Christmas in the Tropics

When I first solicited suggestions of where to spend Christmas most people prefaced their opinions by suggesting that [name of city] had the most Christmas-like atmosphere. Since Christmas is totally associated with winter in my mind, none of their suggestions seemed likely to recreate feelings of Christmas. In truth I feel like I am in the middle of a long summer vacation

The first signs of Christmas were Santa figures and Christmas trees (masses of them) in the Malls. The visit to Santa was clearly a photo op - Santa did not really engage the kids. In a community where Christmas traditions vary widely asking about gifts may not be a good strategy. We also ran into this ballet performance at the entry of one of the malls




We decided to spend Christmas in Sarawak. As our friends said "Christmas is for family," and our friends in Sarawak are family. On Christmas Eve we had dinner with Clarence and Mooi Lian, their children, Clarence's mother & father, and his sister and her family - we feel very much a part of the family. On Christmas day we visited a kampung for an open house. [Open houses are an important part of the major holidays - Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, and Chinese New Years]. The father of the family had worked with Clarence. His son (to the left) cooked most of the meal. It was tasty - he should have a bright future ahead him if he chooses to continue along the culinary route. (He is an avid fan of the Asian food channel - a passion that seems to be nation wide.)



Two days after Christmas we arrived in Singapore. It was decorated to the hilt with Christmas trees and Christmas lights. Some of the Christmas decorations disappeared on Sunday the 28th to be replaced with Chinese New Year's decorations. A continuous display of visual delights. The group of Christmas trees were at Singapore's airport and the one made up of plastic bottles was on the street. We have more photos, but I expect that readers may also find themselves experiencing visual overload.