Bukit Timah

The initial plan today was to spend time with William and Julie Lai but sadly Julie's mum was taken into intensive care yesterday after an infection following chemotherapy. She seems to be on the mend but they need to keep close to her for the moment.

So it was on to Plan B....the central catchment area of Singapore is relatively undisturbed. It is an important area as much of the water storage/reservoir capacity is there with surrounding rain forest. We used to live on the edge of it in Bukit Timah so after a lazy morning reading by the pool we decided to revisit old haunts.

We started at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve which holds one of the last portions of primary rain forest on the island and walked up the hill via a circuitous route - it was relatively quiet in terms of creatures - but as it was the weekend, lots of walkers. However the forest was beautiful and we enjoyed walking through the tall trees. We even managed to see one monkey. There used to be a lot more until the government starting enforcing the $1000 fine for anyone found feeding the monkeys! We walked back from the reserve along the edge of the catchment area hoping to walk back past our old house - or rather the monstrosities in its place. Unfortunately I took a wrong turn and temporarily got lost but with help of some locals we got back on the right track, past the house(s) (two huge houses which had replaced our two story one in its own plot surrounded by trees) and on to our local restaurant Ivins. When we walked in it was almost empty which was most unusual. It was usually standing room only. But by the time we had left having eaten our usual favourites of Chicken Rendang, Ikan Tempra Pomfret, and Honey Pork - there was not an empty seat in the house and the food had been as good as ever.