1 Sep 2019 - National Museum of Singapore

From Clarke Quay, we drove to Fort Canning Park for the Singapore Bicentennial Experience.  We were really fortunate to get the one and only empty lot in the car park at that moment.  Since our allocated show time was several hours away, we decided to first visit National Museum of Singapore which is just across the road.

You will be surprised that after so many years. this is my first time visiting National Museum of Singapore.  It is also Jerlene's and Javier's first visit to the museum.

The National Museum of Singapore is the nation's oldest museum that seeks to inspire with stories of Singapore and the world. Its history dates back to 1849, when it opened on Stamford Road.

Other than the usual exhibits about histories, there is an area talking about environmental sustainability with information on the 3Rs (Reduce, Reycle and Reuse).  Jerlene and Javier had learnt about it in school and were interested to find out more.

During this period, there is a promotion whereby if you bring your bottle, you can fill it up with Gong Cha milk tea for FREE!  We had three bottles and filled them all up with the milk tea.

All the exhibitions are free admission for Singaporean and Permanent Residents.  Once we registered ourselves at the reception, we received a sticker which allows us to visit all the exhibitions in the museum.  One of the exhibition is Singapore History Gallery which charts the development of the island as it was known through the years as Singapura, a Crown Colony, Syonan-To, and finally, Singapore.

We then went to the exhibition galleries at the basement to experience the Force of Nature with Light, Sound and Wind effects.

There are 3 floors of exhibitions in the museum.

At Level 2, we visited the Modern Colony.  Set in a 1920s black-and-white bungalow, this gallery showcases the cosmopolitan nature of Singapore as a British Crown colony in the 1920s and 1930s.

At one corner of the museum, we came upon a spiral staircase.  Though this was my first visit to the museum, I have heard many haunted stories about it since young.  As beautiful as it looks, the notorious spiral staircase seemingly holds many dark secrets. It is said to be built during the pre-war days and houses many horrific war stories of our past. Before the museum was built, the area was apparently occupied by a monastery known for dealing with exorcisms.

Next we went to the Growing Up Gallery which brought back a lot of my childhood memory.  Following are toys which I played as a kids, namely Kuti-Kuti, five stones and spinning tops.

Other than toys, do you remember these soda water, especially for those about my age?

Below are more things that Jerlene and Javier have not seen in their life.

Before leaving the museum, we visited Story of the Forest, an immersive installation that transforms 69 drawings from the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings into three-dimensional animations.  Have compiled a video of our visit to the museum below.