SG50 Golden Jubilee Weekend - ArtScience Museum and Singapore Botanic Garden - Happy 50th Birthday Singapore!!! :)

Keep Calm and Happy SG50 :)

Let me pause from my Bhutan memoir for a while :) It's a time to celebrate SG50 now!!! Yes, it's happening now!! Yesterday it was declared an additional holiday to make this weekend a very long holiday so that everyone would have a chance to celebrate the nation 50th Independence Day!!! Well, this made many others traveling overseas though instead of celebrating it in the country. Nevertheless, I had planned earlier to spend these precious time here, in Singapore, my home for almost 10 years!!! :)

Since this year was a special year to celebrate, there were many promotions offered especially to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents during this Jubilee weekend (7 to 10 September 2015). such as: free entry to various museums (incl ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands), heritage galleries, Science Centre Singapore (SCS), few attractions at Sentosa Island,, free entry to ActiveSG swimming pools and gyms islandwide, and so on. Click here for more details.

Queue for SG50 ArtScience Museum

My friend asked me if I wanted to join her and her friends to visit ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. You know, it's usually expensive to visit such places even for us, Singaporean :D  So, since it's free, why not?? Therefore, yesterday, after my friend queued for almost 3 hours (including under the rain), we finally entered the museum.

Singapore Stories @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We went up to Level 2 first to visit the Singapore Stories where it exhibited the footage from newspaper many years ago about how Singapore developed to what it was now - stories of its origin, adversity, failure, and triumph.

The Deep @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We moved to B2 to see the largest collection of over 40 abyssal creatures displayed for the first time in Southeast Asia.

Inside, they exhibited the life under the sea in different depth as per these zones:
- 150m to 600m - The Twilight of the Ocean
- 600m to 1000m - The Appearance of Color
- Beneath 1000m - Dive into the Extreme
- The Abyssal Plain - The Bottom of the Sea

Dreamworks Animation @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We moved on to the next exhibition - Dreamworks Animation. It offered an insightful look into the processes behind the on-screen art magic, such as; sketching/drawing, voice recording, and so on. It amazed me sometimes how creative human being could be!!!

Shrek posters sold at Artscience Museum Store - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Those were the three main exhibitions available for the day. We were all happy that we could visit it all - and of course, when it's free :P

Singapore Botanic Garden SG50 Jubilee Weekend - 8 August 2015

Other than that, click here to check What's ON to occupy your long weekend with many activities available. Like today, we went for a picnic at Singapore Botanic Garden where there were few musical performance available at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. It was super crowded!!! But it was greatly enjoyable!!! :)

Singapore Lyric Opera @Botanic Garden SG50 Jubilee Weekend 

The first performance after I arrived was performed by Singapore Lyric Opera at 5.25 pm. There were 4 singers who sang beautifully with the musical troop playing at the background. Followed by The Sam Willows live music and live feed performance by Brass Nation Bandstand at 7.45 pm. If you want to know the schedule for tomorrow (9th August 2015) click here.

We had whole lot fun together!!! SG50 Jubilee Weekend @Singapore Botanic Garden :)

My Indonesian friends had planned the picnic ever since before I came back from Bhutan. They prepared some delicious food (even our Indonesian siomay), salad, sandwich, fruits, etc. They even came as early as 3 pm just to chop the place (to get the very best view) of the performance.

Watching live feed performance by Brass Nation @Singapore Botanic Garden

We stayed until the last live feed performance by Brass Nation. We sat or lie down comfortably on our mats, didn't feel like going back home. Home song by Kit Chan was played few times there. No matter how many times it was played, we didn't get bored. The chorus reminded us truly, where our home was...

This is home, truly...

where I know I must be

Where my dreams wait for me, 

where the river always flow...

This is home, surely...

as my senses tell me

This is where I won't be alone,

for this is where I know it's home...

Happy 50th Birthday Singapore!!! 

PS: My personal message ---

"Happy 50th National Day Singapore!!! I am not sure what my future will be but I know your future will be great. Although you are just a small little red dot on the world map, but you have grown gloriously and prosperously! Hope I can get some of your prosperity so that I can help more to those who are in needs, more than myself. Thank you for giving me a chance to become a part of your country! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! Not forgetting to thank all my dear friends here who arranged today's picnic and let me having so much fun listening to the musical performance. Thank you gals, not only for the food and fun time, but also for the friendship that you offered to me all this while! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! :)"