It started at Raffles Hotel. Well, the group was to meet up with the I Heart Museums people at the bus stop nearby first! The crew and I were to go on a Journey Through Time – A Fantasy Tour by the National Heritage Board. FYI, the next trip is on March 12 and 13! For those interested in it, you can find out more and email/call them here. Make sure you call or email them before 7th March for it!
OK, the intro to this whole thing, I saw the tour tickets being a prize on Yesterday.sg and then looked at the actual website for this tour and went all, “Heck it. I don’t want to have a chance to win tickets, I so totally want to be on this!”.
Thus the crew signed up for it too because the summary was this:
Join characters Julia and Meng, magically transported from 1914, as they visit our iconic National Monuments and give first-hand accounts of olden day Singapore. The tour, which takes participants to Raffles Hotel, St. Andrew’s Cathedral and the Armenian Church, will focus on the contributions of the Armenian community in Singapore as well as other prominent historical figures. Additional tours will be held on 12 and 13 March as part of Illuminate 175, a special event celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Armenian Church, the oldest church in Singapore. Suitable for children 10 years and above.
Oh heck yes.
AND SO the story started out after we signed our indemnity forms, paid $3, got our goodie bags and walked towards Raffles Hotel! OH NOES! WHAT IS HAPPENING? Julia and Meng have transported to our present from 1914? WHAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED? We must help them! Julia has found herself in our time after she held a pendant! Clearly she didn’t know that she would be transported to our time and oh! How fortunate that Meng was there with her. We need to help them get to the Armenian Church for it might be the way to get back to her past or for her to meet Thomas. Her admirer who had sent her the pendant and letter for it was said that he might be there too!
OH MAGICAL HIJINKS, YOU ARE SO SILLY.
Yes, let us help these two get back to their time!
As we made our way towards the Armenian church, we passed by landmarks and the duo informed us on how different the past was compared to the buildings now. For example in front of Raffles Hotel, it would be a beach and the sea which ok… It makes sense to us now why it’s at Beach Road. Just that the beach isn’t here any more. We crossed traffic junctions and told them we could only cross when the green man was on!
They were clearly astonished by cars and buses!
Since the two was currently in the present, well why not just detour to the St Andrews Cathedral to check it out? As you go on walking around with them, you get to learn more about Julia and Meng. Julia’s a teacher and Meng’s a maintenance man! He told us that why the cathedral and churches was white was because the material they used for the “paint” had sugar, eggs and flour along with some other things in it. Very interesting! I didn’t know the cathedral DID have stained glass windows there too and they were dedicated to Sir Stamford Raffles, Sir John Crawford and Major General William Butterworth.
Meng has a brother who’s a photographer by the way and you get to look at pictures of him with the buildings in the past.
I AM VERILY amused with the black and white photos. Also, they clearly are people from the past as they are flummoxed with “Ahh! What is that ship doing on top of the building?” and other things.
Besides facts which didn’t “feel” like you were getting educated since it’s more like them just talking casually to you, there is this whole storyline that will unfold as you get towards the ending of the tour. We arrived at the last spot which is the Armenian Church, yay! WILL THEY GO BACK TO THEIR TIMELINE? Will they disappear???
Also, did you know that these are just memorials? The real graves of the Armenians are at Fort Canning! Anyway, Julia told us more about the Armenians for her dear Thomas was an Armenian. They are businessmen and a relatively small community in the past and yet they could build a church! It took a lot of money and organization to have it done and now it is the oldest church in Singapore!
As you can tell in the pictures, it’s very sunny but somehow we didn’t mind it with all what was happening!
As we neared the end of the tour since we were at the church, Meng confessed something. DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUUUUUH. Ok, it is spoilery so I shan’t tell you what it is here. The conclusion of it was that everyone in the group went all “GASSSSP!” and “AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” at it. Whoever wrote the script for them must be laughing insanely at the puns involved and the ending.
I would like to believe that in the end Meng and Julia DID get back into the past as they entered the Armenian Church where the pendant brought them back! I believe it so because:
a) It was a Saturday Morning.
b) Saturday Morning shows are like Disney ones and thus they have a happy ending and THUS they are magically transported back after their trip!
c) It is a THING that would happen.
No matter what, we went all gaaasp and awww because it is by the NATIONAL HERITAGE BOARD, like WOAH they actually did a super nice story ending?! Back then when we were kids and all that, the museums didn’t have such cool storylines or interactive thingies like this! This was VERY fun! Like being in a time travel romance novel of sorts!
In summary:
The amount of history told to us was enough, not too much but enough to learn more about the area, the actor and actress were VERY good, the script was wonderful and the management of the I Heart Museums staff were great! They were effective and yet discreet so they wouldn’t 4th Wall the story of Meng and Julia by being like guides but not really!
SO WOAAAAAAAAAH.
The Armenian community are having the anniversary of the church on the 26th and 27th of March. To know more on that, you can check their webpage here.
On the tour for Journey Through Time – A Fantasy Tour, you can check their webpage here or for more information and to pre-register, call 6332 8515 or email nhb_nationalmonuments@nhb.gov.sg since there are limited slots on 12 and 13 March 2011! Register by 7 March if you want to get on the tour. Not sure the timings but the one I went to on the 26th February was at 10 am and another slot was 4pm. Best you call/email them up to check when it is!
It’s still pretty amazing to get such a quality tour and a goodie bag of things (a pencil, the coveted I Heart Museums lanyard, the I Heart Museums badge and an MRT transitlink set of historical buildings) for just $3. YAY!
