Internal Tourist - Southern Ridge

Travel Details:
Nearest MRT: Harbourfront MRT Station
Beside Vivocity (Shopping), Harbourfront (Shopping)


Still remember in May 2008, Southern Ridge officially opened. At that time, news talked about it. Reporters wrote about their experience and the map. And I kept the article telling myself I will visit it soon. The soon is today haha. My friend was commenting I kept the articles for 6 months and I reasoned is to let the crowd die "p. (Psst, I might keep the article till Labrador Park and such is completed too and that will be my next trek project in SG.)

This southern portion of the island loop (also known as the Southern ridges) spans a total distance of 9km from Mt Faber via Harbour Front and ending at West Coast Park, (claimed by the May 11th 2008 Straits Times article).

I took the first train (Saturday's first train is 5.30 a.m.) to Harbourfront. We wanted to start early else once the sun is up, the trek will get tiring. But we were too early and



the new Marang Trail (Exit D at MRT), which is named after the small slip road called “Marang road” just off Telok Blangah road, was just too dark and scary for the 2 of us. Plus we forgot to bring torchlight (didn't expect to, I brought swiss knife though and my friend kidded for self defence ah haha).

So instead of a quick 10-15mins climb up gravel and wooden staircases right up to Mt Faber, we went by a longer detour up the hill roads from the Faber lodge area (Mt Faber Road).

Once up the Mount Faber hill, we were greeted with an astonishing sea view. Unfortunately the low light and my unstable hand made me unable to capture any pretty photos.


We passed by a ship like chinese food restaurant, the Jewel box (aka cable care station) and several good views of the surrounding Telok Blangah residences, Keppel port as well as the distant view of the central business district.

But my greatest treasure was to catch the sunrise.

We stood there seeing the sun slowly rise steathily. Awesome view.


While seeing my sunrise photos, I was thinking about my friend's new year day where he caught the sunrise in Japan. And I was thinking how significant it was as it was the first sunrise of 2009 and I kinda envy him till another friend reminded me that sunrise of that day is the same as sunrise of any day. Indeed she reminded me to treasure my present, and that this sunrise photo is just as precious as the new year day.  (Coincidentally keeper was telling me that human are the only creatures that think too much.  We think about the past and the future, and neglected the present... unlike the animals... hmm... ) (Just had too add, mum commented that while this photo is nice, the photographer aka me is stupid because sunrise should take when the sun was coming out of the horizon.. but then i did not know there is such a good spot to watch sunrise then.. next trip?  abit crazy tho coz I will prob need a car to reach there bright and early)


Anyway after staring too much at the sun that my eyes hurt, we marched on towards Henderson Wave.


Henderson Waves bridge, so called the Singapore’s tallest “over head bridge” or pedestrian bridge spans the top most peaks of Mt Faber and Telok Blangah hill and peaks at a maximum height of about 77.18m above sealevel according to the labeled markers lined on the bridge decks.


The bridge floor is made entirely of wooden timber and the design is very unique as the timber spans all the way up the guardrails and positioned in such a way they can be benches too.

After the Henderson Bridge, we passed by Telok Blangah Hill’s mini forest walk and Telok Blangah Hill Park to the Terrace gardens. I forgot that this is one place I wanted to visit and continued my journey. A mistake and the reason why we had to walk back when I realised it at Reflections at Bukit Chandu.


The forest walk is not a typical walk in the forest. It is a 2km walk consisting of a series of interlinking grated steel walkways joined together to form a continuous linked hilltop walkway towering over the tree canopy tops. Thus we started off at the peak of Telok Blangah hill park and slowly descended down the hill, ending at Alexandra road with the Alexandra Arch Bridge.

Alternatively you could use the old earth trail which is quicker than those zig-zagging inter-twining linkways. I took that on the way back because was tired already haha. Another alternative if you are halfway through the steel walkway is the access stairwells to minimise the zig-zagging.


The Alexandra Arch Bridge that spans across Alexandra road which will eventually leads to Hort Park. This bridge lights up during the evening.  Quite a lovely sight then.  Hmm to visit?  Nah my camera probably cannot do it justice.


Hyderabad’s Hort Park. The place I wanted to be for a guided tour. However I was an hour too early and quite tired by the time and decided to just explore on my own.

Details of the guided tour:
Date: Every last Saturday of the month
Time: 10.00am – 11.30 am
Venue: Register at Visitor Information Counter @ HortPark - The Gardening Hub

The hort in “hortpark” stands for horticulture, which derives from the Latin hortus meaning a ‘garden’ space. Opened on the 10th May 2008 and located right next to an industrial neighborhood and CL's workplace... lucky gal!


The center’s vast manicured lawn.  Very picturesque.  Oh did I mentioned that for my adventures these few days, I felt like I'm reckeeing wedding favourite spots haha.  But admit it, wedding business is the last business I want to be involved in... In fact after the last 2 weddings I been, I really felt I should reject all wedding invites already.  Put me alone in nature, I can survive and loved the solitude.  Put me alone in a banquet and you can just kill me... For the first time, I left 2 weddings right after the photo... the first one because I drove and wanted to leave before the queue builds up (Oh and actually I quite like the drive to Orchard, I'm building my confidence haha... came up with a theory that at least in SG, even if I get lost, the sights are still familiar so I will be fine but when I'm overseas, I will be doubly lost so I must learn how to cope.. and yes I did got lost on the way back, not surprised right haha)


The Bamboo Labyrinth and my favourite spot.  A tranquil quiet area enclosed with a grove of bamboos.



And on the floor lays the Path of Life... the Path of 3 Cs
1. Confrontation
2. Convergence
3. Closure

And when you exit out of the labyrinth, all your worries are thrown away.  My friend tried to do that.  As for me, I kidded with her that I went in with no worries so I left with no worries haha.  Coz I was preoccupied taking photo, no time to think if I have worries "p.


The Fantasy Garden where you can catch the characters from The Wizard of Oz.  This is Dorothy if I'm not mistaken.  Tin Man, the Lion and Scarecrow were around too plus another character with a doggie...


The Recycling Garden... where most items were just used to grow plans.  It reinforces the concept of 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle  though I felt the attempt is quite feeble.



At the end of the walk at HortPark, there are six prototype glasshouses.  I like the look of them, filled with various plants.  Seems very... fabalous haha.

Thus ended our leisurely walk around the park and begun our trecherous mud track up towards Kent Ridge park where the tree top canopy walk resides.


The price of being discovered... the destruction of nature works.
If I'm harsh, I will say if you are lazy, don't trek in the first place.  Because you were lazy to go the zig-zag path, you chose to make your own straight pah and killed the innocent grass.  Sighz.  Oh and the Canopy walk is in the back of the photo.


We rested at Reflections at Bukit Chandu.  A moument to remember our heroes... as what the slate state:

If we do not remember our heroes,
we will produce no heroes.
If we do not record their sacrifices,
their sacrifices would have been in vain...
the greatest strength we have as a people is our common memories of the past
and our common hopes for the future...
For without those memories,
the next generation will not have the fighting spirit to carry on.
- BG (NS) George Yeo at the launch of SCCI publication, "The Price of Peace", 21st June 1997

We decided to skip the Kent ridge heritage trail as I couldn't figure out how to link from here to the Kent Ridge park itself. So instead we


walk back to the Terrace Garden, the place most commonly used for filming, the place I always wondered about when I used to watch TCS show.  I think my day had been a rewarding one...


that is till I see the monkeys at Henderson Wave Bridges.. hmm... heard they were regular monkeys that are commonly sighted.... Wow, that was a bonus and definitely not in my checklist of the day hahah...


After 6 hours of trekking, it was time for lunch and when my friend aked me where I would like to satiated my appetite, Marche - Rosti!  No second thoughts.. been craving it for a very long time haha.

The day was supposed to end with me going to the gym but I figured 6 hours of walking is enough exercise for me and I headed home and sleep.  Afterall I still had 2 more days of xmas break then of which for one day, I enjoyed myself in my friend's house (remember the one with the fabalous swimming pool view haha).  Then the house was yet to be furnished with no lighting.  Finally got a chance to visit her (consider a xmas gathering with the others SOCians) and to see the pool in day view.  But I did not take any photo this round because it is a bit too obvious "p.  My last day of xmas break was spent settling administrative stuff (visited a total of 3 financial related offices that day with financial worries weighing heavily in my mind). Phew!

Related Posts:

Internal Tourist - Wheelies and the rest
Internal Tourist - Club
Internal Tourist - Temples
Internal Tourist - Palau Ubin and Changi
Internal Tourist - Southern Ridge
Internal Tourist - Museums
Internal Tourist - Arts
Internal Tourist - Arts Part 2
Internal Tourist - Asian Civilisation Museum