You’ve probably seen this intro at the start of every Tally Ho piece:

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

I can hear you wondering: Who are the Adventure Crew? Fear not, dear reader, for I have the answers!

Sarah Coldheart, Adventurer Extraordinaire

Essentially the leader of our motley crew, she has considerable powers in computeryness, as well as the perchant for finding all sorts of interesting things and knowing interesting people.

She has many identities and faces, and sometimes she doesn’t even have a face – and that’s because she’s a superhero by night. Her gentle alter-ego is quirky and chic lit-loving; but her other identity of Seriously Sarah has her wielding the Ukeleles of Justice in a never-ending quest for adventure and fun.

Avariel, Ship and Photography Devotee

She once ventured into the wilds of the Amazon in a ship that was an exact 1:4000 scale replica of the Queen Elizabeth 2 — yes, she went through the world’s largest rainforest in only a scaled down cruise ship. She took a photo of a chupacabra with her very last shot on her very last roll of film, on her trusty LOMO LC-A+ camera… and lived to tell the tale.

Avariel spent four years in the Australia Beyond — not our lovely continent of koalas and kangaroos, but a strange and wild Australia filled with cryptozoologic specimens most of us have never even heard of. Now she travels through our world and the World Beyond to seek out others like the chupacabra, on her trusty 1:4000 scale replica of the Queen Elizabeth 2, dedicating her life to amassing a reliable photographic record of them.

She masquerades her travels in the World Beyond as normal holidays on her blog – but if you look hard enough, you might be able to see a Yeti lurking in the background…

Joelyn Alexandra, [------------ classified ------------]

Joelyn is [------------ classified ------------], where she [------------ classified ------------]. Rumor has it that she was responsible for [------------ classified ------------].

She likes [------------ classified ------------] and [------------ classified ------------]. Her range of skills include [------------ classified ------------]. The most famous story about her exploits is the one about [------------ classified ------------]; she was [------------ classified ------------] and [------------ classified ------------], whereupon [------------ classified ------------] and [------------ classified ------------]. Then she (or they; there is some debate about whether one person can do so much alone) [------------ classified ------------].

You can find her at [------------ classified ------------] and her home on the Internet.

Mintea, She of SCIENCE

She knows the most scary power of them all – that of SCIENCE, which confounds, confuses, and frightens many. Do not underestimate her petite frame and kind eyes. She knows more science than you and I can never hope to know, wielding its many mysterious powers in thick rubber gloves and safety goggles.

She uses the mysterious power of SCIENCE for the good, which we should thank our lucky stars for because the power of SCIENCE is not to be taken lightly. Her only weakness is caffeine, but fear not! She is learning how to use the Ukeleles of Justice as well, and her razor-sharp wit keeps most caffeine tempters (the dastardly devils!) at bay when the need arises.

Raven Silvers (me!), Geek Girl Ordinaire

And then there’s me, Raven Silvers, general laggart and gaming geek girl. I can’t tell you much about me, since I lost most of my memory when my arch-enemy (the name of who I can’t remember) hit me in the head with a Heat-Seeking Playpen Ball of Forgetfulness.

Don’t despair! One day I will remember who my arch-enemy is, and why they robbed me of my identity, and I shall regain my full superpowers. Until then, I spend most of my time travelling; my favorite places include Toad Town, Hyrule, Italy, Goldenrod City and Ankh-Morpork.

Also, I like cats and Mudkips.

So I was at the second day of the Embrace The Now, the *SCAPE Launch Festival. Just like the first, it was pretty awesome, although I couldn’t stay for all of it ): There are some more pictures of what I missed at their Facebook page, so do look at that to see what I don’t have here! :D Some of the photos are by Seriously Sarah because mine didn’t come out properly (:

The legendary Once Upon A Milkshake now has an outlet in town! Check out their recycled cardboard seats

White Dog Cafe, at the 3rd level, is famous for their soft shell crab. But this outlet didn't have it ):

Billibowl, a mix of billiards with bowling at Zone X. Difficult but remarkably fun!

Panic Museum! It's an insanely crazy arcade shooter, but a ton of fun - also available at Zone X

Capoeira group! First time I'd seen capoeira (martial arts-dance-music hybrid) performed anywhere, so it was pretty cool

Hershey and I! :D :D

A lovely little Postbox performance at one of the indoor stages

Cheerleaders practicing at the open balcony! (Photo courtesy SeriouslySarah.com)

Movie Mania cosplayers!

*SCAPE New Ambassador finals, where they showed their special talents and stuff!

More awesome performances

Announcing the winner!

And then there was the flash mob-slash-mass dance!

SCAPE Mass Dance

Long story short: I had an awesome day at Embrace The Now, the *SCAPE Launch Festival! *SCAPE, if you’re not familiar with it, is a brand-new youth shopping mall and lifestyle centre. It used to be an open field, but they’re launching the brand-new shiny mall over the weekend. This is the first day, and I’m so sad I couldn’t stay to watch all of the acts at the main stage ):

Check out their Facebook page for the latest updates and pictures. The folks over there are really great at updating stuff, so there’s pretty much always something new to see.

These are pictures from just the first day! :D

The floating table attempts to run away from the Magician!

Mae and other band merch at great prices, at the bazaar!

Cosplayers! The cosplay competitions isn't until Sunday, but they were still around!

The generously-stocked Cocoa Tree. They gave us goodie bags of chocolate awesome :D

Old-school Kinder Surprise at The Cocoa Tree! Was ridiculously delighted to find these :D

Musician Nick Tan, at the Alfresco stage

Amusing annoyed cartoon cardboard creature!

Graffiti artists Mimer and Mizo (I think) work on the Nike wall near the 5-on-5 soccer court

One of the eateries on the 3rd floor. Music Cafe has cheap and good food!

*SCAPE also believes in urban greenery, even though they're right in the heart of the city.

Inch Chua, a very gifted young woman, playing at the Alfresco stage

Walking Hershey Kiss! (Bonus video at the end of the post!)

Impromptu guitar session inside the Maestro guitar shop

Performers at one of the balconies

Flea market at the custom Street Market space, in the basement has lots of interesting items to be found

Postbox, an excellent local band, performs at the Playspace (main stage)

Postbox performs again tomorrow - they'll be at Baybeats too!

AND BONUS VIDEO!

Angsana Books, an imprint of Flame of the Forest Publishing, is offering S$2,000/RM4,000 in cash and other prizes for short ghost stories.

Here’s what it says in the back of the book:

All you have [...]]]> A quick competition update! I saw this in the back of True Singapore Ghost Stories 20, which you can find at most local bookstores.

Angsana Books, an imprint of Flame of the Forest Publishing, is offering S$2,000/RM4,000 in cash and other prizes for short ghost stories.

Here’s what it says in the back of the book:

All you have to do is to write a ghost story, preferably based on a personal experience. About 700 words will do; we are not fussy about length. We are fussy about entertainment value. Entries must be ORIGINAL, that is, they must be yours and unpublished. If your story is chosen for publication, or if we think it’s a good story, you win an amount up to S$100/RM200. The contest is open to all.

Winners will be announced in the next book but you must claim your prize within six months from the date of the next book. We will write to the winners but please make sure you have listed your names and addresses clearly and correctly.

You can send in photos or illustrations, which may be published as well. You can send in as many entries as you want through snail mail or email.

The address:

 Russell Lee
 Angsana Books
 Flames Of The Forest Publishing Pte Ltd
 Blk 5 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2A
 #07-22/23, AMK Tech II
 Singapore 567760

 Email: RussellLee@ flameoftheforest.com

They recommend that you include your name, age, gender, address, phone numbers (home and mobile), school and/or occupation.

Pick up the book for more details and terms!

There’s no deadline in the ad, but best if you send it in early!

The Adventure Crew asked ourselves: We can has picnic? And we answered: Yes [...]]]>
Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

The Adventure Crew asked ourselves: We can has picnic? And we answered: Yes we can!

And so it was that we resolved to go to Marina Barrage to have a lovely little picnic. Except the weather was very wet. But because we’re the Adventure Crew, we decided to take a gamble with the weather anyway!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... (Photo courtesy SeriouslySarah.com)

And we won! It was probably the first day in the week that it hadn’t rained when we headed down to Marina Barrage :D

We would’ve walked to the Barrage in our joy, but there’s a lot of construction going on so there’s no way to actually walk from the Marina Bay mrt station to the Barrage. So we had to take a big loop around to find a very weirdly-placed bus-stop.

There are two buses; one is a shuttle, the other is a normal bus. I’m not sure which is which, but I think we took the normal bus there and the shuttle back.

At any rate, it’s about 15 minutes from station to Barrage. Once you walk into the Barrage itself, you get treated to some lovely views:

Inside the first floor of the Barrage, with the second level visible and Marina Bay Sands in the background

And because it was such a clear day, we could see quite far out. That was really rather nice (:

Some background on the Barrage: it was opened in 2008, and serves as the most glorified dam I’ve ever seen (not that that’s a bad thing). It’s a reservoir and a floodgate at the same time, as well as a sort of public park. Sort of.

We took advantage of the park-ness of it, and found a spot in the shade to unpacked our picnic stuff!

Drink, sushi, curry puffs, bagels, cookies, and potato salad

We ended up with a lot more food than we’d expected, heh! But s’okay. I had cornflakes in my potato salad, which I find incredibly weird, but it tasted good.

After we ate, we went up to the second level and attempted to fly our kites. My cheapo $3 plastic kite broke in about two minutes ): I fixed it, then it broke again, and I gave up on it.

Mintea’s kite kept breaking too, so after a while, we went downstairs to buy a kite for ourselves. I bought a proper cloth kite and string from the shop ($14). A bit expensive, but it’s a pretty sturdy kite.

They have lots of kites in varying sizes. I bought the smallest one, and it was pretty big!

Woohoo!

Because the Barrage isn’t surrounded by tall buildings, you get some amazing wind up there. But a note to all kiters: bring lots and lots of sunblock, a pair of shades, and a hat. I ended up horribly sunburnt on one arm ): Not enough to be all peely and icky, but enough to hurt.

The weather was a bit too good, and we didn’t stay up there for too long because it was just too hot. To cool down, we went into the gallery. It was quite dark inside, so I don’t have a lot of pictures.

Section talking about the Singapore River

The whole gallery is dedicated to Singapore’s attempts at building a sustainable urban country, so it’s all about the environment. Some of the exhibits were really very interesting, and they talked about things like the 80s cleanup of the Singapore River. (Before my time, but I’ve heard stories of how horrifyingly dirty it used to be.)

Inside the gallery

Entry to the gallery is free, and it’s a really interesting way to learn about the environment and the government’s efforts in maintaining it.

My favorite part was towards the end, where they have a fully working scale module of the Marina Barrage itself. There are demonstrations on how it works every half an hour or so I think, and we were just in time to catch it.

A bird's eye view of the complex (top), with the floodgates (bottom)

Basically, the Marina Barrage works as such:

1. The gates are closed by default, forming a reservoir on one side.
2. When it rains, water levels in the reservoir rise. If they keep rising, various areas will flood.
3. Once they reach a certain level, the floodgates open. Water rushes out into the sea, evening out the water level in the reservoir.
4. Various areas stay unflooded!

Excess water also gets pumped out through the pump side, but that’s in extreme cases.

It was really cool to watch, and it’s easy to understand. We all went “ooooh” when it started to ‘rain’, heh.

The gallery is very large, so do take your time to explore it!

And as we headed out, I had to take a photo with Water Wally, the PUB’s water mascot!

Water Wally! :D

The Royal Selangor showroom-shop at Clarke Quay hides a very cool secret: the [...]]]>
Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

The Royal Selangor showroom-shop at Clarke Quay hides a very cool secret: the School of Hard Knocks, a little pewter workshop that anyone can sign up for. They’re open for walk-ins, but it’s best if you call or email ahead if you have a big group just in case. It was the Adventure Crew with Arrch, who was going back to Australia that night!

It’s $30 per head, but I was awesome enough to find a little discount booklet for everyone so we all got $2 off. :D

Basically it’s a short workshop on how pewter is shaped. They give you a flat disc of pewter, and it’s your job to shape it into a little bowl using traditional techniques.

Tools of the trade: a mallet, a hammer, disc of pewter, and letter stencil things

You can’t see it in the picture, but there’s also a wooden block. It’s shaped in a bowl on each end so you have something to knock your disc into. There’s an instructor who’ll teach you how to do things, and help you out if you’re in a jam – which, typically of me, I ended up in. But more later!

So we had to tie on some really strangely-designed aprons, and then he taught us how knock the bowls using the right side of the mallet. There’s a rounded side and a flat side, and you’re supposed to use the rounded side.

But first! You can ‘write’ whatever you want in your bowl while it’s still flat. Most of us wrote our names and/or URLs. I included the date, because it’s fun that way!

The instructor walked us through it; first you shape it into a bowl, then you deepen the inside curve, and attempt to knock out all the uneven bumps. It’s harder than I can describe, mostly because I kept nearly knocking my fingers instead. X_x

Oh, and a sampling of how noisy it gets when you’re shaping the bowl:

SoHK

The workshop timing is anytime you want. Ideally, you should be done with all the hard knocking and shaping in 30 to 45 minutes. We did it for about 45 minutes and my hard was killing me after that, because you do need a considerable amount of fun.

The instructor will help you out if you're having trouble

I attempted to give my bowl a flat bottom so it wouldn’t roll around like crazy, but I got a bit overenthusiastic. Which meant I needed a lot of help because my plate was beginning to look more like an ashtray at one point. (Sarah called it “interesting”. Polite lies.) I am not very good with heavy equipment, no.

And once you’re done knocking the heck out of it, you have to wash it! This is to give it a nice shine, and you use your typical household rough scrubbing sponges. They leave nice lines on the pewter too, so if you keep doing it evenly, you get a nice shine with very pretty polish lines.

The finished product!

And then you’re done! As a gift besides your bowl, you get to keep the apron, and you get a nice little cert and complimentary Chinese-style coin. It’s a pretty nifty gift to remember the School of Hard Knocks by.

Royal Selangor gift bag

Since the workshop is at the shop, you can buy other professionally-made pewter items too. Like pewter fruit! Though I’m not sure why you would want one.

After that, a late Turkish lunch near Bugis:

I have no idea what it is, but I liked it

After lunch, Arrch went back to get his luggage to prepare for his flight. Meanwhile, we ran off to a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2) art show somewhere in the area!

And we got lost. As usual.

To be fair, it was impossible to find the space. We had to ask for directions, and turns out it’s super nondescript on the second floor. Kinda freaky though, because it felt so isolated.

Found it!

As the name suggests, it was all H2G2-themed. It was really quite interesting to see what they did with the space, which wasn’t very large.

Mock babelfish

How cheery!

Sad Marvin is sad. ):

And my favorite exhibit:

Wise words to live by

But for a better coverage of what it’s all about, check out the Toysrevil post on it! They were at the opening and everything.

As we were leaving, the people there were nice enough to give us a free issue of KULT magazine! It’s like an art-y type mag, and the issue was all about anti-Aids themes, so some of the art was really quite cool.

For something free! The NLB Book Exchange is back again this year.

Bring your used books down to any NLB library from 10 to 23 April to exchange them for coupons. Then, on April 24, go down to the main library at Victoria Street to get books that other people have exchanged. All for free!

Here’s a copy-n-paste [...]]]>

For something free! The NLB Book Exchange is back again this year.

Bring your used books down to any NLB library from 10 to 23 April to exchange them for coupons. Then, on April 24, go down to the main library at Victoria Street to get books that other people have exchanged. All for free!

Here’s a copy-n-paste from GoLibrary:

Give a book, get a book at the Book Exchange! Drop off your used books* at any Public Library from 10 to 23 April, 11.00am to 9.00pm and get a coupon for every book** accepted. Bring your coupon down to The Plaza, National Library Building, on 24 April to redeem for new reads.

Date: Sat, 24 April 2010
Time: 8.30am to 6.00pm
Venue: The Plaza, National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street

*We accept children’s and adults’ fiction and non-fiction books (eg. Cookbooks, travel guides and romance novels) in any four official languages. Books in other languages will not be accepted. We also accept used library books bought from previous Library Book Sales. Textbooks, magazines and audio-visual materials are not accepted. Used books for exchange should be in relatively good physical condition.

**Each person can exchange up to a maximum of 30 used books.

There will be a Borders Fair at the Singapore Expo at the end of the month. Details below!

Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 6B Date: 30 April (Fri) to 2 May 2010 (Sun) Time: 10am – 9pm Admission is free

I remember last year’s event had a selection of books that wasn’t half-bad, but it does get very crowded on the [...]]]>

There will be a Borders Fair at the Singapore Expo at the end of the month. Details below!

Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 6B
Date: 30 April (Fri) to 2 May 2010 (Sun)
Time: 10am – 9pm
Admission is free

I remember last year’s event had a selection of books that wasn’t half-bad, but it does get very crowded on the weekend.

There’ll also be a selection of other events happening within the Borders Fair on Saturday and Sunday, including storytelling by kid’s fiction group Monsters Under The Bed.

There’s some more info at the Expo calendar (source of the picture above, too) and more about the events at the Borders website.

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

I like seafood. Or, rather, I like eating seafood. And, as they [...]]]>

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

I like seafood. Or, rather, I like eating seafood. And, as they say, the taste of victory is sweet – and what’s sweeter than really fresh prawns?

So it was on a drizzly Saturday afternoon that I met several members of the Adventure Crew — Mintea, Avariel and Sarah — to head to Bottle Tree Park for prawning!

Because, you see, when you go out and catch fish, it’s called fishing. When you go out to catch prawns, it’s called prawning. The logic, it hurts my brain!

We were heading to Bottle Tree Park, which is a rather large activity park of sorts. It’s at Yishun, but it’s only a 10-minute walk from Khatib mrt station.

The only experienced prawner among our little motley crew was Avariel, whose sister had taught her how to prawn. I believe she usually goes to Pasir Ris, so it was her first time there too.

It’s quite large; its front is dominated by the main fishing pond. You can also do the couple swan paddle-boat thing too! But it was rainy that day, plus the main fishing pond was closed for a corporate event.

Swan paddle boats (Photo courtesy SeriouslySarah.com)

The prawning ponds are easy to find if you keep left and head towards the Japanese restaurant. There are two prawning ponds: one is for normal prawning, and the other is for children. The children’s pond is for ‘longkang fishing’ (longkang = drain), where they use nets to catch small fish like guppies.

Main prawning pond

Prawning is $14.50/hour at the main pond, rod and bait included. You head to the counter and pay for your hour, collect your bait and rod, and then find a spot by the pond to settle down.

Amusing sign above the counter - if you read Chinese, you'll get it. Otherwise it's hard to explain

We’re not sure what the bait is, but we think it’s fish insides. They’re raw and kind of slimy though, which may be enough to put people off. But not the brave and somewhat ick-resistant (except for insects of the crawling, wriggly and flying persuasion) Adventure Crew!

So what you do is you take a piece of chopped bait and poke your prawning hook through it, pick a patch of water, and throw your hook in. There’s this floating thing that will, er, float. And then you settle down to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

This is why they charge you by the hour. Most of the prawning expedition was spent waiting for a prawn to take the bait.

When you feel a tug on your rod and your floater thing bobs up and down, that means a prawn has decided your bait looks yummy!

Then comes the tricky part. You’re supposed to kind of flick your rod upwards to get the hook into the prawn, but that doesn’t always work. And then you kind of wave your rod madly to get the end back to you (there is no winder, like in a fishing rod) while fighting the prawn.

And the prawn will fight. During our hour there, we saw some rather impressive rod-bending action. Mintea actually got one heck of a fighter, but it got away ):

Once you get the prawn up onto land, they have this very long blue-black pincer. It looks a bit like a black-blue twig, but I’m told that they can cause injury. So you have to remove the pincher by stepping on it and pulling the prawn away from said pincer. We had to get Avariel to do it, since she had boots on and was the only one who knew how to de-pincer the prawns.

First to catch a prawn was Sarah.

And then, very soon after that, Avariel caught a prawn.

Mintea caught the third. She nearly caught another one, but it got away; to be fair, it was a very large prawn with two pincers.

And I… didn’t catch any. ):

MEANWHILE, a group of Chinese tourists on the other side of the pond were catching prawns willy-nilly! They caught at least five or six while we were there. Clearly, prawns do not like me. ):

Prawns in the net

What do you do with the prawns you’ve caught? You cook them! (Evil laughter completely optional.)

So after our hour was up, we took our de-pincered prawns to the small grill they had there. The bait man — who kept talking to us in Chinese, despite our collective lack of understanding — helped us poke satay sticks into the prawns. And then onto the grill they went.

Half-cooked prawns on the grill

It’s a bit creepy to see your prawns twitching on the heat; they are, after all, still alive. All I can say is that they died before they were cooked through, which was a bit of a relief. I generally like my food to be unconscious when it’s being cooked, but I don’t think you can knock out prawns.

Here are our happy prawners!

I basically sulked at the side for my lack of prawns, but you can eat the prawns there and then. These are probably the freshest prawns any of us have eaten; the brains are a bright, yolk yellow, which I’ve never seen before. And I bet they (the prawns, not necessarily the brains) were sweet.

Prawn gills

After that we walked around the grounds for a bit, exploring some of the interesting items on the lawn – there is the eponymous bottle tree, as well as a fake giant ribcage.

Mucking about at the ribcage

The famed bottle tree

As mentioned before, Bottle Tree Park has got other activities too. They actually have a zipline and a paintball park.

The zipline was closed, and looked semi-abandoned, but I’m told it can’t compare to Megazip.

We headed to the paintball park next. Red Dynasty Paintball Park is a bit hard to find, but basically go back to the entrance and, instead of walking away from the small access road, follow the road all the way up the slight slope.

If you see this on the road, you're on the right track.

Red Dynasty Paintball Park

Red Dynasty Paintball Park has a few courses, including a shooting gallery. We didn’t have the minimum six people to have a match, so the shooting range it was! It’s $10 for 30 paintballs.

The staff there briefed us on the masks, how to use a paintball gun, and safety. The paintballs travel at something like 90 meters a second; while it won’t kill you, you can lose an eye. And then it’s fun and games without depth perception.

But seriously, it can be dangerous stuff. But listen to their warnings and don’t be an idiot, and you’ll be fine.

I wear glasses, but the Halo-esque paintball mask goes over the entire face and glasses. It isn’t too uncomfortable, even with glasses on, but it does fog up very quickly.

I was the second to put on the mask. By the time we were led into the shooting gallery some thirty seconds later, I couldn’t actually see anything but big colored shapes.

Which is a bit of a pity, because I was basically shooting blind.

See how fogged up the visors are? (Photo courtesy SeriouslySarah.com)

The paintball guns use canisters of compressed air so there wasn’t much recoil. The guns are a bit heavy, though you can adjust your stance to compensate.

It was over very quickly, alas. Within about ten minutes all of us had exhausted our ammo.

It’s fun though! Especially if you get the chance to shoot at other people, heh. As we left, we saw a group of guys duking it out at one of their courses. That particular course is big enough to move about with and take cover, but not big enough that you feel like a sniper waiting for your target to come into view.

Although, with the way the mask fogs up, you might never see your target.

At any rate, by then it was noon! So off to lunch we went. It’s a short bus ride to Yishun Interchange, where Northpoint mall is.

Because we lead such interesting lives, the minute we walked in we saw interesting stilt-walkers who looked right out of Carnevale. They waved hello, and we waved back – professional courtesy, as it were.

Stilt-walker

And then to lunch proper. I got my revenge for my lack of caught prawns by eating the famous, delicious, nom-worthy flaming prawns at Manhattan Fish Market. Bwahahaha.

So yes, it was a very seafoody day. Not that I’m complaining! I like seafood, I like prawns, and I really really like Manhattan Fish Market – and, most of all, I love hanging out with the Adventure Crew.

Om nom nom nom.

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

This is where I was today:

I was at the [...]]]>

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

This is where I was today:

I was at the National Museum of Singapore to go to the Quest for Immortality – The World of Ancient Egypt exhibition. Alone, le gasp! Because the Adventure Crew has to work or go to school, and I run on a different calendar than them.

Adult admission to Quest for Immortality is $15, but I got in free because I’m a student. The exhibition runs until April 4, so there isn’t much time left to see the artefacts! The 200+ pieces are from the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) in Vienna.

Here’s a summary:

Quest for Immortality – The World of Ancient Egypt offers an insight to the ancient Egyptian’s attitude to life and the afterlife, and the preparations they made to ensure their transition from earthly existence to immortality. Discover the Egyptians’ means of equipping the dead – through mummification, provision of sustenance, magic and ritual – and explore the evolution of their burial rites as well as the changing relationship between man and ritual through time.

The exhibition isn’t so much about mummies than I’d expected; it’s more about the symbolism and meaning that the Ancient Egyptians attached to the items they used in their elaborate and extensive burial rituals. It’s quite refreshing to see the various artefacts put into their cultural context, rather than just being interesting objects on display.

Basically, the Ancient Egyptians believed that dying was just transiting to another state of being; the afterlife was just another form of existence, very similar to the flesh and blood state of living.

They mummified the bodies because the ba, which is the non-corporeal state of being (not the soul – that’s the ka) would perish without having a physical body to return to.

But yes. Pictures! Plus a sorta-kinda-not really walkthrough.

Statue of a Pharaoh, with the royal snake symbol and nose missing

A lion eating a bull or a bear

This elephant statue is only one of three known large Egyptian elephant statues. The other two are in Rome and in Aswan, Egypt.

Elephant statue

This is the very large head of a ruler from the Ptolemaic Period, name unknown. It’s really big, and they think the full statue was about four metres high. The eyes were probably some other colored material.

Head of Ptolemaic ruler

This one is interesting. It’s King Horemheb sitting with Osiris, god of the sky or sun; Horemheb was believed to be the earthly incarnation of Osiris.

Statue of King Horemheb and Osiris

This is a… I can’t actually remember the word, but pieces of clay or pottery were used as sketchpads.

'Sketchpad'

Jewelry was very important religious items, even for the poor. Specific materials, designs and colors had different magical properties, or were associated with various deities.

This piece has 24 different amulets made from precious stones and hammered sheets of gold. The beads themselves are precious stones, gold, silver and glass.

Innit pretty?

There was also a section about pyramids, but I guess those have been talked about to death (no pun intended) so not too much information there.

Cross-section of a pyramid

Statues also served as a kind of proxy body for the buried, and were usually placed in the tombs or offering chapels. They weren’t always faithful representations of the owners; their names on the statues were considered enough for the souls to identify their own.

Incomplete statue of scribe called Henka with a papyrus scroll on his lap and holding a reed pen in his right hand

Crooked statue of a man called Hetep-seshat and a woman, name unknown

Funeral cones were also used to identify tombs. They were shaped as cones so that they could be pushed into the plaster above a tomb’s doorway. The flat round part would be visible. They seemed to be more of a regional thing, mostly found around Thebes.

Funerary cones

I overheard a tour guide saying that at least one of the cones belonged to a Pharaoh because of the words that were inscribed into the cone.

Another form of grave markers were called stele (plural form stelae). They had the names and paintings/cravings of the owner, plus inscriptions of prayers to various gods. Our concept of tombstones evolved from stelae, which is why they seem so familiar.

Stele of a police captain named Teri. Topmost: symbols of protection. Top: Teri brings a sacrifice to Osiris. Bottom: a couple sits behind a sacrificial table with offerings.

You can still see some of the paint on the stele – which, to be honest, kind of freaks me out. Because you realise that you’re looking at someone’s gravestone, that several thousand years ago this person really lived.

Moving on.

Tomb chapels were the accessible parts of the tombs, usually for families to conduct prayer rituals and place offerings. Offerings of food and drink were really important for the deceased; they had lists to make sure that the deceased were properly provided for in the afterlife.

Offering list of wine, bread, fruit, and grains from a tomb of a person called Bak-en-renef

The chapels also featured false doors, which didn’t actually open. These were meant for the spirit of the deceased to pass through, either to collect offerings or return to the burial chamber.

False door

Tomb chapel relief

The final part of the exhibition are the coffins. Most are empty, though at least one contains human remains. There are two empty coffins at the start of that section. The neat thing is that you can look down at them to see them from the top, and you can descend a small ramp to look at their sides.

Coffins were the most important part of the entire burial, since it housed the body of the deceased – it gave the deceased some magical assistance in the afterlife.

Early coffins were rectangular and imitated the grand exterior of the Pharaoh’s palace, since the coffin was considered a house for the dead. Later on, they would evolve into the more familiar mummy-shaped type, and were made from wood, stone, cartonnage (layered linen stiffened with plaster) and sometimes even precious metals.

This exterior coffin was, I believe, made out of wood.

Lower half exterior

Lower half interior

Coffin lid exterior

Coffin lid detail

Another coffin:

Interior detail of coffin

There was at least one mummy with actual human remains, though you couldn’t see said remains.

Mummy of Nekhet-iset-aru, covered in fine linen cloth and bandages (the sort of crinkly things at the head)

Organs were placed in jars bearing the heads of the gods

As the mummies were being mummified, they were identified with pieces of wood with their names and the names of the families.

This particular label dates from 30 BCE to 395 CE and is written in Greek – the same practice that helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone.

Mummy identification tags were the equivalent of modern toe tags

We’re coming to the two most interesting pieces – for me, at any rate!

This piece is a fragment of a painted mummy bandage, which shows scenes from the Book of the Dead – the Egyptian funerary text, which was placed in coffins or burial chambers.

Painted bandage fragment

Detail of bandage fragment

And, my personal highlight of the exhibition: the Book of the Dead.

The Book of the Dead contained hymns, prayers, and instructions that would help the deceased properly enter the afterlife. It was incredibly important, and the exhibition has lots of translated quotes from the Book.

There was a very long papyrus containing excepts from the Book of the Dead in the exhibition. It was easily eight feet long, and contained a number of large drawings accompanied by a lot of text.

Unfortunately I couldn’t really get a good look at it, because there were three(!) school excursions there. But here are some shots of a scroll that belonged to Pay-nefer-nefer:

Excerpts from the Book of the Dead

Detail, Book of the Dead

Isn’t that incredibly cool? Not to mention the huge significance of the Book in the culture and religion of the time.

So, in all? The exhibition is amazing, but only if you’re interested in the socio-cultural contexts of Egyptian burial items. If you’re there to see mummified human remains, you’ll be sorely disappointed; but go in with a relatively open mind, and you will learn a lot of things.