It was a public holiday, and I decided to take El to the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands after he asked to go to the museum. Little did I know he thought that his classmates would be there, as he would be going on a field trip to another museum with his classmates soon.
The Mummy exhibition was on, so we queued up and went to see it. There were a lot of people queuing up to buy the tickets.
After queuing, we rushed in, got a child’s pack, and watched a movie about the mummification process before the exhibition. We had 3D glasses, but El did not know how to wear them.
I had to hold them throughout most of the movie, before he decided that there was no need. It was quite interesting to know that they had used a 3D scanner or some kind of imaging to see what was inside the mummy. The mistake of the priests was also discovered, as they had left a crude skull cap made of clay on the head, but it had fused with the body, so they quickly wrapped it up, only to be discovered 3000 years later.
During the screening, El kept asking how the man died, what type of sickness he had, why did he fall sick and so on. I had already explained the process the day before, and during the car ride. He sort of grasped the concept of death, but sometimes he did not seem to understand that.
After the screening, we went inside. We saw a mummified cat, and other mummies. There were many amulets that were placed inside the mummy for their afterlives. There were also other statues. The exhibit was quite small. We saw the coffins that were painted with hieroglyphics. The artefacts were from the British Museum, and I had seen more of them on a grander scale at that museum, so I was not very impressed.
The children’s pack was quite limited. There was a puzzle which I pieced together rather than El. There was a piece of cape which I had no idea what it was for. There was another piece which had a weird chuckle when pressed, and a few people crowded around us to see what it was.
Perhaps the exhibit was not really suitable for young children. There were some fun exhibits, like a replica of a falcon, one of the animals related to royalty, but since the entire exhibit was small, there was nothing much to see. Perhaps if the child is older, and had already read about the Egyptian mummies, then the exhibit might be interesting. Nevertheless, the film was quite an eye-opener to the actual process of mummification.
Outside the exhibit, there was a photo booth for people to dress up. I kept asking El, but he refused to go.
After going to the exhibition, we went back to Marina Bay Sands, and bought something to it. I wondered how it was possible to ‘ice’ skate on some synthetic flooring. Quite a number of the skaters looked below ten years of age. We had some afternoon snacks, and then made our way home.
