By the numbers
2 museums
1 park
16,660 steps
13.54 kms
The day started off with a nice sleep in although my phone gives the time of both here and back home, which is a 2 hour difference. That means I have been sleeping in while here as time slowly ticks by. The weather looked to be pretty good and we pretty much left not long after getting up. Data on my phone had rolled over as it had somehow not done so the day before as for some reason money couldn’t leave my account, but today it could. We were heading to the National Museum as I had not been there since something like 2011 at least. My phone map tried sending me in the wrong direction as I had walked out of Dhoby Ghaut, I made sure to check it and I was going the wrong way. I soon found myself going in the right direction and we were out the front right as they were opening at 10am. They did seem to be doing some renovations to one side of the building, but we were able to get our tickets.
The museum also had school kids that were floating around with their schools too and a teacher telling off a group for mucking around as something had happened the day before. We had to wear our stickers so that security could let us in. The National Museum of Singapore told the story of Singapore when it was just a small island part of the many kingdoms in the area to when Raffles appeared on the scene during the 1800s, and he was only there for less than a year of the history of Singapore, but he had influence. The story went on to tell the story of many individuals like the early money makers from India and the Chinese people of influence. The story led smack bang into the invasion of Singapore by Japan and the eventual return to a British colony, where it didn’t really take long before the independence story began from the struggles to the growth into a powerhouse it is today. During our wander we had to stop for lunch, where I ended up with an egg and mayo sandwich and the Americans next to us were chowing down on anything. There wasn’t much to the museum that was left and we did a trail that took us from the top floor to the bottom where we were shown ever moving landscapes. At the bottom was an exhibition about trees in Singapore and certain ones that were special to certain people.
When we left it seemed to have gotten darker and I wanted to show mum Fort Canning as I knew some of it was an easy walk. We just happened to take the escalators up as they only operate during certain times. We made it to the garden, when the heavens opened up and it rained for the first time during the day that we have been out. Luckily we had shelter and waited for the rain to ease before wandering off. We had a quick look at one of the gardens before trying to make our way up to the archaeology dig that I had come across last time I was here. The area was covered so it wouldn’t get washed away. After a look around at the artifacts that had been found, I wandered down the path to look at what was left of the cemetery. By that time we were ready to make out way to the next museum we were going to visit.
The Asian Civilisation Museum was the next place on our list to visit, and we walked from Fort Canning park to the museum that was likely around a kilometre away. We walked past the National Gallery and over to a building that I had thought was what I was after since it had a close of 9pm. It wasn’t. It was an auditorium of sorts and what I was looking for was next door. We both had to stop before a drink before exploring the museum. I had chosen today as it was Friday and meant the museum closed at 9pm, so we wouldn’t be rushed around. The museum was actually interesting covering on the religions and cultures throughout the Asian continent and India as well. It was interesting seeing the different countries views towards the many deities that were out there especially in Hinduism. The trade of ceramics within all the countries were traded at some point, and there were even shipwrecks that had ceramics found, but some of the items recovered were far older than the vessels themselves, though there was controversy with the commercial use of archaeologists instead of having them do detailed documentation. They could identify where many of the ceramics were found and which locations the kilns were that created them. There were school kids in this museum too and they did seem to be a bit better behaved than the ones in the other museum. One thing the museum had a display of were replicas of the pagodas that were in China. Not only were the movement of trade items covered, but the migration of people and how their cultures were slowly changing due to modern practices like say headhunting and being restricted with their movements from being in isolated areas. The suggestion to explore the museum was start on the first floor, go to the third and then the second floor. An interesting way to see the museum. It soon came to the time where we had to leave for the room we are in as there were other things that needed to be done like washing that is part of any tip away. We were able to get straight in to do a load before anyone else could take them over.
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