Musings of the National Museum of Singapore

On one of my free days in Singapore, I allocated a visit to the National Museum of Singapore!

I am glad I did because the Museum was so well-kept and had so many interesting things to see and learn. I advise you to put aside a couple of hours to fully be able to absorb as much as you can.

I personally spent around 3-4 hours there and it was great because I was alone and had nowhere to be.

The National Museum of Singapore was pretty near my hotel, but I took a Grab because I ventured out to Haji Lane earlier that morning for brunch.

 The Museum has a beautiful architecture and is two-floors high

Excuse the tissue lol

Tickets are S$15 for non-Singaporeans for a one-day admission

I started off with the Gallery on Level 1 at the Singapore History Gallery. The Singapore History Gallery section takes you through the many stages of the making of modern-day Singapore from Singapura, a Crown Colony, Syonan-To, to finally, Singapore.

I didn't take many photos but if you want an interactive read on the Museum, you can read here.

Not sure if I am morbid or simply curious and history-indulgent, but the World War 2 always intrigues me, so I spent the most of my curiosity and attention in the Syonan-To section which was about the Japanese Occupation in Singapore from 1942 to 1945.

Singapore was renamed to Syonan-To (Japanese for Light of the South) in 1942 when the British surrendered and the Japanese took over. They only left in 1945 when they surrendered to the Allies.

There were lots of 'listening devices' in the Museum recorded by real life individuals (alive and not). This one above had recordings of real people back during the early days of the Japanese Occupation when Singaporeans slowly and quickly realized things were changing, when they were not officially informed about the British surrender yet..

This was towards the end of the Gallery, with Singapore already well, Singapore and there is a video of Lee Kuan Yew giving a speech about the un-merging of Singapore and Malaysia. It was slightly unnerving to see him talk about Malaysia in not the best light, but I do respect personal opinions.

After I was done with that part of the Museum, I advanced to Level 2, the Glass Rotunda: Story of the Forest.

Drawing inspiration from the National Museum of Singapore’s prized William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, Story of the Forest brings to life 69 drawings from the collection within the museum’s Glass Rotunda. A selection of these drawings are on display in the Desire and Danger exhibition at the Goh Seng Choo Gallery, which explores the intriguing relationship between man and nature. 

This immersive installation by internationally renowned art collective teamLab is divided into three key experiences, beginning with the Upper Rotunda, followed by The Passage and ending at the Lower Rotunda.

I remembered it to be really trippy because there were psychedelic lights everywhere and me getting lost because you had to enter through black curtains.

On Level 2, there were also other galleries like the Growing Up Gallery, which walked through the 1950s and 1960s of Singapore; through the growing up in Singapore then during the kampung times and how they went about.

There was also the Voices of Singapore Gallery which showcased Singapore as a cultural entity and how they grew not only politically and economically but also through music, performances, television and theatre as a form of self-expression in the 1970s and 1980s.

Also, there is an entire gallery of really old trees in Singapore. Lol.

Thanks for the fab time, National Museum of Singapore! I definitely recommend!

Sunny Singapore

 Hi! I recently just got back from an impromptu trip to Singapore for work, but this is the only work photo I will upload :P

Was there for CommunicAsia and it was really interesting! Met so many different people and saw so many cool stuff. It was tiring but super fun.

I was there for a week, and the remaining 4 days I was on my own and free to explore Singapore. I think the coolest thing I did was to visit the National Museum of Singapore. I've been wanting to for a while so I'm pleased to satisfy that urge, lol but I think I will dedicate that post for another day, with this one for one of my favorite things in life... Food.... Hahaha. #yup

We went for Chili Crab one of the nights (because- Singapore!!)  and with my friend's recommendation, we went to Toa Payoh (first time leh!) to a seafood restaurant called Mellben Seafood. We made reservations online but ended up late because I was caught by Minus417 in ION (long story short, the sales people refused to let me leave) but it was OK because it wasn't that full and we could make reservations on the spot/ The restaurant is two-storey, with the top floor air-conditioned.

 Black pepper crab

 Chili Crab

Dinner was yummy and I really enjoyed it! I am super anal about using my hands to eat (especially outdoors) but it was so good so I went for it :P

 On my first day being alone, I walked to Far East Plaza which was only two blocks from my hotel in Orchard (Marriott at Tang Plaza) and had the Hainanese Chicken Rice on the third floor, which I think is one of my BF's first ever loves hahaha. So good! I ordered the chicken rice and salted vegetable w duck soup.

Later that afternoon, I met up with Bel, a good friend of mine back from uni years. She is now an air stewardess from Singapore Airlines so I was lucky enough to catch her when she was in Singapore. I remember she just arrived from Paris the morning before and was flying off again to Brisbane the day after.

We met at Bali Lane, to have brunch at Stateland Cafe!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the cafe. It was a fusion cafe; a fusion of western and Asian.

 My Mentaiko Tiger Prawn Pasta

 Bel's Hainanese Chicken Rice Risotto =O If I hadn't just have chicken rice that morning, I totally would've gone for this. it was so interesting!!

with my beautiful friend, thanks for lunch and a great conversation to learn how much we've both grown since 10 years ago. good Lord are we old.

That evening, I met up with Daphne, an ex classmate who now lives in Sg for dinner. It was the first time I sat on a public bus in Singapore, super suaku:

 LOL

LOL sorry. I mean I have been on the MRT several times but the bus is a whole new thing.

After much contemplation and indecisiveness, we went to Teluk Ayer for Korean fried chicken. I've never been to Teluk Ayer so once again, I was so in love with the place and how quirky it was! (I was in Ann Siang Road a couple of days before and fell absolutely in love with the street's old-school charm too! These two streets are very near each other).

Teluk Ayer was a street of loads of Korean food and Wedding photo studios.

After that we met up with Cheryl for wine :)

I made the tiny mistake of meeting all my friends in one day so the next few days I was alone in Singapore!!! I didn't really know what to do and where to go because I didn't want to go shopping (I tried anyway).

The next morning of being officially alone, I went to Haji Lane to find a cafe but only to get there to a full house. So I strolled down and decided to get myself an $8.50 cuppa latte:

 I was so utterly amused with myself the entire time because I couldn't get over me ordering it, and me actually ordering it with my own selfie. Damn narcissistic but so funny. The cafe is called Selfie Coffee and it was operated by two Thai women. And yep, the coffee cost $8.50 and was nothing else special but really good for laughs.

No shame... Hahahaha

It got a bit creepy after I started drinking it. Looked like my face just caved in.

The next day, I plotted one of the nearest cafes to my hotel (by then I already moved to a diff hotel in Bugis) and was thankfully able to find it after walking so much (and even overshooting) to seats! I guess it was also because I got there before lunchtime. The cafe was called Artistry and it was a nice place with lots of Hong Kong scenes on the wall. Food was good but I felt the staff wasn't the friendliest bunch of people.

 Brunch and coffee! Food was ok, the coffee was excellent!

Seated outside the cafe waiting for my Grab... I tried to walk as much as I could because Grab prices are high in Sg even for the shortest of distances. Here I was taking a Grab because I was going to IMM all the way in Jurong East Hahaha. IMM is an outlet mall. I spent a few hrs there but didn't buy much because 1) I wasn't in SG for shopping 2) I had a Sister Act Musical later that evening. I know, why go to an outlet mall if you're not here to shop? Like I said I legit didn't know where to go anymore and what to do... I was kinda tired of Orchard and Bugis...