Sunday, August 29, 2021

Mt Faber and Telok Blangah Hill

Mt Faber is actually a small hill near Singapore downtown core.  

During our house hunting, we passed a pedestrian bridge over Henderson road a few times. People use the bridge to jog and run between two hills, Mt Faber and Telok Blangah, our relator told us. I was curious about the place since, and we went there the on August 21, 2021.

The day was cloudy with periods of sunshine, perfect for hiking. We parked at Telok Blangah carpark # 1 and we went to Mt Faber via Henderson Waves, and then came back and went on to the Terrace Garden and Forest Walk. We stayed in the park and surrounding area for 4+ hours.

Hiking at Mt Faber and Telok Blangah


Hiking

Mt Faber and the Henderson Waves (a pedestrian bridge) are very popular. It was pretty crowded when we got there, hikers, runner, bikers, singles, couples, families. We had a good view of the downtown all around Mt Faber along the trail and at Faber point.

Henderson Waves: The Telok Blangah side of the bridge is much higher

Henderson Waves: Sun shone through around noon time

North of Mt Faber

South of Mt Faber: Sentosa Island and Reflection Towers - the silver structures  

Mt Faber is not tall at all, 106m elevation, but several segments of the trail are pretty steep.

paved trail

resting area by the trail

On the Telok Blangah side, the forest walk, a raised metal board walk, about 20 yard (7 meter) above ground, 0.8 mile (1.3 km) long, zigzagged through the park,  is a good place to look at plants, trees, and birds up close. 

Forest walk at Telok Blangah


Fauna and Flora

I was pleasantly surprised to be able to see some birds by chance. We spotted a yellow bird,  black-naped oriole, near the Faber point. On the trail, I heard a unique bird chirping, I looked around and saw nothing. I stayed there for a few more minutes and a black bird with red eyes flew into sight, and more birds with red eyes flew to the Y junction of a tree. There was a crevice at the junction, seemed to be the nest for these birds.

On the forest walk, I heard many different bird chirpings and spotted some very small tiny birds. I also saw large flock of pink-necked green pigeons on two trees. 

There are many flora, exotic in shape of fruits or flowers. 

Black naped oriole 

Metallic Starling

A crevice in the tree branch

birds with red eyes - black or greyish

there were at least 6 birds in this photo

A colorful pigeon - pink necked green pigeon 
















Friday, August 27, 2021

Bukit Batok Nature Park

We went to little Guilin early on Saturday August 14th, arriving around ~ 9:30am. So it was only 11:30am after we stayed there for almost 2 hours, enjoying the scenery, watching grey headed fish eagles, turtles and a glimpse of a unknown big fish. We decided to visit the nearby Bukit Batok Nature Park, which is about 1.2 km from little Guilin via PCN (Park Connector Network).

We walked to the Nature Park.

The Bukit Batok is densely wooded, with a smaller lake and rock cliff. We strolled along a paved trail from entrance all the way to the only pond in front of a rock cliff. There were a few people in the park, many picnicking in shelters or at picnic tables along the way. There was a man playing musical instrument at a picnic table near the pond. Despite leisurely paced, we were sweating because of heat and humidity. Clouds were moving our way. We took a side trail to return to the entrance and to the car park at little Guilin.

Tall trees at Bukit Batok Nature Park

Paved trail to the pond

at the pond

it was hot and humid, sweat wetted my polo shirt

The trails are narrow, paved by stone tablets, blended into the surroundings well. They felt natural. The woods are very dense and a few more new plants were sighted. 

It is hilly 

this paved trail felt natural

Fico fruit on fico tree trunk

twisted vine

We heard bird cooing, but saw none. Eventually Nicholas spotted white headed Thrush by the trail side behind bushes. There were quite a few of them in the area. A couple of the thrushes descended onto rocks in a small open space surrounded by trees, jumping around. A squirrel joined the fun as well.



white headed thrush

A pair of thrushes

As we were half way to the exit, it started to rain, the rain drops getting bigger and more frequently by seconds. It started to pour and we had to run to a nearby shelter. In monsoon season, it pours when it rains, but it typically comes fast and leaves fast. It stopped after about 30 minutes and we walked back to car park.


A green pigeon perched on a tree branch  in the downpour

When it rains it pours in monsoon season




Sunday, August 22, 2021

Little Guilin at Singapore

Look at this picture, doesn't it look somewhat like Guilin, China? 

This was the scene at Bukit Batok Town Park, on August 14th, 2021, the Saturday a week ago. It is called Little Guilin by locals because of its resemblance to Guilin. Geographically the town sits at the eastern boundary of the west region of Singapore, and it is densely populated. The park is easily located in the map, and not hard to get to, but parking could be a challenge. The car park at the Stadium, north of the park is a good parking place. Simply continuing driving on Bukit Batok East Avenue 5, passing the park from south, and turn right into the stadium parking. The carpark is only a short walk to the park without the need to cross streets.

Little Guilin at Singapore

areas around little Guilin

Walking to the park from the stadium car park, we unknowingly get to the northwest bank of the lake, a shaded area, with a great view of rock formation and the blue sky with white clouds in the background. What a beautiful scenery from every angle, just as claimed. I also noticed a guy with  his camera's huge lens aimed at the ridge of the large cliff.

path to the park from stadium car park

Northwest side of little Guilin

A big lens aiming at the the edge of the big rock

View from looking north

view from southwest

View from southeast

Another view from southwest

I tried to identify what the big lens aimed at and I spotted a big bird perched on a small tree at the ridge of the big cliff, which made calls on and off. It turned out to be a grey headed fish eagle*.  The eagle stayed for a while, and flew away. Then two fish eagles flew into sights, and one was chasing the other, maybe a courting ritual, but eventually they parted their ways. One, likely female eagle, flew into the woods on the northern side of the cliff, and the male returned to the tree on the rock ridge.

Grey headed fish eagle 

There are fish eagles, there must be fishes. I saw some tiny fishes swimming in the lake, apparently too small for the eagles. Lily spotted a big fish, 1.5 to 2 feet long!, swimming in the water close to where we sat, and disappeared. I saw it too upon her alert, but did not capture it on camera.

The other animals in the lake are turtles, quit a few of them, and birds in the woods around the lake.

Little Guilin is small, only 40 acres in area. It is beautiful, quiet, elegant and good for a stroll or picnic by the lake, especially when it is off peak hours.

A turtle in the lake

several turtles on the right end of this log



* according to mothership.sg, there are only 12  to 18 breeding grey headed fish eagles in the wild in Singaore

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Island Hopping

Singapore is an island-city state. Do you know that it has 63 satellite islands/islets ? As one can tell from the following map Jurong island, Tekon island are among the larger satellite islands of Singapore. The most famous satellite island of all is Santosa, which is directly south of downtown core, the red arrow pointed island. Santosa is famous for its ocean front homes and Universal Studio amusement park.

Last Sunday, August 8th, Lily, Nicholas and I went on an island hopping cruise trip with our friends Michel, Debra and Ester. The island hopping trip was on three islands south of Santosa, the circled islands in the following map. The three islands are St. Johns, Lazarus and Kusu.

City vista from afar, fauna, floral and beach, plus the tranquility of the islands, made the small islands a perfect place for weekend getaway.

Islands of Singapore

the three islands we hopped on

The Excursion

We boarded the cruise, from Singapore island cruise and ferry services, a ferry, at the Marina south pier and it took us about 30 minutes to get to our first stop at St. Johns island. We walked along the beach and hiked on the trails on St. Johns, seeing monkeys, exotic plants (more details later) before walking to Lazarus. These two islands are connected by a causeway. We spent most our time at Lazarus on the Lazarus island beach, wading ocean water, swimming, and having a picnic lunch. We saw some more monkeys on the island. Near 2pm we boarded a cruise for Kusu island, Lily and I got off to see tortoise sanctuary and more tropical plants, the rest of the gang stayed on the ferry, and returned to the main island earlier than scheduled.

The cruise and view of Downtown core from ocean

Note that there is no restaurant on the islands. The tourists have to bring their own food and drink for picnics. Despite in the middle of the ocean, breezes on and off, it is still hot and humid, remember to bring enough food and water/beverage, especially water, at least two bottles of water per person. Also bring some snack. The other caution is to bring bug repellent - there are bugs on the islands.

Downtown Vista

Looking north from the islands, I had a totally different sense of downtown.  The high-rises are small, the crowds are away and the noises are filtered by the  distance. The city is only a backdrop to the ocean and the natural world. 

The small non-commercialized islands are a perfect sanctuary for wildlife and people. 

View of Downtown core from St. Johns

Sentosa ocean front residential buildings

A sanctuary from busy city life
 

Monkeys on St. Johns and Lazarus

As we enjoyed the tranquility and tropical plants in a wooded area right off the beach on St. Johns, I heard some hoarse noise from some tall trees. It sounded like a bird call.  I looked up, and with help, I saw a monkey in a tree. It is long-tailed macaque monkey according to Singapore national park website. The monkey I saw did have very long tail.

Long-tailed Macaque

After we rested in a shelter for a few minutes, looking at the far away skyline at downtown core, and tropical plants, we went back on trail to look around. I heard the same hoarse monkey calls again. A long-tailed macaque male monkey, easily identified by its genital, came down to a shorter tree, and very close to us. While the monkey and us looked at each other, two more monkeys came down from tall trees, a male and a female. More interesting things happened next. 

During descending, the two monkeys paused and mated! Then as one male monkey descended to the ground, the other male monkey wen to check the female monkey out, and they mated right there! 

We stayed under the trees for 15 ~ 30 minutes, taking a lot pictures. That's how we saw what we saw. Eventfully monkeys and us had enough of each other. We moved on to hike.

The long-tail macaque posed for a picture

A male long-tailed macaque with its balls and penis exposed

three monkeys - two male, one female

a male monkey descended to the ground and sitting on a concrete slab


A male monkey (left) and female monkey

Mating

Making faces or yawning


Flora

It was a very beautiful morning, blue sky with patches of white clouds. With two biologists in the group, we had some fun discussions about the plants. One big tree drew my attention, I saw scale like features on it, and wondered out loud. Debra, a biologist told me that the features are epiphytes, a kind of air plants, which rely other plants, e.g. big trees for support. Epiphytes have no attachment to the ground soil, and they are not parasitic either.  They get their nutrients from air and rain. 

Then we spotted some blooming trees, which have two distinctive colors of flowers - bright yellow is the flower, and red is the sepal which carries the flower before it blooms. Sepal is typically green. Here it is red, which made the flower and tree special. It has a funny common name mickey mouse plant.

A unique observation at Lazarus island was rattan and vines climbed all overs a few big trees by the beach and formed a hill slope.

A palm tree on Kusu island has two levels of palm, they perpendicular to each other in palm orientation.

On the trail to Marine Institute

The hiking group 

fish poison tree with exotic shaped fruits
Epiphyte 

Mickey mouse plant

Rattan and Vines form a "hill slope"


The lower palm is 90 degree to the upper palm


The beaches

The beaches at the three  islands are pretty good, but few people were on the St. Johns beach, which is  right by the pier. I guessed that the beach is kind of too exposing. The Lazarus island beach is very popular, many people sunbathing, swimming there. There are good shade from trees near the beach.

We went there near lunch time, wading in the water or swimming. There was a weather front coming in, fortunately it brought some cool breeze and only a handful drops of rain. 

Lily and I went to Kusu island by ourselves, the rest of the group went home ahead of schedule.  Kusu island claimed to have tortoise sanctuary, which  I thought was a sanctuary for sea tortoises. But it was not, it is sanctuary for some domestic turtles.   An interesting thing was to see tortoise fighting for fed fishes and once a tortoise got a fish it ran for the water while others would try to steal it! A more interesting and exciting thing here was that we spotted a big blue fish by  the sea wall


the St Johns' beach viewed from the corridor to the ferries
Lazarus island beach


Chill out in water 

weather front  

weather over Lazarus Beach


Tortoise eating fish 

Sea wall at Kusu island beach

A great family outing


It was great family outing for both families. I am itching to kayak around these and other satellite islands. We will be back!