Mini Vacation Part 3- Fort Canning & National Museum

Fort Canning. This is a park which sits on a small hill. It was once a 14^th century Malay king’s palace site. Later it was the Far East Command Center and British Army Barracks. It was also the site of the decision to surrender Singapore to the Japanese on February 15, 1942. The decision was made at Fort Canning in an underground command center known as the Battle Box. The Battle Box was closed for renovations. We spent some time wandering through the gardens. With lots of plants labeled it was really interesting. We spotted a patch of pandan (remember the chicken dish?) plants. Pandan chicken is chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and baked. They almost make a basket around the chicken with the pandan leaf. The pandan adds a distinct flavor and aroma. Pandan extract is also used to flavor cakes and desserts. Pandan is a member of the screwpine family just like the srikaya fruit I’ve mentioned before.

Pandan plants

There was also a cacao tree.

The unripe green pods contain cacao seeds from which chocolate is made.

After visiting Fort Canning we went to the National Museum. It’s under major renovation but in the basement (for free) you could visit a display honoring the 700 years of Singapore history. It was really interesting. One of the more interesting displays was about the privileged European class daily schedule circa 1860. Highlights included: 6-9am a morning walk or ride followed by breakfast. There was lunch, dinner, billiards, games of sport and, oh, yes, they would go to the office for a few hours.

Photo of the days’ schedule

As we were leaving we were stopped by a volunteer who asked if she could ask us a few questions. Naturally we said yes. She proceeded to ask us about the museum: What we remembered, liked, thought of the signage, etc. She then asked, “Where are you from?” B answered, “Jakarta.” She said, “No, where do you live?” Again the answer was Jakarta. She followed up with, “Originally? Were you born there?” We explained we had lived there 6 months but were originally from the US. That is what she wanted. She listed US on her form. Our reward? A nice ‘I Love Museums’ pencil.