Sunday, February 12, 2006

All sorts of jams

This weekend is an important weekend for different races in Singapore. The Hindu community was celebrating Thaipusam which culminates into a procession through the city. A great number of devotees take part, others are content lining the route taken by the devotees to support them, to pray or just to watch. The police was on hand for crowd control and en route, everywhere you turned, there were people. And because the route cuts through the city, roads had to closed. And when roads are closed, in our very tightly packed system of highly connected roads, this only means one thing. Massive congestion. Add to that, many forget that it is road first, procession route second and walk in the middle of roads that are already chock-filled with frustrated drivers.

We were in one such jam yesterday. It wasn't too bad because it allowed us to watch some of the procession. It's been a long time since I've seen a Thaipusam procession so it was interesting.

What we did not count on, were two other jams that we got ourselves caught in. One of them was also due to Thaipusam, like I said, it is quite a long route. The other that we found ourselves inadvertently stuck in was in part due to Thaipusam as well because we heeded traffic warnings to avoid the stretches of road involved in the procession. Problem is this caused yet another build up else way.

To exacerbate the situation, today is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, making last night the night for the traditional fireworks and lantern displays by the river. The diverted route we were advised to take brought us right into the heart of the River Hong Bao at half nine when the fireworks that are meant to scare off mythical predatory beasts were set off. This meant people had once again lined the streets to watch the booming festivities and it also meant people in cars, stopping in the middle of the road to crane their necks out of the car to catch a glimpse of the fireworks. What made it even more frustrating was the ability to feel and hear the pyrotechnic explosions but not see it because we were blocked by buildings. And by the time all those cars that had stopped to watch the display, started their engines and inched down the lane and we managed to get into the clear, the fireworks had ended, for the rest of the lunar year.

Bugger that.

3 jams, all interconnected. Times like these drive home the fact that our island is far too small. Time to move to a larger one.

Ondine tossed this thought in at 07:28

0 thoughts...

0 thoughts...

Post a Comment

" Far in the stillness, a cat languishes loudly"