Just when I thought the personal issue that plagued me since end of March is slowly getting better (been slowly healing in the past two months), it all went downhill again lately after I was given yet another painful information that deals another huge blow to my heart that has already broken earlier. My fragile heart is now shattered to pieces. Do not be too worried for me as life goes on no matter how hard it is. I will not give up or cave in to anything as I still stood by my decision. I will be okay in the end.
I tried my best to still go through this devastating weekend with as much relief as I can get by having a few walks outdoor (it’s my usual weekend routine to go out for walks and you must have been aware of this if you have been following my blog). As usual, I went for cycling from Kallang Riverside Park close to the National Stadium all the way to the mouth of Marina Bay at the Bay East Garden on last Friday’s evening. I took a lovely shot of the Marina Bay (with cool water reflection that night topped off with a beautiful moon) from the dam that connects to the Marina Barrage and Gardens by the Bay on the other side.
On Saturday, I went to visit Jewel Changi to check out the on-going Marvel-themed installations and displays scattered around the famous indoor waterfall (HSBC Rain Vortex) in the mall. There are huge displays of Iron Man’s suit, Captain America’s shield and Thor’s hammer. There are four other interactive displays featuring Marvel characters like The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Black Panther around the waterfall too. There are also Marvel-themed installations at the Canopy Park on the highest level of Jewel but the park requires an admission fee to enter and hence I skipped that one. This Marvel-themed event will be here for many weeks.
I then met up with a friend of mine and shared my recent hardship. Really appreciate his willingness to be my listener and as company for the rest of the day. We then head over to Marina Bay Sands for dinner in the evening and we happened to catch a glimpse of the world premiere event of the latest Transformers movie (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) happening just outside the ArtScience Museum. Saw some cool projections of the movie’s promotion on the facade of the museum and some pyrotechnic shows to celebrate the event.
For today, I went to Bugis Street to buy face masks (that’s my usual place to buy face masks…and I do still frequently wear masks). I continued walking around the area and paid a visit to a nearby famous Chinese temple; Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. It immediately came to my mind that I came to the right place; I burnt some joss sticks and went for a quick prayer at the temple. I’m praying for inner peace, praying for the best and hoping that I can get through this difficult time and able to truly move on sooner. I hope my prayer will be heard.
Will head out for an evening jog later and that’s it for my update for this weekend.
Ever since I returned to Singapore from my working holiday early this year, it has become my habit or passion to explore places I have yet to visit in Singapore on each weekend. It feels great to just head out and be a local tourist on my off days. I have been in this tiny island nation for over 4 years by now and there are actually still plenty of places that I have not visited yet.
One of them is the Haw Par Villa that I have finally explored today. Here’s a brief introduction of the place:
Located on a hill in Pasir Panjang, Haw Par Villa was once known as Tiger Balm Gardens. Lovingly built by Myanmar-born businessman Aw Boon Haw for his brother, Aw Boon Par, the park was named after the Tiger Balm medical ointment that the siblings’ father had created.Following its construction in 1937, the grounds of the villa were opened to the public, reflecting Boon Haw’s deep passion for Chinese culture and mythology. Boon Haw personally supervised the artisans who created many of the parks original fixtures, in the hope that the park’s depiction of traditional virtues would provide moral guidance to the public.
The park develops over time and then began to take its modern form in 1985, when the Singapore Tourism Board took over the management of the grounds, and began revitalisation work on the space. The park’s dynamic evolution continues to this current day with the latest development being the newly opened Hell’s Museum that provides a deeper understanding of Haw Par Villa’s infamous 10 Courts of Hell. It called itself as the the world’s first museum in exploring perspectives of death and the afterlife from some of the world’s major religions and philosophies.
It’s really quite surprising to find this unique attraction that is in a huge contrast to the bustling modern city of Singapore. The park (free to visit) is average in size (not too big or small) and I spent over 2 hours here in this afternoon including the visit to the Hell’s Museum that requires an admission fee of SGD18 for an adult. There’s not many people around and I get to enjoy walking around the peaceful and colourful park; taking pictures, reading some displayed storyboards (particularly of those interesting Chinese history, mythology and folklores like Journey to the West, etc), feeding the tortoises and fishes, burn some joss sticks, etc. There’s quite a lot to look around here and you get to learn the importance of good values and morality. Here’s some photos I have taken:
I simply admired the efforts from those people who crafted those countless sculptures and miniatures displayed in the park. On the other hand, the Hell’s Museum is a bit underwhelming though especially with the SGD18 price tag. I expected more displays or more life-sized replicas for much realistic vibe. Anyway, the mostly air-conditioned indoor museum provides a nice escape from the heat outside. Besides that, I personally felt that some parts of the park are in need of maintenance or refurbishment. Beware…some gory pictures ahead showing some exhibits (replica coffin, altars, and displays of punishment in Hell for bad deeds done during life based on Taoism belief) in the Hell’s Museum. Viewer discretion is advised:
I think this park deserves more visitors. It’s very rare to find this kind of traditional or religious-themed attraction especially in modern city like Singapore. I’m surprised that I did see some young couples visiting the park too. Perhaps they were like me who have visited all the common major tourist attractions here and are now on hunt for the underrated places like Haw Par Villa that have never crossed our mind previously. Certainly worth a visit.
References (not for the pictures as all the pictures are taken by me):
I’m so excited this morning! Today is finally the day when the online public sale of admission tickets for Sammi Cheng’s concert on this coming July at Hong Kong Coliseum starts. The aim to watch her concert in Hong Kong is already fixed in my mind ever since she announced late last year that she will be holding her 11th solo concert tour in July 2023.
Her tour this time is called ‘You & Mi Sammi Cheng World Tour’ and will begin in Hong Kong with 13 shows (originally planned to have only 8 dates but 5 more shows were added later on due to overwhelming response in the priority sale for specific bank card holders earlier). The tickets are priced at HKD1080, HKD680 and HKD380. Although I have been her fans for over 2 decades and I have watched three of her past concerts at Genting Highlands before (last one being in 2015), but I have never actually watch her performing at her home turf in the famous Hong Kong Coliseum (or commonly known as Red Hall).
The online public sale today commenced at 10am. I was working but I was already standby with the ticketing website on my office desktop once I reached my office couple of minutes after 9am. However, as soon as the clock reaches 9.57am, one of my superiors called me for a quick discussion. Haiya….Once that was over by 10.01am, I immediately get back to my work station and clicked on the purchasing page. I was already in a queue with over 80 000 people ahead of me. I was only late for like 2 minutes. What the heck!!! At that moment, I felt so defeated. With only 64 000 tickets available to purchase out of her 13 shows (with a huge portion already reserved for organizers earlier), it would be impossible for me to get any with that many person ahead of me (and one person can buy a maximum of 4 tickets). There was also some technical glitches with the website (very much expected due to extremely high traffic to the website) this morning that made me felt worst.
Luckily, I did ask my eldest sister to help to buy this morning too since she will be going with me for the concert along with my second sister and her partner. She came prepared with two phones, one laptop and one iPad to try to snap the fast-selling tickets. And yup…she managed to purchase 4 tickets priced at HKD680 each for the show on 18th July (Tuesday). She immediately told me the good news and I’m so delighted! Can’t thank her enough! Once I got into the purchasing page some 10 minutes later, all the shows were already sold-out with no option to purchase seat with any prices on any dates. The website then made an official statement an hour or two later that all the shows are sold out. My sister was so lucky. By the way, we will only be able to collect the physical tickets once we arrive at Hong Kong close to the date of the show that we purchased.
And yup..I will be going to watch her HK concert and it’s now confirmed that my next travel destination will be Hong Kong on this coming July, exactly two months from now. Haha…Perhaps I will include one day trip to the neighbouring Macau as well since I have not been there before (I have been to Hong Kong once back in 2006). I have just returned from my solo trip to Dubai two days ago (and had already been to Australia and Japan early this year) and now I have to start planning for another one. My life is mostly about travelling this year, I guess…Haha…it is undeniable that travel is great! I hope more and more good news like this one today will come rolling to me for the rest of the year.
Like what I mentioned earlier, this will be my first time seeing my idol performing at the four-sided central stage in the Hong Kong Coliseum. Can’t wait for it. With this 13 shows planned, this would push her total number of shows held in Hong Kong Coliseum to 115. She is already the third female artist with most number of shows in that famous venue, only behind Paula Tsui and the late Anita Mui. With 115, she will also join the list of top 10 artists with most number of shows in Hong Kong Coliseum. What an achievement! Also let’s not forget she had won 4 best actress honors from her critically acclaimed performance in the film ‘Lost Love’ early this year including from the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards.
She recently released a new song with spectacular MV that involved over 100 dancers and was shot in Taiwan last year. The song is very catchy and I quite like it. It also features a new young artist, Jeffrey Ngai who is an actor, model and singer that does the rap part/English part of the song. You can have a listen to the song below from YouTube:
It has become a very common occurrence nowadays that concert tickets in Asia were all snapped up very quickly for any popular singers recently. Earlier, I was informed of news that Jacky Cheung’s shows planned at Singapore had been extended to 9 dates and all were sold out immediately. Same to Aaron Kwok’s coming 3 shows at Singapore as well. Then, Eason’s shows at KL last weekend were also sold-out quickly according to one of my friends who did attend his concert. And then, news came out yesterday that Coldplay concert at Malaysia in this coming November sold out immediately too once the tickets are released. Everyone suddenly have huge interest on watching concerts and the singers are making big bucks!
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
Right after spending around two to three hours composing my post which details my trip to Dubai just now (can scroll down to see that lengthy post with plenty of pictures right below), I felt I have to write another post and this time it’s for some movie and drama reviews that I have not done for quite some time. It’s still my off day today giving me some time to rest and also to blog so why not?
Recently I have watched some new movies and there is one particular movie that I would like to write a brief review on. It’s ‘Evil Dead Rise’, a supernatural horror film that revolves around two estranged sisters trying to survive and save their family from deadites (undead parasitic demonic spirits) in their apartment complex.
It has been some time since I last saw a decent horror film and I must say this is one of them. It doesn’t rely on jump scares and still consistently gives out creepy vibe throughout the movie. Some of the scenes are quite terrifying, chilling and aren’t short of gory. Well these are what makes a solid horror film rather than some cheap and loud jump scares. Yes, there are still plots where character is making dumb decision here but well it can be forgiven this time since the character mentioned is just a curious and playful teenager (ok…no further spoiler).
The cast also delivered convincing performances (Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as the two sisters) including the kids. I would rate ‘Evil Dead Rise’ a total of 8.1 out of 10. I don’t mind if this film gets a sequel. I also didn’t notice that this film is actually already the fifth installment of a film series (Evil Dead). Perhaps time to dig out and watch the past 4 installments that I have missed earlier.
Next up is my quick review to a Hong Kong TVB drama that I have recently completed. The series is ‘Speakers of Law’ and it revolves around a group of good friends working in a law firm together. The 25-episode series starred Kenneth Ma, Rosina Lin, Jonathan Cheung, Stephen Wong, Karl Ting, Max Cheung, etc.
To be honest, I watched the series just for the sake of finding something to watch consistently every weekday after work while taking my dinner. The series is plain and at times boring. There is no chemistry at all between the two main leads (Kenneth and Rosina). I’m getting tired of Kenneth’s same puppy face and eyes from his crying scenes and I still don’t understand how Rosina can win best actress at TVB Anniversary Awards two years ago. Her acting is flat and lacks passion. It is obvious that she couldn’t nail any emotional scenes in the series. Have to be harsh on this one. She really needs to live up to her recognition. I rate ‘Speakers of Law’ 6.3 only out of 10.
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
It is Dubai!; the destination of my trip that I only thought of it two weeks ago. The idea of going on an impromptu vacation kicked in just a week before the trip itself and I immediately thought of Dubai. I always wanted to visit Dubai to see all the architectural landmarks and engineering marvels this city has built but have never done so till now. I have stopped at this city twice before on transit in the Dubai airport before continuing to fly to Europe in the past. I was not able to get out of the airport and explore the city back then which is kind off sad.
It’s off-peak season for travel to Dubai now as the unbearable summer season for the city is kicking in from next month onward (from June till September). It’s still very hot over there now (above 35 degree celsius most of the time) hence lesser tourists/crowds. The airfares and fees for accommodations and some attractions are lower during this period of time. Hence, I’m going for it with tight budget in mind and while the temperature is still manageable for me who have been living in hot tropical climate my entire life.
This was actually my first ever solo trip to oversea purely for travel/vacation. I did traveled oversea by solo previously but that was for my higher education/other purposes. Hence I do felt nervous and excited at the same time. It all went smooth and according to plan. I had a fulfilling 5 days 4 nights in Dubai (including a one day guided tour to the neighbouring state of Abu Dhabi) at United Arab Emirates. I did it in only a little over SGD 2000 including the return flight (via Singapore Airlines…first time taking this airlines too) which already costs around SGD 1200 alone. I ate mostly at food courts/fast food restaurants and I stayed in a dorm at a backpackers accommodation (quite comfortable, not many people, and the place is centrally located at the Dubai Marina area).
The only unfortunate incident was that my luggage was quite severely damaged after my flight from Singapore to Dubai. Due to me rushing to the accommodation to check in on that evening of my arrival, I didn’t report the damage to the airport’s staff. Poor handling of luggage from the Dubai airport side. I ended up spending more to purchase a new luggage in Dubai…and that makes less spending for souvenirs.
Yup…so here’s below are the highlights/itinerary of my trip:
Day 1 – 11 May 2023 (Thursday)
Head to Changi International Airport for afternoon flight from Singapore to Dubai (7 hours flight). Reached Dubai in the evening. Singapore time is 4 hours ahead of United Arab Emirates.
After checking in to the hostel (Lunar Hostel Plus), had a brief evening stroll along JBR Beach and Smoky Beach (both beaches are side by side and JBR stands for Jumeirah Beach Residence). View the world’s tallest/largest observation wheel, Ain Dubai (250m tall) from the beach.
Walk along the waterfront of the Dubai Marina, a large artificial canal city along a shoreline. My hostel is located in this area.
Day 2 – 12 May 2023 (Friday)
Visit to Zabeel Park to view the Dubai Frame. It is the largest frame in the world with a height of 150m and width of 95m. It serves as a monument, observatory, museum and literally a frame for the views of old Dubai in the north and modern Dubai in the south. I didn’t enter inside the Dubai Frame.
Visit to Museum of the Future. It is a very futuristic-looking building that houses exhibition space for innovative and futuristic ideologies, services, and products. Some has even described the building as the most beautiful building on Earth. I didn’t enter into the exhibition space though; I just wandered in the main lobby area and around the external of the building including the adjacent Emirates Towers‘ area.
Visit to Downtown Dubai where the Burj Khalifa is. It is the current world’s tallest building/man-made structure at 828m high. Went up to the ‘At The Top’ observatory at level 124 and 125 (at around 450m above ground) of the skyscraper for spectacular views over the city. First time in my life entering into a floor level higher than 100.
Also in the area is the Dubai Mall which is one of the largest shopping mall in the world by total land area. Checked out attractions in the huge mall such as the aquarium, a real dinosaur fossil display, ice skating rink, a large indoor waterfall art installation and an area dedicated as Chinatown. Plenty of things to see in the mall besides than the shops. Lunch and dinner in the mall.
View the Dubai Fountain show which is one of the world’s largest and tallest fountain shows. A 5-minute show (different music & choreography for each show) in every 30 minutes in the evening daily. Burj Khalifa is also lit up with gorgeous LED projections in the evening daily.
Day 3 – 13 May 2023 (Saturday)
Took a one full day guided tour (by ABC Tours, a local tour agency in Dubai) to Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE.
Outside views of the Ferrari World (first Ferrari-branded amusement park in the world), Etihad Towers, Capital Gate Tower (famously known as the leaning tower of Abu Dhabi) and Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Hotel (a super luxurious hotel complex).
Quick photostop at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the largest art museum in Arabian world. Designed by Jean Nouvel, the building appears like a floating dome structure with a large interesting web-patterned dome.
Visit to Heritage Village, a small museum complex featuring a traditional village oasis that offers glimpses of life in the UAE before its oil boom.
Visit to Abu Dhabi Marina Mall for lunch.
Visit to Qasr Al Watan, presidential palace of UAE. The palace is built in 2017 not for the residences of the royals or leaders but as a place for hosting foreign leaders, for main government’s meetings/summits and for public visit. It is an intricately designed and ornately decorated palace with massive volume and spaces.
Visit to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in the country. It is also the largest and grandest mosque that I have ever visited. The mostly white-coloured mosque is built mostly of natural materials such as marble stone, gold, semi-precious stones, crystals and ceramics. The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40 000 worshippers at a time. The mosque has the world’s largest carpet in the grand hall, features a courtyard of floral floor design and is considered to be the largest example of marble mosaic in the world and has seven huge chandeliers that incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals.
Back to Dubai before sunset and took time to walk along Dubai Marina again (this time walk from the other side of marina). View the Cayan Tower (a twisting skyscraper) along the marina. Visit to Dubai Marina Mall for dinner.
Day 4 – 14 May 2023 (Sunday)
Visit to The Pointe, a waterfront retail destination at Palm Jumeirah Island to view the luxurious Atlantis The Palm Hotel and Atlantis The Royal Hotel.
Take monorail from The Pointe to Nakheel Mall. Go up to the Palm Tower at level 52 to visit ‘The View at the Palm’ observatory for magnificent views over the entire Palm Jumeirah Island, Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, Burj Al Arab, Ain Dubai, etc.
Visit to Souk Madinat Jumeirah, an Arabian bazaar complex with beautiful close view of the Burj Al Arab, world’s only 7-star hotel. Lunch in the complex.
Visit to Jumeirah Mosque for outside view only. Opened in 1979, the mosque is said to be the most photographed mosque in all of Dubai.
Visit to Old Dubai area. Visited the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood (one of Dubai’s oldest heritage sites with much of original infrastructure and narrow alleys preserved and intact). Also visited the adjacent Al Seef Heritage Street where traditional Arab souks lined this beautiful heritage district.
Took abra (traditional water taxi) to cross Dubai Creek over to Deira side of the city.
Visit to various souks in Deira region, particularly the famous Dubai Gold Souk, a traditional market of over 380 retailers, most of whom are jewelry traders. The Dubai Gold Souk is also host to the largest ring in the world weighing 64kg.
Back to Downtown Dubai again in the evening for shopping for souvenirs at the Dubai Mall (and dinner) and one last look of one of my favourite skyscrapers, Burj Khalifa. View the Dubai Fountain from the other side of the artificial Burj Khalifa Lake. Also visit to the Time Out Market(Souk Al Bahar), a retail mall famous for culinary hotspots which is also adjacent to the lake.
Day 5 – 15 May 2023 (Monday)
Visit to Dubai Miracle Garden. It is the world’s largest natural flower garden and only opens generally from October to April every year. For this year, it opens until early June. There are plenty of beautiful floral sights in the garden including a life-size version of the Emirates A380 which also broke the record as the world’s largest floral installation. The garden also features hearts tunnel, floral castle, Smurfs village, lake park, etc.
Visit to Mall of the Emirates, another large mall with beautiful architecture (particularly the huge domes and arched glass roof). The mall is also host to Ski Dubai (the Middle East’s first indoor ski resort and snow park). Shopping and lunch in the mall.
Return to hostel to check out and head to Dubai International Airport in the afternoon for flight back to Singapore. Arrived in the early morning next day (16 May 2023).
It was an awesome and fulfilling trip. You may check out more pictures posted in my social media (Facebook and Instagram) posts too. I managed to see and admire all the sights that I wanted to including the Burj Khalifa, Palm Jumeirah, Burj Al Arab and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. I have to admit that it was a bit rushed though to fit all into just 5 days. Anyway, did you notice that most of the attractions in Dubai are some sort of record holders (world tallest, world largest, etc)? If it isn’t big or grand, Dubai is not going to build it! Haha.
It’s a miracle that I was able to fit so many places into just 5 days 4 nights (technically only just 3 full days in Dubai and 1 day in Abu Dhabi in total). The consequence is that my legs are feeling the pain now from all the excessive walking I had in Dubai for the past few days. Literally around 30 000 steps each day (tracked from iPhone health data).
This trip was also there to clear off my leave (had quite a lot of accumulated annual leave from my company) and also to clear off my mind for a while after undergoing down moments since end of March. At least the planning and the trip itself gave me a much needed distraction and excitement.
I enjoyed the trip overall. If I can have one more day, I would go on one of the popular things to do in Dubai; desert safari. I missed that one because I have done similar activity in Egypt few years ago and that I didn’t plan that one extra day earlier. Hmm…hopefully my next travel would be in this coming July to Hong Kong only if I am able to get the tickets to watch Sammi Cheng’s concert which will be on public sale this Wednesday. Once a trip was over, it’s time to think of the next one. Hehe…we have a world to see!
It has already become my routine every Friday’s evening to head to Singapore Sports Hub for cycling…or to be exact, to polish my cycling skill. I am still far from being a confident cyclist and hopefully in less than a month, I will be much better in controlling my ride. In fact, I even fell down once yesterday during a ride when I tried to control riding through a path with obstructions. Hope no one sees that…haha.
My ride didn’t just stop around the Sports Hub area last evening. I took the initiative to ride all the way to Bay East Garden yesterday. I was doing fine as the path is wide and there weren’t too many people as it was already quite late in the evening. Most importantly, I manage to get some fantastic views of the Sports Hub from Tanjong Rhu Promenade and the entire Marina Bay from along the waterfront of the Bay East Garden. You can view the entire Singapore city skyline from here including some famous landmarks like Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Flyer and the Gardens by the Bay’s conservatories. Both of my legs were pretty sore last night as it was the first time I rode this far (about 10km).
I went to Sentosa Island today particularly to visit the Fort Siloso, a military museum in the form of a park at the west end of the island. I had been to this place several years ago with a friend but we didn’t manage to tour the entire place and were very rushed as our visit was near the closing time. Hence, this visit is to ‘complete’ the tour and to reminisce the past. The main highlight of the place is the Fort Siloso Skywalk which offers spectacular views of the island and its beaches, cable car, architecturally-intriguing apartment complex named Reflections at Keppel Bay that appear like dancing towers, Tanjong Pagar Port and Singapore CBD from afar.
After touring the Fort Siloso, I continued my walk to the beaches located on the west side of the island. I then went over to the Resorts World Sentosa area where the casino, Universal Studios theme park and SEA Aquarium are located. Didn’t enter any of those places though; just a quick walk around while snapping some interesting shots will do. As it is no longer free to take the Sentosa Express monorail to travel to Sentosa Island from Vivocity shopping mall, I chose to cross over via walking through the Sentosa Boardwalk including the return trip.
That’s it. I don’t think my legs can take it anymore with all the walking today and cycling yesterday. Haha…The weather also isn’t pleasant (being way too hot nowadays). Will just stay at home mostly for Sunday tomorrow for a rest (my legs will surely thank me!). By the way, I’m off for an impromptu trip next week! It was a sudden oversea trip thought of just two days ago and then I have decided to go for it. Hope everything will be smooth. More on that in my next blog post about the trip when I return.
Hi there! It’s the 1st of May and Happy Labour Day! A much welcomed holiday that turns our weekend a day longer! To be honest, April has been a terrible month for me personally (glad the month is gone) and I hope everything will gets better from this month onward. I have been through a lot last month. Anyway, I’m grateful that I was able to meet some of my old friends and also able to make some new friends along the way for some companion which helps to ease some of the misery I experienced last month. As you may have been aware, I have also been occupying myself recently with new interest like reading and cycling. I hope with these, I would be able to heal slowly and grow stronger.
I have been very eager to practice on my cycling recently. In fact, I went to Singapore Sports Hub (Stadium Riverside area) twice on this long Labour Day weekend in the evening to cycle. I’m still not too confident to cycle especially along narrow path, through obstacles or in area with high pedestrian traffic. However, I do feel I’m slowly improving especially on starting a ride, making turn and maintaining the ride smoothly. Few more practice and I think I will make it. Well, it’s a nice leisure activity and I get to enjoy amazing night views too while I was there nearby the stadium. You can catch a glimpse of Singapore Eye (observation wheel), Marina Bay Sands and the CBD from the riverside too.
I didn’t do much on the entire Saturday though. It’s a day for me to be lazy. Stayed at home and rewatched an old movie while it is pouring outside. That’s really a much needed day for me to take a break. Then on Sunday (yesterday), I met up with a new friend and visited IKEA store at Tampines. We thought of getting lunch there but there’s just too many people and absurdly long queue during the lunch time. We ended up having our lunch in a food court at the Giant hypermarket store nearby. The trip to IKEA was not meaningless though as I did bought a small simple bedside table for my bedroom.
For today, I paid a visit to few destinations and they are all within the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve area. I did went there on last weekend as well with a friend and we only hiked to the summit of Bukit Timah hill and checked out the Hindhede Quarry. This time, I was going there alone so that I can go at my own pace and able to travel to more places in one go. Haha…so this time is more of a Part 2 visit to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. The area is quite huge.
I first went to the Rifle Range Nature Park to check out the Colugo Deck and Lookout, a famous observation deck that has only opened last year. It is one of Singapore’s tallest viewing points in a nature park. The design of the viewing deck has been inspired by the Malayan Colugo (flying lemur) in flight. Only a short hike and you get to the lookout point. It was quite empty when I was there this afternoon, most probably due to that time being the hottest of the day. I was sweating a lot.
Next, I walked over to the Singapore Quarry at the northern side via the Rail Corridor. I reached the quarry in less than 30 minutes. There were a lot of people cycling along the rail corridor too. The quarry is another rare breathtaking nature spot in this small island nation. Shrouded by lush greenery, this quarry was once used to mine granite before being filled with water. The towering exposed cliffs with a picturesque lake in front make it a good spot for pictures or just for a relaxing time. Couldn’t do the latter though as it was really hot today. I suggest it is better to visit the place during very early in the morning or at 5pm right before it closes half a hour later to escape the hot afternoon sun. Anyway, the place is still so serene and peaceful!
I took a few more pictures along the Rail Corridor (especially of the famous Upper Bukit Timah Truss Bridge) before heading back home. I did walked a section of the Rail Corridor 2 years ago and here I’m back again. What a day! It’s tiring but it felt good to be able to visit places that are closer to nature in this concrete jungle. I have been here in Singapore for 5 years and there are still new places yet to be discovered.
Oh no…back to work tomorrow! Well, at least no more Monday blues for this week.
Vincent Loy's Online Journal 