Upper Seletar Reservoir Park

One of my earliest memories for a family outing is that of a viewing tower located at Upper Seletar Reservoir (实里达蓄水池上段).

Living in a one-level house in the kampong (village) back then, i always found it exhilarating to run up the stone steps and get myself all giddy with the staircase that goes round and round and round.

Officially opened on 1969 by Princess Alexandra (no idea who she is), this park used to be popular with courting couples and families back in the 1980s - when computers were not as widespread and public transportation meant a hot journey on a non-airconditioned bus.

It's much quieter nowadays although there are the occasional joggers, walkers, families.

And macaques with hanging nipples too! Haha. Now let's continue with the rest of the pictures!

A floating jetty that is reserved for those with valid authorisation. The reservoir is also used by the Singapore Zoo (directly opposite the tower) for a boat ride attraction.

On streetdirectory.com, this is 'the' jetty but you can see that it's untrue! Maybe there's a secret gateway that brings you down to the underground caverns operated by the military?! The caverns are near to Seletar from what i remember.

Not very well maintained playground for kids and adults who never grow old (Alex to cite an example). I am a mature man.

An exercise corner that wasn't there in my last visit. They could install more fitness machines as the blue area looked too sparse! Under-utilisation could be an issue though.

The track frequent by joggers. Visually, it looks torturing with just a long, straight road leading to the viewing tower. And once you reach the tower, there's another extension of the jogging track of an equal tortuous length.

Its close proximity to the golf course just a golf ball away is serious enough to warrant this warning sign along the track!

Nature is in abundance here and it's sometimes just a matter of slowing down your pace and be patient. I even managed to catch a brief glimpse of a hornbill.

Victorian style benches with classic lion heads that are no longer as common in Singapore.

A standalone hut in a bleak state of not being used for a long time. It was a pretty view nonetheless as the hut was surrounded by dry brown leaves and trees that had lost more than half their green glory.

Finally coming to the tower - a definite icon for upper seletar reservoir!

Designed like a rocket ship, it has its fair share of paranormal stories that revolve around a lady ghost in red dress (it's always female and always in red). Details are fuzzy as i heard it a long time ago!

Information is practically non-existent for the viewing tower, which used to be have splashes of red and ponds on its ground level.

Being older now (although still not very tall), i am now more attentive of the surroundings (including the many pieces of dried lizard shit).

The top of the viewing tower is a simple area that has not changed much for as long as i remember (friends will know how 'good' my memory is).

It isn't as majestic like the KL Tower but still provides a bird's eye view for those who took the effort to walk up!

Panoramic view, as always! A newspaper article once reported sightings of crocodiles lurking in the reservoir. It has never been proven (as in no buaya has been caught.. yet) and remains an urban legend to this day.

I have always felt that the tower is a grand old dame and its structure might not be as strong as its heyday. This could explain why i choose to walk slowly instead of running up the stairs!

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Location

Map taken from streetdirectory.com.

Red star is the location of the viewing tower. There are car park lots available and those without a car can take bus number 138 from Ang Mo Kio bus interchange (press the bell when you see the tower on your left).

Dim Sum (点心) @ Wong Chiew (皇潮)

Dim Sum (点心)

@ Wong Chiew (皇潮)

Rubee needed a review with Dr Kasey Tan for a blood test to ascertain his suitability for the drugs he is currently taking for Cushing Disease. With a few hours to spare, we decided to patronise this dim sum restaurant right next door.

I wasn't expecting anything much and merely ordered four baskets of dim sum for fun. My real purpose was actually to satisfy my morning coffee addiction!

Two baskets took me by surprise!

One, the fried red beans puffs that had a thin, flaky and crispy case holding all the delicious goodness in them!

Contrary to its title, both red beans and bananas made up the filling that oozed out rapidly even before you can bite off a part! The only complaint i have is that despite waiting for quite a while, the puffs were not piping hot.

Another basket that caught the attention of my taste buds was that of the century eggs dumpling, which looked like a covered-up siew mai to me anyway.

Let's face it; you either like century eggs (皮蛋) or you don't. As a person who loves them due to the very unique taste, i wondered why no one has thought of using century eggs in such ways! The combi was really refreshing and didn't taste weird at all!

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Let me go back again and try other baskets like seafood eggs rolls, chicken meat with oyster sauce etc etc. This restaurant was featured recently in the television for tze char.

Location

19 Sembawang Road

(Right outside Nee Soon Camp, along the main Sembawang Road)

Opening Hours

24 Hours! Even during the Chinese New Year period!

Price

Fried Red Bean Puffs (3pcs) - S$3 a basket

Century Egg Dumplings (3pcs) - S$3 a basket

Additional Information

When i was working for the pet food company five years ago, Wong Chiew had only one shop specialising in roasted meats. Now, it has expanded to three shops in the same building!

Business is that good?!

Butterfly Garden @ Cameron Highlands

(Part 4 of Leisure Tour)

Humans who are afraid of creepy crawlies and flying objects should avoid this place at all cost! Unlike the Butterfly Park in Sentosa, there are a lot more live butterflies in this garden.

Due to the colder temperature, they are less active and this makes it easier for itchy fingers like myself to pick them up and scrutinise them more intimately!

The garden takes up a big area and the tour guide will usually give you 30-40 minutes to roam around the place (longer if time permits). Thankfully, the low peak season meant we have the whole place to ourselves.

Oh! Before i forget, you have to pay RM5 per person to enter this attraction! Like the Rose Centre, it's the norm to pay and if you choose not to, you can spend the 30-40 minutes in the pathetic souvenir shop next door.

It's misleading but the butterfly garden has more than just fluttering butterflies! There are quite a few reptiles like the Forest Gecko.

Snakes too!! I had my snake overdose in the snake farm in Thailand so the small amount of serpents here is pretty mild and probably not as interesting comparatively.

Concentration on the many butterflies is more worthy! And you can see live butterflies of many shapes, sizes, colours and patterns. Live, not dead specimens!

Picking them up was as easy as ABC for most of the hu die (蝴蝶)! I bet it will be damn difficult for you to even catch one in Singapore; unless it's breathing its last breath!

They seem to 'hibernate' in the cold weather and this particular one moved only marginally in my one minute rendezvous with it.

I especially love this shot! And in my 30 (coming 31) years of age, i finally realised butterflies eat using this long nose/snout thingy known as proboscis!! It's currently curled up in the picture but at the point of feeding (the nectar); the proboscis flicks outwards and looks like into an elongated stick.

A picture of another species of lizards. Ten years back, i almost bought an iguana after seeing how gentle they are! And i was considering a corn snake despite being ophidiophobic (don't ever ask me to pronounce this word)!

This small iguana was damn aggressive although fun to look at. Separated by a layer of glass, it was seemingly hissing and opening its mouth whenever my hand went near! Animal lovers will hate me!

Tortoises that are nowhere near the size of the giant galapagos tortoise! Since we are on this topic, Singapore has a tortoise museum that i should visit!

Leaf frogs that are kept in a hollow, unkempt enclosure.

Flowers of various kinds were posted in my entry on Rose Centre but this is something new! As you can see, it looked like those fake flowers sold in scrapbook shops and the amazing part is that the petals have a realistic paper texture as well!

Uploaded this for fun. No other meaning or caption required.

Can you spot the leaf insect? Since we had some free time being the only customers for the tour, the Teo family tried to find the supposedly four leaf insects in the cage.

The stick insects were more difficult to find as there were quite a few thin yet broken branches!

Not sure if it's true but i heard that the lower highlands temperature apparently means a faster death for the butterflies. Many of them were motionless on the floor and on top of the plants and flowers.

Workers were even deployed to carefully picked up the dead ones and put them in a bucket. For disposal i suppose. Kind of sad if you ask me.

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Additional Information

There are only two butterfly gardens in Cameron Highlands and they are only separated by the souvenir shop i mentioned in the beginning of my post.

Not sure if it's a matter of school holiday versus non-school holiday season but when i was at the other Butterfly Garden in November 2009, there was a lot more exciting and memorable interaction with insects and reptiles like scorpions, giant millipede, giant beetle etc!

First Part of the Leisure Tour can be found HERE.

Second Part of the Leisure Tour can be found HERE.

Third Part of the Leisure Tour can be found HERE.