... find your way to the largest religious gathering in the world - The Kumbh Mela?

I was all packed for Kashmir's lovely weather when a last minute hesitation to board the plane to Srinagar started me on a long 12-hour car journey to Haridwar. There, I witnessed the Kumbh Mela 2010 - the festival that gained international fame as "the world's most massive act of faith".

Kumbh Mela is a mass pilgrimage. The 45-day festival takes place at the confluence of the three holy rivers in India, the Ganga (Ganges), Tamuna and Sarawati.  The celebration is said to be anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 years old; bringing the holy people of the Hindu religion, their followers, and a few "immortals" together.  Each 12-year cycle includes one Maha Kumbh Mela or Great Kumbh Mela.  The Ardh Kumbha Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Prayag, while the Purna (complete) Kumbha always takes place at Prayag every twelve years.  The 2001, Maha Kumbha Mela was attended by around 60 million people, making it the largest gathering anywhere in the world.

Here are the visual spoils from my trusty Olympus EP1...

The Kumbh Mela 2010 attracted more than 40 million devotees to Haridwar.

The main highlight for most pilgrims during Kumbh Mela is the observance 

of sacred bath at the sangam.

. 

Bathing in these rivers during the Kumbh Mela is considered an endeavour of great merit, cleansing both body and spirit.  It is belived that bathing in the river has a purifying effect. In the place where the three rivers meet, it is said that the bather's purification is increased one hundred times.

Breakfast with the holy men.  Carbo-loading before the day's religious procession.

In the camp of the holy men. A camp of the Naga Sadhus.

Sadhu is a common term denoting an ascetic.  Nagas, the most important in the hierarchy of Hindu holy men, wait to take the plunge at the Kumbh Mela festival on April 14.

The Kumbh Mela honors the Hindu legend in which the gods fought for possession of a pot of amrita (the nectar of immortality).   The confluence of the Ganges, the Yarmuna and the Saraswati (or "Invisible") rivers is held in Hindu mythology to be the place where the gods dropped the amrita.  

A religious procession towards the Ganges on the day where only the Sadhus can bathe in the river.  One Sadhu will "find the nectar". 

...walk and eat your way through Tokyo?

K and I are back from Tokyo!

It was a great trip - with lots of walking and lots of great food! Best of all, we kept to our budget, think we probably spent only around S$2,200 for a week in Tokyo, including airfare and accomodation!

Will start blogging about the food and the sights when I have tidied up the photos!

...decide to take a trip to Tokyo during lunch?

K and I are headed to Tokyo for a week (one glorious week!) this coming Saturday night! This was a trip that was decided only earlier this month - K and I met for lunch, and were talking about taking holidays and viola! our trip was born.

Looking forward to it - it's going to be my first time ever in Japan. Woohoo!

Watch out for our blog posts in the coming weeks!

...travel to Hong Kong for the Rugby Sevens weekend?

Every year during the last weekend of March, Hong Kong plays host to the Rugby Sevens tournament. Supporters fly in from all over the world during this weekend.

In the spirit of doing something different this year, I made the trip to Hong Kong over the last weekend to take part in my first ever Sevens tournament and it was a really fun experience!

The party starts even before the first rugby ball is played. Local expats and tourists alike packed the bars in Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai every night even before the first match started. I was there with KC and we really enjoyed the joyous atmosphere - there was just a party buzz in the air that you seldom enjoy in Singapore.

Of course, there are also plainclothes policemen everywhere, but as I was exclaiming to KC, "they are nothing like the cool ones we see in HK dramas!"

The rugby games started on Friday afternoon all the way to Sunday evening. We skipped the Friday games, but went to watch the games on Saturday and Sunday. I had heard so much about the famous South Stand at the Hong Kong stadium, where all the spectators would be dressed up in costumes of various shapes and sizes and how everyone would be drunk and throwing jugs of beer and even piss, if you believe the horror stories. :)

KC and I went as cowgirls, which was a relatively easy outfit to put together. Thankfully or not, the queue to the South Stand was very long, and so we did not make it in and hence, did not get drenched in beer. As for the games, the Saturday games were kinda boring, as some teams were not evenly matched. But Sunday games were super exciting, and so much more fun to watch! I really salute these Sevens players, they have got to be super duper fit - there are only 7 of them running on the same field that a normal rugby team would play on with 15 players!

Rugby aside, we also had time to go for a private dining experience at Xi Yan. It was my first private dining experience in HK, the food was a bit of a hit-and-miss. Overall, I enjoyed the meal, but there was just too much food for the experience to be enjoyable after a while. There were 4 appetitisers, 7 main courses and 1 dessert! It was not a taster portion, every course came with a super huge bowl for our table, and we could even have 2-3 helpings of everything if we wanted to. Our dinner lasted from 8.30pm to nearly midnight, so really, by the 5-6th course, we were just wondering how much more to go to really enjoy the food. :)

Other than eating and partying, we managed to squeeze in some shopping, though I did not buy as much as I expected to, haha. Did the usual trip to H&M and Espirit outlets, but did not really buy much. I got introduced to a new place to shop during this trip - HK Industrial Centre at Lai Chi Kok. They sell these cut-label dresses for about $80 bucks, which is really cheap, considering that shops in Singapore sell them for about $150! Alas, they did not have the larger sizes of the dresses I picked out, so did not end up buying anything - though I think I will go back there again when I next go to HK. Apparently, we missed out an entire floor! haha.

Lest you think it was all play and no work, we went for a hike on Friday morning! Yes, you did not read wrongly, we went for a hike in HK! The hiking trail is known as Dragon's Back, and it starts at the Shek O Country Park. The guide said it would take us about 2.5 hours for the whole trail, but it only took us about 1.5 hours. :) It was the only clear day the whole time I was there in HK, so I was quite glad we managed to do it. The view from the top was amazing, you never would have thought you were in HK. I thought it looked a bit like Australia! :)

I really enjoyed this trip, can't wait to go back to HK again!