Off to Nepal

This is it! We're flying to Kathmandu tomorrow for two weeks of trekking in Nepal. I still can't believe I signed up for walking 4 to 6 hours a day. This from the person for whom a beginners' yoga class is significant physical exertion.

Preparing for the trek has taken two months of admittedly haphazard fitness training. Actually - that was six weeks of intending to go to the gym, and two panicked weeks of "serious" training consisting of 5-hour walks every few days. John wasn't too keen on my suggestion of doing our training walks in the airconditioned shopping malls at Suntec, so instead we broke in our new boots on the NUS brisk walking route from MacRitchie reservoir to Bukit Timah.

Bukit Timah is Singapore's highest point, at a whopping altitude of 164 meters above sea level. Not much preparation for climbing Yala, which is only... oh... 33-and-a-half times as high.

Nepali summits, unlike Singapore ones, don't come equipped with a chicken rice and fried bee hoon restaurant at base camp. So I'm taking along a plentiful supply of trail snacks - chocolate covered raisins, Snickers bars, gourmet apple & cinnamon trail mix bars, and packaged champorado from my dwindling stash. I packed my backpack last night and one-third of it was occupied by food.

Shopping for trekking gear was more challenging than picking out snacks. Apparently, outdoor sports in Singapore are largely a male preserve. And I really do mean large - it was almost impossible to find good waterproof jackets and pants for women, much less in small sizes. After searching everywhere, I managed to snag the very last pair of small-sized Nike Clima-Fit pants in all Singapore. I opted to buy a blue-grey kids-sized jacket from Adidas instead of settling for the garish bright magenta Nike ladies' jacket (yes, there's a reason that last piece has never been sold).

You know how in mountaineering pictures, the group at the summit is always dressed in all colors of the rainbow? I thought that was due to personality quirks of alpine climbers, but as I shopped for gear I quickly realized that those color schemes are a product of necessity. Forced to choose between coughing up 200+ USD for a pair of very stylish black Arc'teryx three-season trekking pants and spending less than a third of that on equally functional no-name trekking pants (in fatigue green, oh well), I just couldn't bring myself to buy a pair of pants that cost more than a 4-day vacation in Phuket. I am now also, against my will, the possessor of a fatigue green vinyl rain poncho and a fatigue green sunhat. With my Nike shirts and bright daypack, hopefully I won't be mistaken for either army soldier or Maoist rebel.

After two weeks of frantic shopping I've finally assembled most of my gear. I've spent so much time in camping shops, I can serve as a fill-in salesperson when the regular staff is busy. "See, what you really need is the midweight base layer shirt... here... try this one..."

My only condition for agreeing to go on this trek was that we find a REALLY nice hotel and spa to recuperate in on the last day. Thankfully, Kathmandu has its share of four- and five-star hotels - visions of these will keep me going when I start ruing the day I ever heard of the Himalaya.

Two weeks from today we'll doubtless be back in safe and sunny Singapore, loaded with knit yak wool socks, Maoist "donation" receipts, a ton of pictures, and a renewed appreciation for the MRT. Until then, wish me luck!

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Walking From MacRitchie to Bukit Timah

We spent Singapore's National Day walking from MacRitchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah, breaking in the new Montrail boots we bought from Camper's Corner (which is an excellent shop, by the way).

This was our second attempt to follow the brisk walk route posted by the NUS Habitat group. And unsuccessful again, I might add. We keep missing a turn on Rifle Range Road, and ending up at the Bukit Timah Visitor Centre instead of on Catchment Path to the Bukit Timah summit. This time I'd built up some endurance and had enough energy to walk up to the summit of Bukit Timah, instead of copping out and heading straight for the restaurants nearby.

The walk took us about 3 hours, including the visit to Bukit Timah's summit (which is Singapore's highest point, at the grand elevation of 166 meters).


Route:
1. We start off at the MacRitchie reservoir bus stop, where Thomson Road turns right to Upper Thomson. Walk past the car park to the start of Lornie Trail. Take a look at the MacRitchie map for details. Lornie trail is the yellow trail, Rifle Range Link is the pink one.

2. Follow Lornie Trail past the golf course and Jelutong tower.

3. Continue past Jelutong tower. You'll see a fork in the path, with the right fork going to Sime Trail (and the HSBC treetop walk), and the path straight ahead continuing on to Rifle Range Link. Take the route to Rifle Range Link.

4. Eventually you'll reach what appears to be a dead end at the end of Rifle Range Link. The wooden sign to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve points diagonally away from the Rifle Range Link trail; the path goes up a short but steep slope is and apparently blocked by a green metal railing. Just step over the railing and continue on. The pink trail markers will continue on the other side of the railing.

5. Keep following the pink trail markers. Eventually you'll reach Rifle Range Road. Follow the road until it crosses Bukit Timah Expressway.

6. This is where we diverge from the NUS Habitat Group's brisk walk route, somehow. We kept walking down Rifle Range Road until we saw clearly marked trail signs. You have two options: the first one, 100-200m longer, is take the first trail to the left, leaving Rifle Range road at the sign marked "Kampong Trail". Bring a copy of the Bukit Timah map, or look at the map signs posted along the trail. The Bukit Timah Visitor Centre is 2.2 km from the point where you leave Rifle Range Road to head for Kampong Trail.

7. The second option, which we took this time around, was to continue walking down Rifle Range road all the way until Kampong Trail crosses Rifle Range Road. At that point you can turn right onto Kampong Trail and continue following the pink trail markers (and the most well-worn trail). Whenever you see a sign pointing to "Bukit Timah Visitor Centre", follow it. Eventually you'll emerge onto Hindhede Drive. Civilization!

From there you can turn right to the Vistor Centre; or turn left, walk out to the main road, cross, and eat at Boon Tong Kee just down the street from Courts.

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Zouk and Phuture

After a leisurely weekend in Phuket, we returned to Singapore.

Spent our first Friday back meeting up with classmates and teachers from my exotic dance class. John came along too - imagine one guy at dinner with four girls, all talking about great exotic dance routines or horrendous salsa partners. One of Linna's gay friends joined us later - he's one of the two gay men who generously serve as practice partners during their lap dance workshops.

Dinner itself was nondescript. My chicken risotto was ok, not outstanding. The decor at the Gallery Hotel's Zenden restaurant reminded us of an airplane lounge. Hmm. They've got interestingly shaped glasses though, and decent chocolate coffee cake.

Our next stop was clubbing at Zouk. Or, rather, the Zouk complex. I can see how having four clubs in one location can facilitate bar-hopping for the sobriety-challenged. However, it does have its disadvantages... through some fluke, our party of six ended up split between Phuture, Zouk, Velvet Underground and Wine Bar. I never even got to meet up with the friend I was there to see!

The dance floor at Phuture was literally packed wall-to-wall with people. Nevertheless, we bravely plunged into the crowd. We squeezed our way along the side of the dance floor over to the bar. Now I know how people get crushed in stampedes - there was one point where my feet almost lifted off the floor. Thankfully John was holding on to me and helped me keep my balance.

Zouk was much roomier. In fact, it had plenty of space for dancing. Of course, that may have been because the Zouk music that Friday left something to be desired...

After a while we thought of looking for our other friends at Velvet. Too late though - since we'd entered and paid at Phuture, our stamps got us admission only to Phuture and Zouk. We'd have to pay again if we wanted to enter Velvet; so at that point we decided to call it a night.

Getting There

The Gallery Hotel is at 76 Robertson Quay.

Zouk is at 17 Jiak Kim street, beside the Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel. Entrance was S$25 per person, on a Friday night after 10 pm.

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Furry Friends in Phuket

Where'd all the bananas go?



Richard, a ThornTree regular, took us to visit his pal Charlie at an elephant trekking outpost on a hilly road between Kata and Rawai. He brought a bag full of fruit as a present. A health nut? No, Charlie's a gibbon with a fondness for mangosteens.

We started off leisurely peeling mangosteens and bananas for Charlie and another resident gibbon. Then one by one, the elephants returned from their trek. Eager trunks started snaking their way over to the table, attempting to snatch the entire bunch of banana. I was hastily breaking off chunks of watermelon and feeding them to the elephants as fast as I could hand them over, in a vain attempt to ensure that the goodies were equitably distributed. In a few minutes most of the fruit disappeared into those cavernous mouths... leaving two still-hungry apes, batting away trunks as they savored the last mangosteen. Four friendly elephants. My dad would love this place, gotta invite him next time.

Charlie was chilling out, enjoying being groomed by bemused visitors. Apparently, Richard tells us, groom a gibbon for a few minutes and you’ll be accepted as part of the family.

This is part 3 of a series on Phuket. Read part 1 and part 2 on other pages of this blog.

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