Start of our Green Movement (Part 3)

To commemorate our recent Earth Day festivities, Imma add me own (overdue :P) hullabaloo with this blog entry dedicated to the green awesomeness that is Nature. I had planned to cover a very famous earthy song, been practising quite a bit the past week, but the thing now is whether I can cover it well. In the meantime, here is a prelude to my very first ukulele cover, called New Soul by Yael Naim (for this cover too, I need it to be perfect, so I'm still trying to work out my little kinks before releasing a full-length video :P):


^in the vid, I had actually just came back from my 2nd official hiking trip that day (last Saturday). I'm wearing the same shirt as you'll see in some of my pictures to come. :D

Hiking in various parts of Singapore has just started to be THE weekly or fortnightly family activity for us. So during Earth Day Weekend last week, we visited the The Southern Ridges. Know where that is? Is it even in little old Singapore you ask?

This route was taken by my friend and her whole family (brothers' girlfriends included) recently and she had posted tons of nice-looking photos on facebook, so I asked her its whereabouts. She told me it was possible to walk all the way to Vivocity shopping mall and it would take about 2 hours. This in turn, made my family all up for it, being the semi-hardcore hikers that we are ;) We set off last Sunday late morning, as we had to cut short our hike on Saturday due to gloomy weather.

Here's actually one of the starting points somewhere off the AYE, along Alexandra Road (and where we stopped on Saturday. I'll recount that hike trip in Part 2):

On the other side of the road, where we had got down from the bus 97 to start hiking on Sunday morning instead:

^all ready to set off at 60km/h. lol

^view on our left...we were going to go up the Alexandra Arch's walkway(s)

^view on our right. This arch is such a huge landmark. It actually lights up in LED and alternates between different colours at night.

^acting cool before I go up the arch.

^they are such troopers. haha

^Ooh, scary. How high do you reckon this footpath is?

^it certainly is long. And it still looked brand new. Me like.

There was actually no one else much around. And it was like, on a Sunday afternoon.

^a brief glimpse of some port-side view before we entered a forested area (literally called the Forest Walk -_-) where you were surrounded by these trees all around you. And when we looked down the sides of the railings, we could see a pack of  wild dogs (including a pup) running around on the ground level. On the Walk itself, we came across a varied range of people- Caucasians, Old People, PRCs, Couples, etc...

^We completed the Forest Walk and proceeded to the Hilltop Walk, heading towards the direction Telok Blangah Park, with the aim of reaching the endpoint that is Vivocity (where my finger shows)

Reaching the top of Hilltop Walk (I think that's where we somehow stumbled upon), we found ourselves in bougainvillea land. They were pretty much in full bloom. It was quite a lovely place (cuz we are flower lovers, duh!), but why only bougainvilleas??

So we traipsed down and got ourselves as close to them purple blooms as possible. :D

^I'm trying to act all floaty like a garden princess in her element but epic fail. Dang, if only I could whip up a floaty dress from thin air, and some nice breeze. Then maybe I'd have been able to channel some Colbie Caillat or something.

^can u see a person in yellow shirt? he was this really gorgeous Caucasian guy (think he's from Germany or Britain, can't remember. The point is, how can people look so gorgeous like they're not breaking out a sweat when they're doing exercise?!) out hiking with his parents too. We passed them while they were coming up from the opposite direction up, and we were going down.

^spotted these adolescent bougainvillea shrubs on the way down

^kiddy ones! Anyone wanna guess how long it takes for them to mature?

After making our way out of Bougainvillea Breeding Land (aka 'Hilltop Walk'), we came across the carpark, but then saw a little dirt path on the side with a 'No entering' sign, Of couse, my dad HAD to go check it out. It led us quickly to a view of this mansion (think it's some sort of historical building). It looked creepy and run-down but cool at the same time.

^those street lamps are vintage aren't they? My dad forced me to include all of them in his shot. As for me, I didn't really care for them. I just wanted to have some fun with the house itself:

^me attempting to act all tow-kayish. Try that with a backpack and bermuda shorts on.

^yeah, I had to do some jumping shots. Had the itch, as we were at such a large, open space. This is the best my dad could capture. Adults, geez. Note to self: pull up my pants, smile and jump higher when doing jumping shots. Because my real jumping shot came out quite horrid and unglam. Of course I wouldn't post it up. Jumping shots is an art man.

^turned back to the carpark. Can anyone tell me since when Japanese is our country's fourth official language?

^On the yellow marked road to Vivo City XD Yep, we're right on track. We must conquer the Waves first.

^and yep, we set foot on the waves soon enough!

^trying to pose as some islander Hawaiian-esque dancers or something

^while we were trying to pose as pro surfers, dude.

^so... we had to get into the crests/breaks. I pretended I was like, paddling. loll

While walking, here are the views:

^this, ladies and gentlemen, was the biggest wave of all at the Henderson.

And all too soon, we reached the end of the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. This is how the view looks like at the end...squiggly!

^swimming against the squiggly currents.

^fun to know factoid. Thanks to having no means of private transport now, we would never have thought of exploring our country on foot just a couple of months ago. Honestly, none of us had any idea before about the Henderson Wave till that fateful day. lol.

Information board time!

^while we were taking a much-needed water break (it was cloudy that day but the weather was still freaking hot and humid man! Got all exhausted really quickly), I spotted and immediately fell in love with this odd, lush-looking tree.

After our extended break, we intentionally skipped walking alongside the main road to instead go the forest route again and somehow or other, found ourselves coming to Faber Point (the circle structure) despite limited signages in there. We came upon the bottom of Faber Point, where there were several really interesting bronze pictures on the walls, following the circumferential nature of the structure :D The pictures depicted Singapore' history and/or culture. I would have loved to spend more time examining some of them, but somehow, we were in a hurry to press on:

^some bench or so scattered about

^pic after pic. This is like, a free gallery right in the open. So of course, I took pics like crazy, for all my favourite pictures. I'm quite the museum/art geek actually. heh.

So when we finished walking around the circumference, we came across stairs to go up, and saw this:

^the gatekeepers

^the sole merlion there facing inland looked kinda lonely, so I gave it a hug. Aww

^I don't know if the arrows are for real. Anyway, Faber Point is nothing really special la.

^seriously, I was freaking shocked by all the buildings so close to one another for miles. It was quite disconcerting. You can probably also deduce by now that it's my first time at Faber Point. Think this place was once the pitstop for like, Season 3's Amazing Race contestants? Honestly, it's not a very pretty or scenic place. Think the gallery below interests me more.

^again, are the arrows for real? Cuz I don't think the land in the distance looks like Indonesia at all.

We soon came across this open-air bar place, and by then, my mum was really thirsty as she had finished her water, and so we bought a couple of drinks. My cranberry juice (which is too freaking sweet and kinda awful. Bartender sucks. He was cute though.) costs $6 while my dad's one pint beer costs $15. I drank a bit of my juice, and then swapped with my dad's beer. I had initially wanted to order beer too but thought it way overpriced.

^maybe drinking alcohol on nothing and then going off to hike is not such a good idea. Felt a little nauseous after.

We came across this on our way to The Jewel Box:

^tell you what, these cable cars were the only seatable ones that day. Cuz the real ones are currently closed for upgrading!

^those cable cars up there with a large heart beside them, are they for couples? ^.^

^beside the jewel box, passed by this. Thought it looked real atas what with the chandeliers. It looked like a hotel reception but I think it should be a restaurant right? I read in the papers recently that there are about 5 or so eateries at The Jewel Box and their reviews have been quite positive. But, I shudder to think about the prices though.

Then we came across a pictorial map again. And again, we see Japanese on there, together with our other 3 official languages. What's so special about the Japs? It seems more like a colonial legacy.

This is the staircase to take to get on Marang Trail towards Vivocity! The well-maintained staircase was nice for our tired feet:

^finally! our end in sight.

When I turned back, I could see how prominent the structures looked (dunno what you call them). We actually could view them from the Hilltop Walk where my dad was pointing out to me where Mount Faber park was.

^so on the way down, shrouded and surrounded by the forest again, But despite all that greenery, I managed to spot something blue partially hidden. I excitedly pointed it out to mum and dad.

^and zoomed in. It was an effing private swimming pool! We were so envious. Had half a mind to just barge through and jump right in.

^On the way down, also spotted this tree which seemed to have split into two.

^lalala. We're right on track.

And all too soon, we're outta Marang Trail and back to city life! Woot.

^Spotted another map to recount our adventure...

^what's that I see? :D

^the modern and artsy-looking Vivocity la. So remember, while shopping here in future, if you ever wanna take a breather in nature, look for Marang Rd, people!

^Harbourfront! :)) Looking boring in contrast.

And there you have it, the Southern Ridges. Explored in a few hours. Have you experienced it yet? I'm so envious of my family who's going again tomorrow (this time dragging along my brothers in tow ;)), while I have to sit out (boo!) because I have a play to attend- Animal Farm by Wi!d Rice!

Honestly, I would definitely find time to go back there again if given half the chance. If you don't explore and love what your country has to offer, who will huh? :) Foreigners? Tourists? Reading the papers today, a survey shows a typical Singaporean mainly likes to watch movies, go shopping, and eat during their leisure times. I'm not surprised. I so did not see Singaporeans outnumbering foreigners on our hike that day. Hiking is awesome, just saying.


-Update: Had planned to cover a few songs for a mashup to commemorate Earth Day this year. Here's a snippet:-