**把我的脚印留在世界各地**: Philatelic & Peranakan museum

The National Heritage Board celebrates its 15th Anniversary and from 1 - 15 Aug 08, free admission to the following museums from 1500hrs:

- Asian Civilisations Museum

- Memories at Old Ford Factory

- National Archives of Singapore

- National Museum of Singapore

- Peranakan Museum

- Reflections at Bukit Chandu

- Singapore Art Museum

- Singapore Philatelic Museum

All along I wanted to visit the other museums since my last visit to National museum 2 weeks ago. There were free admission to all the 5 main museums on last friday night but we didnt went. I knew about the 15th NHB annivesary while reading the Straits Times Life on Thursday. However, not all museums are open on weekends and on weekends, the museums are only open until 7pm. This means that only 4 hrs from 3 - 7pm is free admission.

YQ & I decided to visit the Philatelic museum & Peranakan museum this week followed by the Asian Civilisations Museum & Singapore Art Museum next Sunday.

The Philatelic museum is located near the Central Fire Station. The building was the formerly part of the Anglo Chinese School. I had longed to visit Philatelic museum for a long long time and finally today I am able to step into the museum. I'm really glad that YQ oso enjoy visiting museums as museum visiting may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Saw the red post box at the entrance of the Philatelic museum? I doubt there are similar existing in other parts of Singapore. I thought that by posting letter in this red post box, there would be a special date stamp on the mail. It's only later that I discovered that this is not the case.

Entrance of Philatelic museum

Once we stepped into the museum, on the left, there is an admission counter and souvenir such as postcards, stamps for sale while on the right are philatelic books, minature post boxes and a corner for writing postcards & letters.

Minature post boxes from around the world

Mini seals

Still remember Singa the lion?

This stamp can talk!!!

Different ways of letter folding

Must be wondering what has the teeth to do with stamps? Well, there is a letterboxing game in the museum. Letterboxing is define as "something between a sport and a hobby, sort of a combination of orienteering and treasure hunting that consists of using maps, clues and compasses in the search for containers. Each letterbox contains a notebook and a unique rubber stamp. Each letterboxer carries a notebook and a personal stamp".

Anyone can purchase a notebook for $1 and we had to search for the hidden rubber stamps to stamp onto the notebook. We spent quite a while searching for the last hidden rubber stamps. Clue: All the hidden rubber stamps are located on the ground level and there are 3 rooms on the ground level. There are altogether 12 rubber stamps to be collected hence which means that there are 4 in each room. This is based on our observation and that's how we managed to find the last one.

Say cheese

Here, it features the new stamps release every year in Singapore since 1965 until today. For the international collection, it only features some of the stamp collection and a brief introduction about the countries.

Local collection

International collection

Am I only worth 100cents?

Mr postman not wearing uniform

This is a gift from Hong Kong when it was handover back to China.

Of cos I'm only posing, the mail wouldn't reach me

Special exhibition about Vietnam

Real size old post boxes

These stamps exist before I was born and I had a couple of these stamps

The 5 mascots

This year is the Rat year so there is special exhibition about the rats on the 2nd level of the museum.

Extremely cute!

My zodiac

Idioms using the word rat & 鼠

Why are mice always use as guinea pig???

Famous "Rats"

The 12 zodiac

This is the Gents washroom

This is the Ladies washroom

We bought 2 postcards cos I wanted to get the special date stamp. Of cos I make YQ mail to me n I mail to him, hehe. YQ even want to peep on what i'm writing to him. I only realise dthat by posting the mail into the red post box, there is no special date stamp unless u request for it with comes at a price of 50 cents donation. Using 50 cents to buy a special date stamp is definitely worth it.

A place to write your postcards/letter before mailing

After spending almost 2 hrs in the philatelic museum, we visited the Peranakan museum which is a stone throw away. The building was formely Tao Nan School. There are 3 levels in the museum showcasing the Origin of Peranakan, Marriage, Religion, Food etc in 10 galleries.

Entrance of Peranakan museum

Nonya wedding dress

Sarong kebaya

Jewellery

In the past, nonyas were trained for married life from a young age. They were expected to devote long hours to learn and perfect the art of beadwork and embroidery from their elders. In this 21st century, nobody will be trained for married life since young bah n I cant imagine myself in this role.

Nyona beaded shoes

Baby clothes & shoes

Antique typewriter

Guess this wig belong to who? This belonged to the wife of a very famous person in Singapore. Everyone should know who this person is. Clue: He was a lawyer before he became a politician.

Lawyer's wig

“Tok Panjang”

Entrance of a typical Peranakan house

A peranakan wedding spreads over 12 days! It's so elaborated. I feel that the bridegroom robe resemble those Qing dynasty official robe, isn't it?

Wedding procession

Wedding bed
YQ was joking that this bed was a bit too small.

Used in Peranakan wedding

Such a big urn!

I'm talking to the past, haha...

Inside the museum

His funny pose

Went to the National museum to catch the "Light Installation" by the Electric Canvas from Australia. Read from a frenz blog abt this and thought that I'll missed it as we didnt went to the Night Festival on the 2nd week. I passed by the national museum on Friday night on the way home discovered that "Light Installation" is until 3 Aug. I immediately noted down the timing and make it a point to visit the National museum tonight.