Visit to the National Museum-Part 10-Wayang and Fashion

This wil be my second last series of posting of the museum.

Now this looked so scary and spooky. It is in the fashion gallery of the museum. Admission to this part of the museum is free of charge.

The bridal gown looked like a headless and limbess ghost at first glance....lol

These hair rollers looked so familar, I remember using them when I was young...hahaha.

Noticed the lower and short sewing machine. That is powered by hand. I used that during my secondary school, you use your right to turn the wheel of the sewing machine and your left hand to guide the fabric while the other sewing machine is powered by legs.

Nowadays the sewing machines are all run by electric and computerized.

This part of the exhibits are in the wayang gallery. I love the costumes and accessories displayed there. You should actually watch a live performance of the wayang. You can see my posting of a local wayang in here.

There are so many more interesting exhibits at the museum, you need to go there to view.

Skywatch Friday - Visit to the National Museum - Part 9

I almost done posting with my series of photos for the museum...lol. Hope you are not bored with museum now.

These are my contributions for Skywatch Friday.

The ceiling of the new museum (extension of the old museum) are also made of glass.

You can see that the museum is so big and spacious.

If you are an older Singaporean, you should recognize this spooky spiral staircase. I remembered when I was a child, I saw this staircase at the corner of the museum with a no entry sign. It was rumoured there were hidden secrets above. There were ghosts or mummies, etc hidden in there.But the truth was is just a staircase leading to the roof of the museum...lol.

A sculpture of a red pepper in the garden located on the highest floor of the new museum.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Visit to the National Museum of Singapore - Part 8 -

These exhibits are really very old and I get to see them when I was young. I remember these green spot and F&N orange bottles. Used to have them in our home especially during Chinese New Year and during those times, we really recycled them.

The F&N bottle could double up as rolling pin and we sold these bottles to the rag and bone man for recycling purposes.

This is a ice shaving maker machine. I used to buy ice ball from the drink stall near my school.

Ice ball is made from ice shavings and some ingredients like red beans are added in the middle of the ball and the drinks vendor would then shaped it into a ball and then pour some sweet syrup and coconut milk all over the ice ball. I remembered the ice ball cost ten cents and I would share with my friend by asking the vender to saw the ice ball into half. So we each paid only five cents. It is so cute and fun back then.

Tiffins used during the olden days. Nowadays the tiffin dont come with these beautiful designs on them.


Now this camera is really very antique. I remembered the cameraman using this camera and with a light bulb as a flash and it had to change the bulb frequently.



A very antique camera


Geez now I sounded like an antique myself ....lol

I bet these are things only people born during and before the 60s will be able to associate with.

Visit to the National Museum - Part 7-Jewellery

My last two posts on the exhibits are found in the new museum (a new extension of the old museum). The admission to the new museum is $10.

Today I will feature exhibits in the old museum and the admission is free of charge. It is very interesting to see these exhibits.

Some of the silver jewelleries used during the 1900s.

Visit to the National Museum of Singapore - Part 6 - Exhibits

I continued with the tour of the Singapore History. This flag is very familar, it is the Japanese flag.

The Japanese occupied Singapore between 1942 and 1945, after having defeated the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore. You can read more about the war from source.

The Japanese tricked the British military in Singapore, into thinking that they would attacked Singapore from the Sea but the Japanese soldiers cycled into Singapore from Malaysia i.e. North of Singapore.

Life during World War 2 is very difficult and the darkest period of Singapore History.

The Japanese issued ration cards(above photo) to control supplies of rice and other essential items. You have to visit the museum to see more exhibits associated with the war.

This is a replica of a coffin in a carriage used during the passing off a wealthy man. During those days, to be able to have such a grand funeral send off, it is very rare. Most are very poor during those times.

The museum guide was asking us to guess what this bucket is? Some guessed it is a bucket to feed animals.

Of couse, siblings and myself knew what this is....lol. It is a night soil bucket. Faeces is excreted into the bucket. It is one of the means of waste disposal, especially as much of the infrastructure was damaged and took a long time to rebuild following the Battle of Singapore and subsequent Japanese Occupation of Singapore. (Source: wikipedia ).

The collection method is generally very manual and heavily relies on close human contact with the waste. The collector would hang full honey buckets onto each end of a pole he carried on his shoulder and then proceeded to carry it through the streets until he reached the collection point. This was an unpleasant occupation and was predominately done by manual laborers.

I was lucky I was born after the war and I get to use the toilet with flushing system...Phew!

Can you see the museum guide in the dark? Noticed the cabinet in the background. It had wire mesh as doors and a hook on top, it is used to keep food to keep away flies and bugs. During those times, people could not afford fridge to keep their food. So this act like a fridge. I remember during my childhood, we had a cabinet that looked like the one in the photo but it is taller and it had wire mess door and we keep food and our bowls and plates inside the cabinets cause my parents were too poor to buy a fridge.

Appliances used during the 50s and 60s. They looked very retro and they are making a comeback.

I have done posting photos of Singapore history in the new building. Tomorrow I will post exhibits in the old musuem.

Hope you all enjoyed them. Please return tomorrow for more photos.