Singapore Day 1

Day 1 in Singapore got off to a slow start. Having woken up at about 2am, I then slept in until 9:30 – by which stage the service I had intended to attend at the Orchard Presbyterian Church was about half over. After a very welcome shower, I finally dragged myself out of the hotel at about 11:00.

I stopped at reception to see if there was anything they could do about my room. Let me pose a question. If you were looking at a list of rooms, and there were two categories described as “Standard” and “Standard without window”, and you clicked on the first, would you expect to get a window? Well, I did, but I didn't, if you see what I mean. When I arrived, I was dog-tired and restricted my protest to a call to reception to say that I had expected a window. There was nothing else available, but he said he'd see what he could do for the rest of my stay. So, on the way out, I asked the girl if there was anything. Indeed there was, but it wasn't ready yet – could I just pack my stuff and leave it in the room? I could and did. Just to prove it, here's the view out of my new window - not, perhaps, the best view in Singapore, but it looks better than a blank wall:

Once out in the joys of the Singapore climate, I walked along to Bugis (pronounced boo-giss, I have it on good authority) MRT station to buy a tourist pass. This is almost certainly not the cheapest way of paying for the public transport, but it probably is the most convenient. For $8 per day you can travel anywhere you like on the metro or bus network (which is anywhere in Singapore). Unfortunately, the station at Bugis didn't have any cards left. Now, it seems to me that when we're talking about something the size of a credit card keeping adequate stocks oughtn't be stretching the storage capacity of a ticket office but, either way, they'd run out. Perhaps I could try at Orchard... And how do I get there – buy a single ticket.

Well, they did have the tickets at Orchard, so I got myself one...

... and then continued up the line to Kranji. Kranji is in the north of the island and is the site of the Commonwealth War Cemetery – a memorial to the 24,000 people who died (mainly in WW2) defending Singapore and neighbouring parts of Malaysia:


My particular reason for visiting is that my grandfather is named on the memorial there. Now, it's reasonable to say that he's largely a grandfather in genetic terms only. He died long before I was on the scene and even my mother never really knew him but, still, he's is my grandfather and he died trying to defend the island of Singapore against the Japanese invasion in February 1942. He isn't actually buried in the cemetery (I guess no-one knows where he's buried) but this is his entry in the memorial book:

And this is the column referred to:


The Japanese army spent the latter months of 1941 advancing down the Malay peninsula with seeming impunity. The best the allied troops could do was slow them down. When it came to it, there was never really any doubt about the fate of Singapore, but orders had come down from on high (probably from Churchill himself) that the island was to be defended and held regardless of the cost in military or civilian lives. In the end, with no fuel and precious little food or water, the general commanding the defence garrison had little choice but to accept the Japanese demand for unconditional surrender.

In the meantime, those who could afford to, had fled the island leaving a volunteer force to supplement the regular army in the defence of the island. Those who evacuated themselves included my grandmother and my (one-year-old) mother. They never saw grandpa again. My gran was rather passive, it seemed to me, especially in later life. But, there's no doubt that she must have been a remarkable woman in her prime. First of all, she survived the Singapore climate – and she can have been no more prepared for it than I am (and she did it without air-conditioning). She moved half way round the world and set up home in Asia. Of course, in the days of the British Empire, the little comforts of home were available, and there were probably local servants, but even so it's quite some achievement. Then she said good-bye to her husband and took her infant daughter off in the middle of a war zone. She survived being torpedoed on the way to Australia and the journey home eventually led right round the world as she returned the long way (really the only possible route given the state of Europe at the time). As I said, a remarkable woman.

So, yes, the name in the memorial book and on the memorial itself is, perhaps, just a name, but he was still my grandpa (and it's my mum's maiden name and my brother's middle name). The defence may have been hopeless, but I suppose that's just how things were then. I wonder what we've learnt.

One thing that struck me was the number of countries represented on the memorial – not just Britain, but Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Ceylon, Malaysia, China. Even The Netherlands lost soldiers defending the island. When you see the names of regiments like the “Royal Indian Corps of Engineers” and cities such as Hyderabad, you wonder what on earth they were doing there. I guess that's how empires work.

After visiting the cemetery, I took the bus back to the Kranji MRT station (given that I could travel for nothing, it sure beat walking in this heat) and headed back into town. Before I came here, I imagined Singapore to be little more than a built up area, but there's quite a lot of countryside as well, and the train ran through it on the surface before descending once again to the tunnels under the city.

My destination was the “Battle Box”. This is an underground bunker complex that was the military headquarters of the British Imperial Forces until the surrender to Japan. The bunker lay empty and forgotten for about 50 years after WW2 before being re-opened and converted to an exhibition of the events leading up to the fall of Singapore.

The bunker itself is quite impressive - here is the entrance, for example:

Unfortunately, the presentation of the story was a bit disappointing. I arrived at about 3:10pm to be told that the next tour was at 3:30. No problem – time to sit for a moment and drink something cold. I returned a little before 3:30 to find the presentation well under way with a video describing the Japanese advance down the Malay peninsula. The guy in charge said just to go in and I could buy the ticket after the video. After the video, though, it transpired that there were too many people for a proper tour so I saved $3 by taking the “walk-through”. The problem with this approach is that there is virtually no information in the bunker itself so without the commentary provided via headphones to those on the tour it's a rather sterile series of rooms and little more. So here's a tip if you're ever this way – if you're offered a “walk-through”, don't take it, even when he assures you that it's cheaper. Just go away and come back when there's space on the proper tour.

Fort Canning itself has been a seat of government in Singapore for a very long time – way before the British arrived it was the seat of the Sultans who ran things previously. The fort was rebuilt and redeveloped over the years until it became a military stronghold. It was self contained from the point of view of having its own water and air supplies, but that didn't help the generals who gathered there for a meeting to discuss the possibility of surrender back in 1942. Opinion was divided but eventually the desire to avoid needless and almost certainly futile slaughter, combined with dwindling water supplies (the Japanese controlled almost the entire water supply for the island and what remained was leaking away through bomb-damaged pipes faster than they could be repaired) held sway and an attempt was made to negotiate terms. The Japanese commander wasn't interested in terms and insisted on an unconditional surrender. Feeling that he had no choice, General Percival, the senior commander on the island, agreed. The Battle Box contains a number of tableaux, only one of which makes much sense without the headsets, and that is the recreation of the meeting of senior personnel to discuss surrendering:

My Lonely Planet guide to Singapore describes the summit of Fort Canning Park as a refreshing and cool green space in the middle of the city. Well, all things are relative, I suppose. Perhaps it was cooler, but I didn't notice. It is green, though, with genuine “jungle” noises in the trees and shrubs around. I don't know what kind of trees these are, but they sure are impressive:

Nestled in the shadow of the park is the Wesley Methodist Church and there was a service at 5pm which I took advantage of having failed to make it to the Presbyterian Church in the morning. The service was good and the church was lovely. I sat in what I took to be the original sanctuary, but I entered through a large area where the pews faced TV monitors which were relaying the service. It was a communion service and everyone was served at a triangular rail on the chancel from where you could see down into one of the transepts which had been extended to be almost as large as the original nave. It was a good service with several rousing Wesley hymns and an interesting sermon on the significance of communion as a coming-together of the people of God as well as a means of Grace.


The church is not, as you might think, a creation of the colonial system. Rather it was American Methodist missionaries who brought the message so the church is part of an Episcopal branch of the church and the hymn book is the American United Methodist Hymnal. The order of service was a 28-page booklet detailing not just the services, but also the myriad activities through the week.

After the service, I wandered into the adjacent National Museum of Singapore – a splendid colonial building containing a rather uninteresting collection of galleries. Ah well, by the time I got there, there was no admission charge so I got to see the inside of the building for nothing, and it's well worth seeing.

Dinner was in the Chijmes complex – a mall based around an old church which has lots of boutique (read: expensive) shops and different eateries.

Enough for one day (and more than enough for one posting – I can hear that from here!).