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a miscellany, singapore

Singapore: A, Miscellany
Having never visited one before, we ventured out to Little India. Every ten metres or so took us past another restaurant with the word vegetarian in its name, and Davyd's excitement never waned. Little India was filled with delightful smells and bright, fabulous colours, and Davyd suggested that perhaps we could visit Big India some time.

We jumped on the MRT down to Raffles Place to find Merlion Park. Catching the MRT was fun, we never had to wait more than about five minutes for a train and almost every place we wanted to visit was near a train line, or close to a train-bus connection.

Merlion Park was disappointing. Its name implies a theme park, or an adventure; instead we found a merlion, gushing into the harbour, and a baby merlion, its back to the water.

More exciting was the Asian Civilisations Museum, located a short walk away at Empress Place, just across from the Cavenagh pedestrian bridge. We wandered in shortly before the 1400 guided tour, and on a whim decided to join it. Yuli, our guide, explained a hundred little nuances I'd never realised, the shape of the Buddha's hat and the origins of writing in Europe and Kwan Yin's journey to China. The museum itself is well laid out and incredibly interesting, focused on explaining the history of Singapore through its inhabitants and ancestors. It traces the path of Chinese history, the path of Islamic history and Indian mythology and weaves it all together to form Singapore today, and it was fascinating. I wanted to buy so many books in the museum shop, and we spent a delightful two hours wandering back and forth inside the museum's galleries. If you visit Singapore, you should visit the museum, it was certainly worth the visit to me.

Other notable visits were to Orchard Road, the major shopping district, and the Kinokuniya located there. Davyd was entranced for quite some time by the walls of engineering texts, and at one point lamented that we would never be able to leave it. We visited Clarke Quay, the major clubbing area, which was fun enough, and at Suntec City hopped on a Duck Tour. The Duck Tours involve a one hour tour around Singapore in an amphibious vehicle that was used by the US in the Vietnam War, the tour is 40 minutes on water and 20 on land, and it's an interesting way to see some of Singapore.

Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balm Gardens) was boring and uninspiring, though my childhood memories recall it as bright and beautiful.

We spent some time on Sentosa Island, exploring Fort Siloso. I remembered the fort from my childhood, but not any of the details, so it was interesting to return and actually be interested in the information gleaned, the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 and the ensuing occupation. And the merlion on Sentosa, at least, was visually more impressive, though my favourite of all was the Merlion Walk, a dynamic mosaic pond and series of fountains trailing behind the merlion.



Photos:
Jurong Bird Park
Asian Civilisation Museum
Selected others (mostly of the same): here