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Altogether, we have stayed in Singapore for more than 6 months. Since we go on outings almost every weekend day and since the island isn't too big, we've now visited almost all of the major sites, especially those involving hiking. A few weeks ago, one of the nicer spots — the Bukit Timah nature reserve — was closed for about six months, for major renovation work. Saturday's hiking outing involved a combination of smaller parks and some more obscure parts of Singapore that are near Bukit Timah.
To start, we took a bus about 30 min to Bukit Batok, west of Bukit Timah. There, we began a 12 mile meander that mixed urban streets, city parks, and nature trails. We ended at the Dairy Farm nature reserve, which adjoins Bukit Timah to the north. The return trip involved three buses and two MRT trains, but only an hour of travel.
The photos:
(1) and (8) Wallace Trail at the Dairy Farm Nature Park
(2) and (3) Bukit Batok Town Park (Little Guilin);
(4) and (5) Bukit Batok Nature Park;
(6) and (7) Hindhede Nature Park;
It seems like we've already been to (almost) all of the "advertised" places to visit in Singapore, at least all of those that interest us. It's fine to go back to places we've been to before (maybe my preference more than Ingrid's). But we are still finding gems that are not featured in any guide books. We are more likely to discover these by wandering through the city with only a vague sense of intent. That describes our Saturday outing.
Our aim was to visit the Peranakan Museum. (Ingrid has been there, I haven't.) We set out on the familiar 33 bus to the city center, getting off near Chinatown with the intent to meander the remaining 1-2 km distance. We found delicious snacks in a hawker center in the non-touristy side of Chinatown.
The first three photos are street scenes from the early part of the walk.
As we neared the museum, we had a sudden change of mind: Let's go walk along the Kallang River waterfront. It's a bit east of the city center, an area we had not visited. The inspiration was influenced by our fantastic experience walking along the upper stretch of the Singapore River a few weeks earlier.
The Kallang River Promenade and walkways were pleasant enough, although not nearly so well developed as along the Singapore River.
On a whim, almost as an afterthought, we headed over to the nearby and newly built sports complex, which on the grounds of the old airport. We had to persist through some areas under construction and we almost gave up. I also expected that visiting a sports complex with no sporting events taking place would be seriously dull. I was wrong!
The grounds are spectacular. In multipurposing Singapore fashion, they've combined a shopping mall with the sporting complex. There is an MRT station right in the middle of the complex, so leaving was easy.
The highlight was that their major new indoor track facility was open to the public for the weekend. (It had only officially opened in June.) And, if you had on proper running shoes, you were allowed down onto the track. I did! And so I got to run a lap.
On Saturday, we visited a part of Singapore that is new for us and is being newly developed. Punggol is in the northeastern area, extending to the coast. We were drawn to a new 26 km multipart and multiuse trail, the "Northeastern Riverine Loop."
To begin, we traveled for about 90 minutes by bus (No 33 to Outram Park), MRT (the Northeast line, to Buangkok), and by foot to Punggol Park, where we expected to rent bicycles. However, there was no bike rental in the park (it seems they have a kiosk for that purpose, but no indication that the business is operating). Instead, we covered most of the trail by foot, walking about 19 km in all.
We did find a bicycle rental station near the end of the walk, at Punggol Point Park. It would be worthwhile to consider a future trip in which we take transit to this destination (maybe via the Punggol MRT station), rent bicycles at Punggol Point Park, and ride the full loop.
The scenery is pleasant. The trails are very nicely constructed and well signed. The whole area is rapidly being built (many new high-rise housing units are under construction). As a place to visit, it will probably become more interesting with time as development continues and as the landscaping matures.
Here's a brief (and odd) post.
Seven of us took an evening walk yesterday along the Southern Ridges, starting at Alexandra Arch and ending at VivoCity. The company: 3 NUS professors, one professor from the University of Athens, one Middle East scholar from the US and working at a research institute here in Singapore, and Ingrid and me.
Because we didn't start hiking until dusk, and because we've walked the Southern Ridges many times, I didn't take many pictures. But here are a few to share.
(1) At the cable car station at Mt Faber is a bathroom, open to the public, with a floor to ceiling glass wall overlooking Sentosa to the south. It was too dark to photograph the view, but notice the high-end facilities, the spotless cleanliness, and a fish tank!
(2) The risers on an interior stair case at the cable car station were decorated with balloons and happy words.
(3) The view of the city from Mt. Faber is also terrific, whether day or night.
We had dinner at our new favorite restaurant: Paradise Dynasty on the third floor of the VivoCity mall.
