Walking Trip - Part 5 -Skywatch-Scenery

Continued from yesterday's post. Still resting at the Hill Top, looking at the beautiful scenery.

You can see Sentosa Island in the background and the flats are in Telok Blangah Area, which I have posted before in here.

A short video showing a little friend joining me sky watching...lol.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.


Come back tomorrow for photos of the long awaited forest walk and its steel bridges and walking taller than the trees. Trust me, it is very interesting.

Walking Trip - Part 4 - Hill Top Walk Taking a Rest

After all the walk, we finally reached the hill. We decided to climb up the small hill and see what is up there.

The stairs are so beautifully built and it must have a long history. Behind this hill is a mansion but we did not detour there. The mansion is privately own by an arab family. I wondered if there's a temple or house previously built on this small hill that own these staircases.

There are many beautiful bougainvillea plants growing around the hill.

And I spotted a papaya tree growing at the corner of the hill.

My friends and I decided to take a rest here and drink plenty of water so as not to be dehydrated.

These people are part of the amazing race participants. Nah, it is not the American version but a copy cat of the original version. They are university students having fun during their school vacation.

They need to complete certain tasks before going to the next pitt stop. Everyone of them carry the same small backpack, it is given to them by their school organisers. In it are a bottle of water and some biscuits. I will have short video of them in their activities as I post along the way.

A short video of the surrounding area on hilltop.

To be continued tomorrow for skywatch.....

Walking Trip - Part 3 - Hill Top Walk/Forest Walk

After all the excitement at Henderson Waves, it is now time to set off for the Hill Top and forest walks. Henderson Waves is a 5 minutes walk but we spend more than 5 minutes there because of all the excitement and photo taking and admiring the beautiful bridge.


Hill Top Walk is about 15 minutes walk but of course we took longer and rest there to admire the view (the post will come tomorrow) and forest walk is about 20 mintues but I think we spend more than that it is a long walk (will talk about these two walks in coming posts).

I think the person who put all the amount of minutes needed on these walks must have long legs and he/she can walk faster...lol. You can view more details and the timing in this map. (Click on the map bottom right hand corner to enlarge it.)

With all the signboards and wordings on the floor, we quickly found our way about and no we did not spot any monkeys.

This is part of Telok Blangah Hill, there are lots of huge trees like this and I guess I am the only one taking photo of this tree...lol.

Tourists taking a rest after visiting the Henderson Waves, they are waiting for their coach bus to take them somewhere else, they are not taking the hilltop and forest walks.

Come back tomorrow and continue walking with me to the hilltop. :)

Walking Trip - Part 2 - Henderson Waves

Continuing from my yesterday post. This is the famous and latest attraction of Singapore. The bridge is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore and the bridge link Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill. It is about 36 metres tall and 274 metre long.

I love the view from here and at night the bridge glows. You can view the night photo from Mable's Blog.

Do you think it look like the body of a dragon?

The bridge has a wave-form made up of seven undulating curved steel ribs that alternately rise over and under its deck. The curved ribs form alcoves that function as shelters with seats within. Slats of yellow balau wood, an all-weather timber found in South-East Asia, are used in the decking. The wave-forms are lit with LED light at night from 7pm to 2am daily. (Source from wikipedia. )

A short video of the street below from where I was standing at Henderson Waves.

At the end of the video, you could see and heard a group of university students (they are having school vacation now), they are participating in an amazing race. As we walked, we encountered many of them and it is fun to watch them in their activities. I will featured few more photos of them as I post on my walk.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Walking Trip - Part 1 - Climbing Up Henderson Waves

This will be a long series of posting on my walking trip on part of the southern ridge. The southern ridge walk is the latest attraction and pastime for Singaporeans.

The southern ridge is about 9 km trail that connects parks along the southern ridge of Singapore. The trail started from Marang Trail, (opposite Habour Front MRT Station), Faber Trail, (along Mount Faber), Henderson Waves (Henderson Road), Hill Top Walk, Forest Walk, Alexandra Arch, Hort Park and Canopy Walk.

So the three excited women started planning and getting all the maps. We did not do the complete trail as we dont have the stamina as we are not the sporting type. So from my googling and planning, I decided we start from Henderson Waves instead of Marang Trail cause we need to climb many steps and path up Mount Faber along Marang Trail and Faber Trail, it would be too tiring for us.

It took us just few minutes to climb these steps up Henderson Waves from Henderson Road. I look at my watch and it said 9.45 am.

The maps we printed are not that useful cause they are not so detailed but all the signboards and signs on the floor helps and make our walk so much easier. To make your walk much easier, do not carry too much stuff in your bag. Just a bottle of water (important), hat/cap(shade you from the sun), umbrella (in case it rain) and of course your camera.

After climbing those stairs, we saw this signboad and we walked in the direction where it pointed "Henderson Waves".

Then we are so happy and excited to see the Henderson Waves sign. It is the start of the walk from the Henderson Waves.

The posting continued tomorrow, come back and visit if you want to know how henderson waves look like. It is very beautiful, trust me.

Pink Saturday - ION Orchard

My pink contributiion must be these cute and branded mannequins outside ION Orchard. You can tell that these mannequins are wearing branded clothes. Yes, the whole mall is very posh and they sell mostly branded stuff. Even the toilets are very posh...lol. I need to visit the mall again to see how posh the interior look. :)

From this huge signboard you can see the branded stuff they sell. In Singapore you cant buy any fake or imation brands. So you are assured everything in here are real stuff.

So just bring your credit card when you visit this mall. :) For me, I will just bring my camera ...lol

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch Friday - ION Orchard

Finally ION Orchard opened this week but the below photos were taken last week before they are opened so you can see workers giving the shopping mall a final touch.

The whole mall is so amazing and beautifully built. I love the architectural design of it and at night it glow. You can view the night's photo in keropokman's blog. I will try to take a picture of ION Orchard at night.

The glass bubble you see in the centre leads to the Orchard MRT Station. It looked beautiful.

More of ION Orchard tomorrow in Pink Saturday.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Fond Memories - Part 3 - JTC Flatted Factory

Continuing from my walk around St. Michael's Estate, I found this flatted factory still standing. The factory was built so long ago and I remember my eldest sister worked here during her school vacation to earn some money to supplement the family's income.

This factory and many factories elsewhere were built in the early 70s to help Singapore's economy and having factories built nearer to where Singaporean stays, help the businessmen get workers easily so workers dont have to travel far to work.

This will be my last post about St. Michael's Estate and where I spend my childhood. I hope my little childhood's story is of interest to you all as it is for me. :)

Fond Memories (Part 2) - Jalan Bahagia

Continuing from my walk around the place where I used to stay during my childhood, these old flats (Block 21) still exists, they are at least my age...lol
But these flats are upgraded and maintained and looked so new. In Singapore, HDB flats need to be re-painted every five years.

Those staying on the ground floor has the advantage of sunning their mattress or laundries in the open area.

The above row of houses looked like private houses but they are actually HDB houses. They have a leasehold of 99 years but these houses are about my age (49 years) so they have about another 50 years life and they dont cheap anymore. They used to be rented houses but HDB has already sold them to the tenants long ago.

They are so beautifully decorated just like those private houses.

You might like to view this Blog (I happen to stumble onto this blog) which showcase the interior of these houses.

Fond Memories Part 1 - St. Michael's Estate

This is a very old photo of my childhood home. I stay there since I was born but shifted out when I got married (1983). The flat was one of the first few homes built in Singapore during the late 50s to early 60s by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT).

The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was a government organisation set up in 1927 by the British colonial government in Singapore in response to the housing needs of the population of Singapore. To read more about SIT, you can read from wikipedia. Now the Housing and Development Board take over the SIT.

So I was lucky to be able to live in a flat since the day I was born so I have flushing toilet system and I dont have to use the bucket type of toilet...lol. Most flats during the early days are rented but nowadays more than 90% of homeowners in Singapore own their own flats/houses. (I dont have the latest figure of homeownership...so the figure was based on what I read in the papers.)

The flat and the surrounding flats were all demolished and now new flats built by the HDB take over the place. There are only 3 or 4 new blocks replacing about 20 blocks of the old flats, most are vacant land, I guess there are more plans to built more new flats when there is a demand for it. I just couldn't recognize the place when I went back there last month to have a look at the estate.

The newer flats are much more expensive and higher. Each flat in this area can cost about S$300,000 or more depending how big the flat is.

This empty lot used to be a very big wet market selling poultry, fishes, vegetables, pork, etc and some stalls outside the wet market sell cooked food. I missed the market because it brought back fond memories of my childhood.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Whampoa Estate Part 5-Wet Market and Hawker Centre

My contribution for pink saturday are some interesting scenes in the market.

This is a hawker centre where they sold mostly local food and the prices are quite reasonable . This estate is so old and most of the hawkers are long timers and the food they sold are so good.

Just walked across the hawker centre is the wet and dry market. The wet part sold fishes, chicken, vegetables, etc , while the dry sold dry groceries , clothes, cloth, household items, etc. Did you spot the "P" in Whampoa as a contribution to Pink Saturday?

Did you spot any pink dress in the above photo?

Stalls selling dry groceries like curry powder, spices, pepper, mushroom, nuts, etc

Inside the market will be the wet part, where they sold poultry, fishes, etc

As it is near noon, the market is close for the day, so the stall holders has to wash and keep their stalls clean.

I hope you enjoy the introduction of the market and hawker centre. :)

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.