Mountain Hiking Training in Singapore

Singapore is a pretty flat island, the tallest hill on the island is Bukit Timah, elevation 536.8ft, up down is at most 2 miles, but the direct ascend trail is steep. So some people use it for training for mountain hiking in Alps,  North America, ...

To have a mountain hiking training for distance and elevation change, without repeating the same trails, I chose a trail combination to achieve elevation change ~ 1000ft, and the trail length ~ 5 miles.

On June 1st, we went to diary farm nature reserve, hiked on diary farm loop trail to Bukit Timah summit, instead going back to diary farm, we continued hiking downhill from the other side of the hill via Catchment path, cove path, and Taban trail to the foot of Bukit Timah, then turn around going up hill on the steepest path - the main road - to the summit, return to starting point on the diary farm loop trail.

trail combo 1

During our hike we noticed 3 or 4 groups people doing mountain hiking on Diary farm loop trail, up and down, repeatedly. We also noticed quite a few monkeys on the trail side.

on the flat portion of diary farm loop trail

This trail combo is about 4 miles, and elevation gain 920ft (460x2). These numbers were slightly short of my expectation.

Two weeks later, on June 15th, to increase the hiking distance, we started from Rifle Range Nature Reserve, to Bukit Timah summit, going down on diary farm loop trail, and return uphill the loop trail, and summit again, and going down via cove path,  Taban trails, and further out of Bukit Timah nature reserve, and return to rifle range. For this trail combination, we hiked 5 miles (8 km) and 1050 ft elevation gain due to lower elevation at rifle range.

The trails on both trail combos are shaded, and are especially beneficial for hiking on sunny days. They are both good choices for mountain hiking training.

on top of Bukit Timah

paved trail

Notes

1. During these hiking, we took the steepest trail uphill, and less steep but longer trail downhill.

2. One additional advantage of starting from either Dairy Farm nature park or Rifle Range Nature Park, and hiking on the combos, is that parking at the trail heads is typically not a problem, unlike starting at the Bukit Timah Nature reserve, where the parking spot is hard to find most of the time.

3. When we got back to Rifle Range Nature Park, we observed by chance that our hands swollen! This had never happened before even for much longer distance and higher elevation hiking on TMB. Not sure what caused it! Checking internet, Mayo clinic says this is a common occurrence. Hand swelling is a rare occurrence for us. It must be a combination of external and internal factors, temperature, humidity, our intake of water .... 

Camping at Pulau Ubin

Camping at Pulau Ubin is an interesting outdoor activity at Singapore - in addition to hiking, biking, kayaking and bird watching, one might also be able to see tide rises and falls, darker sky and more stars at night.

It also poses many challenges. First of all one can not back out of  it after 7pm when the last ferry leaves the jetty, one can not leave too early either before 7am next morning when the first ferry arrives from the main island. 

We camped at Pulau Ubin from June 7th to June 8th, a long weekend. 

Just preparing for the camping generated excitement! because we had not camped for 4 years. On the island, we enjoyed biking, butterfly watching, short hikes, and bird watching. Despite consistent 30+C temperature, we did not feel it due to constant sea breeze. However it was not all good. The downpour starting at 4:30am on June 8th led to 1 inch water accumulation in the tent! Heavy rain outside the tent, light rain inside the tent, we had to raise the umbrella until the rain stopped. 

Here is the full story.

Getting to Jelutong Campsite on Pulau Ubin

June 7th, 2025 was a beautiful day. We drove to Changi Point Ferry terminal - park at Changi point public car park 1, and took a ferry to Pula Ubin. 

With a dolly, the camping gears, food, water and other stuff was not too heavy to carry from the jetty to the campsite. The campsite is right by the water of Johor Strait. We picked a place near a firepit on bare ground to avoid ants and bugs, set up our tent under trees. We were the only people at this section 2 of jelutong campsite at the time (~ 10:30am). Our plan for the rest of the day was to visit the butterfly hill, then rent bikes to tour the eastern Pulau Ubin. After that we would have a late lunch at the largest restaurant on the island Season Live Seafood Restaurant. We would rest in the tent for a while before cycling through the western Pulau Ubin.

As we were about to leave the campsite, another group arrived - two men with 3 boys. They told me that they would only camp during the day time, and would leave in the afternoon.

Our tent was set near the camp fireplace

Cycling through Pulau Ubin

Cycling is the best way to see Pulau Ubin because it is a bit large for walking around in a few hours. 

We rent bikes near the jetty, S$8/day. 

We first biked on sensory trail to a small beach, then to Chek Jawa Wetlands. Mostly shaded, paved trail provided pleasant condition for riding the bikes. We have been here a few times before. The scenery is as beautiful as it has always been. 

The Lily pond by the sensory trail

The small beach by sensory trail

Chek Jawa Board Walk near low tide

At Chek Jawa Wetlands, the board walk is the main trail where bikes are not allowed  - the initial portion of it was under scorching sunshine since we got there around 12:15pm. 

View of the strait and and the main island from Jejawi viewing tower was great. Another point of interest is chek jawa visitor center - which has a small exhibit of marine life at the wetlands, and a viewing jetty. The jetty is a good place to view the frog island and water fowls near and around it. Unfortunately there were few of them - due to recent spill at Johor Harbor.

view of Johor Strait from Jejawi Tower

view jetty at Chek Jawa visitor center

a Giant extrication boat passing by frog island

It was 2pm when we completed cycling through the eastern part of Pulau Ubin, and we went to have lunch at Season Live Seafood Restaurant. 

We were tired after hours of hiking and biking in the hot weather, so we went back to our tent for a nap before cycling the western Ubin.

steamed whole fish for the late lunch

view of the trees from inside the tent: It was much hotter inside the tent than outside, we removed the tent canopy the let hot air out and wind in.

our rental bikes

The cycling to the western Ubin was limited because we could not ride on mountain bike trail. We rode all the way to the end of the paved ketam mountain trail, then returned. 

A few episodes on this portion of cycling is worth mentioning.

We happened to witness a guy caught a fish during a stop by water's edge of the strait. I noticed a fishing pole bobbing and then a guy rushed to the pole and trying to pull the fishline in. It took him quite some efforts, and the big fish was finally in his hand.

Caught a big fish

The Ketam Quarry is beautiful, which can be reached via a side branch of the bike trail. Another place is Puaka Hilltop with a view of Ubin Quarry.

We ended the biking and returned to our tent. by 6:30pm.

Ketam Quarry

Ubin Quarry with Johor strait in the background

Camping overnight, the thunderstorm early next morning

We had a simple picnic dinner - bread with ham, some veggies and fruit - on a mat over grasses by the water. Afterwards, we played puzzles, Lily Rubik's cube, me  - a 3D puzzle. I finished mine in about 10 minutes. She was bothered by our noisy neighbor, could not concentrate on the cube and did not complete it. We sat on the mat a bit longer, moon was shining overhead, and lights on the main island were really bright as well...part of the infamous light pollution of Singapore.

We noticed that we got a neighbor at the campsite during our return to the tent around 3:30pm - a group of six young men, they set their tent at the other side of the fire ring. We thought they would leave in the evening. They did not. After dinner, they became very loud, singing along with songs played on their boom box, talking over the loud music ... 

When it was getting dark, we went into the tent and listened to an audio book amid the loud noise from the other tent. We somehow fell asleep.  We were awaken by the rising temperature in the tent, and the loud noise around 9:30pm.

We removed tent canopy again, and went to water's edge to cool down in the breeze. We waited until 10:30pm to ask the group to turn off their audios, lower their voices. They agreed, and quiet down gradually. 

Eventually we fell asleep.

We were awaken again, this time by thunders and strong wind around 4:15am, and we did nothing, laying on the air mattress. As the wind got stronger, and scattered large raindrops start to fall. I got up and rushed to put on the tent cover. It started to pour seconds after I got back into the tent.

In minutes, the tent soaked through, it leaked from top and all sides. Basically we had light rain inside the tent. We sat up on the air mattress and opened the umbrella with not much help. 

Water accumulated around the depressions under our bottoms, and accumulated in the tent.

We put phones, watches, wallets into a plastic bag, put camara, cloth, backpack ... into a water resistant bag, and put everything on air mattress.

When the rain finally stopped after 40 minutes, we were soaking wet, and there was 1 inch water in the tent.

Around 6:30 am, our neighbor got up quietly, trashed their tent, and left in silence.

We got up shortly afterwards and took down our tent, packed up everything, and moved to the gazebo nearby. 

Our original plan to bike to Chek Jawa to watch sunrise was discarded. After a quick breakfast, we retuned the bikes we kept overnight and went to the jetty for the next ferry back to main island and go home. The plan was derailed because there was only 3 passengers waiting to leave - the ferry needs 12 passengers to run.

Fortunately the sky was clearing up, the Sun shone. We decided to go bird watching and go home later!

Flora and Fauna 

June 7th was a great day for biking and sightseeing, but not so good for bird watching.

During biking on June 7th, we saw a lot more monkeys than we ever seen at Pulau Ubin. The monkeys would sit in the middle of roads at some junctions, or the side of the trails, waiting for people to feed them. We saw oriental pied hornbills several times, including a manmade hornbill nest.

a hornbill at a manmade nest

We also saw white bellied sea eagle soring over the Johor Strait upon first arrival in the morning. In fact we saw the eagles multiple times in a short span including two eagles playing with each other over head.

white bellied sea eagle

But we did not spot water fowls at frog island as usual, we did not see egrets or herons at Pekan quarry as usual. It was all changed for better on June 8th morning after the predawn thunderstorm.

We went to butterfly hill again.

The flowers' color were brighter dripping with water droplets.

The butterflies were out in trove.

We saw egrets and herons back to Pekan Quarry. We witnessed greater crested terns diving into the Pekan Quarry many times - but they were  too far and too fast for me to take good pictures of them. A white bellied sea eagle flew by, and perched in a tree across the pond. Most amazingly there were multiple stork-billed kingfishers flying around nearby. There was a common kingfisher joined the fun momentarily before flying away.

It was almost 10am, we started walking back to the jetty. On the way, a colorful bird flew across the road ahead of me. I looked for the bird, and found it resting on a tree branch by the roadside - it was an emerald dove, the 189th bird I recorded on my camera!

Shortly after we got to the jetty, we were on the way home.

a white bellied sea eagle perched on a tree branch in this picture

two stork-billed kingfishers on this bamboo branch 

the blurred image of a common kingfisher 

An Emerald Dove

Appendix - Preparations

Since we had not camped for over 4 years, we started the preparation a few days ahead of the camping date, we dug out camping gears - tent, tarp, air mattress, ai pump, flashlight, ...checked everything. 

We test set up the tent  in the living room without issue; however the flashlight with built-in rechargeable battery did not work - no more charge left, the air mattress could not be inflated because the air pump did not work - batteries in the pump were corroded. Those problems were easily solved with recharging, and new batteries.

With food, water, sandals, games, chargers, sunscreen,  bug repellent ... the stuff became too heavy to carry. So we bought a dolly. 

Dining in a Pitch-Dark Restaurant - by Lily

It took a special occasion for me to google romantic dining place in Singapore. The occasion was our 30th wedding anniversary, and the place I found – NOX, a dine in the dark restaurant.

Last Friday evening, we arrived at the restaurant ahead of our reservation time. The front of the restaurant was quiet, and the double wooden door completely closed. We ventured inside and stepped into the dimly-lit lounge where a few couples were seated. We were led to a small table and offered a small starter while we got settled. Then we were asked to put all our electronics, including smart watches, into a locker and lined up along with two other couples to get ready for dinner upstairs. At the top of the narrow stairway, the head waiter gave us some instructions. We lined up in a single file, each one held onto the shoulder of the person in front of us with both hands. Gingerly through a dark holding area, then a second black curtain, we were embraced by the total darkness of the dining room.

NOX

waiting lounge

starters in the lounge

Following the waiter we reached our table. I felt the back of my chair, pulled it out a bit and sat down. It was pitch dark, all the communications were through language and touch. The napkin was on the table right in front of us, utensils on the right-hand side, and above the utensils was an empty glass. We ordered a bottle of sparkling water, which was placed at the center of the table, exactly in between the two glasses. Our first task was to pour some water out, which I did without any glitches. The trick is to make sure the bottle touches the glass and put things back to where they belong afterwards. We could not see each other, but we could hold hands on top of the table, our hands met exactly at the location of the bottled water. The setup was perfect for some heart-to-heart. We recounted the early days of our lives together year-by-year, the good memories, the interesting events. Somehow, none of us could remember how we celebrated our 20th anniversary, which would have to be checked later.

The appetizers arrived. There were four dishes. We were asked to start with the one closest to us at 6 o’clock, then go clockwise to sample 9, 12, and 3 o’clock sequentially. I dipped into the first dish with my fork. It was some sort of meat with diced veggie and fruit. I could taste bell pepper and mango. The 2nd dish was too soft to be meat but not soft enough to be tofu, I was at a complete loss with this one (1). The 12 o’clock dish was my favorite, smoked salmon with croutons and green onion. The last one was prawn with sauce.

As we waited for the next course, we noticed that the conversations in the room became livelier, more people arrived, and a larger group with more laughter. Allan filled my glass with air – he didn’t realize that he didn’t tilt the bottle enough to allow the water flow into my glass :) Entrée was also 4 dishes. Allan liked the 6 o’clock one the best. I tasted pumpkin in the 2nd one and fish for sure for the 3rd one. The last one was my favorite for this round and I felt for certain it was slow cooked pork (2).

Dessert round started with ice cream, the flavor was orange with a slight bitter taste that I like, but I can’t recall the correct name of it (3). The 9 o’clock one tasted bland with a soft texture, neither aspect was appealing to me (4). The 12 o’clock one was a strawberry cake, the fresh strawberry tasted good! The last one with chocolate fudge with sauce. The chocolate tasted rich and nice, but the sauce was overly sweet to my taste.

After completion of the 12-course set menu, we went back to the lounge downstairs. A staff gathered us for a “debrief” of the dining experience. She asked us to recall each dish then showed us the pictures of each dish. As soon as I saw the pictures I realized the element we missed, the visual of the dishes! We were so focused on the taste of the dishes and guessing what it was, I completely didn’t think to imagine how the dish would look like. Looking at the pictures, the dishes looked a lot more delicious than we tasted. Or one can say the visual presentation of a dish can significantly affect the taste experience. With this dine in the dark experience we heightened our appreciation for both the taste and the look of the food we eat.

Hand in hand we walked out of the restaurant and stepped into the balmy evening. Tomorrow, more adventures await.

Note 

1 ravioli; 2 but it turned out to be beef…; 3 Yuzu; 4 Spanish pudding

============

Past Celebrations of Matrimony 

The celebration of our wedding anniversary is usually very simple: We watch our wedding ceremony video together on the night of the anniversary day - "With this ring, I thee wed, this is my promise, you are forever my love", "With this ring, I thee wed, and with it I give it all the treasure of my mind, my heart and my hands" - we are moved by our own simple wedding ceremony every year!

This has been the mainstay for all these years. But over the years we added additional activities on major milestones. 

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we did something extra. Lily hand made a beautiful card chronicled the milestones of our marriage. Coincidentally Allan was preparing a long article on our first 12 years together including our dating time. Allan did not complete it on the anniversary day. It became a project for us. An intended wedding anniversary present from Allan to Lily became a new year's day present for ourselves.

For our 20th anniversary, for the first time ever in our marriage Allan put a giant and beautiful flower bouquet on our kitchen counter. It was a Friday, Lily came home from work in the evening. She was super surprised to see it when entering the kitchen from garage, she knew what it was for; it’s the flowers she had been waiting for…

Walking tour of West Shore of San Francisco Bay - part 2

The rest of the walking on the west shore of San Francisco Bay was fragmented. We happened to be on the shore when we visited Meta Reality Labs, we visited the shore south of the the Ferry building and then on the shore again we visited Presidio of San Francisco, hiked through the park to the northwest shore by the Golden Gate Bridge.

We visited Meta Reality labs at Burlingame on  the late morning of Wednesday, May 14. The Meta campus is at the shore of the South Bay. The shore the campus has is in a kink, which actually facing a peninsular on the west bay, not the easy bay. The short section of the shore is neat, blooming plants, rock dike and cairns.

Meta Reality Lab campus

Coyote Point

In the afternoon, we went to back to San Francisco, and walked the west bay shore from Chase center (Warrior), all the way Ferry Building. The chase center is NBA team Golden State Warriors' home arena. It is jammed between Uber building and the shoreline. It has a small front yard, and separated from the shore by a beach front park.

Walking north, the bay bridge ahead, we saw a large baseball stadium,  Oracle Park - SF Giants' home. In fact there was a game going on!

We noticed that the numbers for piers on this section, are all even numbers. We guessed that the pier south to the ferry building h

Bay trail and bridge - bow and arrow, ferry building, R-Evolution 

Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. It has a lot birds - humming birds, sunbirds, red winged black birds, white crowned sparrow inland, sand dipper, by the shore, exotic flowers at tunnel top meadow ... of course great view of the Golden Gate Bridge from water level.

Overall we walked the whole section of the San Francisco Bay shore from Chase Center all the way to the Crissy Field at Presidio of San Francisco, total of 11 km, beautiful view of bay, colorful  flowers, palm trees, sculptures, birds, bridges, and unique high rises, landmarks in land, it was very pleasant to hike the bay trail. 

humming bird

sunbird

white crowned sparrow

turkey vulture

sand deeper

ornamental pincushion

King Protea/honey pot/king sugar bush

view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Presidio Tunnel Top