the•truth•shall•set•you•free

ok, today i woke up at 830am, when the weather waz cool and rainy and sleepy, to trod all the way to macritchie reservoir (fr bedok) to go for the tree top walk, which i waz quite excited abt. when my yoda-ic friend first suggested it, i waz quite onz abt it, and jumped at the invitation.

but i waz soon to regret. the rain bluffed by faking a fine weather, altho it waz totally betrayed by the grey clouds all above us. when we reached the reservoir and were on our way to the map board to find out how to get to the tree top walk, it poured monkeys and squirrels. we had to scurry to a food place, where we thought at least we cld have a gd breakfast. well, i spent two hundred and seventy cents lor. on wat? a bah bao and a cup of ice milo. *kill pple put fire* (and the boss still dare come and borrow our newspaper)

anyway, then the rain tried to bluff again by trying to act drizzly, so nice innocent trusting us decided to hit the road in search of our (by now more and more elusive) tree top walk. while we were crossing this zigzag bridge to the map board (yes, we are still looking for the map board), it poured again! this time cats and dogs and monkeys and squirrels. best. since we were at the middle of the bridge already, it waz as drenchy either way, so we decided to run to the map board anyway. thankfully, there waz a shelter nearby.

2 complaints:
1. why did the bridge have to be zigzag? cant they juz make it straight so dat we wun get as drenched as we did?
2. we realized, to our utter horror, the tree top walk is on the other side of the reservoir, which is some whopping 5km away. and in this weather, it seemed like 50km.

anyway, thankfully, the rain did finally really un-bluffedly stop. (wah lau, these days, even rains lie - wat is the world coming to?!) so we trodded on, deciding since we were here, we muz see the tree top walk for wat its worth, regardless of the distance.

little did we realize it waz not juz the distance dat waz daunting. coz of the rain, the ground waz muddy. the route there took the form of 4 main types of roads: (1) muddy (2) gravel (3) paved (4) slopey. my friend, who waz wearing slippers, suffered the momentary slips and had tattoos of dirt and sand and wet flora on both his calves. beautiful. as for me, by the grace of God, thankfully, i did not wear slippers today! wat kind of miracle is dat man! also, the terrain waz fairly undulating. the upslopes were not too steep, but went on long enough to make you pant each stretch. but of coz the amazing thing abt life is if there's an up, there's alwaz a down. my friend and i were thinking it'll be quite cool to cycle DOWN. wheeeeeeee..

also, the road signs along the way (telling us the direction to turn at junctions and the dist left to the tree top walk) were highly demoralizing, coz each time we saw a sign, it only meant we had travelled a mere 300m or so. sianz.

anyhow, after an arduous journey up, we finally reached the tree top walk. not breathtaking, as i thought and/or hoped it wld be, but high enough to be bright and scary. now the bridge waz really a hanging bridge, with no columns watsoeva below to support it. as you walk across it, you wld be standing on drain cover-like stuff, which means you can see right thru your feet to where you might fall over if you jumped down. kinda scary, with the vertigo kind of feeling. i believe my feet actually went soft a little. and coz the side railings were also see-thru stuff, it made the whole bridge really naked and unsupportive, and dat made it scarier. it waz then i told my friend, "i wonder how i dared to bungee jump 8 yrs ago. i muz have been mad." mad i muz have been.

ok, enough of crap. the real stuff. view-wise, we are supposed to be able to see monkeys and squirrels (no, not rain. real monkeys and squirrels), snakes and birds and trees of different kinds. however, due to the weather (i think), we only saw the monkeys, who were really agile jumping on and off the bridge onto the trees, and hanging everywhere on the bridge, all these while clearly aware (or so i thought) dat if they fell, they will definitely die. there were these placards along the bridge helping us to identify the types of trees and plants we shld see if we stood where the placards are, but i din really take note of those. there were also no snakes and birds, coz they were prolly bz snuggling under the warm mud or in the bird nest, taking shelter fr this this this.. weather. another thing, the bridge is one-way.

so we had to go down the other way, down a long flight of steps, and i mean it, its really super duper long. now, the irritating thing abt this is dat you have to walk all the way back to where we started in order to find civilization again. however, being avid map-readers, we managed to find a mildly shorter (3.6km as compared to the original 5km) route out to lornie rd, where we took a bus home. lesson learnt? go in fr lornie rd, where the entrance to the singapore island country club is. not fr the carpark where pple usu gather when they go macritchie reservoir.

anyhow, its supposed to be called hsbc tree top walk (http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nparks_cms/display_level2.asp?parkid=8&catid=9). its a gd experience lah, tho i write until like super cannot make it. its only coz of the weather. as i waz there, i thot of a trg prog for budding sch sports teams or uniformed grps:
1. start running fr the carpark (so dat you can get the gd 5km workout) - the slopes and gravel will also do well to train those leg muscles adequately.
2. as you reach the bridge, dat will be the time for a gd rest. enjoy the fresh air and birdy chirps. the 200m walk will also do well to give the leg muscles enough rest before you..
3. start hopping thru the long flight of stairs. guarantee to jelly-fy those leg muscles at the end of it.

you know those movies where they show some sports team or some swat wannabes going for boot camp? yeah, they do the (almost) same kind of trg as those suggested above. happz.

oh, and i dinno the hsbc tree top walk is so popular - i put 'i juz went to macritchie reservoir's tree top walk' as my msn nick, and there were at least 5 pple who asked me abt it.