the best five hours

I love museums, and I especially love Singapore's museums. I'm a little embarrassed to say that this was my first time at the National Museum of Singapore. To make up for it, I was there twice in one day: two hours in the morning and three hours after lunch.

One of Singapore's most stately and graceful buildings, IMO.

The Rotunda Dome is the museum's most iconic architectural feature, with 50 stained glass pieces of Victorian design.

The giant red balloons' strings are held by chocolate raisins. Wah, so cute!

My main objective was the Dreams & Reality exhibition, of course, but I had to wait an hour for the first guided tour of the day. So I explored.

A perfect blend of old (neo-Palladian facade) and new (glass and steel).

So much light everywhere. I want to live in the National Museum of Singapore.

At the second floor, you get a different perspective of A Dozen of Those, created by Lim Shing Ee. It's a temporary art installation commissioned by the museum for their Night Festival 2011.

I still dream about this art installation.

A dozen Raisinets. Wah, so cute again!

Of the four Living Galleries-- Film and Wayang, Photography, Food, and Fashion-- my favorites were... Well, you should know me by now.

The Food Gallery recreates the vibrancy of Singapore's street food culture from the 1940s to the 1980s. -from the NMS brochure

The Photography Gallery portrays 100 years of local life through photographic images and precious artefacts. -from the NMS brochure

And then there's the Singapore History Gallery which is just bewildering in scope and unlike any other history museum I've even been in. Good thing there's the Companion.

The Companion is a multimedia handheld device which allows visitors to read descriptions, listen to experts' insights and dramatised scenarios, and watch videos, that correspond to the exhibits. -from the NMS brochure

Visitors entering the History Gallery are greeted by a dramatic symphony with a montage of scenes of contemporary Singapore projected on the 360º inner wall of the Glass Rotunda. -from the NMS brochure

I am completely in awe of the way the National Museum is curated.

So many interesting things in every nook and cranny.

If I had more time, I would have loved to join this group.

One of the best places to create art is where art resides.

Five hours is not enough.

The National Museum of Singapore is located at 93 Stamford Road, just a five-minute walk from the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station on Orchard Road. They're open daily from 10am until 6pm (some galleries until 8pm).