MacRitchie Reservoir on 25th June

It was a hidden paradise in Singapore, and I would never thought I'd enjoyed this much of tranquility in this noisy city. MacRitchie reservoir is part of a big national park around Bukit Timah area of Singapore. The highest point of is around 165 meters according to http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nparks_cms/display_park.asp?parkid=8

However, such a small place encompasses a big world if you observe carefully. We arrived around 9.40am in the morning, and the weather was quite cloudy and pleasant. Many joggers have already come back from their morning exercise - but no matter, we were there to relax and enjoy and not to get too sweaty if possible!

The walk started off from the entrance at Lornie road. The place initially looks no different from any other parks resided in the city - some green, tar road and joggers. However, a little "lake"(actually it is the reservoir) appeared in the scenic view, and suddenly everything feels smooth and nice. The paddle lodge is a place where you can rent kayaks at a very cheap price. ($10 per hour) and most of the customers we saw that morning were secondary school kids. Seeing their not-so-skilled way of paddling, I felt an urge to try it, too!

Another famous attraction was the "tree-top" walk, where it was a suspense bridge over a valley of tropical rain forest. The height is around 25metres and the length 165metres. At the top you could touch the leaves from top of the trees - no wonder the bridge was named after this. I felt my legs a bit soft whenever coming to such a shaky and high place - perhaps it was the reflection of the "Giant drop" from Gold Coast in Australia.

The trip ended around 1pm where all of us felt pretty hungry and exhausted. The distance we walked was around 6kms. The pleasant surprise was the late lunch at China town with a northeastern style restaurant.

Nth visit to Sentosa

I can't remember how many times I have been to Sentosa - the famous tourist place in Singapore. However, it is really a place that can get me excited each time. There was new display at the Underwater World, and it included a section called "History of Earth". Many of the species on exhibition have been around for millions of years. Horseshoe crabs, turtles, giant fish...watch this picture for a while and you might feel the same as me - time has just stopped a little!!

Trip to Cameron Highland

It was a tiring trip, and I don't deny it. But the negative remarks from my boyfriend talking about us being old and not so fit for such trips really dissapointed me. Yes, I did not sleep almost for three days and yes I caught cold after the frequent transit between freezingly airconded buses and mild Malaysian weather, it was still something quite memorable to my life.

For the first time, I was really trekking a mountain. The trip organized by National Univeristy of Singapore Outdoor Activitiy Club has hired a professional guide for us - a team of 11 newbies. Except for the three team leaders, the eight of us were mostly looking for leisure and NOT challenge in this short trip.

The guide is a nice old man about 60 odds and he proudly told us that he's been working in these mountains for around 30 plus years, going up the mountain everyday! Unfortunately it was quite a cloudy day when we started so there was not much to see when we reached the summit of Gunang Brinchang (Mountain Brinchang). However, loud thunders, lightening and heavy rain made the downhill trip very interesting. Terrains became tremely muddy and slippery. From time to time, one had to help each other jumping over broken logs, tree trunks or anything you name it in a typical jungle. I personally experienced 5 brilliant falls , some over the tree roots, some over the muddy stream, and some just over nothing.

After around 40 minutes of trekking downhill in the rain, one can image the look on us - we were like a buntch of babbling and clumzy baboons appeared from some hidden corner of the mountain. Suddenly there was the main road! I felt really elated and just to add to this bonus was the clear sky and blue tea plantation.

Tourist stuff like visiting to tea plantation, picking strawberries at family farms, and eating good food at KL filled the rest of the trip. Bah Kueh Tay tasted really differnt from what I had in Singapore, and I could not remember much as the whole day was on bed sleeping after taking the bus back to Singapore.

Fit for such a trip again? According to George was definitely not. However I highly doubt that I might fee itchy again when the time comes...

Not much..not much

I am simply not a person who likes to write. Tried to follow the fashion of bloggers but it was pathtic to see the only post on this blog since more than 8 months ago...