Maritime Silk Route Museum - Singapore

I didn't want to go to the Universal Studio, Singapore for the 2nd time, even if it meant I had to hang alone by myself at Resort World Sentosa. Luckily, there was a new attraction, Maritime Experimental Museum and Aquarium. When I purchased the entrance and the Typhoon show tickets (SG $5 & $6), I was told that the aquarium is still under construction!

Entrance - For SOOC.

The museum tries to portray the significance of Admiral Zhen He's seven voyages in the ancient maritime silk route. In those days, this maritime route was equally important like the silk road route that linked East to West.

This maritime route stretches from the South China sea, across the Indian Ocean and connects to the Roman Empire along the Red sea. It is considered as the oldest trade route since 200 BCE. Besides trade, it also helped in nourishing International relationships and cultural exchange.

This museum houses some of the artifacts collected from 8 major ports along this route and in this post I try to picturize my experience!

Chinese navigation instruments - Qunazhou, China

Bamboo products from - Qui Nhon, Vietnam

Colorful puppets - Palembang, Indonesia

Model Ship - Melaka, Malaysia

Mats and vessels - Galle, Srilanka

Snake Charmer - Calicut, India

Arabian Navigation aid Kamal - Muscat, Oman

Exotic products and animals - Malindi, Kenya

It had some interactive displays and games, which reflects ancient mariners life. The interior of the museum was interesting as well!

Miniature ships hanging in midair 

And the souvenir shop curios...

Gift items - exorbitantly priced^^

As for the typhoon show, well, you can watch it once, especially for that starlit ocean view. However, the typhoon and underwater experience was below average, anyway here is a shot that I took before and after the show.

Typhoon Theater, before the Show - Chinese village view

Typhoon Theater after the Show - Under the ocean view

Replica of a Ship - Malacca Maritime Museum

Playing tourist in the town where I live (Malacca, Malaysia) is one of our favorite activities during my daughter's school holidays. This time we went to the Melaka Maritime Museum.

Malacca Maritime Museum

The museum is housed in a replica of an old Portuguese Ship, known as Nau. Nau is a 16th/17th century ship that was used for trading and warfare. This museum showcases paintings and other artifacts that represents maritime history of Melaka from 14th to 20th century.

King welcoming overseas Islamic Missionaries

Traders selling spices - Era of the Melaka Sultanate

Trade Route - taken by Magellan

Pulau Besar - Wu Shu Island near Malacca - Chinese travelers used this island for filling water and food

Foreign traders at Melaka Port

Fight with the Siamese army

Portuguese Ships

Foreign Invasion

Model of a British Ship

Confinement or Prison in a Nau

Melaka Port during 19th Century - Sumatran and local ships

Besides scanty descriptions along each painting, not much information was available. It has been my long time dream to work as a volunteer in a museum, be it in documenting or guiding the visitor. So, I wanted to meet the curator or any other responsible person to get info regarding this. Unfortunately, there was no one, except for the security guards! Tried to find info online without any success. Planning to visit the other museums and try to get info, hopefully.

Experience at Shakespeare's Birth Place

Note: This post is long overdue. I had withheld this post, as I thought I had lost the photos that should go with this post when my laptop crashed a couple of months ago. Fortunately, during my visit to India, I found that I had taken a complete backup of the photos that I shot in UK. So, here we go...

A visit to Stratford Upon Avon, the birth place of Shakespeare is like going on a pilgrimage for literature lovers. It took about an hour's drive from Birmingham to reach there. It is a picturesque village, bustling with tourists.

As seen in the map, Avon river dominates this locale. 

The performance chart at the Royal Shakespeare Theater was a standing proof of the prevalent theater culture.

Performance at the Open Year Theater on the banks of Avon...

We saw hoards of people heading towards the Henley Street... 

Shakespeare's Birth place comes into view.

 

I was awe-struck and was so excited to see the house from outside, that I was just standing there without even bothering to follow my friends who were heading to the entrance to buy the tickets.

The birth place tour starts with a multi-media presentation, which was fantastic. The show tries to describe the theater experience and simultaneously shows memorabilia. Here are some colorful shots that I captured at the show.

Inside the house, there were guides in period costume and they explained how life was in Shakespeare's times, when there was no electricity. My first concern was how they survived the winters without proper heating! 

Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and at times the income was insufficient and the whole family had to starve! Here is a shot of their humble dining room...

The pair of gloves shown in the above photo is a replica of popular gloves in Shakespearean times.

Let me end this place post with the great poet's grave...

Note that "u" is represented by "v" in archaic English

Black by Day Red by Night - A Glimpse into Black Country!

When I first heard, I was surprised by the term "Black Country". So I was tempted to visit the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, which is about 20 minutes drive from Birmingham.

There seems to be no geographical or political boundaries that mark the Black Country. After reading the clippings in the museum, it seems that this district got its name since 18th century because of coal mining and industrialization. 

Painting that depicts a mining scene.

The museum was a blend of traditional display stuff and also they had re-created Black Country as described in the above quote. In fact, the village, cottages, shops, barns, and even people roaming the streets were dressed in period costumes. Walking through the museum was like stepping back in time.

Here is a local confectionary...

We bought some hard boiled sweets and the shopkeeper too started to chat with us like a typical friendly villager. In those days, it seems that they were using beetle blood to make pink icing, of which she showed us the sample...aiyk

Menswear specialist - the corduroy in display was of very high quality...

In true sense, it was a living museum in every aspect. At one point, we were standing in the middle of the road and looking at the map, trying to find our way to go to the boat canal. An old lady, of course, dressed in 18th century fashion came up to us and casually asked us if we needed help.

Canals were mainly used to transport coals from the mines...

Boat trips were available...

But we skipped the boat trip, as we had to rush to the mines as it was nearing closing time...

The trip was roughly for 30 minutes and it was a mock mine, but still the experience was awesome. We had to stoop low and walk in utter darkness and only one dimmed torch was given for every group of five. We had to walk closely and get used to darkness. The atmosphere was so thick that I was starting to get choked and was wondering how people slog in there for whole day!