The best way to understand the culture of a certain country is to know its history. Do you agree? For me, this is so true, and applying it to my own culture, things around me are all influenced by our history as Filipinos. That's why, when we visited Singapore, one of the goals was to pay their National Museum a visit. It's not expensive!
From Hotel G, it was very easy to reach the National Museum of Singapore, there are many buses that pass by the museum and you won't miss it as it's huge and white with a wide green lawn. Fort Canning Park is also just behind it, in fact, the Tree Tunnel is just on the right side, although we have to walk a bit further to reach there.
All photos on this blog were taken with a phone camera, we somehow didn't think of using our cameras at that time, so we decided to just enjoy the moment and snap without getting attention.
The Entrance fee was 10 SGD, however, seniors pay only 7 SGD and there's a different ticket if you want to go to all the access areas. We decided to get the regular one, Singapore History Gallery & Story of the Forest
This below were at the gallery entrance:
The Story of the Forest however is located on the second floor and one has to take the elevator to get here. There are many museum staff as well who were always friendly and willing to help so it was easy to go around. And so I asked one of the staff which should we go first, the gallery or the story of the forest? This guy replied we should go to the gallery first.
And so while we were at the second floor already, we decided to go back to the first level but first, we have to appreciate the architecture and the beauty of this structure from the second floor as it has these glass ceilings which allowed natural light to get in and thus making the interior bright and spacious!
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From the second floor, we also have a view of the dome ceiling which is quite similar to Tokyo's Marunouchi Station Building dome ceiling as well. We couldn't help but take photos of ourselves!
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When we had enough, we decided to go down to the first floor so we could start our Singapore history discovery. To start, we entered into this dark room with a huge curved screen that shows the beginnings of this Lion City. Here, is a display of the maps and Singapore's neighboring countries and land areas. We were able to see the Philippines too!
Strollers are allowed inside and we got Matti in it most of the time! Just like any other museum, they do not allow food and drinks, flash photography, videography, noise, and bulky items.
We took a while here as we were reading through the film, the map was dated in 1570 and was published 50 years after Magellan's voyage completed its first circumnavigation of the world in 1520
There is a huge ship next to the screen and this looked very real! It's extra big, unfortunately, I forgot to ask my husband to stand next to it so to differentiate its size!
And now the story began, Singapore during the old golden times. The locals here were pretty much like how our ancestors looked before and their houses look quite similar to ours too!
From archaeological finds, Singapura was a place where Chinese porcelain wares and stoneware were traded. The oldest rock formation in Singapore dates from the Paleozoic Era and it has been found that there was a settlement here several thousand years ago. Then there were historical records which state it was attacked by foreign invaders in the late 14th century and then was inhabited by the Orang Laut or the sea people in Malay.
At every corner, there are audiophones and screens where visitors can listen to the enacted audio of how they sounded back in the day. I remember we had something like this in Cebu at Casa Gorordo. That's my parents trying out the audiophones.
Trading was the way of life back in the day and even here in the Philippines, we have learned about our ancestors trading our natural resources for items from foreign countries like China. Items like porcelain, utensils, etc. As for the Malay, they got native products used to exchange goods from other people and nations.
According to the Sejarah Mealy, after the 14th-century attack, its ruler Iskandar Shah fled but founded a new kingdom at Melaka and Singapore was their base. But Melaka fell to the Portuguese who were in a spice trade. This marked the start of European colonialism.
In the early 1600s, Singapore had its own harbour master! In the 17th century, the Dutch arrived. In 1620, Flemish merchant Jacques de Coutre suggested that Portugal set up a port in Singapore.
Europeans like Sir Stamford Raffles and Major William Farquhar arrived in Singapore in 1819. They had a deal with local Malay rulers to set up British trading port which was open to ships and vessels of every nation free of duty. It brought in traders and ships from as far away as Arabia and Africa! This made Singapore the centre of trade in the Southeast Asia.
Many migrants populated the nation, most to trade but others came to work in the port city.
But let’s talk about Sir Stamford Raffles. Before coming here, we visited the Fort Canning Park and within the park is a building and even a garden named after Sir Raffles and I was curious about what this guy had done for Singapore.
So, before coming to Singapore, Sir Raffles had been with the East India Company in the Malay Archipelago for 14 years. He actually led the invasion of Java and was the lieutenant governor of Java. He strongly believed in free trade so he selected Singapore for this and was credited for introducing a town plan, establishing modern laws, and founding the Singapore institution known now as Raffles Institution.
The above paintings were the Europeans who made such great acts for the advancement of the Lion City!
The museum is mostly dark, those with lights are the ones with important details. They have seats and lounges available in every section so those who get tired can sit and relax.
The highlight of all the things that I learned here in the museum was definitely their battle against Japan. I never heard of it and I am glad we came here because I had learned a lot! Let's talk about it in this section.
If my memory serves me right, this part of the museum is the largest, it probably consumed several sections of the ground level. They had video clips of the war, not sure if it was a reenactment or they were from the actual war. So, there's a lot of reading and watching to get the history but from what I understood, the Japanese troops penetrated the nation from the north jungle, the Japanese were battle-hardened, well-organized, and well-supported by air and armor; the inexperienced Allied forces could offer little resistance and the Japanese moved with incredible speed south along the peninsula.
The British army had made a wrong move not considering the jungles of the peninsula. Several allies were captured and Churchill called it the worst disaster in British military history. But what struck me was the massacre done by the Japanese, killing several civilians which they refer to as purging or Sook Ching in Chinese. They killed 25,000-55,000 ethnic Chinese with machine guns and rifles. This definitely is shocking to me! I can't imagine the numerous dead bodies!
At this part, we could watch the video while sitting on comfortable seats! We only planned to stay here for like an hour but after reading and watching these things about the country's history, I guess we lost track of the time already.
Syonan, that's how the Japanese refer to Singapore during its three-year occupation. Syonan means Light of the South Island. On August 6, 1945, the United States detonated an atomic bomb in Japan's Hiroshima, calling for Japan's surrender. It took four or five years for the economy to return to prewar levels.
In 1963, Singapore merged with Malaysia but on August 9, 1965, Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent and sovereign state and Lee Kuan Yew became their prime minister. This was the start of the nation's road to what we now have a progressive country.
We were at the end of this tour so we had to take a group selfie! Wearing a mask was highly recommended but they allow you to take off your mask at your own risk.
A typical Singaporean home:
The photo below shows the many things that Singapore has built and its accomplishments in the year 2015. We now know how beautiful and diverse this nation is and how they have been investing in creating one-of-a-kind tourist spots and structures that are unique to the world. Thus, making it one of the top destinations for travelers and even investors as it still is today, one of the biggest ports in maritime trade, Singapore is the focal point for some 200 shipping lines with links to more than 600 ports worldwide. It is the busiest port in the world in terms of shipping tonnage, with an average of 140,000 vessels calling at the port annually.
We got out of the first level and went to the second floor for their Glass Rotunda's Story of the Forest! We were in for a treat as teamLab's three-dimensional animations come alive as we go down into this lane!
Note, Japan's teamLab is also in the Science and Art Museum but we didn't sign up for that thinking Matti wouldn't be able to appreciate it yet and I received feedback that that part of the museum is just small compared to the Japan version in Tokyo. So, I am glad we opted out of that but got almost the same experience here with lesser fees.
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Murals still dominate in the Singapore Museum! At the ground floor just near the entrance, you'll see murals of the common day life in Singapore. Plus a view of this beautiful garden from the glass walls:
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At the end of the tour, you have the option to stick the admission tickets on their rating scale! I like the idea so much! Of course, I did my part and encouraged my parents to do it as well!
Visiting the National Museum of Singapore is highly recommended! You can spend more or less an hour inside!
