Egmore Museum: Simply Spooktacular

John and I just got back from a dream of a trip to the Andaman Islands. You'll have to wait for photos, though, because our weekend is looking impossibly busy and I'm not sure when I'll have time to sort through everything.

 

While you're waiting with bated breath, may I present to you ......

 

the Haunted Musuem

mwa ha ha ha ha ...

 

... otherwise known as the Government Museum in Egmore.

 

My kids have been to some pretty incredible museums: most of the Smithsonians in Washington, the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio (If you haven't been there, get yourself to Dayton ASAP.), the British Museum, London's Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, various and sundry childrens museums around the United States, etc.

 

What's more, they actually love going.

 

So when Johnny came home from a field trip to the Egmore Museum last year, raving about the wonders there to behold, I thought it must be a pretty great place. Then he told me it was haunted, and I started to wonder ...

 

A few weeks ago, we had the rare occasion of a holiday for the Consulate, the American school, and Samuel's Indian preschool ALL ON THE SAME DAY. Miracles sometimes occur. We decided to seize the opportunity and head to the Egmore Museum.

 

We didn't have time to see everything, so at Johnny's suggestion we headed to the zoological galleries. It's all housed in beautiful old buildings. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on old. Things are sort of crumbling, and as soon as I saw the exhibits I understood why Johnny says the place is haunted.

 

It was spectacularly creepy! Dried up animals hanging on walls, jars full of weird creatures suspended in fluid, skeletons and flea-bitten taxidermied animals ... It reminded me of Snape's dungeon office.

 

Our photos are appropriately awful for this post, as we had to rely on John's Blackberry. Here we are upstairs, with dried marine animals pegged to the walls.

 

 

I love Evie's face in this shot of the reptiles.

Here's a frog caught in the act of swallowing a snake ... I think this calls for another mwa ha ha ha ...

... And weirdest of the weird, a human skeleton that looks like it's about to fall under a horse's skeleton.

We didn't have time to see the art and bronze galleries, which I have been told are much nicer than what we saw, but we plan to get back to the museum as soon as we can. Who can resist this stuff?

So, if you're looking for a great place to get your Halloween spook on, I'd suggest a trip to the Egmore Museum's zoology section ... if you dare ...