Asian Civilisations Museum-On The Nalanda Trail: Buddhism in India, China and Southeast Asia

(Sir Stamford Raffles (black statute) in front of Victoria Concert Hall) (Sir Stamford Raffles (white statute) opp Boat Quay)

In the recent Deepavali holiday, I visited ACM at Empress place with my friend.Our main target is to visit its new exhibition theme: On The Nalanda Trail: Buddhism in India, China and Southeast Asia. (2 Nov 2007 to 23 March 2008).
To be frank, this is the 1st time I visited ACM ever since its opening at Empress place & years ago since I saw & took pictures of the Black & White Sir Stamford Raffles statutes. (Do really bring back memories when we were on primary school excursions when we always visit the area. Cldn't recall if it was also the old museum site that we had visited)

(This is where the real exhibition entrance starts,. They will ask you to surrender your bags & handphone & goes thru the security scan gantry.)

Upon arrival, we headed straight to the 2nd level of ACM where we were told the theme begins. After reading some history & appreciating a few artefacts & near what we thought was the end of the hall, we thought that's the end of exhibition & when I was just going to brand it as of an average standard, we discovered that what we had seen earlier was just a starter, the main course begins from where we thought was the end of the exhibition hall.

At the real entrance of the exhibition, we were told to surrender all our bags & handphones before entering the hall. :P that means no photography is allowed.

After exiting from the exhibition, both of us were impressed by the effort put in by the museum. Apart from some small hiccups whereby the English & Chinese translation of Buddha & Bodhisattva name does not match & the staff has been notified (shall check if that's rectified in my next visit :P), we feel that the standard of Spore museum had certainly seen much improvement.
As to what's inside the exhibition, that's for you to find out. :-)

But so far feedback has been positive from friends who visited and they find it worth visiting. I intend to visit it again & spend at least half a day there as the last visit I just covered the Nalanda trail quickly & there are other sections of the ACM holding different themes that I did not explore further. It will be good to start from 12pm (Tue-Fri) as there is guided tour at that timing.
After being in the darkness for a few hours, we are glad to be out in the open & enjoy the scenery while we stroll along the Singapore river. :-)

ACM is easily accessible, you can alight from Raffles MRT & walk towards Fullerton hotel (across the cavenagh bridge) or take TIBS 75 & alight at bus-stop near Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall.
To find out more information on exhibition themes of ACM, you may visit their website at : http://www.acm.org.sg/home/home.asp