Tour of the National Stadium, Part 2

In Tour of the National Stadium (Part 1), I had promised to write more about the Kallang Airport that used to operate in Singapore. I won't have known about the Kallang Airport if not for the fact that one of the tour guides of the Stadium Tour pointed this out to the people in the tour.

If you look at the photo below, the structure you would see at the People's Association's headquarters used to be the control tower of the then Kallang Airport.



"The then Kallang Airport was officially opened on 12 June 1937", and was Singapore's first civil airport. "The airport was in operation till it was replaced in 1955 by the Paya Lebar Airport". (view source here)

If you would like to find out more about the then Kallang Airport, you could visit: Singapore's First Airport, by TY Kwan
Name that place!

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Back to the tour of the National Stadium. I decided it was of some value to take photographs of the ticket booths. I reckon that buying tickets at the ticket booths so as to gain admission into the National Stadium was a common thing to do for visitors to the stadium.




The next stop of the tour was to the cauldron. Acroamatic has taken a nice photo of the inside of the cauldron. While I was at the cauldron, I could not help but feel that I would fall down to ground level anytime. I suppose it would take a lot of guts for torch bearers to even walk up to the cauldron without fearing the heights.





The reward for having climbed all the way up to the cauldron was a lovely view of the area. We also got up close to one of the floodlight towers. The tour guide told me that one of the floodlight towers has a lift that can carry about one to two person at any one time.

The floodlight tower that you see in this photo is the only tower with a lift.

After visiting the cauldron and coming close to the base of one of the floodlight towers, the next stop was the Sports Medicine and Research Centre. As participants of the tour, we got some glimpses of what the centre does.





I found out that there is a Biomechanic Laboratory and a Performance Laboratory within the premises of the National Stadium. Here are some snapshots of these laboratories:

Probably the largest threadmill in Singapore.

The tour also led us to the Kallang Family Fitness Centre and other parts of the National Stadium, including the National Stadium exhibition.







At the National Stadium exhibition, one can learn more about the history of the National Stadium, its glorious past, the contributions that it has made to the sports arena in Singapore and a little more about the upcoming Sports Hub.




No tour at the stadium would be complete without taking a good look at its tracks and field.






After the tour, my accompanying friend shared with me that she felt the tour did not do much justice to the Sports Museum. She felt that the segment at the Sports Museum was simply too short and there were too many people on the tour. I would think otherwise. For a two-hours tour, furthermore free-of-charge, it was considered a fairly compact tour that gives participants a fairly good overview of the essence of the National Stadium.

I can sense that the frontline staff who have made the tour possible have done it with sincerity and pride. My words of thanks to them.

If you would like to take a two-hours walk about the National Stadium before it is torn down, do check out the Stadium Tour. Here are the details:

Period of Tour: 3 May to 30 June 2007
Days of Tour: Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays (excluding public holidays)
Tour Duration: 2 hours (approximately)
Tour Time slots: 10 a.m. & 2.30 p.m.
Admission: Free

For query and tour bookings, please call at Tel: (+65) 63409517 or email at ssc_sports_museum@ssc.gov.sg
For more information, please click here.

I suggest that you could bring along a thirst-quenching beverage and an umbrella, and please dress comfortably if you were to sign up for the Stadium tour.