#Sungei Buloh Nature Park Network

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Just like every time we are about to move out of a country hubby wakes up and wants to do all the things he didn’t have time to do the whole 4 years we lived there. 🙄😂

On today’s agenda was going all the way to the north of the island just across the Malaysian border for a walk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

SUNGEI BULOH WETLAND RESERVE IS A fresh spark of natural greenery and rich biodiversity, something which is largely uncommon in Singapore. The unique rustic charm is especially beautiful around the mangrove areas. In many ways, it almost feels like you’re entering the tropical rainforest of Malaysia or Indonesia

But in fact you are here in the far northwestern area of Singapore in a unique wildlife haven. Sungei Buloh, Singapore’s first ASEAN Heritage Park, has its trails pass through coastal areas, forest trails, mid-canopy walks and migratory bird trails. The entire route covers the distance of 3,700 meters. The reserve is an important stopover point for over 150 species of exotic migratory birds from as far as Alaska, Siberia, Northern China and Australia, making this an important ecological site forming the East Asian Australasian Shorebird Site Network.

When I did the Around the Island Walk Challenge, 4 years ago I was lucky I got to see a lot of the slightly out of the way parts of Singapore. I talked about it but we never managed to go back. Well another mission accomplished today.

[aussiboris]

Singapore - safari, Star Wars, Sentosa Island and creepy statues

2nd - 6th May 2019

As we were in Malaysia we decided to enter Singapore by bus. We arrived back from the Island paradise of Tioman ready to embark on the ‘straightforward’ bus trip from Mersing to Singapore. It was really easy to book passage on my phone an airconditioned coach taking us the easy 2 hour journey from the East Coast of Malaysia to the independent city- state of Singapore. 

The Border

The bus was roomy, cool and basically empty. We made good time to what we thought was the Singapore border by 12.30pm. We were supposed to arrive in Singapore bus station by 1pm. I don’t know how I thought we were going to go through the border, but as I’ve said, assumed it would be straightforward. 

Our bus driver told us we needed to change buses and get on a different one that went to Singapore. Luckily he had told us which of the many stands we should go to. I flummoxed a few officials with our online phone tickets but they eventually let us onto the cramped bus. 

After a short while the bus headed towards a bridge and slowed down into a queue. At this point the bus stopped and let people off in the middle of the lanes of traffic. The people walked through the stand still of vehicles to an unknown destination. Being at a complete loss we stayed on the bus with the old people. We followed the old people off the bus a short while later to find we were going through the Malaysian exit border. 

After many escalators up and down, queuing to get our exit stamps and following the throng of people we were back at a bus station where rows  of buses were going to all areas of Singapore. Again the staff were confused by online tickets and ushered us onto a random bus. At last underway we headed over the massive bridge and promptly got dropped at the other end to repeat the escalator passport fun. Except this time the queues were a lot slower.

We stood with other tourists clasping our entry cards, a chatty Chinese American was determined to entertain herself by chatting up some Japanese in the next queue. Our queue slowed to a complete stop when a European back packer caused some issue. After a long discussion he was worryingly taken away by officials. After hearing the Chinese American’s life story we finally made it through the border pretty easily. But we still had to find another bus that was hopefully taking us somewhere near to where we had to end up! 

We miraculously made it to a bus stop in the vicinity of downtown Singapore. Still laden down with our backpacks we then took the MRT and found our way with the help of some overly helpful locals to the hawker centre. By this time it was about 2.30pm so we promptly collapsed and ate some restorative food. The moral of this particular little story - Singapore airport is very nice - it is very automated and they have a slide!

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Having navigated our way into Singapore our lovely friends and hosts The Grunds took care of us. Ilja wanted to show us some of the wildlife in the skyscraper filled city so we headed to the Wetland Reserve. 

We got there early to avoid the heat of the day. It was pretty quiet apart from the odd class of children on a school trip. We were rewarded for our early start when a massive monitor lizard crossed our path.

The Park has some lovely hides to watch the birds from and one very tall one that gives a great view over the park. From here we spotted a crocodile going for a morning swim.

The areas of the park were planted with different flora to give visitors an idea of natural variety around them. It was great to see the birds, mudskippers and occasional giant lizard!

High Tea

One must do in Singapore is Afternoon tea. Modern Singapore began as a trading post for the British East India Company. After the collapse of the company the British retained control. There are acknowledgements of its colonial past in the city- the traditional afternoon tea being one of them. 

For our Afternoon Tea we visited the more modern Lime Restaurant in the Park Royal Hotel. It was easy to reserve and the food was a delicious asian twist on a classic afternoon tea. The delicacies ranged from snow crab sandwiches and Peking duck profiteroles to traditional carrot cake and scones with cream and jam. The mini lemon meringue pie was a particular highlight.

Night Safari

Singapore Zoo is one of the top attractions in Singapore. It has a normal zoo set in rainforest, a river safari and a night safari. It is very well run and they know how to utilise every spending opportunity. 

Arriving for the night safari at about 7.30pm we then bought our tickets. It was busy so we had to wait until the 9pm slot for entry. There was a menagerie of every sized, stuffed animals and selection of glow in the dark tat to spend our money on. We had some dinner thanks to the sizeable food court area and there was even a traditional show to entertain - all this before we even entered the zoo!

We finally made it into the Safari area and headed for the animal show where keepers showed off some of the inhabitants and their skills. 

We then boarded the tram that completed a circuit of the 7 geographical zones of the park. The genius of this experience is that quite a lot of animals are nocturnal. How many times do we go to a safari park and a lot of the animals are asleep or hiding in the cool water of a pool. The animals are naturally more active so they are simply more interesting to watch. The enclosures aren’t huge but they are natural and use ditches and water to cordon them off. The ones with the more dangerous animals like the tiger have glass. As well as the safari tram you can also wander the trails going through smaller animal zones. One of the favourite exhibits was the otters who are noisy and exuberant  whatever time of day it is. 

This was a very good zoo and many could take note; you don’t need the most exotic animals to make this interesting, simply adding darkness just brings another layer of excitement to this animal lover experience.

Sentosa Island - it’s like the pleasure planet from Star Trek

Sentosa Island is the vacation spot of the hardworking Singaporeans. It is a resort island full of hotels, swimming pools, theme park rides and is home to Universal studios Singapore. It is a bustling cosmopolitan oasis manufactured for fun. The beach has been pleasingly cultivated, however the view is mostly filled with massive container ships and there is a boom to stop pollutants reaching the sandy shores. You can build sandcastles on the imported sand but don’t dig too deep or you will hit concrete. 

There is a network of expensive cablecars that transport you across the island giving a range of views of the resorts and Singapore.

Gardens by the Bay

One of our last evenings in Singapore we went to see one of its most iconic wonders. After indulging in some delicious nearby hawker centre food we walked to the Supertree Grove. There are 12 supertrees in the Grove ranging from 25-50 metres tall. They are suitably awe inspiring as they reach skywards fusing futuristic technology and the aesthetics of nature beautifully. 

At 7.45 and 8.45pm daily thereis a ‘Garden Rhapsody’ light show to music. As it was May the 4th the theme was Star Wars. The trees glowed and flashed red when the familiar storm troopers march boomed around the garden then green as the rebel alliance theme played. It was a truly magical celebration of Star Wars day.

Haw Par Villas

Haw Par Villa has over 1000 statues and scenes in its grounds. It was the passion project of Aw Boon Haw one of the developers of tiger balm. The park opened to the public in 1954 and was a popular location for Singaporean families. At one stage it was refurbished to become and ‘Oriental Disney land’ but high ticket prices proved a discouragement to visitors and now the park is free to enter. 

The statues and scenes depict morality tales from Chinese mythology. These can be weird and wonderful and at times grotesque. A particularly gruesome and popular area is ‘The Ten Courts of Hell.’

It seems to be pretty quiet, a slightly abandoned tourist trap of the past.