::Leonard's Reflection::

Having gone through the civic district, I was left with a feeling of awe. Little did I realise that the sites chosen were largely along the Singapore River. This highlights the significance of the river and its position as the focal point of political and economic activity and even to some extent diplomatic activity. This can be expected as sea trade was the only means of transportation around the world till the invention of air travel. Even then, the sea lines of communication remained a popular avenue of communications and transport by many during the 1800s and early 1900s. Therefore having these important buildings around the river reflects the importance of the river as the major political and economic centre in the era. Also given that the lands first given to the British are the lands surrounding the river, it is totally understandable that the infrastructure would firstly be concentrated in areas of British control.

These sites indeed give sufficient understanding to the history of Singapore. While plagues and markers are left around the monuments, it gives a very touristy feel to the area and the explanations are not adequate enough for an in-depth understanding of the history. However, if you are someone looking for little tidbits of Singapore history and the monuments, a tour of the civic district is indeed a nice plan to have in your programme.

In addition, the well restored buildings retain almost all of its structural design and it gives a very good feel of how buildings are designed in the early days of colonisation. Indeed, I do hope more and more historical monuments are able to be preserved, it would give a very good insight into the history of Singapore. What can be a better way to show the history of our colonisation than to have a walk around the civic district and have a feel on how it was like during the days of Singapore being a colony.

At the end of the day, I feel that this trail that we have embarked on indeed gives a much deeper insight into the history of the nation. Never did I expect early Singapore to have deep diplomatic ties with other South East Asian Nations such as Siam. The willingness of a ruling monarch to visit this dinghy little island speaks volumes of the diplomatic ties involved. I guess this heritage trail thingy should not be just a tourist attraction. Singaporeans should take time and have a good look around the area and maybe they would come away with a profound appreciation of our history, just as I did.