Wednesday, June 2, 2010
♥ Zoom... To the Royal Abu Bakar Museum :)
Reflection™
Our first stop during the Malaysia trip was the Abu Bakar Museum or Grand Palace. This museum is located within Istana Besar in Johor Bahru and is one of the oldest buildings in Johor Bahru. This building was commissioned by Sultan Abu Bakar and it was completed in 1866.The building had an Anglo-Malay influence. Many pieces of the furniture was ordered in England by the Sultan himself! When we reached there, I was amazed by the big and marvelous garden at the front of the museum and it was no wonder the garden was so amazing as the Sultan personally directed the laying out of the Palace gardens! The garden was so fascinating as there were many varieties of flowers and plants I had never seen before!
We were then greeted by a well-dressed woman who led us around the museum. She was our tour-guide. When we entered the museum, we were first led into the library. There were many exquisitely decorated chairs there for people to sit and read. Then we were led into the dining room where there were numerous dining chairs and tables probably for important occasions where many guests would be present. Thereafter, the tour guide brought us to the drawing room and the bedrooms. Unfortunately, they were blocked, so people could not enter the rooms, hence, I only had a quick glance at it before proceeding to the next area. There was a reception area too. It has breathtaking crystal furniture! I also learnt from the guide that the crystal statue there is probably the only one or there are only a few of its kind in the world! Wow!
The next area of the museum we visited was the banqueting hall. This hall can seat up to 250 guests! The hall was yet another opulent area in this museum. The throne room which was our next stop has a pair of gilt thrones at the front of the room. The bigger throne was for the King and the smaller one naturally was for the Queen. This room continues to be used every year for investiture ceremonies on the Ruler’s birthday. This essential room, as you can imagine, was of course as stunning as the other places in the museum. The carpets have very beautiful repeated patterns too!
We were brought to a separate part of the palace for the second half of our tour, which was only a short distance away. The first room we stepped into was the weapon room. This was followed by the cutlery room where many ceramic, glass and metal cutleries were displayed. The metal cutleries were preserved very carefully as I could see only a little rust on them which was quite amazing as the cutleries had been used such a long time ago. There was another room for textiles and costumes. There was also a room for silverware. The silverwares include the eggstand, coffeepot, cups, jugs and teapots. Some of them were electroplated with a layer of silver. There was yet another room mainly displaying the gold and silver collections. The collections were extremely elegant and one of the items displayed was an ice-pail from the Great Britain!
Next we went to the hunting room where all the animals the Sultan had hunted in the past were displayed. The animals he hunted include the elephants, tigers, turtles and he even hunted a crocodile! At this juncture, I found out an interesting fact about the crocodiles from the guide, that is, crocodiles do not have tongues! There were many more variety of animals the Sultan had captured! I was quite frightened by the animals staring out of the glass display initially, but soon I was quite used to it. The animals had been very well preserved as there was little decomposing or even none taking place for some of them!
Following that, we visited a room exhibiting all the trophies and medals the Sultan had achieved before. I was marveled at the galore of trophies and medals the Sultan had accumulated over the years. I also felt a deeper sense of respect for this great man. Lastly, we entered a room selling mementoes. As I had forgotten to bring my money, I did not manage to buy any of them.
I had a great time at this place indeed! I have not been to this place before so it was a first-time experience for me. The palace was really decorated nicely and due to the efforts of many people, we were able to admire such a beautiful place! So we must really thank those people! I also had a great insight on how palaces look like and how grand they are! For people who have not visited this museum before, my advice is: make a trip there as soon as possible! It will definitely be a worthwhile trip for you and you will never regret it! If given a chance, I will absolutely go there again!
Name: Tan Yi Juan (37)
7:26 AM
