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Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Delusions of Royalty At the Sembawang Hot Springs

NParks did a beautiful job with The Sembawang Hot Springs. It is beautiful. Unfortunately, I think Singaporeans do not have the necessary refinement required to properly use the facilities. It is a 15 minute walk from my house but I am not in a hurry to go back. Some of what I saw was nauseating.

Maid Washing Employer's Feet
The pope washes his cardinals' feet as an act of ultimate self debasement, as a way to show humility.  Since the act is largely symbolic, I am pretty sure that the cardinals would have ensured that their feet were already clean before the washing ceremony.

Mary Magdalene the prostitute washed Jesus' feet as an act of ultimate respect, to show her gratitude for divine grace. Jesus is God.

I was at first gobsmacked to see a young lady washing 2 people's feet, in turn. Then, I was nauseated. She fetched water. She bent down and splashed water over her employers' feet and calves. Those people did not look handicapped. They probably have delusions of royalty. Actually, I think true modern royalty would have too much class to ask another human being to wash their feet in public. These domestic workers are citizens of a neighbouring country. Simply because we pay them does not give us the license to disrespect them to this extent. 

At times like this, I am so ashamed of being Singaporean. 

Communal Dirty Feet Dipping
There was a communal pool where people were soaking their feet. Rightfully, there should be an etiquette of washing the feet thoroughly with soap before dipping. No one did that. If the temperature of the water was comfortable for feet, then it surely is comfortable for fungal growth. There is no way I will put my feet into that pool for fear of catching a fungal infection. Remember, there is no chlorine nor other disinfectant in that water.

Eggs and Feet
I had brought 2 eggs to cook. I had to throw the eggs away because another old man emptied his pail of feet soaking water INTO my pail of eggs. It did not occur to him to throw his dirty water into the drain. He HAD to go back to the water source to throw his water.

Communal Wooden Pails
I also was not too sure about the communal wooden pails. Wood has pores where fungal spores and bacteria can hide. Since the place is new, the pails look pristine. Give it about 1 month and I think there will be mould. I could not bring myself to use the communal pails.

Lovely Place But Ugly People
It was a seriously lovely place. It just had a lot of people clueless about how their actions affect others.









18 comments:

Karmeleon said...

Can play in that stream?

Petunia Lee said...

@Karmeleon... I did!

Wicca said...

You seem to have a good heart for noticing how the maid was treated. So honest to reveal what you've noticed. Hope people read your blog so they won't do it again. God bless to your blog.

Unknown said...

Disgusting humans

jK said...

What an ugly sight.. makes me think twice to go and soak.. thanks for the write up.

Anonymous said...

Eeeeewww ....

Anonymous said...

These people are veryyyyy disgusting!

Unknown said...

I think our maid culture has made many of us lesser human beings.

Mas Wildroses said...

Glad that you bring up the issue abt employer who feels like royalty. Please treat ur maids with respect! They are human beings too and I myself feels that they deserve to be respected too. I have a helper too and never even once ask her to massage my feet or legs when I got sore legs. I would rather go to javanese massage parlour than to ask my helper to do so. My helper main role is to look after my 2 small kids, clean the house, do laundry and cook occasionally. They already have their hands full with work and we have to give and take if they need a break or rest. Please be a good employer and when we do good things to others, we will be more happy and make others happy too. Never mistreat the helper coz we need them to help us too.

Anonymous said...

There is so much truth in what Tommy Koh says about Singaporean, "First World Country with Third World Citizens". A lot of Singaporean feels really entitled.

Anonymous said...

There's a reason a lot of footbaths in Japan have narrow spaces or just enough spaces for feet; so that people don't do anything else other than that. If you design such a big and free space for people to roam about and also eat, you don't even have to open the facility to know that a lot will misuse it.

Nope, not at this age when the bulk of Singaporeans are still not ready for that kind of courteous mentality.

Unknown said...

Hi Petunia. Frankly what did you expect? What you witnessed is probably no worse than what you invariably see in public places like rest rooms, Food courts, public transport etc

As for disgusting habits, I keep seeing people, especially men, digging their nostrils in lifts, trains and buses or even while waiting for the bus or train to arrive.

Anonymous said...

^ ya lar, so means it goes to show how much of a long way to go for singaporeans to be a courteous bunch. idiots blocking the escalators, standing in front of the train doors blocking others way, idiots sitting their ass down on seats without the basic courtesy to even ask if anyone is sitting there, etc, etc. Petunia did a good job in bringing all these up to create more awareness. thats the whole point of the post.

Rocky Liew said...

To use soap to wash the feet need a proper facility with drainage and there is none to begin with at the hot spring. People go there will just take off their shoe and dip into the lowest tier pool which is 45°C, the higher tier pool is 50-70°C which is very hot and can scald you. If worry about hygiene can take the wooden bucket free of charge but do remember to return to their place so others can use. The ugly thing I see is people hogging these wooden buckets even they are not using them, they dip into the pool but holding the empty bucket as their property.

Unknown said...

Maid should also enjoying the facilities like us cause they are also our family.
Dont ask them to wash your leg in front of public.

Crazy Caelen from class d said...

Ya... the old man was disgusting. But don’t think you’ll get fungal infection as Long as u wash your foot

Victoria said...

Hello Petunia.

I haven't been to this park but reading your review I don't think I'll ever go. I'm a hygiene freak anyway.

I just have a slight issue with your view of that old couple whose maid cleaned their feet.

Do you have aged parents who can no longer bend to touch their feet? Well i have 2! One in a wheelchair but both can't bend. Our maid is specifically hired to help my parents. So of course she washes their feet when she helps bathe them. And yes parents do get old. They do get to a stage where they need help bathing, washing legs and feet, cutting toe nails etc.

You just boo-booing this old couple indicates that you probably have healthy fit parents who can still touch their own feet. The same for commenters who agree with you. Well bless you all and your young healthy parents. But that's not the situation with all parents, certainly not with mine.

So do spare a thought that this couple you observed might not have been disabled, but perhaps they cannot reach down to their feet? Perhaps the maid is there to take care of them in terms of washing their bodies, which include their feet?

You bringing in the Pope and Jesus sounds irrelevant. The truth is that many old people in sg rely on maids to wash and tend to their lower limbs. Not you? Not your parents? Nobody you know? Good for you. Spend some time in an old folks nursing home. You'll see that whilst you and others here see the maid washing the couple's feet as 'humiliating and disrespectful', you are missing the picture that such an act might actually be necessary and helpful.

And you don't have to be disabled to need help caring for your legs and feet.

Petunia Lee said...

@Victoria... There was no need to bend. There are long handled scoops exactly for this purpose.