How about hitting two birds in one stone sounds like?
Located next to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, it’s wise only to swing by this park whenever you go visit the Bukit Timah Summit. Not only does this park makes the perfect place for you to relax after that exhausting climb, its playground is a perfect place for your kids to play around to use up their extra energy left.
Not known by many but in the 19th century, it was quarrying that has played a significant part of Singapore’s history and had fuelled its development. It was granite that was mined from these quarries and was used for the construction of early public housing and roads in the 1970s. In 1991 though, the industry came to a halt but theses quarries have stood the test of time and now form part of the city’s natural landscape. It remains coexisting alongside shopping malls and towering skyscrapers.
The quarry was named after a Danish businessman and tea farmer Jens Hindhede. He was the elder son of famous physician Mikkel Hindhede. The younger Hindhede operated the granite quarry until it ceased operations.
Hindhede quarry was one of those and opened in 2001. It has been specially designed for families with children.It’s short trails leads into the park from the visitor centre and looping to the scenic Hindhede Quarry. It’s an excellent place for bird watching but in our case, what we saw was a monitor lizard instead. Not only did we saw it walking in a canal but we even followed it as it made its way out to the quarry.
Leave in the comments below if you have any suggestion on where else our feet can bring us!
If you’re looking for some inspiration for future adventures within Singapore, check out our previous trip to Singapore’s highest natural point, Bukit Timah Summit! This amazing how much greenery this “Little Red Dot” can have. Truly there’s much more to explore than just stroll in the malls every weekend.
I’m not talking about the Everest though instead the highest natural point in Singapore that stands 163 metres high. Yes, you can boast about reaching a summit just by walking a simple trail that even a babies can conquer. You read that right cause in Bukit Timah Reserve, you can even bring a stroller! How convenient!
Another weekend has passed and another trail has our family walked. This has truly becoming a habit and even the kids now label Saturdays as “walking day”. At least we’re training them young to have a healthy lifestyle. They don’t miss anything from the “city life” Singapore has to offer though as every after trail surely leads to a mall to stroll and grab a bite. That’s how we roll or let’s just say that’s how we balance our weekends.
If you read my previous blog about our trip to Rail Corridor you’ll know that we’ve almost got caught my the rain. That’s why this time around, we made sure to check the weather update. Sure enough with Singapore’s crazy weather, Mr. Sun went out in the morning’s followed by thunderstorm in the afternoon. Smart enough, we’re out of our front door by 7am!
How to get to there
If ever buses 67, 75, 170, 171, 184, 852, 961 pass by your area, you’re in luck. You might just not notice on your bus trips (cause you’re too busy using phone.hahaha) that you’ve passed by this area more times that you can remember. Alight at Jalan Anak Bukit Road, opposite Beauty World Centre (Bus stop ID: 42109), or alight at Upper Bukit Timah Road, opposite Bukit Timah Shopping Centre (Bus stop ID: 42091) and take a 10-minute walk to the visitor centre (bottom of the summit). You may also opt to use the MRT and alight at Beauty World MRT Station, take Exit A and walk to the visitor centre as well.
Opening Hours
Like most Nature Parks in Singapore, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve opens from 7am to 7pm daily (entering or remaining in the nature reserve after 7pm is not allowed). We arrived at 8am and there’s already a lot of people going in different directions already.
That’s the visitor centre behind us. It’s also good to note that there’s no toilet in sight when you start your hike so if ever you find yourself the need to use one, do it in the spacious toilet just opposite the visitor centre. It’s also a good place to freshen up once you’re back from climbing the summit.
There’s a lot of trails to choose from but we chose the easiest trail (Red coloured – Route 1) as we planned to visit the Hindhede Nature Park where there’s a playground for kids and even a zip line. This is also where you can view the spectacular Hindhede Quarry that’s perfect for your Instagram. You may see my other blog post about Hindhede Nature Park here.
The trail is that’s about 1.7km to the summit starts with a nice two slopes at 40 to 50 degree incline in the beginning. You won’t feel much that you’re going up which is good for beginners and kids/ kids at heart. You’ll sure be out of breath at some point while walking the last and the steepest slope at 60% incline!
What’s great with nature walk’s though is that you don’t need to rush doing it Well, unless it’s about to rain and you didn’t bring any raincoat or umbrella with you. Other than that, you’re very much welcomed to enjoy what’s around you…..NATURE!
This log is really huge in real life! Gotta see it!
The kids loved reading those trivia boards along the way. It also kept their mind busy and away from complaining that their tired already.haha.
Learning about the Seraya Tree kept them thinking about it until the next trivia board.
Like any other place on earth, it’s only right for everyone to be responsible for our own trash. I’m happy we didn’t have any monkey encounters in this trail.
As if the slopes isn’t enough, here’s the final steps to complete your summit experience. We didn’t get to count though the steps going up as we’re just excited to reach the top and relax.
You may choose to skip the stairs and continue with the another slope going to the top if you’re bringing a stroller or just not up for another challenge after that last steep slope you’ve climbed.
As much hype reaching the summit may sound like, in reality there isn’t much to see when you reach the top. Yep! No over the clouds view or vast mountains to see instead you’ll see a radio mast, trees and people. Probably just the sense of proudness of oneself for accomplishing something for a weekend instead of being the usual couch potato at home binge watching Netflix.
If you’re looking for more to justify your effort of going there then add a bit of history to your trip. Just like the what happened during the Battle for Bukit Timah.
On the night of 10th February 1942, the Japanese troops from the 5th and 18th Divisions, supported by armor, attacked troops of the 11th and 15th Indian Brigades, the 22nd Australian brigade, The Special Reserve battalion, Tomforce, Merrett’s Force, the Argylls, Jind State Infantry and ‘X’ Battalion. The Allied forces had to re-grouped to defend the critical junctions at Choa Chu Kang, Jurong and Clementi Roads leading to Bukit Timah Road. By dawn of 11th February 1942, the Japanese troops reported to their commander Lietenant(sic)-General Tomoyuki Yamashita that they had seized Bukit Timah. The road to the city was open.
After a few photos and enough rest, we decided to go for a move as the summit is starting to get a bit crowded. There’s actually a long queue already when we left just to take a photo with the iconic rock as proof you’ve been there.haha
Remember that last slope before the stairs I’ve mentioned earlier? That’s actually the starting slope when you descend the hill. You may notice too that fellow hikers walking backwards. This is to avoid muscle cramps. You may opt to do this too if you feel uneasy going down.
Since you’ll be going down the same trail, there’s not much new things you’ll see. If you have more energy and would continue with other trails, there’s a lot to choose from. Check it out here.
We continued with Hindhede Nature Park where there’s a children’s playground, even a zipline, and the Hindhede Quarry which is so picturesque, you’re Instagram would love it!
That’s it for our climb to Singapore’s Summit! Hope you like it!
Leave in the comments below if you have any suggestion on where else our feet can bring us!
If you’re looking for some inspiration for future adventures within Singapore, check out our previous trip to MacRitchie Nature Reserve! This amazing how much greenery this “Little Red Dot” can have. Truly there’s much more to explore than just stroll in the malls every weekend.
We used to plan our trips especially nature walks because of the kids. Just the usual weather check and at least knowing where we are going beforehand and if the kids would be able to finish the trail is a must. If the gets too much for them and we’re in the middle of ‘who knows where’, oh gosh!
We arrived at the main entrance of MacRitchie Reservoir Park (that one in the bottom right of the map). This isn’t our first time going on nature walks, we just usually would just follow where our feet would bring us and when the kids start to make complains then that’s the only time we’ll find the quickest way going home which is usually just a few minutes walk to the nearest bus stop that could easily bring us to a mall or somewhere more comfortable—aka mall with aircon.haha
So when we arrived and we’re welcomed by monkeys, the kids were both entertained and just curious about what more could they see as we walk along.
And then after a few minutes walk, this view of the reservoir. It was so peaceful and amazing to look at. I felt like in an island vacation.
Of course, complimentary souvenir photo of the fam is a must! Luckily there’s this kind couple who helped us take this photo. Always grateful for those who offer help to take our photos.🥰
There may be a lot of people on this area but as you walk further, you’ll notice that only a few would continue the walking trail How could not you not love walking around these lovely trees. I bet the last photo of a tree is older than me.
We started with the Lornie Trail. Deep inside, I was feeling skeptical already when I saw the start of the trail (see their background). Though it looked safe, seeing that the trail isn’t the usual fully developed trail still makes this momma’s heart skip a bit or two every once in a while.
See more photos below and you’ll understand what I mean.
Moving on, these calm waters along the board walk made me have a change of heart and just chill. I don’t want to chicken out when everyone is so game on this nature walk! haha
How could you not feel relaxed by this view!
We just followed the path of the board walk (cause there’s also no other way to go!) to see where it would lead us. If you’ve been reading my other blogs you’ll know that I’m the mom who always brings snacks to bribe my kids especially on nature walks like this. So here we are, about 10 mins from walking and they asked if they could have some of the chocolates that I brought. I knew that having monkeys in the entrance is already a red-flag that eating is not advised while on trail but then……
as you can see on this photo, Audrey is already seeing something on top of the trees with a worried face. A few seconds after this photo came a monkey beside her. They might have heard the wrapper of the chocolates I gave the kids. Aaaahhhh! She got so scared and screamed! My hubby who’s with her was shocked as well. Luckily, shocked but still calm, he just shooed away the monkey and it climbed up the tree. We’re blessed it wasn’t those kind of monkeys who would hurt people.
We carried on with our walk as if nothing happened. There are other group we came across every now and then so we didn’t worry much where this trail would lead us.
One of the reason why we went here was for the TreeTop but we’re already on the bus when we knew that it was closed for renovation. So one place we can go to to make our trip interesting for the kids is to go up the Jelutong Tower. It is 7-storey observation deck with a 360-view of the forest of MacRitchie.
Going up was no biggie, we just noticed that its quite high—-like no ending stairs. As expected, the bravest among us riding roller coasters was the one who got scared of how high we were. You can clearly see on the photo below who that person is! haha.. It wasn’t hard to urge them to go down after a while thanks to a group who came. We knew it would be too crowded when they arrive so we hurriedly went down.
Oh that trip down that stairs is one for the books! With the group who came climbing the stairs and us going down, it felt like the whole tower was swaying! We needed to stop a few levels before the bottom as people are passing by the stairs. It’s impossible for two way traffic.
It was a wrong move though. That few minutes of sitting down gave us cramps when going down the stairs. Both me and my hubby needed to walk down facing backwards for us to reach the bottom. hahaha. Luckily it was just with stairs and when we arrived at the bottom, everything is back to normal. It needed to be as our daughters can’t carry us home!🤪
Our journey continued and the kids were starting to become a bit weary. I can’t bribe them anymore because monkeys can be somewhere around. They don’t dare ask for their chocolates either so we settled by cheering them up by showing them the map and how far we walked already. It kinda lightened them up. It was also in this map that we realised that we’re following the the yellow trail….the holy guacamole 11km trail!!! Our intention was just to do some leisure nature walk. But as you can see we’ve already walked half of it so we decided the other half shouldn’t be much of a deal.
Then it rained. I’m not sure if I’ll be thankful that it rained when we are on the part of the trail were it was this open and no trees to somehow give us shelter. OR it was better as it would be more spooky and perhaps dangerous for us to walk on muddy trail. Anyways, we still continued with great spirits! Our little one got lucky with a few minutes of a lift from daddy when she complained that her feet is tired already.
We tried our best to keep things entertaining with the kids to divert their tiredness. I even am feeling exhausted already, what more these two troopers with us. What better way to make drinking water entertaining? By squirting water to their mouth! Sure this made them energetic again afterwards.
Here we are slowly reaching our first 11km!!!woohooo!
It was almost 7pm when we reached the end of our trail. One of our worries and what kept us pushing to walk faster was getting stuck inside the woods when it gets dark. We noticed that there isn’t any lamps anywhere so it would be pitch black in there after the sun sets. Here we are smiling from ear to ear feeling accomplished and blessed for finishing that trail and most of all proud of our girls for making it!
Of course we headed to the nearest bus stop that brought us to the nearest mall on the way home. It was past dinner time so McDonald’s at Northpoint Mall isn’t that crowded anymore.
Our shoes got really dirty with the mud when it rained. Our kids turned to Peppa Pig’s jumping on muddy puddles whenever we came across one. So here they are the next day learning their lesson not to do that again.haha…
Excuse that hole in our little one’s leggings. That’s her favourite and we’re still in the process on letting go of it. haha
That’s the end of this blog. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as did sharing to your our adventures. If you know any interesting place we can go next make sure to leave on the comments below.
If you’re looking for some inspiration for future adventures within Singapore, check out our previous trip to the Rail Corridor! This amazing how much greenery this “Little Red Dot” can have. Truly there’s much more to explore than just stroll in the malls every weekend.
As our love to showing our kids how great nature could be continue to grow, last weekend, we walked along the Rail Corridor. This 4km easy walking stretch is way far different from what we experience from the 11km Mac Ritchie Trail.
The whole railway that starts from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station stretches to Woodlands Train Checkpoint 24km in total. The Rail Corridor is a nature trail along the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway line connecting Singapore and Malaysia. The Malaysian rail service ceased operations here in 2011. The same year Singapore gazetted for its conservation.
Rail Corridor (Central) that just opened last March 22, 2021 after being closed in 2019 for restoration. It is between the two conserved truss bridges, 4km stretch that is between Hillview and King Albert Park MRT.
If you’re looking for a beginners trail and also want a bit of history, this is the trail to go. There’s a lot of Instagrammable spots.
Our trip started with a couple of train transfers from Woodlands MRT. Then we took the LRT from Choa Chu Kang MRT to Bukit Panjang MRT which we haven’t tried in a long time, especially since we moved to Woodlands area 5 years ago. So the kids felt like it was their first time and was very giddy about their experience. And lastly, transferred to the Blue train and finally alight at King Albert Park MRT.
It’s just takes a quick 3 minute walk from the MRT and you’ll arrive at the Old Bukit Timah Railway Station. You’ll never miss it as there’s a lot of people going in and out of the trail. Just keep a look out on those sweaty trail walkers and you’ll never get lost! haha
This is the rough road to enter the Old Bukit Timah Railway Station. There’s currently a construction on the left side.
Before starting the 4km walk, we had some photos taken first at the at the old rail tracks near the Heritage Gallery.
Make sure to put some good sunblock to protect your skin/ face from the sun
Behind me in this photo is the one of the conserved truss bridges. It is this are that gets a bit congested as people tend to stop take photos.
Not sure what this wall stands for but according to my research, it is in 1871, that the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company puts forward another proposal to Governor Harry St George Ord which started public protests against it as it would the use of public funds for private interests.
As said from the start, this walking trail is an easy one and family with even small kids would have fun walking. As you can see, you hardly can tell that you’re walking in a hiking trail as walking path has been well developed.
There may be rough trail along the way but it’s wide enough for 2 way foot traffic. Just right to make you feel you’re doing a nature walk. There isn’t much insects along the trail which is a great thing for those who forgot to put on some insect repellant.
One more good thing is the absence of monkeys in the area. If you’re a parent, you’ll know that bribing your child in long walks is the way to go to avoid tantrums and wailing. For this short trip, what I grabbed from the kids snack basket are these Dewberry. Good thing I was able get 2 packs of this as my youngest started making this face a few minutes when we started our walk. Fairy god Mommy simply put out this biscuits and there comes the smile on her face as well..ahhhh 😌
More photos to remember this nature walk.😀
We also passed by this underpass with graffiti on the walls. Singapore being Singapore, just a few steps away are contractors painting over those graffiti.
If ever you’re in the area and happen to see “Winnie”, don’t hesitate to contact the owner.
Not long after, dark clouds suddenly felt like running after us.Good thing we’re almost near the Railway Mall which marks the end too of the Railway Corridor.
Luckily we are a few minutes away from an exit next to Railway Mall. I didn’t notice any signage nearby and with tall bushes and people coming in and out of it, you’ll totally miss it.
There’s a signage though on the bottom if you’re walking the other way around (Hillview MRT to King Albert Park MRT route).
Railway Mall is a strip of restaurants, have a grocery (Cold Storage) and etc. It is also a stone throw away from Hillview MRT and has a nearby bus stop so basically, a good stand point for you to get to another area without being drench by rain.
The kids were hungry and thirsty at the end of our walk. We finished close to lunchtime which is why most of the food shops are also full of customers. We didn’t want to queue so we just headed for the ColdStorage to grab some snacks first. Here’s my gang trying to relax with the sound of the rain and munching on some unhealthy snacks which they deserved for being such a great troopers today.
There’s limited selection of food shops in the strip and we don’t find any that we want so we decided to just hop on a bus to go to a mall near our place so it would be easier going back home too.
Last pic with Railway Mall and the one of the truss bridge behind
Lunch at Yoshinoya, Causeway Point to fill-up our tummy. Mommy doesn’t have the energy too to cook anymore. haha
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did. If you know like me to share any dish you’ve been wanting to do, make sure to leave on the comments below.
If you’re looking for some inspiration a simple snack to make for your picky eaters, check out our previous post on how to make Easy Apple Turnovers! There’s much more you can do in your kitchen just as Chef Gusteau’s famous motto from the movie Ratatouille: Anyone can cook!
