Fort Canning Park #1

Walking around the city I sort of stumbled on Fort Canning Park, which actually ended up being someplace noteworthy! Mostly I was drawn to it because it was a patch of green, and I at the time I was getting tired of sidewalks and buildings. Since then I've realized that Singapore is actually pretty green and lush, despite its thick protective coating of shopping malls.

Fort Canning is on a hill, and apparently this hill was a popular spot for past rulers of Singapore to set up shop. The original Malay settlers put their temples and tombs here, the Chinese immigrants set up trading posts, the English colonists built fortifications... even the Decepticon conquest that Sideways assures me is coming have their eyes on it for a possible protoform daycare center.

Nowadays they have things like music festival, art shows, and other cultural events here. But it was pretty quiet and peaceful when I was there. Well, except for the truck that almost ran me over on the road pictured below. The truck is not pictured, as I was too busy not getting run over.

By the way, Sideways IS in this photo. Can you find him? It's not easy.... he is a robot in disguise, after all.

"Where do these steps go?"

"They go up."

Incidentally, I've heard that quoting movies makes you super cool.

I guess Fort Canning underwent a big renovation around 2001. One of the things they did was to re-create a small part of the big spice garden that once sprawled across the grounds and included occupants like this cinnamon tree. I'm not sure why they built the tiny action figure hot tubs. I mean, Singapore is already pretty hot.

During the renovation they opened this archeological dig site, in which they are excavating some ruins from colonial times. They also had a neat, very interesting timeline on the wall showing the history of the settlement of Singapore.

Sadly, no mummies or dinosaurs. I'm not sure I can fully endorse any archeological dig that doesn't unearth mummies or dinosaurs, but they did have some old Chinese coins. I guess you could use them to BUY a mummy.