HIKING!!

7th February... the day i hiked of about 20 km in distance... with Shing & Hwee. It was Shing's birthday too. Only Shing & Hwee responded positively to this hike and yes... looks like most CtYFers are just not into walks....

And so we were suppsoed to start our day at 7.30am... but erh...everyone came slightly late and so at about 8am, we set off from foot of Bukit Timah Hill.

We walked about 40m before realising we didnt take a copy of the nature walk map from the visitor's info counter. And since Hwee & myself had already walked a distance to visit the toilet before we set off, it was decided that Shing made this short walk to obtain the map. Hahaha....when i suggested this, Hwee agreed heartily.

With map in our hand and also the softcopy in Shing's hp, we set off the trail that leads us to MacRitchie. Tree top was our aim coz Shing has not been there before... wondering where was he when we had the walk with YFers.... hmmm.....

I was very hungry and needed to eat my Big Pao. I bought 3 for each of us and i was afraid if we eat in the forested area, monkeys will attack us and snatch our food. Shing & Hwee didnt think so and so we ate and walked at the same time.

It didnt take us long to reach Rifle Range Road and there we had to walk very very long way into the forest catchment area. I told them that Tengah had a hike previously and i still remembered where we stopped for rest and the rain that made us all wet. Both of them could not remember participating such activity and so i needed to retell the story.

We walked past the BKE (Actually we crossed over from the top) and the route seemed soooo long. Checked the internet.... it is 7.7km!!!! Thank God for good weather and sufficiently cooling too. Reached the forested area and walk got more interesting. Recounted my many hikes there and told them. None of them had been on this route before..... Told them had to cross pipes and at a T junction, we needed to turn right to go to MacRitchie. The routes are very vivid in my mind and i know i can never be wrong. Then we saw a jungle trail from the left side and they were asking me where it leads to. Without thinking, i told them Bukit Timah... hahahaa.... and they believed. How can it be possible since i already crossed the BKE??? I didnt realise i was wrong then but who cares... we are not taking this route.

Then we came to the pipes...hmmm... the government has built spikes round the pipes so no human can walk across it, thereby hampering them. Instead, there were a few steps and wooden bridge built below and we could cross the small river using that. This is new.. i never seen that in my previous walks.. and so are the spikey wheels (i call them!)

After that, we met a couple who came out from a jungle trail on the left. I told Shing & Hwee it leads to Bukit Timah but they didnt quite believe now... hmm...their mapping sense suddenly got lighten up. They needed a confirmed answer and so they asked the couple where they came from. Their reply was "tree top walk!!!"

HUH???? I wondered.....and the boys jumped on me for bluffing them. In fact, they claimed i didnt know or remembered wrongly and had been telling them all the wrong info. Maybe just this one was wrong lah....sigh... their confidence in me disappeared and when we came to the T junction, i told them to turn right... they chose to walk straight. I told them this would most likely lead to the Singapore Island Country Club and the Peirce reservoir thingy. The couple was also trying to find their way back to MacRitchie and so they decided to follow us. Since the boys didnt really believe me, i followed them to walk the path that i knew was wrong. We walked a short while and noticed the tree top suspension bridge was just above us and we needed to turn back. There.....see.... never listen..... PHAH!

Happily, i led them back to the path that i would have taken and voila, we reach the tree top trail. Walked and walked and talked and talked. Most of that day, i was kind of hard of hearing. Many times we were talking about something, Shing said his piece. then Hwee said something. And then i said the very same thing that hwee said, thereby incurring the "wrath" of Shing.....he said, "Aunty alen... hwee just said it... why are you testing my patience... why are you doing this to me?"

Huh? Aiyoh... i didnt hear lah... if i heard, why should i say the same thing again? And so, this kind of thing occurred many times and their conclusion about me was that i could not multitask, esp where hearing is involved. Sigh... back home i could multitask my work... but i guess hearing wasnt involved then. Oh man...... does that mean i am losing my hearing?

Anyhow, shing's patience was tested several times that day and good for him... his 17th birthday. On the tree top bridge, we had one conversation that was particularly memorable. Shing was talking about suspension bridge and how it worked and how we watched from Discovery channel that day and got a glimpse of how the worker go up the tall suspension bridge (not Singapore but in the US) to do checks and stuff. It is crazy... perched so high up with just a rope.... oh man... i would faint if i have to do that job.

And yah.. and then the conversation topic went to Jurassic park. Shing and hwee talked about how some people were safe high up in the crane thingy and they got attack only when the man came down. ... yah.. i think i had the impression it was part 1 of that sequel. Then there was a short silence and i was still thinking about some scenes in that movie. Shing broke the silence and said man hanging by the rope and dangling and so dangerous and stuff.

I asked him, "1 or 2"

He said, "HUH? What 1 or 2?"

I said again, "1 or 2? The man hanging...."

Then he burst out, "Aunty Alen... why you testing me??? Why are you doing this to me again???? Haiyo!!!! We are not talking about Jurassic Park. We are talking about the discovery channel man who checked the suspension bridge......"

I retorted, "How am i to know you have changed subject??"

Shing exclaimed, "It was 10 seconds!!!! Very long silence and so topic changed already!"

I wasnt convinced... coz how could you talk about something and suddenly changed to another. Oh yes, i forgot.. the Yfers are very good at it... esp Shing... very random. Oh boy... ok ok.. i made a slight mistake here by responding wrongly. Wrong channel lah!!!!

And so... their patience was so tried that they took this pic unwillingly....

Next came this pic which was a slightly better one.

We asked someone to help us take a group pic. What did Shing say? "Let's put on a sad or glum face" and so i did....... but looked at their faces!!!!

Then they said now we smile..... and i obediently did so and see what happened???

Sigh.... ok ok.. i know you all dont like to take pics with me..... aarghh...

And so, these were all the pics we had taken for that day. We stopped halfway to eat the remaining of the small paos that i bought and decided to walk back to bukit timah. Shing didnt want to walk out of MacRitchie and take a bus back to Al-ameen for lunch.

It was getting hot and the route seemed long....We spotted a side track on the right and wondering where it leads to. A couple came out from it and said it leads to reservoir, not bad scenery but a dead end though. We still went and yes.. it was lovely scenery but i had no mood to take pics already.... We spotted a group of hikers who seemed lost inside there. Told them how to get out and what not.

And so the walk back was rather long... in fact... very long....7.7km..... and HOT! HUMID too!

And Shing received a horrendous birthday sms from LEMUEL.... poor he...i would feel sad if i receive words like this... but not Shing. We met some monkeys and our water was kind of finishing fast. Both of them had double... i had only one. And my shoes were the wrong type.. very thin at the sole area and i was experiencing pain in walking.

We finally reached the path to turn to Bukit Timah nature reserve. On hindsight.. we should have walked out the Rifle Range Road and take a bus to Al-Ameen... faster that way. But we didnt. So stupid to walk back the jungle path and got lost lor! Went into a track that said to Visitor Info Centre 0.5km. But it didnt look like the way we started earlier in the day and so due to extreme hunger and fatigue, we didnt want to finish that route to see if it was right or wrong. We walked back and retraced our steps and found the way out. Step by step and then crossed the overhead bridge and finally.... i laid my weary feet to rest at Al-ameen.

Ordered NUN.. is that how you spell... and some chicken thingy with gravy.. it was good. Also had omelette and chap chai. It was a very filling lunch and i had my can of coke!!!! Slurped it up happily. Shing & Hwee took hot drinks actually and 2 cups each. Thanks to Hwee for memory jolt... Hwee took iced tea x 2 & shing took hot tea with GINGER x 2!! hahaha..... They are really like buffalos needing to refill the huge tanks. Oh yes, i forgot about Shing's mutton soup!!! Haha....it was so smelly that i told him to put at the side of the table, away from my sensitive nose.... eew..... Cannot imagine how i went thru all these when i followed my dad to hawker centre during my younger days. He would take mutton soup and let me try some. Guess i got "wiser" when i grew older and repulse from mutton.....no offense to those mutton-loving folks.

And yes, we went to church for CtYF musical.. which is now history, followed by exco meeting. It was a long day but well spent!

Hmmm, i will definitely do it again... the walk and it should be happening real soon..... :)