We really have Lyndia to thank for that! ^o^ She likes him a lot, which is why Ferrahn likes her. ^_~

We weren't that far in from the huge Haw Par Villa gate-thingy and things were starting to dry really fast in the sun.

He could have sat on the back of the dragon, but he sits on the head instead. *grin* Hey, it's his dominant nature. ^_~

Here's a er...buddha or monk man person. Whoever. ^_^; I'm sure there's a story behind him... *grin*

On the monk's right, a man talking to a goat, it seems. Or a ram. Whichever? ^_^;

He looks like some goatherd with the other goat/rams around him.

See, they were looking at the tablet about the scene, but er...I was busy looking at the statues themselves. ^_^; And yeah, the statues are actually very big. ^_^

Ferrahn's cat was in Lyndia's care now and then. ^_^

Psycho ram. ^_^; In truth, most of the statues just border on the weird and freakish to me. And some were just obscene. ^_^; You'll come across the obsene later; it's not the stories behind the statues that struck me as obscene, but the statues themselves. *grin*

Also, if you notice, there's algae growing on the statues. The park--garden is pretty much in disrepair. I think there was a notice saying the garden's under some repairs, and well, I think it should be. Though, as a private park that doesn't really charge you admission, I suppose they don't really need to do anything to it if they don't want to.

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Dec Trip album