It was still a sunny afternoon when we reached the West Entrance of the park, with only a small patch of visible dark clouds above. I was thinking to myself, “Good to have some dark clouds to block out the blazing sun. Even if it rains later, it will probably be just a small drizzle.”

I had to relieve myself a little and so I dropped by the toilet at the entrance, only to be ‘welcomed’ by a stinking toilet with an unflushable toilet bowl. As fast as I could, I relieved myself and left the un-maintained toilets to meet up with Catherine in the park.

Looks like a great day for outdoor activities, no?

We have visited this portion of the park a year back, when Catherine was around 3 months pregnant. At that time, Phase 2 of the park was not opened to the public yet so we could only turn around at the lake further down the park. This end of the park did not have any overhead vegetation so it was pretty hot walking along the concrete path without any shade.

When we were thinking if we were the only weirdos to walk the park on a sunny afternoon, we were relieved to see other people strolling in the park too. As for Darius, we had already fixed the portable fan on the stroller so at least there was some air circulation in the stroller. We had also attached a sun shade we bought some time back to help block out the sun rays.

As we walked on, we reached the lake mentioned above, and the waters still appeared as muddy as before. In fact, the condition looked worse and we were wondering if the stagnant waters will encourage mosquitoes to breed. Beside the lake was the newly opened Sakura Buffet outlet, and we could see the place packed with people. They must be thinking how foolish we were to torture ourselves in the hot sun while they were stuffing as much food into their mouths in the air-con environment as possible.

We continued on and saw some signages by a wooden wall, one of which listed a list of Don’ts in the park. We were surprised how National Parks could come out with so many rules for park goers. The other creatively made sign explained about the ills of feeding the monkeys while the last sign showed a very brief map of the park.

Our culture of a Fine Country...

Not a single monkey was spotted...

Still a long way to the other side (i.e. top left corner)

Just when we were about to continue our journey, we were stumbled by the path ahead of us. Instead of concrete flooring as before, what laid before us were paths made up of sand and stones. The path ahead was definitely not stroller friendly but having come so far already, we could only test out the durability of the stroller by pushing forward with Darius in it. It was kinda rocky but we were surprised Darius was still sleeping soundly in it. Either he’s too tired to care, or he’s getting comfort from the rocking motions.

We reached a small wooden bridge and the scenery was rather picturesque. From this point on, we had two paths to choose from: either the path along the river that had no shade, or the trails inside the forest. Feeling the blazing heat from above, we chose the latter.

After pushing the stroller up a gentle slope, we decided to carry Darius out of the stroller and let him enjoy the natural surroundings instead. However, he was still sound asleep in our arms, and despite us trying to wake him up, he continued to be in his deep slumber.

Sleeping when he was supposed to appreciate the nature...

I pushed the empty stroller while Catherine carried Darius as we continued the journey. Disappointedly, there was nothing interesting along the way, except for one or two unique looking trees.

One of the very few vegetation that caught our eyes

There should at least by some kind of signs explaining certain species so at least we can learn more about them, or some interesting plants like those flower-bearing ones or insect-eating plants etc. I could see the disappointed look on a father who had carried a sophiscated SLR camera to the park with his children.

Along the way, we also saw another father and his daughter stopping by for a rest while they dismounted from their bicycles, panting and sweaty. Looks like moving on wheels along these rough terrains wasn’t an easy task either.

At this point, the skies started to darken. Feeling tired and worried that a heavy downpour was imminent, we decided to head back home.

This looks bad...

However, it was a long distance back to the lake, and there wasn’t any sign pointing to the nearest exit. The only sign we saw was pointing to the North and West Entrances, but with no distance indicated, so we wouldn’t know which way was the nearest to leave this park. Judging from what I had seen from the map earlier, it was still a long distance to the North Entrance, so our best bet was to head back to the West Entrance.

As we were walking back, we saw an intersection heading to the right. Knowing that the roads of the ‘outside world’ were in that direction (we could hear vehicles moving by faintly), I suggested to Catherine to try taking this route for a quick exit. Unfortunately, we soon realised that this path wasn’t going to lead us out after walking on it for ten minutes with no sign of an exit. Left with no choice, we had to turn around again and backtracked.

At this moment, raindrops started to fall, and we quickly took out the raincoat we bought previously for the stroller, covering it entirely before taking out our umbrella to cover ourselves. Having made sure that everything was well protected from the rain, we began to continue walking back in the rain.

Not long after, we came across another intersection and we were considering whether to take that route to try for an exit.

The signs were not helpful at all

Having learnt the lesson once already, we were reluctant but upon a closer observation, we could hear and see occassional cars moving past beyond the forest! We then walked along the path and viola, we could finally see ‘civilisation’ again!

Hooray! Back to the concrete forest!

Standing by the roadside, I promptly took out my mobile phone and started dialling the Comfort Booking Hotline for a cab. I knew this road was pretty deserted so our chances of getting an empty cab from a flag down would be pretty slim.

I was still waiting for the next available operator when we spotted an empty cab on the opposite side of the road (the lights were green on top of the vehicle). We raised our arms to attract the driver’s attention. I could see the driver turning his head towards us and knew that he had spotted us. While we were anxiously waiting for him to do a U-turn to come to us, he turned right at the junction ahead and ignored our existence altogether as he disappeared beyond the intersection!

We were upset with his behaviour since we were sure it was an empty cab and could help us get out of our current condition. Probably he was sadistic and enjoyed seeing us standing in the rain in the middle of this no man’s land.

At this moment, the hotline got through and the operator asked for our pickup location. I told her we were on this road leading towards Admiralty Park as I could not offer a better description of the place. I added by telling her that we were opposite this Okamoto company. She noted down the place (after I told her this park was NOT near Admiralty MRT Station, which she had initially thought so) and we were then asked to wait for the cab.

We waited for the cab to arrive but there was no sign of any. A few minutes later, my phone rang. The cab driver had called to confirm my location and when he told me he was next to Admiralty MRT Station, I knew he was in a completely wrong place. We then cancelled his booking while I planned to call for another cab.

Just after I cancelled the booking, we saw another available taxi, this time driving towards us. I was thinking that we weren’t so unlucky afterall, until the cab simply whizzed us by despite my arm stretching as far as I could! This inconsiderate driver must be thinking that it would be troublesome to ferry us, with our baby and stuff. I should have taken down this cab’s license plate number and lodge a complaint but everything just happened too quickly.

Frustrated, we could only fall back to booking the taxi again. A telephone operator picked up the call and judging from the voice, it seemed that the same operator had taken the call again. This time round, we managed to spot a sign indicating that this was Admiralty Road and so told her the road we were on. Again she asked, “It this road next to Admiralty MRT?”

Why must the MRT station be named ‘Admiralty’ when it’s nowhere near to Admiralty Road!?

I patiently explained our location again, and after she seemingly ‘understood’ where we were, we waited for the booked taxi to (hopefully) arrive.

After waiting for a while, we saw a vacant cab cruising towards us and we quickly flagged for it desperately, wanting to get ourselves out of this place as soon as possible. Imagine our relieve when the driver pulled over and picked us up.

At this moment, my phone rang and judging from the number, I knew it was the driver of the booked cab calling me, although I could not see any cab in sight. I knew that the operator must have made blunders with the location again. I then called up the Comfort Hotline and cancelled this booking.

The rain began to pour heavily on our way back, and we were glad we had the comfort of sheltering from it in a vehicle.

Heavy downpour

As we directed the cab driver to the shelter below our flat, we saw a car packed right in the middle of the shelter, with its hazard light blinking but with no one in it! The cab driver tried to park behind it but we would be out of the shelter. We beckoned him to park beside the car but he refused as it was a one-lane road and he was worried that he might obstruct the traffice, even though there wasn’t any other vehicles in sight. Can’t the driver be a little more flexible?

Just when we were thinking what to do next (the driver suggested driving us into the multi-storey car park instead), the driver suddenly agreed to park beside that car, since he finally acknowledged that traffic was sparse.

With that, we had finally reached home, and the first things we did were to bath Darius and ourselves in warm water.

What a day for a natural trail! I guess it would be a while before we will attempt anymore nature trips…

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