Seeing the National Stadium inside out

Posted by Tym under Explore Singapore!
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I’ll come right out and say it: I have a soft spot for the National Stadium. I used to attend National Day Parades there as a child (though I wouldn’t be caught dead near one today) and also sat through a number of soccer matches that I didn’t understand (although I came away with a gradually more sophisticated use of the term “referee kayu!”).

So whenever I’ve seen the Stadium recently, whether I’m there in person or watching it on TV, I can’t help but be a little smitten with nostalgia. They’re tearing the old lady down, as we all know, and as we learnt with the demolition of the Stamford Road National Library building, no amount of nostalgia, fond memories, plaintive pleas or heartfelt remonstrances will make a difference.

So it’s time to start saying goodbye.

The guided tour organised by the Sports Museum isn’t targeted at nostalgia-seekers, but it does the trick of bringing visitors down memory lane in Singapore’s sporting past, a lot of which is inextricably linked with the Stadium itself.

But first, you have to be able to find the Museum: Look for the Stadium’s West Entrance, enter the brightly lit reception area with funky modern armchairs, and ask to be shown the Sports Museum.

Singapore might not appear in the top ten rankings of top medal-winners at the Olympics, but there’s a lot of interesting trivia about our local sporting history that’s archived in the Museum. For instance, I had no idea that there used to be a Grand Prix in Singapore.

Apparently, they used to race cars down Thomson Road, but the Grand Prix was shut down after, erm, too many accidents. Darn.

The other neat section was the traditional games gallery, where there are toys and games that visitors can try out. Needless to say, this section is enormously popular with the kids. My cousin and I are a little old to be sitting on the floor playing five-stone or gasing (at least, not in public) but she tried her hand at a little congkak under the tutelage of our museum guide, and we were impressed to learn how much strategy could be involved in a successful congkak game. All mobile phone game developers, please note: congkak is ripe for adaptation into a mobile phone game format, and you heard the idea here first (I’m expecting my royalty cheque any day now).

See my full Flickr: Explore Singapore! set.

Tags: explore singapore, National Heritage Board, Singapore, Sports Museum, National Stadium

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