Send Yourself to the Singapore Philatelic Museum!

August is a very special month in Singapore, with Singapore's National Day celebrated on the 9th. August 2011 is even more unique, with Hari Raya Puasa coming next Tuesday (30 Aug) and the Presidential Elections today (more on that later, Pris is actually out at her polling station right now and she'll be making a post about that).

Through the month of August, in celebration of National Day, all Singaporean citizens and PRs have free admission to the majority of  museums in the country. Even better, on national holidays ALL people in Singapore are granted free admission. Pris and I have been taking advantage of this and while we haven't had much time to post about our experiences yet we have definitely been keeping ourselves busy.

Today, since I've finally got a few hours free (in between the Natas Travel Fair this morning and trip to Borders at Parkway Parade for special deals since the Wheelock Place Borders closed unexpectedly tonight) I can make the first of our museum posts- actually about the first museum we visited- Singapore Philatelic Museum.

For those who aren't in the field or involved in the area at all, philately is the study of stamps and postal history in general, and the Singapore Philatelic Museum focuses on stamps and the like produced in the Southeast Asian region, especially Singapore, as you can imagine.

Neither Pris nor I are very interested in stamps and whatnot and expected we'd likely breeze through the museum in an hour or less, but were pleasantly surprised that it was actually one of our favorites. No doubt learning the history of stamps and mailboxes can be boring, but with lots of exhibits and interactive things it made the trip much more fun. ...Actually, we were pretty childish through our visit and took advantage of their "stamp press" machines meant for the kids, where you can collect cute ink stamps on paper.

(this one was our favorite!)

There are plenty of exhibits and rooms to browse through, including a kid's room for drawing and cute stamp hopscotches on the ground, but we mostly just enjoyed the colors and look of old stamps and mailboxes.

While it's not the sort of museum I can see us stopping in to check out for each new exhibit, it's definitely worth at least one stop in if you have a bit of free time. Another benefit is that it's within short walking distance to the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum and the Peranakan Museum (yes, we also made stops at all of those!) so if you're looking for an interesting way to spend the day you can take quite a few hours between those.

There are a few other upcoming events if you haven't had a chance to visit yet. There will be free admission to all on Hari Raya Puasa (30 Aug), Deepavali (26 Oct) and a Stamp Fair held 11 Sept. Admission on days other than National Holidays is $5 for adults and $4 for children, and the museum is open 1-7pm Mondays and 9am-7pm Tuesdays-Sundays. You can easily reach by foot from City Hall MRT, Clark Quay MRT or Bras Basah MRT.

If you absolutely can't find the time to make it down but would like the see what they've got, you can take the virtual tour instead!

( but you can't see the old mailboxes unless you go in person!)

Visit to the Singapore Zoological Gardens

I do face-painting as a side job, and sometimes the locations I'm requested to work at can be pretty awesome! I was lucky enough to be invited to a company function last week that was being held in the Singapore Zoological Gardens, and since my job was only for a couple hours in the morning it gave us enough time to explore the entirety of the zoo for the rest of the day.

Yay elephants! ...alright, these are just statues. Real life ones further down the page though!

The Singapore Zoological Gardens (or simply the Singapore Zoo, or the Mandai Zoo) occupies 28 hectares of land and plays host to about 315 species of animals/reptiles/birds, most of which are housed within spacious, naturalistic "open" exhibits. Upon alighting at the zoo you may choose to explore the site on foot or on tram, the latter of which is slightly more expensive - at the time of posting normal tickets are S$20 per adult and S$13 per child, and S$25 per adult and S$16 per child if traveling by tram. Personally, I would recommend going about on foot as this allows you to take your time with the individual exhibits, and perhaps even first-hand close-up encounters with some of the tamer creatures that are allowed to roam the zoo freely:

A small number of peahens and peacocks can always be found strutting leisurely all over the zoo.

And within the exhibits too:

A shy mousedeer that came out of the fauna to greet the visitors. We were seriously only inches from it! Mousedeer are housed within the Fragile Forest exhibit.

I suppose I don't have to go into detail on all the different animals we have in the zoo, although you can be rest assured that it has a lot of big cats, African wildlife, reptiles and even amphibians on the list:

 

You're never going to get a clear shot of this beast.

The zoo also has regular shows that feature elephants, seals, monkeys and more:

The elephant show at Elephants At Work and Play. Be prepared to get sprayed if you sit in the front.

The sea lion show at Splash Safari, Shaw Foundation Amphitheatre. Prepared to get soaked here too!

However, if watching animals from behind a glass screen or from a bench seat just doesn't quite do it for you, you can also take part in feeding some of the mammals straight out of your hand for a small token fee of S$5. Feeding was definitely the highlight of our trip to the zoo! 

Michi's feeding them in this one but MANATEES ARE MY NEW FAVORITE ANIMAL

LOOK AT THOSE PUPPY FACES. SERIOUSLY HOW DO YOU RESIST A FACE LIKE THAT

Giraffes have really, really long tongues that are about as prehensile as an elephant's trunk and a monkey's tail combined. Also, slimy.

Those were the only two animal feeding times we managed to catch, but as biased as I admit I am I would still recommend feeding the manatees over the giraffes. There was definitely a much larger crowd in demand for the giraffes, but feeding took only all of ten seconds since the keepers only gave us like... five tiny sticks of sliced carrots. We were also asked to feed and leave quickly to make way for the next people in line, and according to the keeper we were not allowed to pet the giraffes as they "could get nervous and hit you with their necks". The manatees, on the other hand, took at least five minutes to finish feeding - we were given a full basket of sliced potatoes and carrots, and since there wasn't a crowd we were allowed to take our time as long as the food would last! Being allowed to pet them was also a huge plus (they feel like wet canvas). 

The zoo closes at 6pm daily, and if you're the more adventurous type you can continue your trip to the Night Safari which is right next to the zoo. I'll save that for another blog post when we actually get to explore it - if I'm lucky, maybe when my next face-painting job calls me there.

Subliminal last image post~

HSBC TreeTop Walk

Opened in 2004, the HSBC TreeTop Walk is a very cool, but very exhausting way to spend a free afternoon. Considering you'll be hiking anywhere between about 5 and 15 km (about 3.1 to 9.3 miles for my American friends who cannot convert metric... on which to note I used google to convert because I'm still far below average in recognizing metric equivalents too) you should come prepared with good shoes, snacks, and someone else, because hiking that long alone would be boring as heck.

Just a note before we start to give everyone an idea of perhaps why Pris and I found this trek so exhausting, aside from the fact that we're both willing to admit we're horribly out of shape- we're idiots. We knew beforehand how long we would be hiking, we knew it would be difficult, and yet we chose to take the hike in flip flops. Do not do this.  Seriously, this isn't a nice little hike in the woods. This is a difficult, often up hill path made of rocks of all sizes in various holds. Some will slip out under your feet, you will have to climb over many large, strangely placed red bricks in the path now and again, and it is not at all paved. For the sake of your feet please let us learn the lesson for you and wear the appropriate footwear.

The hours run from 9-5 on weekdays and 8:30-5 on weekends, so do make sure you get a head start, as they will not let anyone on past the 5pm mark. Two other things to keep an eye on: the size of your group (only 30 are allowed on the walk at any time, so if you are making a large group tour it may take a few minutes waiting to get on) and the weather (...please don't even attempt to get on a swaying bridge 25m in the air in a storm). It is definitely worth it to head out as early as possible, however, as the midday sun is a killer.

You can find a bit more information, including trails and whatnot, right here.

We headed out somewhat early, about 9am, but since we live pretty far we didn't really get started until around 10:30 or so. From the Marymount MRT it's about a 1.5km walk to the entrance of the trail, but pretty easy to find. Just follow the MRT map to St Theresa's Home and the start is right there. For those who will be driving or who want to make the trip with kids, you can shave about 5km off the total hike by heading straight to the Venus Drive entrance and starting there. They say in all the guides that it will take about 3-5 hours for the hike from start to finish, but in our experience it will be much closer to 3 unless you spend a long while eating lunch at the ranger station. We stopped for plenty of pics and our own lunch and still managed to finish right around the 3 hour mark, despite taking the longest route and keeping a steady, but not terribly fast, pace.

The TreeTop walk is located on a long path in the MacRitchie Reservoir, linking the two highest points within the area. It is about 250m long and 25m high, literally in the highest trees. It is also worth noting the actual suspension bridge is a one way route, so if you are terrified of heights you will literally not be able to turn around and change your mind once you start- the only option is to continue to the end. This isn't as bad as it sounds, both Pris and I were pretty wary about the height before we got there and neither of us flourish high in the air, but the walls of the bridge are high and it feels secure. Aside from a bit of swaying in the breeze there was nothing to make us nervous, and even that was totally welcome after about an hour and a half of up-hill hiking in 90-something degree weather (sorry, about 33c to my metric buddies, but you probably know how hot it is here anyway). 

The path is clearly marked, but also very busy. As a nature trail, you'll be sharing the first 5km with other joggers and hikers not looking to go to the walk, and sometimes it's a tight squeeze. The path is somewhat narrow and isn't paved, so watch your step and try to stick to one side so others can easily pass. The path out was nice, but as it was a lot of uphill walking also tired us out pretty quickly.

After 5km you'll come to a split in the path. This is where the path from Venus Drive merges and most hikers do not continue if they aren't looking specifically to get to the TreeTop walk, so after this things aren't nearly so crowded. To be honest, there isn't much to say about the hike itself as it's mostly the same thing, long winding roads surrounded on all sides by trees. Fortunately, nearly the whole walk is shaded so that helps take a lot of the edge off the heat.

A short while later you'll pass by the ranger station, where almost everyone will be stopping before or after the walk to relax a few minutes. There are bathrooms and free flow water, as well as blessed chairs, so take advantage before heading to the walk itself, as it's totally uphill from there (you're going into the trees, it's a tiring portion!). After what feels like forever, but what the signs tell you was only .3km (lies), you'll finally reach the suspension bridge.

The good news is not a terrible amount of people are willing to hike so far into the woods, so it was reasonably free and without too many others around. As I mentioned before, the bridge is sturdy enough to not cause worry, but it is a little frightening being so high up, especially if you don't love heights.

Enjoy the views and take your time! As far as things go, the TreeTop walk wasn't as suspenseful and exciting as we'd imagined, as most of the trees are actually right at your height and not hugely tall. It was definitely interesting and worth the trip out since we're not exactly crunched for time in which to see things in Singapore, but if taking half a day or so out of your trip would leave a gap in which other activities couldn't be done we'd both give this one a pass. To be honest, our favorite part of the trip wasn't the walk at all- it was:

MONKEYS!!!!

Pris still gets a kick out of my excitement at seeing wild monkeys, but this time even she was pretty pumped. We didn't see any monkeys the whole way out and thought we were going to miss them altogether, despite the signs everywhere reminding us not to feed them. Fortunately, about 1.5km from the exit we were absolutely ambushed. What started as one monkey climbing close to us (and actually scaring me farther away) turned into about two dozen a few steps down the road. These were mostly cute little guys, but obviously looking for and expecting some food. They lined all sides of the road and overhead and even got right in the path!

Many were actually close enough to reach out and touch. It was pretty funny too, watching all the foreigners stopping for pictures and to watch them and all the locals who take the path frequently zooming right around them without a second glance. Definitely the best part of this trip though.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

Despite Michelle having worked in Chinatown, Singapore for nearly a year now, the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is only the second of many tourist sites there that we have visited (the first being the Sri Mariamman Temple which we covered back in April). You can guess by its name that the main attraction is of course the Tooth itself; unfortunately we didn't get to see it on our visit as (1) while the temple is open from 7:00am to 7:00pm daily, the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic Chamber that houses it is only open from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily, and we got there at 6:30pm (2) photo-taking of the Tooth is forbidden, so we wouldn't get any images of it anyway. Nevertheless the temple itself, inside and out, is a sight to behold and is worth making the trip downtown. (Plus, it's free!)

The interior of the temple is huge and wondrously decorated. It doesn't show up too well in this picture, but there's a gorgeous display stage of a couple Buddhist gods/goddesses with a lovely canvas backdrop in the background!

Founded in 2002 by Venerable Shi Fa Zao, the temple is dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha, which means "The Compassionate One" and is also called "The Future Buddha". As a place of worship, incense is readily available at the entrance for those who want to make an offering, and temple robes are provided should you be "inappropriately dressed" - sleeveless, low-back tops, mini-skirts/shorts and strangely, hats, are not permitted within the site. The temple is five stories high including the rooftop, and even has a couple of basement levels for visitors to park their cars in.  Large, intricately carved and decorated statues of gods and goddesses are located in almost every corner of every room, and nearly every wall is lined from floor to ceiling with hundreds upon hundreds of miniature deities.

They're watching you. Every single one of them.

Seeing as we only had thirty minutes to explore the entirety of the temple before it closed, we pretty much breezed past most of the exhibits of deities after fully admiring the main hall, heading up to the rooftop where the Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel and the Pagoda of 1,000 Buddhas resided. The sight that greets you directly after exiting the lift is something right out of a meditation guidebook:

The Orchid Garden on the rooftop is very, very well maintained and absolutely beautiful, the greenery framing the Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel in the center. Someone had spun it recently when we reached the top, making it sound loudly every few seconds.

The rim of the Wheel is "embossed with Vairocana Mantra, [and] every turn of the wheel represents a single recital of the scripture and mantra."

We didn't need to look far to find the 1,000 Buddhas either, it was the same pagoda that housed the Wheel! (And I thought the hundreds of deity statues on the first floor was impressive!) These Buddha statues are about two inches in height and covered every inch of the walls, extending all the way to the walls outside the Wheel; they even have little numbers on them telling you exactly which number Buddha you are looking at!

ALL OF THEM. WATCHING YOU.

Unfortunately, as it was already 7:00pm by then, we had to leave shortly after visiting the rooftop, although we managed to squeeze in one more visit to the Museum part of the Temple before the guards chased us out (well, to be more accurate we got lost trying to exit the temple and wound up there. It was really more of a souvenir shop though, so we still left right after either way). There's really only so much we could cover in half an hour, but I'd definitely like to come back again some time in the future to fully enjoy the various floors of exhibits and of course, catch a glimpse of that famous Tooth myself.

More information and images of the Temple can be found here. Say hi to this guy for me if you go!

A Farewell to the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

Along with a huge crowd of others clamoring to get a few last shots before the Railway sent out its last train on July 1st, Pris and I headed down last weekend, but were so busy through the week we're only now getting a chance to post our own pics (actually, we've been running from site to site all over Singapore so we've got lots to blog about in the near future). It was a lot busier than we expected, but considering it was the last weekend the trains would be running it was also pretty expected. The station itself will remain open two weeks after the 1st according to a press report, so anyone who'd still like shots of the tracks should be prepared to get their shots in soon before the doors are closed for good.

The Tajong Pagar Railway has been one of two checkpoints islandwide leading from Singapore into Malaysia directly. Now that this station is closed the only option left is the Woodlands Train Checkpoint, though the routes and times there aren't anywhere near as extensive as that just shut down.

The outside of the building is worth the trip alone, just based on the fact that you don't see old architecture like that in modern Singapore often. There are four statues posed on the building with the letters F M S R overhead, for Federated Malay States Railways and an impressive entrance, though if you go now you can expect to have lots of heads blocking any decent pictures.

I guess it's a little late to be talking about the services that used to be provided since it's not like anyone can make use of them by now, and especially since we can't say much about it since we never did make any trips on the rail anyway, so instead I'll just post the time-table for anyone interested:

 

In any case, we did manage to brave the crowds and head down by the tracks for a few quick shots of what will soon be closed to the public. There were no trains coming or going while we were there, but the tracks themselves were nice to look at, and knowing we were going to be some of the last few able to head in was exciting.

Alright, truth be told, it's pretty difficult to sound as excited as I'd like about this visit, not because it wasn't nice to look at or boring, but just because there's not much to say about railroad tracks in general, especially those that we can't recommend for a visit since they aren't running and will soon be closed even for a visit.

I'll just leave it to say if you have time in the next week make it a priority to stop down and take a last look at a national monument (since this year, actually) which has been running since 1932 and which holds fond memories for countless people.

(what's happening, i haven't had anything snarky to say this whole post!)

Go to Hell (in) Haw Par Villa

The only reason I even knew about this place was because Michelle heard it was closing down. Not once in any guide books or tourist attraction brochures have I even heard of Haw Par Villa, and... well, I guess that's why it's shutting down: due to the lack of advertising and its respective revenue. Still, even though mid-way through the process of getting shut down, Haw Par Villa is still a highly-enchanting, though rather bizarre, site for anyone looking to experience Chinese mythology in full-color sculptured glory.

The official entrance is located on an uphill slope that takes you all the way to the very top of the site; other paths leading to sub-routes split from the main path.

Originally known as Tiger Balm Gardens, Haw Par Villa (which translates to "(the) Villa of the Tiger and Leopard" in English) was constructed in 1973 by brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of the heat rub Tiger Balm. The villa is open daily from 9.00am to 7.00pm, and true to its namesake, you'll come across many statues of tigers and leopards scattered about the site, one of each often flanking either side of a path or an entrance. Admissions to Haw Par Villa is completely free (although there is a small and fairly new section inside, The Jade House, that requires an entrance fee: the House exhibits the vast collection of jades that the Aw family has collected over the years).

There are more than 1,000 statues depicted in the villa, all of which are vibrantly colored and still look rather well-maintained. Many of them are very detailed dioramas depicting scenes in Chinese folklore.

The sculptures in the park are "centered around Chinese folklore, legends, history, and Confucian ideology", and the attractions include but are not limited to the Laughing Buddha, the Goddess of Mercy, as well as painstakingly crafted scenes from Journey to the West. However, the most popular and well-known attraction is unarguably The Ten Courts of Hell:

The imposing entrance to The Ten Courts of Hell, flanked by horse and ox guards. Apparently, this used to take place inside a 60-metre long dragon trail; the pictures here show the entrance in its original glory.

This section of the site is particularly disturbing and definitely not for the faint of heart (I still have nightmares). The Ten Courts of Hell are exactly what it sounds like: "purgatory where a person is sent to be punished for the sins and misdeeds of their past life. A sinner must go through all Ten Courts and in the tenth, final judgment will determine his form of reincarnation." A judge or Yama precedes over each Court, and with each progressive court things get a lot more gruesome and bloodier. Sinners are depicted being thrown in a pool full of filthy blood:

Getting sawn in half:

 Dismembered:

...the list of horrors go on. (I actually felt a little sick to my stomach just walking through the cavern.) You can go here to read a more extensive and detailed list on the Courts of Hell, but really, nothing beats walking through that hellhole and looking at the hundreds of mutilated plastic bodies laid out before you first hand.

The rest of the villa really isn't so bad though!

There are just way, way too many statues in Haw Par Villa to feature in a single post. You'll see a lot of weird stuff in Haw Par, like a woman-headed crab and chicken-people eloping, medical rats and giant gorillas, and even the Statue of Liberty (don't ask what it's doing there), but overall, it's more than what words can describe. I hate to be cliché and say you'll have to see it for yourself! but I really feel sad that such a decoratively elaborate and beautifully cultural place has to be shut down. It's definitely worth a trip if you're looking for an eye-opener, and trust me when I say there'll be more pictures than you'd like to take here.

Pictures like this, for example. Now we're definitely going to have a lot of good luck coming our way, thanks a lot Mich

If you're like me and can't get enough to reading up about Haw Par Villa, here's a site with tons of pictures of almost every statue in the villa, and detailed information on... well, almost everything (I realize I've referenced it a lot in this blog post, they're seriously hardcore on this).

Don't forget to purchase your heat rub!