Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

All-in-all, Mark and I had a pretty uneventful week.  So this week I’ll just share with you a weekday highlight which included meeting up with a new friend, Hayley.  I met Hayley right after moving into our permanent condo while I was out walking Colt (like I said, he’s a good conversation starter!).  We hit it off as we both liked dogs and had been SPCA volunteers in Houston.  Hayley volunteers at the SPCA here in Singapore and has been really helpful in letting me know what I need to do to continue my SPCA volunteering here also.

Anyways…Hayley and I decided to go to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for some exercise.  This reserve is one of the primary pieces of rainforest in Singapore and is really beautiful.  Most people go to BTNR for hiking or biking.  We stuck with all hiking and I’m glad – after so many stairs on the trail we chose I probably wouldn’t have been able to bike even if I wanted to.  While it was tiring, the bright-side is that the whole reserve is very lush with lots of trees and plants so it makes working out not seem like much work. 

Foliage at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Man-made nature Trail

Nature-made stairs

There are also lots of animals at there; we saw some lizards and monkeys…LOTS of monkeys.  The monkeys we saw were all kind of grouped together along a large hill that you hike up almost immediately after you enter the reserve.  We probably saw at least 25 of them - all different sizes.  They are (deceivingly) cute but could probably be mean when they wanted.  We had been walking for about 5 minutes before one jumped at Hayley. I laughed…until it happened to me and sent me running (faster than I had in a long time) and screaming!  I was pretty scared but I think my reaction scared the monkey even more, haha!  

Monkey in the tree at Bukit Timah

Group of monkeys along the trail

Different group of monkeys

The monkey that sent me running!

Our hike took about 1.5 hours in total and brought us past the highest hill in Singapore.  The hill is called Bukit Timah Summit and the height is 163.63 meters or 536.84 feet. 

Niki at Bukit Timah Summit, the highest point in Singapore

Sign at the reserve.  Again, Singapore gets pretty animated with their signs!

Below are some videos I took of the monkeys during the hike.  You'll have to excuse the quality, I took them from my phone I didn't have to carry a camera.