MacRichie Reservoir

Tuesday's forecast only showed a 30% chance of rain so it was the perfect opportunity to hit up MacRichie Reservoir.  We hopped into a cab and headed to the Venus loop car park.  Starting off the hike at the Venus drive car park cut off about 3 miles of the hike, the only problem was our cabby had no idea where that particular car park was and instead insisted on dropping us off at the main entrance.  At first I was going to protest, but after feeling like I was about to get car sick thanks to his constant break/acceleration we figured it best to just exit at the main entrance and tackle the additional mileage.  Our 6 mile hike ended up being a 10 mile hike.   I added the black arrows below to show the path we walked..

The hike begins!  It was hot ..the type of heat where you just drip sweat even in the shade.  I don't think I will ever acclimate to the heat.  It was an uphill journey to get to the tree top walk.  We encountered a few interesting creatures along the way; one was a very slimy looking lizard that we weren't fast enough to grab a photo of, a few large lizards, a squirrel looking thing but with an extra long nose, and then endless numbers on monkeys!  One of the groups of monkeys we encountered was a little family.  The mom actually had a baby clinging to her belly.  We were totally immersed in watching them play and just do what monkeys do, however the Singaporeans seem un phased and just walk right past.  I guess the monkeys are like our deer.  

On the Trail

Crazy Lizard

Handlebars on the Trail

Hydration Time

Found the Lake

Monkey Family

Finally we reached the Tree Top Walk.  It was quite a steep little climb to get to the bridge, but well worth it.  There were numerous monkeys around the bridge and one that acted almost as the gatekeeper.  He didn't seem to mind when we got up close to him

Coming over to say hello

Gatekeeper Monkey

Tree Top Bridge

 

About halfway on the bridge

After finishing the Tree Top walk, which is a one way walk so you have to walk the full loop we figured to continue along the trail and do the full MacRichie loop.  We stumbled across the Jelutong tower and climbed up to check out the view.

Ugh.. proof just how sweaty and nasty we were

Thought this would be a cool pic.. not so much

Climbing the tower

Finally reached the top!

Heading back down

Little Turtle in one of the streams was all about
getting his photo taken

Got to love the signs

Large Lizard 

Somehow we missed a turn and ended up right next to the road, but we were able to walk along the road back to the park entrance.  It was an intense hike, but well worth it.  There are a bunch of reservoirs in Singapore so I think another hiking trip is def on our must do list.

Here is a video we made of different stuff along the hike, including MONKEYS!

For a HD version of the video, watch it on the Vimeo website, or just click the HD button in the above window.  You can click the 4 arrow button to watch in full screen as well!

https://vimeo.com/47149123

Little India/Mustafa Center

My initial plan of hiking the MacRichie Reservoir was halted by the rains so we opted to check out the Mustafa center.  We hopped into a taxi and headed off to the Sim Lin Center.  Figured we would kill two birds with one stone and check out Sim Lim for some electronic deals then head on foot to Mustafa.  Sim Lim proved to be unsuccessful as we were once again confronted with the fact that pricing in Singapore is sickeningly high so our attempts to get a new lens for the camera was halted.  Thankfully the rain stopped so it was a much more pleasurable walk through Little India.  Little India is quite an interesting spot with the blaring Bollywood music and endless gold jewelry stores.  The jewelry I found to be amazing as it was all so intricately done.

Interesting building, which I have
absolutely no clue what was in it, but
had to get a pic

Little India Pic

Nate aka "Handlebars"..his idea of blending in

A little video of Little India.. all music for the video is what 

we were hearing on the street

Gold Jewelry

Arriving at the Mustafa Center we were blown away by all the "stuff."  Anything and everything you can think of if it exists in Singapore is in this store.  5 floors worth of stuff that spans 2 buildings.  We did our best to cover the entire store, but I am rather certain we missed a good portion of it.  We did manage to get some pics of the awesomeness.

Inside Mustafa

We couldn't figure out what was in the jars

Of course I would find the candy aisle!

Check out the Good Housekeeping cover

We walked out with a bag of almonds, iron board cover, zip ties, and an html cord.. rather random assortment.  We were trying to get a microwave, but I was shocked to find they only had a selection of 3.  So rather then having to bring the microwave all the way back from there we figured we would just hit up Giant on the way back.  The Mustafa center is right off of the NorthEast line of the MRT which is convenient since that is the one we need to take back to Harbourfront so we figured we would skip the taxi and just jump on the MRT.  Famished we hit up the one place that wouldn't have a line and is always tasty.. McDonalds.  After we filled our bellies we headed to Giant in search of a Microwave.  The selection of microwaves isn't that great but we were able to grab one and jump on the bus.  Today I clearly had to make a trip to the grocery store for popcorn.. yum!

Nate's a photographer!

Nate and I have been looking at cameras for a while now and after going around Singapore to sample a few different cameras and getting the full hassle sales pitch they give you and even with Nate's serious negotiating skills it was still cheaper to get one while we were back in the states.  We got the Canon T3i and Nate has been obsessed with learning everything there is to know about it.  I have been doing my best to keep up with him, but he def has turned into quite the photographer/videographer.  I am hoping to have some very cool pictures after this weekend if the weather cooperates, but wanted to share a few of the Nate took around our apartment.  He also took a little video, which I put up too.

Pic of the Lock

Marina Pic 

Out on the patio

Only way I can cook onions w/out dying

Night pic

Looking over the Pools

Also when I was home I got a lot of requests for pics of the apartment.  It's actually tough to take pics of it so I took a little video of the apartment and out by the pool.  Warning for this one though as I did it with my little sony point and shoot camera so it's going to look super crappy after viewing the other video, but at least it proves that the money for the new camera was worth it.

**Warning I am super jittery in this movie, and apparently forgot I can't flip the camera for movie so you might feel a bit nauseous.

Monkey!

Nothing makes a grocery trip more exciting then a monkey spotting.  Just as I was walking up the stairs to the grocery store I spotted a rather large monkey standing on the railing.  I have never actually seen a monkey in the arrival plaza so this was a bit shocking.  While I was trying to take a picture of him on the railing he suddenly jumped over and grabbed a banana from a basket sitting outside of the 711.  Smart little bugger was stealing bananas.  I tried to get the thief in action but wasn't quick enough with snapping the photo.  The store owner caught on as there was a group of us watching the monkey and chased him away. Somehow I don't think that will be the last of the monkey sighting, no complaining from me :)

 

Unwelcome Guests!

Tonight I was in full meat loaf making mode when I went to add the bread crumbs and noticed some of the bread crumbs moving.  Clearly this was cause for alarm and upon further inspection we had a full on bug take over of the bread crumbs.  My first fear is how many other foods have these buggers gotten into, second fear how long have these bugs been in take over mode? Immediately I start to recall when I last used the bread crumbs as Nate headed off to the store to get me some creepy crawler free bread crumbs.  After fully inspecting everything else in the pantry I think they only infiltrated the bread crumbs, apparently closed containers are no object for these bugs.  This was our first infiltration by the bugs and hopefully the last!  I have however found certain items are very difficult to keep as the Singapore humidity just kills them.  I went to make a coffee the other day to find my powder creamer in one massive ball.  After trying to chisel some of it off I gave up and threw it away.
  Continuing on the food theme Nate and I tried a restaurant that serves up Nate's favorite xiao lim bao. I, being the timid eater have not indulged in these yet so I was living on the wild side.  I relied on Nate to order ones that he thought I would like.  We opted for 8 regular which contain pork meat, 4 shrimp ones and chicken fried rice.  We did opt to remove the chicken floss from the fried rice.  Floss in my mind should not be utilized in any other fashion, but to clean ones teeth.  The fried rice was delicious as always, although I still struggle to eat rice with chop sticks.  The xiao lim bao are definitely interesting and take a bit to get used to the consistency.  They resemble a dumpling, but contain meat surrounded by a broth.  When you first bite into them your mouth is flooded with the broth and then you bite into the meat.  It is almost like eating soup out of a dumpling.  The shrimp dim sum was my favorite.  I will make sure to bring any guests to Crystal Jade to try something a bit of a signature in Singapore :)

Restaurant

Picture of the meal

From food to workouts.  Back in July I stumbled across a groupon for a bootcamp.  Bootcamps are not a common occurrence in Singapore so this is not one I could pass up.  On Saturday morning I was suited up and ready to get down and dirty.  I quickly found that the Singapore version of the bootcamp is a bit different then the US version.  I still sweated as it was outside and any time you move outside you sweat, but it wasn't quite the hardcore workout I was expecting.  They did however post up some of the pics on their website so I thought I would share...

 

Back to Singy

We have returned!  Our trip home was amazing and it was so great to see family, friends, and of course the Milo Man...

Reunited at last!

I can now prove the "expat 10" to be a fair statement.  After indulging in all the foods that we haven't been able to eat we both found our pants to be a bit tighter then normal.  I also found my suitcase to be bursting at the seams after some very successful shopping trips.  The timing of our trip could not have been better as all summer cloths were on sale.  Poor Nate was stuck lugging around my giant suitcase for me :)  The flight was the typical misery.  I don't think I will ever get used to 30 hours of flights.  On the plus side I was able to fall asleep for a few hours on our last flight.

  We are still trying to adjust to the time change, but hopefully we will be back to normal soon.  I find it takes about a week to shake the jet lag.  We did the big "no no" the other day and fell asleep at 4 pm till 9 pm so since then we have been really off schedule.  Last night we were both awake at 3 am, which some of you might have noticed from my late night pinteresting.
  A few things have changed around Sentosa.  It now has it's very own grocery store.... AHHHHH!!!!!  I almost fell over the other day when I saw a cold storage on Sentosa.  Nate and I did a quick celebration dance.. well really I danced he gave me a high five.  I apparently need to leave more often.  I got so excited I had to take a picture of it.  I often chat about the strange selection of eggs they have here so I decided to take a few pics of them as well.  The brown "fuzzy" ones are actually century eggs, they are unlike any other egg as they have a brown yolk and rather bluish looking gelatin.  I saw them once at one of Nate's work dinners and I stayed away.  When it comes to food I tend to stay in my comfort zone.

Grocery Store!

Brown Fuzzy Eggs

Quail Eggs.. an essential in any diet

The Cold Storage is a much more westernized and the one on Sentosa seems to be particularly catered to the expats.  It is nice to have a grocery store that reminds me more of a "typical" grocery store.  This is what you are more likely to see in a grocery store..

After we got back and unpacked all of our groceries we heard some serious airplanes flying over head. We quickly ran outside and got to witness the Flag Fly by.  During the month of July Singapore celebrates National Flag month and on every Saturday at 6:42 pm 6 F16s do a fly by doing this really impressive formation.  Then 2 helicopters escort a chinook that holds an 80 foot Singapore flag.  It is quite a site to see and hear.  Nate busted out our new fancy camera and was able to take some good pics.

You can just see the flag in the distance

Helicopters escorting the Chinook

Chinook with the Singapore Flag