We made our first visit to the Istana (meaning “Palace” in Malay) on Deepavali day.

[In Singapore, Istana is the office of the President of Singapore and the 'royal' place where the President extends hospitality to state guests. The Istana is open for public visits on 5 public holiday occasions: Chinese New Year, Labour Day, National Day, Hari Raya Puasa and Deepavali].

Despite the Istana being located at the famous Orchard Road in Singapore, our boys were not aware of the Istana till we brought them there.

Once we set foot in…

Whoa!  The compound is really HUGE, CLEAN and GREEN.  We explained to our boys the purpose of the Istana, the role of the President of Singapore, the place where the President hosts the state guests and also the gifts presented by the state guests. 

The most rewarding part of the trip is we got to meet the President of Singapore  just when we were departing. If we had left earlier, we would have missed the chance.

[President SR Nathan's photos are displayed in the schools and government offices and finally our boys have the chance to see him in person.]

Despite the huge crowd, we were among the lucky and honoured ones to have a photo taken with President SR Nathan.

 President SR Nathan, Darren, Mommy and Brendan

Besides the eye-opener, educational trip……

While our boys had a good time roaming (or running) around, we adults were either busy snapping photos or admiring the really well-maintained green patches of grasses and flowers:)

Oh yeah, there were scheduled performances to entertain the visitors too!

Here’s the HUGE, CLEAN and GREEN compound

the green is such a soothing sight

children’s favourite - the playground!

our little Darren who decided to steal attention by dancing on the elevated grass platform

it is not about the canon BUT the FUNnnnn!

the fountain and Istana

salute the honourable guard who stands firm

We viewed the exhibits too but unfortunately photo-taking was prohibited.

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