Singapore cultural attractions: a humble admission; Roy, then and now – a historical artefact?; Now Boarding: Experiencing Singapore through Travel 1800s – 2000s; Palawan Beach, Sentosa; meditating on dengue in Fort Canning Park; running up hills and through treacle; paths diverge at Botanic Gardens MRT

I wanted to title this “Culture Vultures in Singapore”, but had to admit it would have been an overstatement. Visiting one museum, two gardens and a theme-park island does not a culture vulture make.

What was more, the title had already been used: click here for a PDF of my recent Expat Living magazine article on our visit to Phuket. (But please remember to come back!)

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National Museum of Singapore

Situated on the edge of Fort Canning Park, the National Museum of Singapore is a magnificent attraction worth visiting and revisiting – but at first I doubted I’d be able to drag Roy along with me. I’d probably have to go alone. (I could already hear the protestations: he’d been there before, what had changed, etc.)

Then, jogging past this lovely building on my way into the park one morning, I saw a possible way to lure Roy in: a current exhibition titled: “Now Boarding: Experiencing Singapore Through Travel, 1800s – 2000s”. Ha! That would be irresistible to a man who first visited Singapore as a teenaged BI (British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd) cadet in the 1960s.

 

At this stage and at his age, my husband is arguably a historic artefact in his own right.

My historic artefact, then and now

Then…

Here is a rather blurry Roy with some of his soccer-team shipmates off BI ship the SS Karanja in Mombasa, Kenya, in the early 1970s. (Yes, that’s him on the right, and his hair was auburn.)

… and now

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Now Boarding: Experiencing Singapore Through Travel, 1800s – 2000s

A major Singapore cultural attraction, the National Museum is the country’s most important museum. It was lavishly redeveloped in the early 2000s and now offers state-of-the-art immersive displays and experiences.

Museum entry is satisfyingly free for citizens and PRs (permanent residents) like us – we just had to flash our Singaporean identity cards. Tourists pay $27 (seniors, $20) for entry to Now Boarding plus the various permanent galleries.

 

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Travel Posters

Now Boarding started with a display of decreasingly yellowed guide-books from the nineteenth through to the 20^th century. Then came a collection of gorgeous old travel posters – Roy has always loved this sort of thing. (But originals like these cost a small fortune.)

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Food is an ongoing theme in luring tourists to Singapore; see my most recent travel post here. Reflecting on the retro display above, would you agree that Tiger Beer plus the sultry lady sucking on a straw are more obvious local attractions than Ovaltine or red juice?

Below is a now-historical travel poster featuring an enthusiastic ang moh (white guy) at Singapore’s famous Lau Pa Sat hawker centre (renamed Satay Street) with a spread including prawns, ais cacang, chilli crab, laksa and a whole lot more.

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Glaring omission

Given Singapore International Airlines‘ (SIA or SQ’s) ongoing award-winning success and worldwide popularity, it was surprising to see little if anything about it in this exhibition. What were the curators thinking?

Nevertheless, apart from this temporary exhibition that ends in November 2023, you could spend many hours in the evocative Singapore History Gallery alone. In the end, I had to drag Roy out of there – past a vintage film of just one stirring speech by the founder of modern-day Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.

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Palawan Beach, Sentosa Island

 

The cable-car from HarbourFront Centre, which is also a shopping mall and home to a ferry terminal, must be the most spectacular way to get to Sentosa Island. Having experienced that once, it’s cheaper and probably quicker to get $4 tickets for the Sentosa Express monorail, which leaves from Level 3 of the adjoining VivoCity* mall, and give you free access to Sentosa Island.

(* VivoCity could just be the best mall in Singapore, I think. It has just about everything, including a huge Zara.)

You pay extra for entry to the aquarium, to Resorts World and its Universal Studios theme park, and various other contrived thematic experiences that are no doubt wonderful family activities. (I’m sorry, but even typing this has me yawning my head off.)

Once Roy had re-girded his loins with another $2 local coffee in a dingy local café at HarbourFront, we were good to go. Hoping to sneak a swim in, I knew I had a small window of opportunity before he arched his back, threw himself to the floor, and started drumming his heels in a temper, demanding to return to the mainland. So I suggested we ignore the first two monorail stops (Resorts World and Imbiah Station) and head straight to Beach Station. From here, it’s a short and shady walk to Palawan Beach.

While I frolicked in the warm water, my lovely husband waited more or less patiently in the shade, hunched scowling over his device.

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Two Favourite Parks, also Singapore cultural attractions

Fort Canning Park

Roy and I lived within jogging distance of Fort Canning from 2000 to 2009, so I got to know it well. Early mornings are best, while it’s still relatively cool. The celebrated Spice Garden is worth a wander; and several heritage trails with artefacts related to the old Malay kingdom of Singapura, plus Fort Canning’s role in World War II, add interest.

Singapore used to be a much hillier island than it now is, but much of its terrain was systematically flattened in the 19^th century to reclaim swamp for residential and commercial development. Still, a good dozen or more bukits (hills) remain. Fort Canning Hill is one; others are Bukit Peirce and Bukit Kalang in MacRitchie Reservoir Park (a beautiful trail run well beyond the CBD). Bukit Timah in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is the highest.  Here’s a nice link from runsociety.com listing hill-running trails.

Raffles House is rather disingenuously named, as this structure in Fort Canning Park was built long after the demise of Sir Stamford Bingley Raffles.

Years ago, I used to end my neighbourhood run* by lying back on one of the stone benches (shown above) to meditate on the tropical tree canopy. So I had another go this time. Very pleasant! – especially if you can avoid getting dengue from a naughty mosquito.

(I speak from experience, having contracted haemorrhagic dengue fever back in 2005, courtesy of a couple of hours in Fort Canning Park when the mosquitoes came out after a heavy rainstorm. The illness that ensued is the closest I’ve come to dying. I’m not trying to put anyone off: it could happen almost anywhere on the island.)

• So, was I able to run in sweaty, humid Singapore after all this time away? Not really – like the first time I tried it, it was akin to running through treacle. But I gave it a go, anyway. With no gym and no swimming pool, I had to get moving somehow!

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Singapore Botanic Gardens

Part of Singapore’s famous Botanic Gardens is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It’s big enough so you don’t have to trip over the estimated 4.4 million visitors a year – most of whom arrive in tour buses and sport hand-held fans, shady hats and resigned expressions.

When we emerged from the Botanic Gardens MRT station into the customary melting heat, I saw Roy’s expression change rapidly from resigned to “Bugger it, I’m not doing this.” Fair enough. I was wearing skimpy running kit and was prepared to sweat, while he… was not.

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Cluny Court

Luckily, Cluny Court shopping mall, housed in a historic conservation building, is right next to the station. Apart from an eclectic bunch of clothing and other boutiques like Juliette C. (click on this link to my recent article on Juliette’s lovely range), it also has a supermarket and a couple of café-style restaurants. So, Roy could happily while away the next 90 minutes over the newspaper and a series of excellent coffees at Da Paolo Gastronomia.

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I love the Botanic Gardens – it’s hard not to. (Unless you’re Roy, apparently.)

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Coming up – more Singapore cultural attractions

Outdoors

Next time we’re back in Singapore – and that will happen sooner rather than later, yay! – my to-do list includes rediscovering the gorgeous rainforest at:

• MacRitichie Reservoir Park, to do the trail run – even if I have to walk so of the way; and

• Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, home to Singapore’s highest natural peak.

For a great rundown of Singapore’s best parks and gardens, click on this link to Expat Living Singapore’s informative website, expatliving.sg.

Indoors

Also for our next visit, I’m working on getting Roy to another of the top Singapore cultural attractions, the amazing National Gallery.

He has already booked tickets for the last night of theatre company W!ld Rice’s next production, G*d is a Woman. Scheduled to play from 8 to 23 September at W!ld Rice @ Funan, Ivan (Heng) and Tony (Trickett’s) new theatre in the revamped Funan Mall, it’ s billed as a scathing satire on censorship and complaint culture, and I can’t wait to see it. (Unless, of course, it’s censored and they’re cancelled.)

Up next? Perhaps an update on the long-delayed building of our house here in Burns Beach, WA; or, more likely, a health-related post on my other blog, Living Long and Strong with Verne and Roy, at vernemaree.com. I hope to see you there!