LC300 S'pore: Free Museum Admissions in Aug

Dear All

In celebration of Singapore's National Day, all museums are free of admission charge to Singaporeans and PRs during the month of August. Free admission are only to the permanent galleries. Special exhibitions are not included.

Poster of free admission (below):

Interior of National Museum (below):

Beautiful stain glass ceiling of the museum's dome (below):

Part of the exterior facade of the National Museum (below):

Bert & I decided to take advantage of this freebie...after all, however do we get back what we pay in taxes right? These museums are built with tax-payers money. Haha, so in one day, we managed to cover 3 museums, namely the National Museum, followed by the Peranakan Museum and lastly the Philatelic (or stamp) Museum.

These 3 museums are closely located to one another, so the route was smooth. First we took a cab to the National Museum at Bras Basah. Then we walked past SMU and turned right and walked straight to the Peranakan Museum at Armenian Street (opposite the famous Armenian Church which we didn't have time to visit). Next, we walked further up to the Philatelic Museum at the junction of Coleman Street and Armenian Street.

We had actually visited the National Museum before, not that long ago, so this time round, we sort of breeze through it as the exhibits have not changed much. The last time we visited, we had to pay to enter. If you have not been to this museum before or for at least the past 2 years, it really worth visiting. It has a gallery on the ground floor with antique weighing machine and school furniture from the 1970s. It also has photos recording Singapore's independence and separation from Malaya.

Gallery showcasing Singapore's coming into her independence (below):

Typical school furniture and bag of the past (below):

The galleries on the 2nd floor are more interesting. There's at least 4 - 5 galleries. One was paintings of unusual animals from Malaysia; another was our traditional foods; another was old cinematic cameras and threate of yesteryear; another was how our mothers and possibly grandmothers used to dress.

Galleries showcasing traditional foods (below):

Bert sniffing the herbs (below):

Gallery of unusual animals and plants (below):

Gallery of the Peranakan heritage (below):

An early peranakan rosary of the 1900s (below):

Gallery showcasing early cinema technology (below):

Exhibits of early years' lady fashions (below):

Last time, tailor made clothes were in vogue, hence so are materials (below):

Close-up of the swinging chandelier along museum's passage (below):

Outside of museum enroute to Peranakan museum (below):

Sculpture entitled "Seeds" (below):

Do you remember this sculpture "Living World"? It's now at National Museum (below):

Enroute to Peranakan museum, we saw this colourful building (below):

Next to it was this tower clock (below):

We next visited the Peranakan Museum. Personally, we liked this place best, perhaps because we are both peranakans, and perhaps more so because this museum kindly lived up to its name of having ALL its galleries FREE, and housed a huge display of everything pernankan, all 3 storeys of it! We really spent a lot of time wandering here, and had to sms each other several times as we went off our separate ways, exploring what interest us most :) It wasn't a bit scary, as there were sufficient visitors about yet not too many to more it too crowded to explore.

Peranakan beaded table cloth with phoenix motifs (below):

Typical gift from the peranakan groom to the bride's family of yesteryears (below):

Olden days, they already have these ergonomic, comfortable chairs! (below):

The gallery at the ground floor traced the roots of the peranakan...there were Eurasian, India, Chinese and other races of peranakan....we didn't realise that till then! Cool! :)

The 2nd floor was where all the action was....there were lots of things to see. Bert and I were busy snapping photos that both our batteries went flat before our SD card were full!

These are bolster ends, believe it or not! (below):

Bridal chamber of peranakan couple (below):

Bridal Procession (below):

There's a wedding procession exhibit/props, wedding gifts from the groom side and the bride side, a typical peranakan kitchen from yesteryears, the ancestors altar, and how catholicism came to the peranakan altar. There's the set-up of the peranakan dinning table with all it's gawdy crockeries and multitude of cutleries.

Chandelier used as a prop in show "Emily of Emerald Hill" starring Ivan Heng (below):

A traditional peranakan card-game called "Cherki" my maternal great-grandma used to play (below):

The Van Kleef Aquarium I used to visit as a child. I remember the "viking" boat-shaped fountain in the foreground of the building (below):

This grandfather's clock was similar to my paternal grandfather's one (below):

We used to have this phone at our paternal grandparents' home when I was little. I was allowed to dial 381 to listen to a recording of a lady telling the time. We had to turn the dial for each number all the way to the metal clip at the bottom of the dial (below):

Exhibit from the late Mrs LKY's collection (below):

There's quite a bit of repetition of clothing fineries, wedding fineries and crockeries that I personally find it, it can be a bit of an overkill. By the end of our visit, we were very tired.

A typical peranakan kitchen of the past (below):

There were numerous crockery on display (below):

Elaborate dinning ware for guest (below):

As it was quite late into the afternoon by then and we were tired, we had a quick tour of the Philatelic museum. It housed the rare black penny stamp and has an exhibit for visitors to spot the difference between the real and the fake stamps! There's even an old-looking post-box in front of the museum that is a real working post-box....and how did we know? Well, Bert had to post a letter, so we asked the staff :)

Fortunately, my camera had a little juice in it's battery left, so I took some selective photos at the Philatelic Museum :)

External facade of Philatelic Museum (below):