Singapore, A History

national museum of singapore

this being my second time in the country of singapore you would think that i would at least have a vague idea of its past history and happenings. this however was not the case as i knew almost nothing about the history of singapore on arrival here, that is until we paid a visit to the interesting and informative national museum of singapore. the beautiful building the museum is housed in is a mixture of the old and the new as 9 years ago in 2003 it was closed for 3 years and major renovations and refurbishing was undertaken. in this process large modern extensions were added to the back of the old building combining the original architectural of the museum with a more modern, open look. we were fortunate enough to arrive 20 minutes before a free guided tour began and so walked through a small section of an exhibition dedicated to post world war two singapore. the tour started with only our group of three and one other person, we practically had our own private tour of the museum! the tour guide was outstanding. there seemed to be no limit to her knowledge of singaporean history and because of her i now have a much clearer understanding of the general history of singapore. in fact she was so good that she went 40 minutes overtime (it was a one hour tour) and still said that she was cutting back on alot of information to "save time". overall an outstanding experience because of our amazing guide!

cheers!

later that day after our afternoon relaxation time and a skype call to my girlfriend we headed out for dinner. this however was no ordinary meal as this was our last full night in singapore and so we had planned to go all out and try of on the country signature dishes chili crab! many places advertised this dish on big signs out side of the restaurant but one in particular caught our eye as we made our way through the bustling street as it claimed to have won awards for that particular dish. we seated ourselves at a table on the street and ordered  3 plates of crab and a beer each. it wasn't long before the fabulous dish was set before us in all its glory. none of us had tried crab (in living memory) so this was a first for all of us. we got stuck in straight away and to our great delight it tasted fantastic! it took us a while to fully grasp the ropes of crab eating but once we did the meal was an enjoyable and messy experience. by the end of our feast our hands were covered in the chili sauce the crab was cooked in but the restaurant waitress was kind enough to let us wash our hands in a bathroom out the back. we left that place extremely satisfied and happy with our choice of last meal. for dessert we decided to try a few different types of moon cakes - a sweet glutinous cake made only 2 times a year in celebration of chinese cultural events. we brought 3 from a stall out the front of the hostel, cut them into thirds and shared them between ourselves. they were very rich in flavor and we only managed to eat two thirds of our cakes before feeling slightly sick and deciding to save the rest for later. feeling content with our food trying we headed to bed for much needed sleep.  

our meal :)