MacRitchie Reservoir

There were only two big places to go in Singapore in the old days - the Botanic Gardens or MacRitchie Reservoir and there was only a couple of similarities. They both have lots of green and lots of monkeys. When we were smaller, everything looks bigger and places seemed so far away. That is probably because our transport system then was not so comprehensive. Today you can go anywhere in a jiffy. 

The first thing that greeted us was this long-tailed macaque. Don't get too close or stand below them, they could pee on you. It is better to be pissed off then pissed on, believe you me.

Plenty of open space and greenery. There is something about nature. Was it about creation? Although I am a seasoned veteran of the concrete jungle unfazed by the tallest and grandest of buildings, their facades and decor, nothing beats nature. You feel a sense of calm and peace. This is a good place for an alien mother ship to land. Question is will the aliens say: "We come in peace" or "We come to piss." The worst types whether aliens or humans are those who pretend to come in peace but when you turn your back they pee on you.

Ah, there is a new food outlet here. We will return after our Tour of Duty for sure. 

I just love these open air toilets. 

On a hot day, any water activities are welcome. Imagine if this is oil gushing out, we'll be working 3 days a week with a day for golf and a day for beer and we will be cursed to laziness.

Families with young and old in toll. Even Heaven looks closer than you thought. Just look at the sky and the clouds. 

Some are there to exercise while others for a picnic and a few would bring along their fishing gears.

Some of us have performed at the MacRitchie Reservoir before. In the middle of this mazy bridge is a stage for performers but it is now open.

What a sight to behold.

Simple and powerful if you absorb the sound of nature with the rustling of leaves.

Observe and you will find evidence of the ecosystem.

Water flowing on the ground and from the plants and grass or weeds.

If you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of the Lord of the Skies. The White-bellied Fish-eagles. Who says Singapore do not have eagles? 

Soar like eagles my friends. 

Soar Like An Eagle

Did you know that eagles have the longest lives among all birds? They start to age by the time they reached 40 and everything else begins to lose its effectiveness like their claws and beak and the usual simple and yet powerful means of catching preys so magnificent in the past is now threatened. As eagles can live up to 70 years of age, they have to go through a very tough process to ensure their survival.

At this point, an eagle's beak becomes too curvy and long and its full span of wings have become thickened feathers which makes them heavy and clumsy. The eagle has only two choices - to do nothing and wait for death to come or to go through a very painful process of renewal and transformation. For more than a hundred days, the eagle trains itself to fly beyond the highest mountains and then build and live in its nest ceasing all activities of flying. It will then start knocking its beak against some rocks till its beak is completely removed. The eagle then awaits a new beak to grow and use the new beak to peck at and remove its claws.

When this is over, it waits patiently for new claws to be fully grown, it will use them to remove its thickened feathers - one at a time. When new feathers are fully grown the entire process may take up to some five months. A magnificent bird emerged from its nest with a new beak, claws and feathers. It will now soar the skies again with great and renewed strength for the rest of its entire life span.

We can learn so much from the eagle. Life is like that too whether you are talking about a business, an individual, country or an organisation. We have to take painful decisions sometimes with changes for renewal. Reinvent my friends.

It is hard to find fishing spots in Singapore. If we depended on it for a living, we will be wiped out like fish.

This tree stretches across the walkway. Greedy for sunlight? This is how we can become when we over indulged. We get stretched and turned ugly without knowing.

The canopy of trees and the foliage makes me wonder why in Singapore we have not spotted Big Foot like in many other countries.  My next attempt must be to go on the Tree Tops walk. You will be looking down at canopy of trees but I haven't done that yet as the Canopy Walk is the "Cannot Pee Walk" for kilometres.

We spotted some orange-tailed carps or barbs here. They were jumping out of the water.

You may meet some friends along the way. Carry an umbrella with you in case you need to protect old folks or young children. Monkeys are getting bolder as some people may have been feeding them.

We took the shortest walk in the forest with very young people and time constraint.

Just more than 2km will do this time but if we add all the other walk time and distance it could have been 5km.

Choose the trail you like.

Just look at the map and decide and have a meal time in mind.

It's about time for a meal.

Fortunately, the food here is much better now compared to the previous. The curry noodle is very good.

The place was packed. Mushroom is an outlet owned by Old Chang Kee? I think.

On a hot day, any beer will do!!

Finally, fishing.

The sad thing here is that with the wide expanse of water, the legally allowed fishing spots are so miserable. may be the rules were set years ago but today the stretch here is limited to some 40-50 metres and where all the kayakers are. Lines of ropes adorn the the space here which makes fishing even more difficult. Time to change the rules?

It starts here.

This is where they do kayaking.

May be we should take up kayaking. Then fish further up.

It's the end. ITE.

Beware the mischievous monkeys here. That's how some humans behave some times.

Nature, always unchanged by time.