A most captivating museum

Tell us about the funniest thing that happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Include your full mailing address. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged. 

This month’s winner is MICHAEL J.E. BURGE of Ventura, California:

While in Singapore a few years ago, I decided to go to the Changi Museum, where they had built a replica of the 1940s prison where Britons, Americans, New Zealanders and Australians all had been held during the Japanese occupation.

I boarded a public bus and asked the driver to let me know when to get off. When he called out “Changi,” I alighted and walked down a narrow road to the administration office. I signed the visitors’ book, and my day pack was examined, as is quite common at museums.

Then the officer wanted to fingerprint me and search my person. I commented that this was a lot of work just to visit a museum.

He replied, “Museum! You are in the Changi main jail. The museum is one more bus stop down the road.”