Haw Par Villa and Ten Courts of Hell, Singapore

Falling in Love with a Snake.   Go to Hell.  Monkey Business.

 The Villas of 2 City-States 
Next time when you visit Singapore and want to see something weird, wacky and wonderful, something that's uniquely Singapore, Haw Par Villa should be your destination.

Actually there were 2 Haw Par Villas (aka Tiger Balm Gardens 虎豹別墅) - one in Singapore, and the other in Hong Kong.  "Har Par" is "Tiger Leopard" in Hokkien - a Chinese dialect spoken in Fujian province. Hokkien is the largest Chinese dialect group in Singapore.

I stayed in HK in early 2010 for a few months in Wanchai (灣仔). In fact, it was an area within walking distance to the Tiger Balm Garden (or Haw Par Mansion as it was also called in HK). So naturally, I wanted to visit there, and only to find out that it had been permanently shut down. The place was replaced by residential high-rises.

The first time I was there was in the late 1980s. I'll try to dig out old snapshots (in rare hardcopy) that I took there and post it here (yes, I'm showing my age).

Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balms Mansion), Hong Kong 1999

I think there're 3 reasons why this Singapore Haw Par Villa survives while its HK counterpart didn't : location, location, location. Before I went to visit there I had a bad feeling that the Tiger place couldn't still around in Wanchai after 3+ decades of economic leaping by this Asian Tiger. After all, HK's property is the most expensive in Asia (surpassing Tokyo, Paris or New York's housing prices).

Wanchai is a HK district sandwiching between the gleaming supertall skyscrapers filled CBD and Causeway Bay, the HK upmarket mega-shopping mecca. This is no place for this old-school, past its used-by date of a relic. So the Villa was leveled in 2004. You could still see pieces of it in a museum.

The retirement of HK Haw Par Villa leaves the the Singapore counterpart the only Tiger Balm heritage. It's saved by its respectable distance from Singapore CBD, but still not so far to travel.

What's more, the entrance is free (during my visit. I imagine it will remains so as long as it's run by the government), and quite easy to get to by public transport. It's located above the station that bears its name. Yep it's got its own station: Haw Par Villa Station on the Circle Line.

Some media in the West sometimes called it the Disneyland of the East. It's hardly that.

Main gate to Haw Par Villa

 Gaudy Gaudi Theme Park 
It's basically a cultural theme park - or more accurately outdoor museum - for many facets of Chinese culture from mythology, religion, folklores to even historical figures and unique Chinese wild life. And then to mix it all up, it includes things like Thai dancer, Sumo wrestlers, miniature Statue of Liberty into the mix just to confuse the visitors a little bit more than they already have.

The sculptures in this place ain't quite the works of Spanish architect Gaudi, some would think they're gaudy (due to its colour). So let's call its artistic style Gaudy Gaudi. To those who love it, they're Goody Goodies.

Sumo wrestlers with Tiger Balms products in the middle

Various Tiger balm products. These balms build this place.

Legend of  the White Snake (白蛇傳) takes up a large section just behind the entrance.

This is a well known folklore that are made into numerous adaptations of operas, movies, and comics. It deserves a place here.

Scene from Legend of the White Snake

This is the scene of Xu Xian (許仙) - the Chinese dude - chance meeting with Madam White Snake (the Lady in Red), and her younger 'sister' (in blue) on the Broken Bridge in Hangzhou.

Three Stars of Happiness, Prosperity, Longevity  福祿壽

Confucius with his trademarked palm holding gesture

 Crime and Punishment: Chinese Style 
If you find most of the exhibits you have seen made you scratching your head, wait until you see the Ten Courts of Hell.

Gate of Hell: entrance to the Ten Courts of Hell

Warning: The rest of this article contains deliciously disgusting graphic images that would make your stomach churn or give you nightmares, or if you're unlucky, both. Don't say I didn't warn you. So enjoy! For those who enjoy exploitative gore, my apologies for the blandness.

Ox Head

Horse Face

Guarding the gate to the Ten Courts of Hell are Ox-Head (牛頭) and Horse-Face (馬面).

While they're a couple of mean-looking guardians of the Underworld (or Hell), in many stories, they also go to snatch spirits just when people die. In that sense, they're more like police escorts than security guards. When they do the role of escorting human souls to the afterlife, they're acting more like psychopomps, which known by different names and takes different forms in different cultures.

For example, in Western cultures - naturally they appear in many Hollywood movies - these psychopomps take the form of a Grim Reaper.

For the Hindus, the psychopomps could be either a person or an animal or something else. As usual, Hindu mythology is complex.

Once you get inside this Gate of Hell, you will be presented with 10 exhibits showing the journey of the soul of the dead from just entering Hell, the judgement and punishments in the 10 courts, and the preparation for reincarnation.

Each of the 10 Courts will be presided by an Underworld Judge, each punishment will be meted out clearly to fit the crime.

Take the example of the 6th Court,

Crime and Punishment in the 6th Court.
Read them well, especially for the readers of Playboy magazine...
 (click to enlarge)

So next time when you're thinking of buying a copy of Playboy or Penthouse (who does that any more?), keep the following photo in mind. Not so attractive heh?

Body being sawn off in the 6th Court
(click to enlarge to have a much closer look at the nice statues)

Regarding the misuse of books (my interpretation), remember that next time you break the spine of a book, your spine would be severed when you're down there.

Since every crime and punishment is so clearly laid out, I guess it's okay to look at online porn as long as you don't possess them. I interpret the rule literally to get around this legal loophole. As the dead is spiritual, the rule is therefore interpreted in the spirit of the law.

Don't say I didn't warn you. You may thank me in Hell.

When you curse, cheat or abduct people, you will be stabbed in the back by being thrown into the Trees of Knives, like this. Not too pretty, right?

Being thrown into the Tree of Knives in the 6th Court
(click to enlarge to look it more closely)

How's hanging ? Sipping your own blood much ? Care for some Panadol ?

Want to see another Court? I thought you never ask. Let's look at what they're busy with in 4th Court. First, let's peruse the Crime and Punishment tablet.

Crime and Punishment book

Ok, got it. Let's get on with it.

Being pounded by a stone mallet, and grounded into pulp

I won't spoil all the fun by telling you all the Crimes and Punishments in a Chinese Hell. Let's have fun finding out when you're in Haw Par Villa (or when we're down there). After all, the journey of discovery is half the fun.


Are these very graphic depictions R-rated? Would only adults be allowed in here? It would defeat the purpose, according to the creator, who wanted to scare kids stiff (before they become stiffs). I know you Catholic boys and girls can relate to all these? I don't mean Chinese Hell, they have their equally colourful Hell.

I've been here a few times (yeah, I've morbid taste), I often seen local parents who brought their young kids to see these. They would point out casually or matter-of-factly to their kids, "you see, this guy's tongue got pulled out because he's making everyone in the family miserable". Y'all hear that, kids? It says nothing about playing with matches, so gets crazy with it. Nah, don't do that at home, poison girls. Sorry, a slipped of the tongue, sorry i meant a slip of the fingers, boys and girls.

Tongue being pulled out

Having said that, few locals visit this place. I've never seen more than 50 people there any one time, and it isn't a small place and it's free admission. They used to charge expensive fares, the Singapore Tourism Board stop charging fees since 1998.

The place was created to teach traditional Chinese values. It isn't hard to see that these traditional thinking are out-of-date. This isn't surprising when you considered that this place was conceived back in the 1930s.

Few Chinese-speaking Singaporean still subscribe to the all-important Chinese value of filial piety (I bet most English readers don't even know the term). Actually there're less Singaporean Mandarin speakers than foreigners think, and even fewer Chinese readers.

One of the stories of the 24 Paragons of filial piety

This diorama shows one of the very dated classic stories of the 24 Paragons or Exemplars of Filial Piety. The story of She Breastfed Her Mother-In-Law. So the daughter-in-law puts her mother-in-law above her child (as far as her breast milk is concerned). Today such thing only appear in the Jerry Springer Show.

Drinking of tea to wipe the memories of the previous life
Granny Meng is standing in the Pavilion in yellow robe

There's light at the end of the the tunnel shaped Ten Courts of Hell. After the deserved punishment, the soul is given the Tea of Forgetfulness (迷魂湯) to drink from an old lady called Meng Po or Granny Meng. Afterwards, he or she will forget everything in his or her life, and ready for the next life with a clean slate (who wants to remember all that torture?) The tea works far better than and much cheaper than that electronic gadget in Men in Black. Some people didn't drink and so they remember their previous lives.

After the tea, one's soul is sent away to be reborn and the cycles begins again.  Yep, there's a happy ending.

If you aren't religious, you could see the whole hellish thing as a metaphor for dream. Those tortures are the nightmares that haunt your conscience. You wake up, and the dreams are fading away, and another day starts anew.

Life is but an endless cycles of all different time frames: some are measured in seconds, other in decades, and ultimately in our whole life times.

Six paths to the Wheel of Reincarnation or Samsara
Note that the 6 paths contain people as well as animals

 Monkey Around on the Way to the West 
Of course, you can't introduce visitors to Chinese culture without showing the Monkey, or his other names, Monkey King, Monkey God, the Great Sage Equal of Heaven or Sun Wukong (孫悟空). But one section isn't doing justice for him, so there're 2 sections built to illustrate his illustrious life. One section depicts the scene from the Chinese classic Journey to the West where he accompanies his master Tang Sanzhuang in the trek or odyssey to India, and the other depicts his life in Mount Huaguo (花果山 or Flowers and Fruit Mountain).

A scene from Journey to the West of Sun Wukong fighting Red Boy (紅孩兒)
Red Boy also known as Boy Sage King (聖嬰大王)

Monkey King rules over his Simian domain atop Mount Huagou

With the few visitors and no entrance fees, I was concerning that this place won't last long. But it appears that not only most of the dioramas and sculptures are looked in good condition. In fact, I saw that worker was doing maintenance work on the exhibits.

The modern Singaporean would find the traditional Chinese cultural values too old-fashion, but for the old-fashion, the many provocative statues here would make them blushed. Maybe the sculptor was trained in Prague? These 2 conflicting signals seem anachronistic and oxymoronic. What were the park creator thinking? These contradictions make this place unique and I found myself irresistibly drawn to it like malware worm to ebook. Crunch, crunch, yummy in my tummy.

It's great to see this unique past preserved. This is an extinct museum, the last of its kind. I hate to see it go.

How long do you need to spend in this park? It depends. If you want to take photos of every statue, and pore over them with a microscope like me, you need no more than 4 hours. If you just come and have a casual look, you don't need more than 2 hours (or less). If you take your 8 year-old child and need to frighten them with traditional moral tales in R-rated graphic dioramas, it probably takes a bit longer.

If you like to feast your eyes with a colourful, shocking, eclectic collection of the exotic, bewildering, imaginative by-gone traditional Chinese cultural images, this is a must-see.

Fengyu Cave, Yao Minority, Yangshuo, Guilin, China

A picture that worth 20 Yuan

Fengyu Cave 丰鱼岩

When we say we're going to Guilin to see the world renown limestone karst landscapes, we actually mean Yangshuo where most of these geological wonders are heavily jostled one another for attention of wide-eyed, mouth-gaping admirers. The coach trip allowed us to have a whirlwind view of these amazing landscape as we entered deep into the Yangshuo country 陽朔縣 and finally to the Li River for a trip on the bamboo raft. The trip can't be considered complete without being floated across the Lijiang on a bamboo raft.

The 2005 edition of RMB banknotes contain heads of people on one side, and famous scenic spots on the reverse side. The drawing of Guilin karsts with its mirror reflections on Li River (don't forget the fisherman on the raft) is on the reverse side of a 20 Yuan banknote. The picture of the national treasure of Guilin worth 20 Yuan multiplies by the number of issued notes in circulation = a few billion Yuans. Bill Clinton once commented that the scenery of Guilin reminded him of the Chinese brush painting the most while he dropped into this place (by Air Force One) during his premature presidency.

Speaking of RMB banknotes, it has been few months since I heard the news about the counterfeit 100 Yuan notes with serial numbers beginning with HD90. It was said to have first appeared in Yangjiang and Guangdong and was suspected that they made their way from Taiwan. 

When we bought some souvenirs in Yangshuo, our 100 Yuan note get a free forensic treatment: it was held up in the sky to check for watermarks and looked at from different angles for the holograms and other built-in counterfeit measures. And the vendor didn't show any favouritism, every note from a 100 down to 5 Yuan get a thorough strip search with her detective eyes.


Back to my trip. As more and more local villagers in China are migrating to the cities - the largest human migration in history - for a better living, they are leaving their traditional ways of life behind. Many traditional way of life is surviving because of tourism. The Guilin cormorant fisherman of is an example. They now perform for the tourists as they fish (or as their file of cormorant soldiers fish). Some people say this kind of survival is superficial. You either put the tradition on artificial life support or let it die. Most people prefer the drips ("Pull the plug and let me RIP, come on papa!", "Over my cold dead body, sorry my lil'uns! Over my cryogenic body...")

Fisherman lifts a cormorant from water after its catch

This fisherman has 4 sidekicks. He lifted one of the foot soldier that just caught a fish in its throat with his bamboo pole. Cormorants - several species - are quite common in Sydney (probably a common bird around the world). You can find them anywhere near water in Sydney. I even spotted a few of them in the artificial pond just outside Sega World building in Darling Harbour. But I've never seen a white one. When I spotted this white one on the left of the raft, I jumped the gun and thought it's a lazy, sitting duck getting a free ride on the raft. A zooming in of the photo revealed that it's a cormorant. If I'm not wrong, this is a youngling, and after moulting its white feathers (as seen by the snow flakes all over its feet) it would turn into a black adult. Some speckles of black feather already appear on its neck.

Fisherman removing a fish from the cormorant's throat

A fish is being removed from the cormorant's throat. He then put the fish back into water, not his basket. He's not fishing, but performing. In fact, no basket on his raft to be seen.

As we on our way to the Frengyu Cave, we passed some nice scenery that made Guiling world famous. Although these are not as good as those i saw yesterday when we made our way to the Silver Cave. This is because we got to the Silver Cave by boat, and so we saw from the perspective of water. This is still is nice. But yesterday's are gooder.

The passing scenery

We arrived Fengyu ("Abundant Fish") Cave, about 95km from Guilin in the afternoon. The cave was nice, but it didn't top what I saw yesterday in Silver Cave. Far from it. So you get fed a dose of anti-climax. 

A Yao's traditional building

You can enjoy the sightseeing of the lake on a bamboo raft

Or you can do the rafting yourself if you're keen.
I hope you all propel the raft in the same direction.
Yeah, looking like one of those team building exercise that your office send you.

Fengyu Cave with disco lights

Just in case you want to see more of the cave.
I promise this is the last one

Since the cave spans 9 hills, I didn't think we were going to cover its whole length on foot (for the sake of a few of elderlies in our tour group. OK, for my sake, I was overtaken by few sexagenarians and even a septuagenarian on more than one occasions. Should have tailed them closely to take advantage of their slipstream. Swoosh). After an hour or so of spelunking on foot, we arrived at a cave harbour to board a canoe, which traversed a subterranean river for the rest of the trip. There was no light and we were given torches to shine on the cave walls as we cruised along. The darkness adds some mystery and thrill. Some parts of the cave are so low that if we didn't have the torches we would suffer severe headaches several times before we exited the cave. Only kowtowing to these million years old stalactites saved us from having freshly bruised heads.

You can always play dress up in the Yao's traditional costume

I won't do it because i think the the Yao female costume, especially the headgear, is far more over the top. If you know what i mean. 😉 Besides, i done my touristy duty yesterday when i visited Jingjiang Palace. Go look and laugh. Or read and weep.

Buffalo and Bill

After dinner, our hotel provide some evening entertainment performed by the Yao (瑤族) minority people. Numbered in 2.6 million, they are mountain people, tree lovers.

Yao women performing their traditional dance, Yangshuo

The Yaos' costume is quite diverse, but the blue and black is quite popular. These little black numbers that these girls are wearing consists of collarless jackets with plaited skirts, fringed by beautiful Yao's traditional silk embroidery and brocades. These dresses are good for dancing, knitting, sewing, working, shopping, dating or simply for a leisurely walk in the English countryside, available at all good Yao households.

Speaking of dating, a lot of these Yao gals (and a few other minorities) get dates (boys, not fruits) by singing, usually across the river. The tourists would get to see these in action as mountain songs are being sung while we floated gently across the river. Other times, we were asked to belt our these folk ballads ourselves, killing the songs and the tranquil ambience the same time - 2 birds with 1 stone (or the equivalent Chinese expression "2 condors with 1 arrow". Hang on a cotton picking minute, they're both Chinese expressions!).

Most Yao people live in the south west regions of China spanning Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong, but heavily concentrated in Guangxi. They also live in Vietnam, Thailand, and Loas, not surprisingly as these countries bordering south and south west China where Yao people dwell. In Vietnam, the Yao is called Dao (and pronounced the same as Yao. 'D' in Vietnamese is pronounced identically to 'y' in English). As the consequences of the Vietname War (meself is one such inconsequential individual in such historical consequence), some Yaos are now living in USA. Most live in the west coast of the U.S. in the states of Washington (not D.C.), Oregon and California, making California more diverse than one can possibly imagine.

Jingjiang Palace 靖江王府, Guilin, China

Jingjiang Palace/Castle and Mausoleum was our first morning stop. This is one of the optional tour.This palace belonged to King Jingjiang (one of the brother of Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, hence "King"). During the 257 years from the building of the palace to the end of Ming Dynasty, 14 kings from 12 generations lived here.

Jingjiang Palace
Rated AAAA by the official tourism authority
according to the plaque (in the photo's foreground)

 One of the buildings in this palace complex that I didn't expect to find here was the Imperial Examination House (Gongyuan 贡院). I'm somewhat surprise because Guangxi is essential a political backwater (it's as far away from Beijing as it can get).

Here lies one of the great Chinese invention. While the ancient Greek invented Democracy, Chinese came up with Meritocracy, which is embodied by the Imperial Exam for Civil Service. This Civil Service Exam created a level playing field, allowing the son of even a lowly blacksmith or farmer the opportunity to advance to the highest rank in the land: military general or chief minister of the imperial court (except for the top job). This idea originated by Confucius (circa 500 BC), and put into practice in the Sui Dynasty in 605 DC (existed a few centuries earlier in lesser forms). This is the 7th century Chinese version of the modern day Equal Job Opportunity Movement.

Confucianism empathises hierarchical relationship and harmony (vertical power structure) while Democracy favours individual rights and expressions, competition and conflict (horizontal power structure), democracy wouldn't take off in China as long as Confucianism thrives. This is why the East never meets the West, or would they? I hope I see the day when they have a rendezvous in my lifetime. I hope so because I just want to live to 300 years old. Actually many societies of former British colonies like HK and Singapore already shows such marriage of the East and West, and gives birth to many interesting hybrid, colourful forms of government. Even China herself is changing. She's changing from a Mao suit into a business power suit lately. If you ask me (I know you won't, so I just ask you to ask me), I prefer her in an alluring qipao. Now has many suits and dresses in her humongous closet (plus a few dusty, spiderweb covered skeletons). The business suits may not look as fetching as qipao or as together as the Mao suit, but it puts 3 square meals on the table for all her kids. Get real, Mao suits don't work on China, or anyone else. You simply can't knock a decent power suit, can you? Call me company man, I like the suit.

Claustrophobic needs not apply

Ok, back from the tangent. The tour guide put our tour group members into the individual Examination Cubicle (see photo); they even handed us with Examination Papers. On the side of fold-up Examination Table (it opens like those in a beer bar counter) is the calligraphy brush and ink plots. The Imperial Exam Papers contains many questions that tested the scholar of his general knowledge. In our mock paper, it contained general trivia regarding Guilin and our tour.

In the ancient time, for the three day grueling exercise, this cubicle will be your examination room, dining room, bed room, and toilet. Yep, they provided the scholars the chamberpots for their not so literary, but substantial outputs. That's why there's an oil lamp in the niche of the back wall so the scholars wouldn't step into the chamberpots at night. Or allowed them to burn the mid-night oil, literally, to the original meaning of the expression.

This is the first time I hold a calligraphy brush in more than 30 years, with trembling hands, I thought I scribbled as much as I can on the papers and take it home as souvenir. I should enjoy looking back my calligraphic doodles that only I can read (much worse than the doctors'). Half way through my papers, the Imperial Examiner Clerk snatched it away as he yelled "Brushes down! Brushes down!"
As it turned out, they took the Imperial Exam Papers of the whole tour group (25 people) for assessment. They graded my papers with the highest mark and therefore passed this exam. I guess while others are busily posing for photos, I was busy writing. What's new?

All dressed up and going places in the Ming government...
and showing off the credential papers

They dressed me up in an official uniform of a newly appointed bureaucrat - a Mandarin of the Imperial Ming Dynasty. As Guilin and this area is a county-level district, I was officiated the rank of licentiate (xiucai 秀才 - loosely translated as "Budding Talent") in passing this exam - the lowest rank of the scholar-official. This instant-noodle-time public fame might just make the trip worthwhile. I kid. The photo ops just put meaning into my pathetic life. I jest. About the meaning, not the pathetic comment. That remains true as gold.

Bowed at the altar of the teacher / originator of
the civil exam Confucius 孔子
as part of the ceremony (no tossing of mortarboards)

Sanctuary of Truth (Prasat Satchantham), Pattaya, Thailand

Sanctuary of Truth

If you expect that this is a place with a history, you'll be disappointed. It couldn't have a history as it hadn't even completed. It had been building since the 1980s, and work was still being carried out when we were there (in 2009). By the look of it, it will at least take another decade to finish it (the guide suggested 2025). I guess our tickets would help to build it.

Without reading too much on it (I like surprise), I imagine it was similar to Wat Phra Yai that I visited 3 months ago (you can read my article here). It turned out they have nothing in common, and had to say it's a pleasant surprise.

Construction work being carried out

Apart from being something that built for the tourists, it's hard to classify as a temple or a museum or simply a work of art. I say it's a bit of all three.

Considering Thailand is the Land of the Wats, tourists easily mistaken to think that any touristy place in Thailand is going to be temple.

The Thai name for Sanctuary of Truth is Prasat Satchantham (you might see other way of writing its name. Commonly Prasat Sut Ja-Tum. This is a typical problem with transliteration). The name 'Prasat' is translated as 'Castle', not 'temple'. One shouldn't expect it to be a wat.

Instead of "Sanctuary of Truth", maybe it should be opted for the literal translation of "Castle of Philosophy", which sounds like something coming out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Ring.

Whatever it is, it's a showcase of the masterful craftsmanship of its carpenters, for the whole place is built out of wood. This is quite unique in Thailand. I have traversed the length of Thailand from Phuket in the south to Changmai in the north, I had yet seen anything like this. The organic nature of wood making this structure much more "spiritual". I was told that no nails or glue were used to put the pieces together (this is similar to most Chinese (indeed East Asian) ancient architectures. Only dovetailing and other established traditional interlocking structures that evolved over many centuries).

Strong pyramidal shape. It rises an impressive 105 metres

For those who's dead set on only looking at historical buildings, this would be a let down. For those who don't mind just admiring the skills and the stunning visual impact the building has on its observer, and enjoy looking at the numerous exquisitely carved wooden sculptures, and reliefs, it's a feast for the eyes. This wowed me as it's so unexpected such project exist in Pattaya, given some of its culturally tarnish image.

Like Angkor Wat where it has many stories of Buddha are part of the structure of the building. Speaking of Angkor Wat, I don't believe the similarities between the two are coincidental. This structure has a strong influence of Khmer architecture. Like the strong pyramidal shape of the whole building (which in turn originated in Hindu architecture).

There's the four-head "reliefs" that reminiscent of the similar architecture in Angkor Thom. You can read my travel diary to Siem Reap here.

Four faces in Sanctuary of Truth

Four giant stone faces of Avalokiteshvara, Angkor Thom, Cambodia

While it has strong influence from the the Khmer architecture. It actually has 4 gopuras, each represents the religious representations of Thai, Cambodia, Hindu and Chinese.


Yes, it's a place that one would describe as a tourist trap with the many touristy sideshows. I don't mind at all. Seeing this building worth my whole trip. Some of us may enjoy the sideshows, especially for the kiddies.

Animal rides

There's the buggy ride as well as elephant ride.

Dolphin Show

This show is definitely came out of the left field. Of course, a zoologist ignoramus like myself would expect a bottlenose dolphin sprung out of water. It turned out to be nothing I have seen before. And what's more it performed in a river. Since this place is so close to the ocean, the water would be estuarine (a mix of sea and fresh water).

Thai Traditional Dance

The Traditional Thai dance, which was included in the ticket was nice enough until a couple of machete wielding guys starred to go at each other. Like the dolphin show, this part of the Thai martial art didn't fit in too well with the place. I left before the performance ended. The machete seemed too much of a close shave to me (I use electric shaver).