Singapore Saturday - Sungei Buloh

So as I mentioned in my last entry, I have Saturday off so what to do? I've been concentrating on work since I got here and didn't really plan for this eventuality. CH tried to get me to book a room on BinTan island earlier in the week but I never got around to it. By the time I tried on Friday everything was booked. I never really take advantage of being here. It always seems that I am wedged inbetween dates and have to get back by a certain time. The very first time I believe the date in question was Thanksgiving. That was touch and go. In the end I flew into the US on TG day and drove the 6hrs to Alisal to have dinner with the family. Whew!

But I digress. What to do with a day off in Singapore? Well, to give you an idea of what it's like here, the biggest event happening right now is the Big Singapore Sale. It is freakin everywhere. Every store has a sign up. The DJs talk about it on the radio stations. It's on every promotional piece I've seen. This is all about shopping. That's one of the things that define Singapore, the stores that for the most part sell western clothes and electronics. I managed to get myself as far away from that as possible. On Friday a friend mentioned Sungei Buloh, and the concierge at the hotel thought it would be a good choice for me. A nice walk in nature, check out some exotic animals, get outside for a while. For the most part it totally lived up to the promise. It was so nice to do something other than sit on my butt in front of my computer or in meetings.

Getting to the park was interesting. It's easy to get anywhere from the hotel 'cause there is a taxi stop outside that's almost always got a taxi waiting. The concierge told me it was dead easy to get out to this place. Taxi out, taxi back. No problem! Well, the first taxi didn't have any idea what I was talking about. The second nodded and said he would take me, then got on the phone to his friend 'cause he didn't actually know where it was! Alright it was pretty tame for an "adventure" but I was amused. When I got to the park I thanked him, but he thanked me right back for helping him learn where this place was. He also said there would be no hope of a taxi back. Hmmm.

On to the park. Frankly it starts off a little disappointing. It's mostly mud flats and trees. It really takes a while before you get into the interesting stuff. One fun thing, though was that the wildlife that is there is not fenced off in any way. About 10min into my walk I almost stepped on a 6" lizard. After that I kept a more watchful eye and was rewarded with a Malayan Water Monitor (Varanus Salvator). As you get deeper and deeper into the park the animals get more and more interesting, and the people get scarce. The park is about 2mi deep. I would say after about 1mi I stopped seeing anyone. I went about 30-45min without seeing a soul. It was nice to feel I was in the middle of knowhere. However, there were one or two times when I got startled by something and wondered if it was so great to be so far out on my own. I'm sure everything was harmless, but sometimes you can't help your mind running off on you.

In the end I walked around for 2-3 hrs. I lost track. By the time I was done I was drenched with sweat. It is indeed quite hot and humid here. I think most of the locals get scarce around 2pm, disappearing into the confines of their air-conditioned flats or congregating in the air-con shopping malls that prevail in the city. As for getting home, remember the thing about the taxi? Well it turns out there's a bus stop about 20min from the park that takes you to the train (MRT). That was pretty fun, actually. I was worried about an incoming storm, but it was kinda cool to ride the bus and train back. For the majority of the drive I was the only Ang-Mo (red-hair) in site. I got some funny looks, but I don't know if it was my skin color or the clear sweat demarcation on my shirt. It turns out I rode the MRT right by work. That was kinda cool. I was basically riding through the neighborhoods of the folks I work with. It's a totally different kind of living compared to what I'm used to. Folks live in flats in big highrise complexes. As you right the MRT they go by one after the other. The only breaks are the occasional industrial parks like the one Seagate inhabits. The population density is staggering!

Ok, that's enough for now. Here are the pics. There's a couple more food pics at the end, just for measure. They are actually from Friday and should belong to the previous post but I forgot em.

-E