What to do during the June holidays part 1: visit the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

It’s the June holidays again! To kick things off, we paid a visit to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, which just opened its doors in April this year. According to the ST, it’s “the Republic’s only museum dedicated to showcasing Southeast Asian biodiversity”.

We bought the tickets online a few weeks ago as you can’t get tickets at the door; you can only get them online or at Sistic counters ($15 for an adult and $8 for a child for Singaporeans and permanent residents, but kids under 3 get in for free. Plus, there’s an additional charge of $1 Sistic booking fee per ticket). And they are sold in six 1.5-hour slots (to avoid overcrowding). We went for the earliest slot (10am-11.30am). So we woke up bright and early (as usual, the kids woke up at 7am even though it was a holiday…), and drove down to Clementi to the museum. When we got there, we were horrified to see a snaking queue! To our immense relief, the queue was only there because the museum was still closed. In fact, once the doors opened, the line moved pretty quickly. But first, a family picture while waiting in the queue:

Upon entry, the first thing you see are the three dinosaurs Prince, Apollonia and Twinky, ostensibly the main draw of the museum. And I must say, they are rather impressive! Just look at all the bones:

According to the sign, “Dinosaur experts that the museum have consulted are still undecided what the correct genus and species of our three dinosaurs are”. This sentence, by the way, irritates me to no end (occupational hazard, sorry). You’d think that after spending millions of dollars on acquiring the dino bones, the least they could do was to pay someone a little to sub the text. But I digress. So all we know is that “they belong to the family Diplodocidae”. Wonder if we’ll ever find out what they really are…

There’s also a dino light show at half hour intervals starting from 1030am. Tristan was rather excited about it, but it turned out to be nothing much, just some flashing lights and roaring sounds. He did notice one thing though: “Mummy, why is the dinosaur head so small?” LOL…

There were flying dinos too:

 And even a triceratops leg (yes, just one leg):

Nice legs: triceratops vs elephant

The dinos were just one small part of the exhibits. There were tons of other interesting creatures, from tiny insects to giant crocs.

We were all creeped out by the spiders and snakes:

Check out the size of that tarantula!

Sssssscary!

The butterflies and beetles were gorgeous:

But we didn’t linger as Tristan couldn’t wait to go upstairs to explore. So up we went… which took a while because MM went up and down the stairs (this was probably her favourite part of the museum).

Up and down…

The first thing that greeted us upstairs was this giant marlin (which makes me think of Captain Haddock), and of course we had to take this requisite shot:

Catch of the day!

And more cool creatures:

Elbow crab says “hi”!

Don’t forget to open up the drawers, the names of the creatures are all there.

Then back downstairs for another look.

And some mucking around:

Tristan met some of his friends too:

Before we left, MM had to stop by the museum shop to say “hi” to her friends:

All in all, it was an enjoyable visit and we had a good time.

Pros: Air-con! And it wasn’t too crowded (despite the initial queue); the timed ticket system really works! And I read somewhere that they don’t chase you out even if you’ve exceeded your time. And there was lots to see, I just wished we had more time to slowly read all the signs, but Tristan was too impatient. It’s probably better (and more educational) for older kids. Oh, and did I mention the air-con??

Cons: Location is a bit ulu (it’s in Clementi at NUS) and nothing of interest nearby, we had to drive somewhere else for lunch. And the upstairs toilet only has 1 cubicle. ONE. We spent a good 15 minutes just waiting for everyone to be done.

Will probably try and go again when the kids are a bit older.

Wolverine’s Funky Nose

Had a closer look at my recent Museum Pose Brown Wolverine.

It dawned on me one reason why I didn’t like his facial sculpt could be his funky nose. It looks like the bridge of his nose is a little bashed to the right. Do you not think so? Or is it just me?

Here’s another shot…think it shows up his funky nose a little more, maybe?

I dunno. I keep looking him over trying to find something to like about him, but…alas…when I see my Clayburn Moore’s Wolverine, Bowen’s Wolvie just simply seems to pale in comparison.

😦