Before I post about my visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum, I just wanted to share with people that apparantly one of the otters in this post died last September! Thanks to scavengerbride for sharing this piece of information.

I had completely NO IDEA that the otter died last September. Which is very sad. (because I harboured secret intentions of going to the Vancouver Aquarium to visit those otters!!) So I’m going to go find out more about otters and do a post of them in the near future! A quick check on google revealed that sea otters population is gradually decreasing! Due to oil pollution.

In fact, the hand holding otter, Nyac, is a survivor 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and even though it sustained internal injuries, it successfully gave birth to a healthy female pup in 1993.

So I definitely have to do a post on them soon!

This is a video made by one of the You-tubers in memory of Nyac. And I’m pretty sure all You-tubers will fondly remember Nyac. I know I will even though I’ve never met Nyac. (:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQLQhZ-YO_s&feature=related[/youtube]

Ok, todays post is going to be extremelyyyyyy loongggggggggg!! Because I have like 50 over pictures which takes a long time to upload and resize thank you very much. So hope you all will like the pictures!

Just a little bit of facts about Kangxi for those who are interested… (I picked the sentences from the brochure given by the museum)

Kangxi is known as one of China’s greatest rulers, who held his reign for an unprecedented 61 years (1662-1722).

He became emperor at the young age of 8 years old and took over the reigns at 14.

He is described as a kind and benevolent ruler and is also the first and ONLY Qing emperor to personally lead his troops in battle. He was always interested in science, mathemaatics, calligraphy, astronomy, medicine and cartography (?!?!?!).

Most importantly, he held a tight bond with his grandmother, his empresses/concubines and children.

So without further ado, here are some pictures! (:

We were greeted by two gynormous banners at the front of the Asian Civilisations Museum! And we sort of knew immediately that it would a totally cool exhibition!

Admission is FREE by the way. But I’m not sure if its for all days or just for that day that I visited.

The exhibition is from 13th March – 14th June. So if your interested, you can swing by to have a look.

Some random banner I decided to take a picture of.

Exterior of museum

Front of museum

There was actually alot of hype there about this exhibition which is pretty shocking to me because I didn’t think people were that interested in such stuff.

There were various performances like martial arts and all the other wanky stuff with people dressed in costumes adorned by the people in the past. (which i swear was really creepy for me, especially because they don’t smile)

This is a copper drum, don’t think it has anything at all to do with the exhibition! HAHA. It just happened to be near the entrance of the museum.

After that, when we were about to enter the main exhibition area, the security guard told us NO CAMERAS! =(

But i managed to sneak some pictures, but very poor quality cause I had to use my handphone! (Which by the way, proves to be more sucky as the days pass by)

This one looks like one of those Hell Guards that guard the doors to Hell or the doors to the netherworld. I’m not really sure because there wasn’t a description attached.

All I know is that this is one scary guard!!

These are some of the taoism deities that were on display. Quite a wide range of them actually.

This is actually the robe of the Empress. The one for the Emperor is actually made of gold and has this mighty big dragon emblem on it. The robe is really extremely big. I wonder how come it looks so fitting on the emperors of those days…

But what I found really cool about all of those robes were the gold thread used to make them.

The workmanship of the whole robe was all extremely fine but the gold thread gave off like little sparkles!

You could see it sparkling literally, which makes you suspect that maybe they used real gold to sew into their robes because after all, they are ROYALTY.

I think you can pretty much see the exquisite detail in the stiching.

These are not pictures of the actual scroll, just the brochure and the banner there.

But what is depicted in these pictures are actually the Emperors 60th birthday celebration.

This birthday scroll is 80 metres long ok!! No joke! But they only revealed like 20m of the scroll because it really was very long and you could slowly walk along the scroll and admire everything.

That was how grand it was in those days to celebrate the Emperors birthday.

Imagine, these people are drawn in ‘miniature’ and its like 80m long, can you imagine in reality, how many people must have shown up and kneeled down while the emperor passed by in his sedan?!?!?!

And the drawing was very well done though it is a 18th century copy of the original painting. But the KangXi’s entourage was seriously veryyyy veryyyyy grand.

Thats all the pictures I actually managed to snap, but I managed to take some pictures from the brochure and so I’ll just post them here.

Seal of KangXi Emperor

This is the seal of the KangXi Emperor. Its really HUGE!! And its made of pure jade. There are many intricate carvings on it and it makes people wonder how much work was put into making such a great piece.

KangXi’s ceremonial armour and helmet

According to the brochure, the armour is made of Silk and Gilt Copper and the helmet is made of Lacquered leather, gold and pearls!

This isn’t the armour that the Emperor wore to war! I thought it was, then my friend and I were wondering how is this ‘flimsy’ thing going to withstand like the piercing from spears etc.

Then we realised its just something that he wore for the ceremony to mobilise the 8 guards or something like that.

Instrument for astronomical calculations

12 digit calculator

SO COOL RIGHT?

Like even a few hundred years ago they had methods to do calculations etc! But I totally can’t figure out how they managed to use the ‘calculator’ to calculate anything at all!

Because it didn’t make much sense to me! HAHA.

These are some of the pottery made during the KangXi period and I’m really surprised that they are kept in very good condition.

Like things nowadays, they pretty much decompose easily but in this case, its like a few hundred years but the colour, the condition is all extremely good.

And as for all the workpieces coming from the KangXi period, the workmanship is extremely fine.

Thats actually all the pictures from the museum actually! I know.. SOOOO PATHETIC RIGHT?

So if you want to see the WHOLE EXHIBITION, get your butt over to the museum and see it for yourself.

There are scrolls written in the past, robes of the emperor, the ceremonial bowls etc. In fact, we found out that in the past, the emperor’s decree really did write what you hear on tv! Like those what “皇帝昭约“. Those stuff!

In the past when I watched those olden shows, I thought they were making it all up!

This is a statue outside the museum and theres an arrow over the man there because 1) I find it extremely comical that he got caught in the shot. 2) he kept staring at my friend and I when we were taking pictures! (as though we were doing something illegal!)

This was us taking a picture in front of the statue, we tried to capture the statue with us, to no avail.

Anyway, we took a picture in front of the KangXi banner, fully intending to take a picture WITH KangXi.

But as you can see, all you can see is us AGAIN.

I know I look entirely shiatsu in the photos because I was sweating more than a normal pig lo! The sun was really freaking hot.

I think its the most I’ve sweat in my 17 years of life (worse then running 2.4km). The sun was seriously HOT HOT HOT!

We began to walk around aimlessly and I took alot of pictures of the view there. So I’ll just post them all here.

Cavenagh bridge and esplanade

The Cavenagh bridge, formally known as Edinburgh bridge, is one of the tourist sites that most tourists visit, its one of the oldest suspension bridges in Singapore.

You can find out more from wikipedia.

Anderson Bridge

Anderson Bridge

Anderson bridge is actually located behind the Cavenagh bridge and was built because there was an overwhelming traffic flow on the Cavenagh bridge. So in order to cope with the traffic flow, Anderson bridge was built.

A interesting and gruesome fact about the anderson bridge was that during the Japanese Occupation, severed heads were hung on the bridge in order to warn people not to break the law.

Today, Anderson bridge is used for vehicles and Cavenagh bridge is used for pedestrians. Both and located very near Fullerton Hotel.

Fullerton Hotel

Fullerton Hotel

Fullerton Hotel with esplanade

Fullerton Hotel with esplanade

Ok, so apparantly I LOVE Fullerton Hotel alot! It has a very regal and classic look that just attracts it to me. It has one of the best hotel looks I’ve ever seen.

In Singapore, you see alot of high rise buildings (I even live in one) and you get kind of bored looking at the same structures. So the fullerton hotel is something different I guess.

Of course, the Fullerton Hotel wasn’t built for hotel purposes but was designed as an office building. The building was later ‘converted’ into a hotel.

I’m really glad they decided to restore the fullerton hotel to its former glory and not tear it down because to me its a piece of art.

Ok, the main focus of this picture should be on…

Bum boats

BUM BOATS! Ok la, there actually isn’t like anything really fantastic about the bum boats. But I am particularly fond of them because it was the first time I ever sat in a boat because my school brought me to experience Singapore’s heritage.

Anyway, tourists like to go on the bum boat ride, just to experience what its like and be in the bum boat.

But frankly speaking, its just going on a boat in water. Might as well go on Cruise (got buffet leh!)!

However, the view that you experience while the boat travels through the water is quite breathtaking. You get to see the Esplanade, Fullerton Hotel etc.

Its a fun experience, but I must say its a once only experience. You wouldn’t feel tempted to sit on it again after once.

Thankfully they cleaned the Singapore River, if not you would smell stink bombs while sitting on the bum boats. Phewwww~~

I don’t know what buildings these are but they resemble the Integrated Resort currently in construction..

Integrated Resort (under construction)

LOOKS LIKE RIGHT? HAHAHA

The focus should once again be on…

1) Shophouses!! I find them really quaint and unique. But I think its really hot to have to stand there. I mean I couldn’t take standing there taking pictures of the scenery, I can’t imagine sitting there and slacking for like a whole entire day.

I might just turn into a roasted duckhuman.

2) Singtel building! Without this building, I wouldn’t have phones and internet connection, so I decided to mention the building though its big tall white and ugly!

Sir Stamford Raffles

A statue of Sir Stamford Raffles who founded Singapore.

This is NOT the original version of the statue. The original version was made of bronze and was nearly melted in order to obtain the bronze!! (ze horrorrrr)

So they made a polymarble version of it and its standing there in the sweltering sun.

SO WHATS WRITTEN ON THE PLAGUE YOU SAY?

It basically says when Sir Stamford Raffles came to Singapore and discovered us! (ze joy)

And I found it pretty funny that there were four plagues around the statue, each with a different language. English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. But I guess it shows the different races found in Singapore and the racial harmony and all that.

Victoria Hall

I shall show you the poweress of the ZOOOOOM FUNCTION!

Actually I was just lazy to walk over there to take a pic. HAHA.

Us near the bridge or somewhere. By this picture, I think I lost like 1kg worth of water or something. Seriously, I was sweating and sweating and sweating!! No wait! ONLY PIGS SWEAT!!

I PERSIPIRED!

We then ‘cleverly’ decided to walk to the Esplanade…

WE MADE IT TO FULLERTON ROAD!! THE ESPLANADE IS LITERALLY WITHIN OUR GRASP!! (in the photo la)

Singapore flyer

Singapore flyer

Singapore flyer

We could see the Singapore flyer! Yes, the one that jammed up one fine day and left people stuck inside and people were all scared and emerged vomiting and all that.

But I hear that all the technical issues have been dealt with.

I still ain’t going to sit on the flyer though. Because it costs a bomb and I don’t think I’m interested to see Singapore from the top, rather take an airplaneeeee.

So we reach the esplanade then we see this group of people (the ones with the prominent arrows over there head)! And I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I’M POINTING THEM OUT!

Maybe cause they ‘humanized’ my scenic photo and I wanted to use this as a wallpaper! AH WELL. I decided to walk in front of them and…

TAKE ANOTHER PICTURE LAAAA. To people who thought I would show them the finger and ask them to f off. tsk tsk. You think so lowly of me. hahaha.

From the bridge we could see…

Merlion

Merlion

The one that was struck by lighting! And a piece of it fell off and everything! But its now working and still gaining alot of attention.

I think the merlion is more vain than we think lo. Probably wanted like reconstructive surgery so it started to taunt the lightning to hit it. Then when the lightning hit its head, its wish came true and it got surgery!

And now its back to being the object of everyones attentions, the apple of everyones eyes.

HAHA. This story is completely fake ok, I made it up.

Anyway, we decided to detour to see the merlion and give up the esplanade. So near YET so FARRRR.

Mini Merlion

Everyone was so excited over the BIG merlion so I paid attention to the SMALL merlion!

I actually didn’t know they had a mini merlion.

Another shot near the bridge there of us. It was the only place with WIND I swear. We just stood there and totally slacked. It was the most enjoyable wind I ever experienced.

And to congratulate you for reaching the end of my kickass long entry… I shall end off with a hugeass picture of me.

I look better when I’m not sweatingpersipiring ok!! HAHAHA.