Ballarat 8/1/26
Well we didn’t originally plan to be home last night (Wednesday) but unfortunately the Minister for Strategic Tourism (Lynda) got her days wrong.
Her normal metronomic thinking processes must have fizzled due to Singapore’s humidity because (thankfully) she woke at 4am needing to check our itinerary and realised we were getting picked up at 4.30am to fly home…on Wednesday, not Thursday!
Anyway, following a mad scramble we made it. We got back to ‘The Rat’ at 10pm last night after what’s been a ripper break.
On Tuesday we headed to The Changi Museum. It was an hour on the train and a fifteen minute bus ride which takes you past the official Changi Prison of today.
Only Singaporeans could make such a notoriously brutal structure look neat and clean.
The Changi Museum contains the original chapel in the centre of the building and is open to the elements. Around the chapel in a U Shape are the artefacts and story of Changi Prison in WW2.
The events of Changi along with some other military history, are a few of the historical pieces I can actually remember given my six years of dodgy service to this country.
Other memorable recalls include Malcolm Blight’s career and a list of St Kilda’s premierships.
The museum was put together by the Singaporean government in conjunction with the British and Australian Armed Forces.
It is tasteful and well compiled. It takes about forty minutes to get through the exhibits then you move into the chapel.
They have presented the chapel as it was and there is a moving tribute area where visitors can leave messages. The one below dedicated to a 102 year old survivor is a beauty.
The Changi Prison story has a couple of layers. The first layer which the museum focusses its attention on, is the prison itself.
The conditions were appalling. Approximately eight hundred and fifty soldiers perished over the four years or so of its operation.
The museum highlights the resilience of the POWs using humour and improvisation to get through.
I guess what wasn’t shown, but you can see in detail at The War Memorial in Canberra, was the second layer to Changi. Changi was like a giant interchange box for the labour camps such as the Thai-Burma railway.
Here it was estimated that over twelve thousand POWs died in unfathomable conditions. Malnutrition, torture and disease took their toll and any survivors were replaced by others from Changi.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see a survivor returned to Changi looking as thin as a pencil, knowing you were replacing him to enter a hell hole.
A very moving museum that is very important to our history and is a must visit for any Australians going to Singapore.
A few things that come to mind about Singapore before I sign off:
- It is a melting pot of Asian cultures so if you like Asian cuisine, you’ll be in heaven. Hawkers are big dining areas with selections to die for and are cheap.
- Singapore’s population of six million isn’t much more than Melbourne however they have so much more retail and particularly high end retail for a population of this size. The fixed costs alone for some of these shops would have to be prohibitive but they all seem to work.
- The shops are open late every night. Perhaps that and on line shopping help, and the other question I had was, “who’s making this much money to pay for the stuff?” No doubt we saw a lot of rich people but to the average worker in Singapore I’m not sure if they’re buying much.
- Importantly for us oldies, toilets are plentiful and unsurprisingly spotless.
- Imagine a day where you didn’t see graffiti, especially in Victoria. It can happen. Not even a crayon mark in Singapore.
- I’ve mentioned the trains ad nauseum. Most of the stations are tucked away inside the mega shopping malls. Once you enter the labyrinth of a mall on an escalator just be mindful of an exit number if you are returning. They are marked in yellow. Otherwise you may never see the light of day again.
- Although theme parks etc aren’t our cup of tea and aren’t mentioned by me, Singapore does appear to be a fantastic place for a family holiday. We bumped into a lovely young family from Brisbane who were having a whale of a time. Universal Studios, The Zoo and river cruises are very popular.
Finally, Australian Governments have been sending so called ‘delegations’ on junkets to Asia since the sixties to work out why we are so dumb as a nation compared to the technological know how of Japan, China and Singapore.
It’s cost the tax payer millions and these fat cats who have been sticking their noses in the trough have come back with absolutely nothing! The first bullet trains were built in 1963 for the Tokyo Olympics. We still cant get to Tullamarine from Melbourne!
Anyway, when we visited the Marina Bay Sands there is some history on the wall at the bottom with timelines of the structure’s history etc.
This photo caught my attention. It’s a delegation, possibly from Australia discussing the design with architect Moshe Safdie.
If they were Australian government delegates I pondered some thought bubbles for each of them at that moment in time.
Left to right:
- “Do you reckon if I fain interest long enough, he’ll shut up?”
- “That seafood platter last night was extraordinary.”
- “Thank f..k for this wall. I’ve got a hangover the size of my electorate.”
- “We’ll never build this shit. I’ve got a three piece suit to pick up from Jimmy the Tailor tonight.”
I hope some of the stories have been helpful if you do decide to visit South Africa or Singapore. To those who provided some feedback its much appreciated.
Massive thanks to Lynda for her patience, curiosity and humour as always. Expect some repercussions visa vee flight accuracies but on the whole, for all your efforts, I would say well done. 🙂
May your reality be a kind one in 2026. Cheers Willow and Lynda.
