24th October 2017- Full day tour of Island with Kranji War Memorial, Bright Hill Buddhist Temple and Changi War Museum.

An early pick up following breakfast.  Our driver picked us up at 8.15am and we were shuttled to the Chinatown Information Centre where there were many tour groups being put together and distributed.  We had a small group of 14 people for our tour . 

We departed Chinatown following a brief visit to the Buddhist Temple here in Chinatown. 

The tour took us through several residential areas and then onto a highway where we subsequently pulled into an area where we stopped to walk over the Henderson Waves bridge a stunning architectural structure which takes you to the top of the Mount not far from Sentosa.  We can see the hundreds of ships in the harbour , the rainforest as well as the Cable Car from the mainland at Mount Furlon to Sentosa. 

We also walk some 500 metres along the bridge to its highest point of 86m and take in the stunning views.  From here we walk back ftoward th3 bus by passing through a beautiful rain forest area.

Our next  stop is an entertainment park which has been developed by the owners of Tiger Balm.  This park celebrates a whole variety of culture and the deadly sins.  It was fascinating to walk through and listen to the explanations of the various displays.

The tour then takes us on a drive through various small hamlet type areas to the Kranji War Memorial, which is a beautifully maintained cemetery of war graves from WW2 and the fall to the Japanese.  These were really terrible times for the 40,000-60,000 military detainees and to the many thousands who subsequently died through their harsh treatment on the Changi Burma railway and maltreatment in prisons. 

There were hundreds if not thousands of Australian graves.  It was a solemn occasion and you only realise how hard this all must have been.  Our guide was my age and explained in detail the horrors.  He has also been a guide for many years to the returning veterans and prisoners of war, but these days there are fewer as many have now passed on.  The Singaporeans still have a remarkable soft spot for the vets. 

Then to lunch at a beautiful Black and White building well restored into a restaurant specialising in weddings and special events but used by this tour company 3 times per week.  The restaurant was named Beaulieu.  It was a good meal and the area also overlooked the straits where th3 expected invasion never materialised.  We also saw the last of the large gun batteries that remained unaired after the Japanese stored the island from the Malay Peninsula, and not from the sea.  We stopped at th3 border crossing , the old area adjacent to Malaysia where the Japanese crossed. 

Following lunch we travelled to the Bright Hill Buddhist Temple a large stunning collection of buildings with a large modern temple capBle of holding 3,000 worshippers.  The Buddhist Monks travel from across Asia to worship.  Inspiring, but also you realise the significance of th3 commitment to education and schooling.  In the same area are accommodations and also a large Buddhist crematorium. 

Subsequently, we moved on to drive back through the area to the Changi War Museum, where we spent 45 minutes slowly walking through th3 exhibits depicting the horrors of the imprisonment and the horrific treatment.  The story of the terrible hardships of the Burma Railway and th3 thousands who died, but you also realise that the nations of India, New Zealand and Australia suffered horrendous loss of life through the brutality of the Japanese.

From here we travelled back through the former British garrison barracks and are shocked by the size of the barracks and the amount of land still guarded by barbed wire fencing.  Yes some is being used by the Singaporean military, but much remains vacant and will be progressively reclaimed.

We have enjoyed a fantastic tour and have seen many things which aren’t covered by the usual tourist tours.  A most worthwhile day.

We are dropped back in the City Centre by the Swissotel and then delivered to Sentosa by minivans. Our guide was informative and worked hard and deserving of our tip.  You never know what to expect but this was an outstanding tour.

We concluded our day with a late afternoon drink in Le bar enjoying beautiful white wine from New Zealand.  This has been an enjoyable but challenging day with Changi Museum and War Memorial and the cemetery’s bringing the whole Singapore story of the Japanese invasion in stark perspective.