Research Connection

Dear Papa and Mummy, Hope that everyone is fine over there in KL and having good fun this weekend! As for us (your loving family in Singapore), we're all doing fine too. Perhaps we were a little down during the last few days, both in body and mind, being hit hard by the flu. But we are on the path to recovery now. And it helps that there are these little unsung parks scattered around the island, that play a big part in reviving the body and soul. Singapore, being the Garden City that it is, surely has its share of beautiful parks and gardens. Amongst these are East Coast Park, West Coast Park, Kent Ridge Park and MacRitchie Reservoir Park, which were part of the itinerary during my Coast-to-Coast adventures. But there are also many smaller parks, local residential parks not found in any guidebook or even mentioned in websites, for example, `The Top 50 Parks of Singapore'. To the uninitiated, they might even appear as afterthoughts in the mind of the city planners, just to patch...

While my adventures and experiences at the Botanic Gardens have been mostly dry, warm or breezy affairs, there have been days when my visits were coincident with rain, light drizzles or tropical thunderstorms.  There was one instance during the pandemic when I was caught in a heavy shower while  walking in the vicinity of several buildings, some of which were undergoing renovation. A worker, observing me taking refuge uncomfortably in the shallow overhang of a the building facade where he was, kindly admitted me into its shelter. Another time, the rain was pouring so heavily near the Nassim headquarters of the Gardens, to the extent that even the sheltered areas were partially flooded! That particular visit to the Gardens had begun promisingly enough. I had first walked the Evolution Garden path which told the story of Life on Earth, from the first living organisms that thrived in its primordial oceans, to the appearance of the first plants and animals on land. It was designed...

Following the `success' of my Coast to Coast walk last December, I was wondering what other trails would be worth tackling, during my end-of-year leave for 2022. Fortunately, the National Parks Board has a series of curated trails for leisure and exercise, and this includes a Coast-To-Coast trail. Unlike my own walk which ranged from West Coast to East Coast, NPB's entails walking from Jurong Lake Gardens in the Southeast of Singapore to Coney Island Park, which is roughly in the Northeastern region. So, on a typically overcast December afternoon, I set off to explore this trail, with a mixture of adventure, curiosity and just a little of trepidation. I had decided to do this trail in sections, so as not to over-exert. No thirty plus km in one shot as I did last year! But I believed that it would be no less fulfilling and meaningful.  DAY 1: Botanic Gardens to MacRitchie Reservoir The starting point of my trail would be the Botanic Gardens, which had turned out to be my favouri...