Saturday I went to the museum, as planned. It was pretty interesting, but I would not suggest it either for small kids (probably under 10 or 12, unless they’re really really interested in the history of Singapore) or as place to go if you want to talk about what you’re looking at with the folks you bring with you.
Not all of the museum requires an admission, just the history hall and the special display galleries downstairs. Which, I geuss is most of the museum, but you can get to the museum store and the restaurant with no admission 🙂
After paying my 10 SGD, I was directed to the second level to pick up my “companion” – one of those carry-with-you, dedicated, personal kiosk thingies like the Gugenheim in NY has. After picking up my companion, I followed the tour into a large, cylindrical theater where a short film documenting a day in the life of Singapore is on permanent loop.
Every chamber has a large decal on the floor indicating what number you should enter in your companion to find out more about what’s on display. There are a variety of audio, video, and text selections describing [almost] everything on the walls and floor.
I found some of it to be tedious, but I also wasn’t as specifically interested in some of the individuals for whom they had longer aural work, but overall my visit to be interesting, and at least somewhat enlightening.
While Singapore has been important to Western countries for a couple hundred years (especially afetr it became a British colony in 1819), it’s only been an independent country for 44 years. It’s also only the size of the 5 burroughs of New York, so it’s very tiny. That all adds up to there not being a “lot” of history of the country, compared to, say, Canada – which, while young, is ginormous (a technical term).
If you’re interested in the history of Singapore, and you happen to be here anyway, it’s a decent place to go for a couple-few hours. I don’t think I’d intentionally go back unless there was something of interest on display in the special exhibits gallery, or the film they were showing sounded intriguing, but it was a fun way to spend part of my Saturday afternoon.