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...

Coldplay AHFOD Tour Concert in Bangkok, 2017

 So two weeks ago, I went to watch Coldplay live in concert for their AHFOD Tour 2016- 2017 in Asia!

We caught the one in Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

I camped for hours a few months ago attempting to get the Singapore ones but failed due to poor organizing and kiasu scalpers, but all's well ends well because I managed to get the Bangkok ones rather easily. 

Now, I am very sure Coldplay needs no introduction. They've been around for more than a decade and have more chart-topping hits than I do fingers. I am not the only one who can subconsciously sing along to "Yellow" or "The Scientist" or "Fix You" whenever, wherever it is playing. I was also pretty into their latest record, A Head Full of Dreams, but when I heard that they were going to play some of those loved chart-topping hits, I made up my mind that we absolutely HAD to go to this. So 3 tickets I got, and off my cousin, my boyfriend and I to Bangkok for OUR Adventure of a Lifetime!

The concert was on 7th April 2017, and my BF and I went to the venue around noon to collect the tickets (my cousin was feeling ill and stayed at the apartment). We had a lousy experience because our stupid Grab driver dropped us really far away from the Stadium and we had to walk a lot under the heat getting lost in circles before I eventually asked a Westerner how to get there (none of the Thais could speak English) and find out that the entire time, we were just going around inside the University next to the Stadium -_-

We finally got there after almost an hour, which was messed up because the stadium was literally just there but there were tall fences around it so it became unreachable -_-

I rated the Grab driver "really bad" because he was so shit.

We were relieved that the ticket collection was relatively easy and quick, must be due to everyone already having picked theirs up at other venues before the concert day.

We then saw the merchandise queue and joined right in, where we queued for about two hours. It was really, really hot and the concert was attended by a LOT of Indonesians who flew in to catch the concert!

 They had T shirts with 6 different designs, hoodies, tote bags, key chains, programme booklets and caps.

 I remember wondering to myself who in the world would get the programme booklet but my cousin got it later that night before the concert hahaha

Out t shirts were around B$55 each.

It was fairly well-organized with 20 counters. When its your turn, they will announce the free counter and you just go there and tell them what you want, based on the numbering of the merchandise on the banners.

 Yay!

After that, we made one of the decisions of our life which we would forever look back on and shake our heads to, we took a Grab back to the apartment all the way back in the city. Actually, it is not as far as it sounds, but if you imagine tens of thousands of people all trying to get to one location, you can imagine the shit that is called a jam. We took around 2 hours to go back to the apartment, took a quick shower, picked up my cousin and went BACK to the Stadium, which took another 2-3 hours. The jam was so horrid that we just told the driver to drop us and we would walk the remaining journey.

I walked so much that day my Melissas gave up on me and punished me by cutting my skin open at the sides and the back of my poor feet.

When we got to the venue, we went to the third floor to our seats but were told to go back down to the ground floor. Apparently, the organizers oversold the seats, aka one seat was sold to more than one person. -_- We are quite submissive Asians so we just chose any seat in the ground floor. I was quite alright with it because it was technically an upgrade (tickets were more expensive for ground floor) and we ended up being quite near the stage (we were right behind the most pits) although we had quite limited view due to some tent set-ups. But, #submissiveAsians.

Before the crowd started piling up.. There was a 60,000 crowd that night, and my cellular reception from AIS just died. Also, you can see the 50 shades of tanner I got from the day of walking and getting lost (plus the day before's trip to Ayutthaya which I will blog about some other time).

 Also, it started to drizzle a little bit so we had our trusty rain coats out but thankfully the drizzle stopped, and we were able to enjoy the concert without getting wet. It was really stuffy in that rain coat..

  Mega love to these weirdoes!

 We were all given wristbands that lit up in ~synchronization~ which was super cool, and this was how it looked like when the stadium was full! The wristbands would light up in difficult colors and in different beats depending on certain parts of some songs

I've a lot of videos compared to photos! At one point Chris Martin told us to put our phones down for a minute LOL

The concert started at 8PM with the opening act, an Australian singer/rapper called Jess Kent, and Coldplay killed it at 9PM with "A Head Full of Dreams" in what I can only describe as an explosion of vibrancy to my eyes and to my ears!!

The concert was amazing!! They covered so many of the best songs not only by them, but songs that were ever entrusted upon us normal human beings!! I absolutely enjoyed myself and it was definitely one the best moments of my life... And I am not being dramatic. The crowd was energetic, the songs were pure bliss, the talent was raw and it just combined to the most bombastic experience, that I am really having difficulty trying to convey the awesomeness into words for you (but I think I did fairly well?).

If you are curious, here is the set list for Bangkok's AHFOD concert, instead it wasn't listed but they sang "Speed of Sound" which is probably right up THERE for the list of my favorite Coldplay songs.I also loved how Chris Martin did a shout out for the late KKing Bhumibol Adulyadej through the beautiful melody, Everglow, as well as some other legendary artists who have recently left us in the likes of David Bowie, Mohammad Ali and Prince.

Chris Martin was like a fireball, covering all corners of the stage, and when he would run out to the end of the stage through the mosh pit, it would allow us to see him the most clearly. The group's performance was just a burst of energy and fun, and even Will and Johnny performed as lead vocals for Don't Panic (the requested song, ironically by a Chinese from mainland China/ It was showed on-screen and when Chris said he hopes to one day play in China, the crowd booed. Haha oh Chris, you have much to learn!!).

The concert ended pretty early by 11PM and as expected, the journey going back to the apartment was in the simplest word: difficult. No Grab or Uber cars and taxis would accept your requests because they would rather stop by the street and charge you double. We decided to walk to the nearest railway station, which was an hour's walk away. This too, would end up as a terrible decision because when we eventually got there, not only were we tired (and in pain) and it was late, the railway station was already closed by midnight. We were lucky enough to eventually have a Grab car pick us up and eventually got back to the apartment and in bed by 2 AM.

It was tedious, yes to get there and back but it was worth it because, hell- Coldplay.
The concert was just so amazing, and I would do it all over again (with better decisions lol). Thank you Coldplay for the amazing experience, it really really did make my head full of dreams come true!

Xx

Day 9: War Memorial of Korea and the N Seoul Tower

On Day 9, we visited the War Memorial!

Mentioned previously, my bf and I are huge war geeks. Following our DMZ tour, the visit to the War Memorial satisfied that war-geek itch pretty good.

How to go:

Line 4 Samgakji Stn. 3 min. walk from exit 11, 12.

The place was pretty easy to find. I remember finding it such a fresh change because that station was so empty, as opposed to those we frequented to way too often in Myeongdong and Dongdaemun.

We were greeted almost immediately with this dome-like structure and a statue of two POWs during the War.

Touching photo of a man serving the military using his day off to visit the War Memorial. Those enlisted get very rare days off, if I am not wrong it is 7 days off for 6 months with permission, and on public holidays, but they are must be in their military gear at all times.

:-(

The Korean War touches me in a very deep way which I cannot quite explain. I feel deep sadness when I think of the POWs, their families back then and their families now. 

I guess the recent Kim Jangnam murder saga in Malaysia does not help. There are now Malaysians who are banned from leaving North Korea, and who knows what their fate will be.

As we walked further in the museum grounds, we could see planes and tanks ahead so naturally that way we headed.

The War Memorial of Korea is split into an indoor exhibition AND an outdoor exhibition of the planes, tanks, helicopters and others that were used during the Korean War from 1950-1953.

A replica of the PKM-357 which was sunk in an ill-fated dispute along the maritime boundary near Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea in 2002.

The patrol boat was sunk when two North Korean patrol boats opened fire on two patrol boats from South Korea.The patrol boat sunk, along with six killed and eighteen wounded.

After that, we went into the patrol ship replica (mentioned above):

The ship was true to size and could fit a lot of people. There are even bullet and blood replicas on the walls of the ship, which you can see in the pic above.

After the tour outside in the lovely 6 degree weather, we proceeded inside. Entrance was free.

The War Memorial is split into two kinds of important Korean history: one of the Korean War and one of the Wars back in the Joseon times (and earlier!). It was all very, very educational, interesting and heartbreaking to read, learn and see. There were many interactive shows, artifacts and factual reading to help you understand what happened back during the War.

On the ground and lower floors were the "ancient" history bits:

I took a lot of photos but I am not really captioning everything because I think it will be really great if you guys visited the place yourselves because it was such an amazing experience for us.

The War Memorial of Korea is so properly-kept and is clean and interactive. I saw loads of little Korean children running around and I found that so refreshing because it is only right they know what happened, or rather, is happening in the country and know of all the people who fought for their rights and freedom, though some would say they never got it.

We finished in the early afternoon at the War Memorial. I think we spent at least 3~4 hours there.

Our next destination was the N Seoul Tower.

We decided to take a bus up there.

How to get there:

Circulation Bus No. 2: Chungmuro Station (Seoul Subway Lines 3 & 4), Exit 2 (in front of Daehan Cinema) or Dongguk University Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 6.

We took the Bus No. 2 from the Chungmuro Station exit. There is a bus stop a walk away, in front of a clinic/ hospital. The No. 2 bus came pretty quick but it filled up pretty quick too so we waited for the next one. Make sure you get on the right bus!

The ride up is a very windy one, in a tight road. After the bus drops you off, you have to walk a short distance up the hill to get to the tower.

For a tower that looks so close, it sure took a lot of effort to get to.

Getting there..

Almost there....

Beautiful sparkly lights at the staircase. There were a lot of people so this shot was quite hard to snap.

There are many shops and restaurants at the bottom of the tower, so you don't have to worry about a bite or a drink.

Thank goodness for selfie sticks!

Being me, I made my BF take me to buy a love lock to put at the balcony

Misty view from the top!

This wasn't a love LOCK but it was the cheaper option (almost B$10 altogether along with the marker)

From Paris to Penang to Seoul :P

It got dark pretty fast but the view was spectacular. We did not go to the top because it was so foggy and we had to face the fact that we wouldn't be able to see anything.

Absolutely worth the effort going up there!

Xx