Tally-Ho: The Great Jungle Adventure

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

Saturdays are usually my days to recover from the previous school week, which means sleeping in.

But not two Saturdays ago. Instead of experiencing the simple joy of unconsciousness, I found myself climbing a mountain hill and attempting to save a prince(ss) from the dragon keep up with everyone else.

Along for the hike up Bukit Timah Hill were most of the Adventure Crew: Joelyn Alexandra, Avariel and Seriously Sarah. Mintea joined us later, for Part 2 of the adventure.

So it was early on a Saturday morning that I found myself climbing up Bukit Timah Hill, learning about local flora and fuana, running away from butterflies, and pretending that I was an explorer in a never-before-discovered jungle.

We’d signed up for A Walk In An Ancient Forest, which is held every third Saturday of the month at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

We had a volunteer guide, a nice lady called Anne, who took us along the green trail, which I believe is called the South View trail for a bit.

We set off from the Visitor’s Centre and almost straightaway there were interesting plants to show us.

This is the betel nut, which is usually wrapped in betel leaves and assorted spices and chewed. It’s supposed to be a mild stimulant, so truckers in Asia chew it when they’re driving long routes.

And then we started climbing up the hill, stopping along the way to see various plants and animals – like big termite nests, which look like orange-brown basketballs.

I found out that the taller trees in the reserve actually have lightning rods attached to the back, because they don’t want the trees to be struck down by lightning. Considering that the hill is the highest natural structure in the island, and perhaps one of the few remaining patches of primary forest, I totally get it.

We saw a monitor lizard lying in the sun near the tree with the lightning rod, but it ran away as soon as we approached so I only saw its tail disappearing behind a tree.

Anne told us that we might see pitcher plants, but probably not because this part of the reserve has quite a lot of topsoil and dead leaves on the ground, which means that the soil is relatively nutritious. Pitcher plants only grow where there isn’t enough nutrients in the soil, so the trees get what they need from unfortunate insects.

We came across this, which is wild pandan:

Wild pandan is different from the pandan leaves that we use to cook! For one, there’s no smell. I don’t think it’s used for cooking at all, though it’s used to weave mats and stuff.

Another interesting factoid: if you can hear the cicadas (like crickets, but not) chirping away, the weather is gonna be fine. But if they suddenly stop or are very soft, then get your behind to shelter as soon as you can because it’s going to rain. You do not want to be in a rainforest when it rains. Cicadas can sense barometric pressure, which means they know when it’s going to rain. Neat, innit?

The green path is actually quite walkable and is supposed to be the easiest of the four trails, although I did have some trouble in certain spots. There are these concrete blocks set into the ground to help deal with compaction and erosion, and the older ones make for very high steps. And — I make no secret of this — I am short and fat, so there were areas where it was actually kinda difficult to climb. But I made it (:

The tour was a very interesting hour, but eventually Anne had to say goodbye. She left us at the halfway point of the hill where all the trails converge to head to the summit. We decided to head up to the summit since, heck, we were halfway there already.

We climbed. And climbed. And climbed.

And, because I was feeling rather sticky and somewhat isolated from the rest of the modern world, I made pretend in my head that I was an adventurer exploring the hidden depths of an unexplored island and that I was doing a Great Service to Mankind. I was at the back of the group not because I was slow and out of shape, but because I was looking out for man-eating tigers!

…

Hey, it got me up the hill. I’m not complaining.

Okay, so the iPhone compass somewhat spoiled the effect. BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.

Incidentally, I was surprised my phone was working. There are two signal towers at the summit of the hill, and the last time I was there I had no reception as we approached the top. But this time I had no problems until we actually reached the top, so I suppose we won’t all die from radiation poisoning. Which is good, but it also means we probably won’t wake up with superpowers ):

We came to a really steep-looking path called the Summit Path, which was a shortcut but looked frighteningly steep. So we took the long way around, which is a slope. We saw lots of people coming down, so we figured it would be easier if slower. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the top that way.

It’s a winding slope and all flat ground, so it was easier.

That being said, I have never been so happy to see a big rock before.

We rested for a while, enjoying the view of the cell towers:

They’re in use, by the way. I had some trouble getting reception from the top.

And then after a bit, we headed down, this time using the shortcut that we’d avoided before.

Now we know why everyone was using the long winding way instead of the shortcut! It was a shortcut, but it was ridiculously steep and treacherous. I couldn’t pretend to be a Brave Forest Explorer because I was too busy trying not to slip on rocks and roll down X_x

And then! While we were on the treacherous path, we nearly stepped on a monitor lizard. That caused a small amount of panic. We were sure to panic very carefully because there are so many other ways to die on the way down.

I could feel every rock jabbing at my feet through my Doc Martens, because the hill is made from granite they were strewn all over the path down. Eventually we made it to flat ground, which is just as well because very shortly after I had my very first leg cramp.

We headed back down to the visitor’s centre, which is at the foot of the hill. Along the way we did the butterfly dance (mostly me trying to avoid and run away from butterflies, with a panicky expression), the bee dance (like the butterfly dance, but with more panic) and the “don’t stand there, there’s a big spider!” dance which involves me half-hopping, half-limping away from a big spider in a rotting log.

And after lunch at nearby Al-Ameen, off we went to the second jungle: the urban jungle! We met up with Mintea along the way.

We made our way to the Singapore Art Museum, which has a really awesome exhibit right outside:

So amusing. I’d seen Vertical Submarine’s work before, which was really cool and interesting. They share my sense of humor, which is great because quite a lot of the time I find art installations too abstract and serious to appreciate. They don’t have a website of their own though, so I can’t point you towards their awesome.

And then we headed to the National Library at Victoria Street to do a little research on a semi-secret project. They were having a sort of humanitarian and environmental fair, and we each got to ride on Segways! I suck. But it was fun! No photos, though.

When we came out of the library again we had drinks, and we spotted this very cool can recycling machine. So since we had cans, Sarah and I figured we’d give it a try…

It’s a really neat machine that eats cans and bottles up and crushes and stores them until a recycling company comes along to collect the scrap. There’s another model that doesn’t crush the cans, just stores them as they are.

For every can you put in, the machine prints out a coupon for you to redeem something. This machine is sponsored by Coca-Cola, so we got a voucher for a can of Coke.

The company that brings the machines in is looking to put these in assorted office buildings and schools to encourage recycling. The great thing is that the machines are quite compact; the big one is slightly larger than a vending machine, so it’s entirely possible you might be seeing these near normal vending machines.

In case you’re curious, I recycled the Coke can after I was done with it.

So I felt good. I’d spend the day in a forest, learning about the local natural heritage; and I ended the day with recycling to help reduce waste.

Good karma makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (: