Once Upon a Time on the Orient Express

20 December 2020 

Finally did something interesting again during the weekend. Had a late late lunch (at 4.30pm to be exact) at Canton Paradise at Marina Bay Sands before heading to West Lawn next to Bayfront Plaza for the 'Once Upon a Time on the Orient Express' Exhibition at Gardens By The Bay. Speaking of West Lawn, the directions to the exhibition were basically non-existent and none of the people we asked could point us the right way. I would have written in to complain if I wasn't so lazy, ha! Anyway, we thought we would have plenty of time having after meeting for lunch at 4.30pm to catch our reserved timeslot for the exhibition at 6pm but ended up having to brisk walk/slight jog to get there right before 6pm @@.

Joined the queue to climb aboard the train - the last step was really high!

(which is actually made up of 2 carriages from the original Orient Express back from the 1930s and shipped here from France)

The reason for having to book timeslots is because it's quite narrow in the carriages and you kind of have to queue through the entire first part of the exhibit. Each lounge seat had a reenactment of possible scenes and placards with information on the likely passengers on the Orient Express (both fictional or real):

~A gorgeous Remington typewrite and wine with a 1933 vintage~

I spotted the newspaper dated 1906 once inside the train and upon asking, the lady on duty informed us that the items on display were mostly originals. She then asked us to look out for an even older newspaper from 1883 (see both below): 

So apparently James Bond was also on the Orient Express as a fictional passenger

Another famous fictional passenger whom I know from the 2017 movie even though I've never read the book by Agatha Christie

A significant part of the exhibition was dedicated to 'The Murder on the Orient Express'

After walking through both carriages, we came to Part 2 of the exhibition, which had displays of the suite rooms, dining car, etc. Some exterior shots of the carriages:

The second part of the exhibition was more 'museum-like' with more information to read through. The most interesting thing to me was that Palmolive soap existed back in the 1930s, I never knew!

Me and the said Palmolive Soap

Another interesting thing was the vintage Louis Vuitton luggage on display. They really got me wondering how much they cost now

In case you don't trust me when I say these are from LV!

Advertisements for the Orient Express from yore

There were also travel brochures for places where the Orient Express stopped by such as Egypt and Turkey. It was amazing to see photographs of people climbing up the sides of The Great Pyramid and a clear view of the Sphinx - a reminder that such historical places should be visited as soon as possible so that you can see a less eroded version @@

Tickets for the exhibition are S$25. Was it worth it? For me, kind of, as I like museums and culture and it is sort of my little contribution to the preservation of history. The meals available at the carriage restaurant though are another matter. I dropped by to kaypoh about the dinner menu and the 2 options were priced at S$298++ and S$398++ respectively with things like black truffle and king crab and also something called a celeriac extract lol.. I think I rather use the money to have 10 nice meals or 100 canteen meals XD

After that we dropped by Tong Shui (yes that same Tong Shui) to have glutinous rice balls since 20th was the day before winter solstice. Any excuse for some sweet stuff XD (and I really needed a break after that, after 2 consecutive days of walking close to 18k steps - more on 19th December when I have the chance~)