Sentosa's Fort Siloso

I checked off another museum in Singapore last weekend: Fort Siloso! This was one of the WW2-era British forts built to protect their then-colony (supposed to be an "impregnable fortress").

Sadly for their plans, while Singapore was heavily defended from any sea attacks, the British neglected any defense on the land side (facing Malaysia). Which is where the Japanese invaded from (via bicycle: they even hauled their large guns in bicycle-pulled carts). Oops!

Some of the guns, expensive and high tech at the time but now just scrap metal

Depiction of typical staff at the fort: drunken British soldier (chugging liquor) and Chinese coolie to do the work

So Fort Siloso turned out to have no purpose (and was not really damaged during the invasion). Now it's a museum, so I went there with R and a friend of mine (and her baby). It's on Sentosa (Singapore's equivalent to Coney Island) but being a historical museum does not attract many visitors. Actually it was mostly deserted, even though it was a weekend afternoon and the rest of the island was terribly crowded.

It's surrounded by greenery

Museum exhibit: R liked the dog

This was nice because then we could let the children roam freely without disturbing anyone. They had a wonderful time touching the soldier statues and playing tag.

Blurry (sad) but isn't she cute?

The highlight for the other toddler was a (free) ride on the vintage tram (which takes you from the main entrance for like 500 feet, but Singaporeans hate walking).

Fort Siloso probably isn't worth a special trip unless you have a particular interest in WW2 history, but it's a nice break from the tackiness and crowds of the rest of Sentosa.

R on one of Sentosa's (artificial) beaches: not very nice to swim there though due to the oil processing plant nearby