After an excellent nights’ sleep, I was up fairly early and ready to hit the town. I’d been told about something called the Southern Ridges, which is Singapore’s attempt to add some greenery into what is quite a building dominated landscape. I headed out on the MRT to Kent Ridge (strangely through Queenstown and Redhill, but changing before Dover). The station is right next to the university and without directions, I headed off uphill to try and get a vantage point for a bearing. After 20 minutes of walking up a hill, which in the heat was quite tiring) I reached a car park with a strange satellite dish
Headed down and eventually found a park. The air felt a little fresher today, and I was dressed more appropriately, but it was still really hot and humid. Set off down into the park, which was really peaceful. Lots of wildlife (too fast for photos, but saw a pair of beautiful electric blue kingfishers (see https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4127/4979691700_f75171e06b.jpg) and some more I couldn’t identify but were very colourful.
After I reached the bottom of the park, there was a link way to the next park which I followed and reached an even bigger park down by the docks which was beautiful. Designed for running, it had markers every half km and routes up to 9km long. Dad, if you’re reading this, I had my running stuff with me, and managed about half a km before I thought all the water was going to empty out of my body via my pores, so stopped and went to find as much liquid as I could. I found a vending machine and had some lemon and honey water and carried on
After I’d finished, I decided to head back to the station to go back to the hotel to freshen up so set off, however, a wrong turn ended up adding many miles to my journey and covering all of the university campus. I was so thirsty I was tempted to use one of the many water fountains scattered about, but, remembering India, thought that would make the problem worse in the long run so avoided it. When I got back to the hotel, I checked Google to find I’d missed the Southern Ridges walk, I found my pedometer had recorded I’d walked 30km that day and that Singapore water is classed as one of the cleanest waters in the world, and is quite safe to drink! You live and learn!
After a shower and cool down, I wanted to go out to dinner at Orchard road, which had been described as both amazing and Singapore’s underbelly. I’m sure there are some less reputable establishments there, but it reminded me very much of the Champs Elysees in Paris, all designer shops and centres.
Bought a few souvenirs and headed back to pack. Unfortunately, whilst I was trying to sleep, something went wrong with the hotel plumbing, meaning a loud gushing sound was going on for ages. Left it for an hour before heading to reception. The lady was very apologetic and changed my room. Unfortunately, the new one was really hot with a noisy air conditioner, so didn’t get a lot of sleep, however, check out was at 12pm so there was time for a shower, wander round and to pack before I headed to the airport.
A quick note on the airport, it’s full of little art installations. There’s a butterfly garden, cactus garden and a sunflower garden, and these odd orbs which are attached to a fine line, and move to create waves and patterns. Photo doesn’t do it justice but it was so calming!
Anyway, onto the plane, next stop, Sydney