Hey, everyone! This week has been a full-on, non-stop, wildlife & hiking extravaganza. Who knew Singapore was such a haven for wildlife? To think I almost skipped coming here based on their anti-vape laws… Well, I’m very glad I made it because it has been one of my favorite places in Southeast Asia so far!

A few housekeeping things:

1) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
2) If wanting to read my first novel, Eclipse Me, you can find the link here.

Malaysia to Singapore

Getting from Tioman Island to Singapore in one day was certainly a journey. Another 12hr day, to be honest. LONG. But I managed. Ferry from Tioman to Mersing then a bus from Mersing to Singapore. We crossed the border by land (obviously) and so had to “check out” of Malaysia and then at a separate building, had to go through immigration to get into Singapore. The bus continued on and dropped us off at a bus terminal – which is where my frustrations began. For some reason, I thought my Malaysian SIM card would work in Singapore, too. It did not.

I was going to just buy a physical SIM card but everyone was selling 30 day SIMs. Since I was only going to be in Singapore for a week, it seemed like a waste of money. I decided I would buy an eSim once I was connected to Wi-Fi. But first I needed Wi-Fi, damn it!

In order to get to my hostel, I needed to take a bus. Otherwise, it would be a looooong walk. Well, without Wi-Fi, I had no idea what bus to take! I went to the nearest bus stop and asked some guys if they knew which bus I should take. They ended up helping me out. But then when I went to get on the bus… the machine wouldn’t accept my credit card. Damn it! It said online that I could pay with card for busses. Anyway, I had to get OFF the bus, buy a bus card from a nearby 7/11, then wait for another bus. By this point, I was eager to check in to my accommodation. So much of the day had been seamless but now I was aggravated. A byproduct of long travel days.

Alas. I eventually made it to my hostel, checked in, and had a shower. After I was situated, I went to go meet up with a friend of mine!

Reunions

Right off the bat, Singapore welcomed me with two back-to-back reunions. The first was Tijana, a friend I made in Gili Air, Indonesia. Tijana was staying at nearby hostel so meeting up for dinner was super easy.

We met up outside and shared a hug. She shared with me how she had spent the day at the beach, which maybe is an unusual thing to do in Singapore. I didn’t even know Singapore had beaches! Tijana told me that she likes to just… be at the beach. Not snorkeling or diving, but simply existing with her thoughts and feelings, enjoying the sun and the water. Love it!

When most people think of Singapore, I believe they think of the city itself. Tijana’s focus is the beach. My focus is wildlife. I suppose that relates to all of travel – for both Tijana and me. Whether that’s Singapore, Indonesia, etc.

Anyway. I was happy we got to fill one another in on what’s been happening since we parted ways in Gili Air. While we had tentative plans to meet up again the following night, it didn’t end up happening. But hey, we didn’t even anticipate meeting up in Singapore until a few days prior!

The following day, I met up with an old friend from Australia. I met John when I was staying in Darwin – he and I traveled to Litchfield, Kakadu, and Fogg Dam together. That was another somewhat unplanned reunion. I saw he posted on Facebook that he was going to be in Singapore and so I messaged him. Our timing synced up well!

(LOL at the robot cleaning the subway station below.)

I hadn’t yet really seen Singapore, since I’d only just gotten in the night before. John and I met downtown. I was immediately impressed by some of the architecture.

The Marina Bay Sands was the first building I saw, since it was right next to the subway station. Three towers with a “boat” on top of it. How crazy!

I had gotten to the area a bit earlier than John and I said we would meet. I took a few minutes to walk around the area and get a quick glimpse of the surrounding area. Maybe fifteen minutes, John and I were hugging outside the subway station. Nearly two years later and here we were, together again!

John caught me up on his trip – Singapore was sort of a “buffer” location on either side of his holiday. He’d spent a week in London and a week in Spain. It sounded like a lovely time.

While chatting, we walked along the marina. I made a mental note that the buildings weren’t particularly colorful. In fact, one of my first impressions of Singapore was that it wasn’t very colorful overall. However, that opinion has since changed. It took me some time to realize it but actually Singapore is super colorful – but the use of colors is rather muted and unassuming.

Another thing – Singapore is so CLEAN! Hardly any rubbish anywhere. There are some spots where you’ll see it, but overall it is very neat & tidy. Such a refreshing change from all the other places I’ve been to in Southeast Asia, where they’re literally burning plastic all over the place.

We took a break to have tea and found ourselves along Clarke Quay. Here, the color started to take shape. So many multi-colored buildings around! And cute, colonial architecture mixed with the modern-futurism structures that are a staple of Singapore.

I hadn’t yet eaten so we ventured for food – John had his stomach set on soup. We ended up finding a Vietnamese restaurant next to the water – we both ordered pho. The meal ended up being DELICIOUS, easily one of the best things I’d eaten for a few days. John paid for me which was very sweet – thank you, John!

Once we’d finished our meal, we went to nearby Fort Canning for a little walk around the park.

Despite the drizzle, which John and I agreed felt refreshing, plenty of locals were having picnics. They sought shelter under various huts sprinkled throughout the park. So many people having picnics that day. We saw them everywhere. At the park, along the subway station hallways, in underpasses. It was actually kind of wild. One of them had the largest collection of people under it, it almost looked like a refugee shelter or something lol.

John and I walked around a lot that first day. I was feeling pretty slow-motion, a feeling that persisted the following two days. I realized that my nutrition hasn’t really been the best lately. I’ve since been buying baked almonds/cashews/etc. to give me more energy. I am eating plenty but I feel the food isn’t always packed with energy boosters, etc.

We walked along the water again and were delighted to spot a group of OTTERS playing in the marina! And there must have been ten of them. I had no idea they traveled in packs – I thought they were more solitary creatures. They were making squeaky noises that were so cute. John and I were both tickled to see them. We noticed one of them had a fish in its paws and at the same time, we declared, “IT HAS A FISH!” haha. Nobody else along the boardwalk cared about the otters at all. Apparently, the otters are quite commonplace. I hoped I would see them another day when I had my proper camera with me. Luckily, I was able to see them on a trip to Pasir Ris. I got a good close-up shot. I’ll share that in a later section.

Our last adventure together was to go to the Gardens by the Bay. At the Gardens, there are the iconic “Supertree” structures sprinkled throughout the park. One area has a tight cluster of them and you can even get tickets to walk along a boardwalk right next to the Supertrees. We opted out of that and instead, admired them from below. Very cool!

John and I both walked to the subway. His stop was before mine. We hugged and said that we hoped to see one another again. John had mentioned earlier in the day how I had said two years ago, “we’ll probably see one another when I’m in Southeast Asia” – which we did. This time, his premonition was that the next time we see each other will likely be in the States. True! That’s one strange thing to think about. After this trip in Asia is done, so many of the friends I’ve made on this side of the world will just be… FAR AWAY. I mean, literally on the other side of the world. So either I visit them, they visit me, or we meet somewhere in the middle. I hope it can happen in some cases. But there is this strange acknowledgment, too, that many of the people I meet, I maybe never will see again. So weird. That’s why it’s very cool that John and I were able to link up again, though!

MacRitchie Reservoir

My first nature spot was MacRitchie Reservoir. Prior to coming to Singapore, I had compiled a list of multiple nature parks that served as good spots for wildlife spotting. What could I potentially spot? Hmm… could be hornbills, crocodiles, wild boars, monitor lizards, kingfishers, and of course, snakes!

What I didn’t expect to see, almost immediately upon my MacRitchie adventure, was stingrays..? The reservoir is a body of water that is basically in the center of Singapore… how the hell were there stingrays here? Was it connected to the ocean?

I just looked it up and no, apparently the stingrays are there because “irresponsible aquarium hobbyists have abandoned their freshwater pets, particularly Motoro stingrays, into the waterway.” LOL what a description. Anyway. I was definitely shocked as hell to be seeing stingrays in what essentially looked like a large pond.

The trails around MacRitchie circle around the reservoir in a very large loop. I ended up doing about half of it on that first visit. The first section was a boardwalk that lined along the water’s edge. I kept my eyes peeled for water snakes and pit vipers, but didn’t see any. What I did see, and only ONE of them, was a wild pitcher plant! I’ve never seen one before.

The trail went through many transformations. From a boardwalk along the water, it changed to a dirt path next to a golf course. And then into more of a forest-y area. I stopped at a view tower for a few minutes and had a snack. After walking a bit farther, I decided to head back. I’d been hiking for quite some time already and was still feeling lethargic from the long walk around town with John the day before.

On my walk back, I saw a few more cute things. A pretty bird, a few turtles, and… a VINE SNAKE, along the boardwalk.

I was able to get the vine snake picture of my dreams. So cute! So judgmental!

And, of course, I was pleased to see a vine snake during the daylight. The only other time I’d seen one during the day with my camera was when I was in Tioman Island BUT it was blocked by a bunch of shrubbery, so I had to take photos from a distance. In this case, the snake was right there, maybe four feet away from me. It watched me watching it, then moved down the tree, searching for food. It seemed interested in something for a while, but then started to climb back up some other vines. It paused and looked at me again, almost saying, “what do you WANT?!”

Funnily, I ended up seeing ANOTHER vine snake, not five minutes later, also along the boardwalk. What is this luck? Vine snake, vine snake, vine snake. To be honest, I’m a little vine snake’d out. I would like some diversity, please, people! I was hoping for: king cobra, Malayan blue coral, mangrove viper. But hey, I’ll take what I can get.

My trip to MacRitchie was successful in the sense that there was some cool wildlife but I wasn’t particularly impressed with the busyness of the place. There were a lot of people around. Y’all know how I like my private trails. BUT I’m also glad that Singapore has so many accessible trails to the public. A+, Singapore!

Thomson Nature Park

I ended up sleeping in the next day. I hadn’t figured out what the best time was to go searching for wildlife. I figured by noon, most of the wildlife would be hiding from the mid-day heat. So that meant either wake up super early, or head out well after noon when it starts to cool down. I decided to have a lazy morning and then arrived at Thomson Nature Park around 2pm.

What I HADN’T considered was that Singapore, much like Kuala Lumpur, tends to have afternoon showers. I arrived at the park, did a small lap around one of their easy, 5min loop trails, returned for a pee break, and then… it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Relaxing, but, like, HEY – can I walk this trail, please?

Luckily, my genius mother gave me this rain poncho which is actually one of the best things ever. Once the rain calmed down a little bit, I threw on my poncho and began my adventure.

Thomson Nature Park, for me, was perfection. I was the only one on the trails the entire time I was there, which was maybe 2.5hr? About five minutes into my walk, I spotted A PIT VIPER!

This was the first time I’ve ever seen a pit viper on my own before. I’d seen plenty in Indonesia on herping tours, but none that I spotted solo.

The viper was just hanging out, curled near the top of a stick/branch/tree thing. I’d never seen a viper like this before – a beautiful green but with white polka dots. It seemed like the perfect sighting for my first viper. The white spots reminded me of the signature polka dots I decorate my artwork with post-color.

This guy is actually a male Wagler’s pit viper. Remember the vipers at the snake temple in Penang? This is the male version of them. Very different morphs.

Thomson Nature Park used to, I guess, be a village. And then was abandoned in the 80s. So nature has reclaimed much of the “ruins” scattered around the park. Pretty cool.

There are a number of trails along the park. Named “Ruins & Figs,” “Streams & Ferns”, “Macaque Trail,” and “Langur Trail,” I wanted to check out them all. So I did!

Nature reserves like Thomson Nature Park are perfect for me. There is plenty of place to explore but it’s small enough that it feels manageable to take time experiencing everything. With larger parks like MacRitchie, I WANT to see everything but then… I have to compromise. I either can’t walk as fast (because I’m trying to be quiet while slowly scanning for wildlife) and can’t cover as much ground, or I walk normally to explore all the trails but then I’m not looking for wildlife as thoroughly.

Because of the rain, I think much of the wildlife was seeking shelter. I think the only wildlife I did see during the walk was a viper, but that was enough for me. I did return to Thomson Nature Park on another day and was able to see SO many monkeys hanging around. And a monitor lizard, etc.

I wasn’t mad about it, though. Seeing a viper was a major win for me.

Pasir Ris

After stopping back at my accommodation and having dinner, I decided to head to the Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk for a night walk. Many of the trails in Singapore close around 7pm but Pasir Ris is open 24hr. The location is supposed to be good for mangrove pit vipers and tree snakes.

I hopped off the subway and before even entering the boardwalk, I spotted my first snake of the evening. A vine snake… again! Okay, this is starting to be comical. Can I see some other kind of snake, please? And then, like at MacRitchie, I spotted another vine snake maybe two minutes later. I kid you not.

I entered the boardwalk and began walking very slowly throughout the area – scanning for mangrove vipers or other nocturnal snakes. My first boardwalk sighting was… a bullfrog! What a weird looking dude.

Along the mangroves were plenty of crabs and snails, but for a long time, no snakes.

And then – ANOTHER vine snake?

And then ANOTHER?!

Okay, this was getting ridiculous. Four vine snakes in the span of, what, 30min? Give me something else, please!

My something else ended up being a mudskipper. These little dudes are so weird and I completely forgot they existed. I’d learned about them on a nature documentary many years ago but had never seen one before. They sort of look like giant tadpoles, hanging out in the mud of low-tide. Very weird.

I also saw a giant monitor lizard sleeping on a tree trunk. It actually scared the shit out of me. Such a big guy but fast asleep on the branch – completely undisturbed by me. Singapore has a LOT of monitor lizards and the size of them is baffling to me. Like on Tioman Island, these guys honestly look like the size of some Komodo dragons.

The boardwalk loop itself would have been a pretty fast walk at normal speed but because I was taking my time, meticulously searching for wildlife, it took me a while. I was at the reserve for about two hours. Before leaving, I peered over the bridge to the river and managed to see another dog-faced water snake.

Together with the viper, that made six snakes in one day. Not bad at all – and that’s not even with a tour!

A long day, though.

Dairy Farm Nature Park

I had another late start – breakfast at 10am and then arriving at Dairy Farm somewhere around noon. I hadn’t really timed things too well that day.

Dairy Farm wasn’t initially on my list. Maybe a week before coming to Singapore, I had reached out to the Herpetological Society of Singapore – they do guided nature walks about once a week, looking for wildlife. I thought to myself, how fun would that be! I ended up hearing back from them and unfortunately, they had a function going on and wouldn’t be doing walks that week. HOWEVER, they did give me a list of spots to check out. Dairy Farm was one of the few I hadn’t heard of before and decided I’d go to – mostly because it was supposed to be a good spot for potentially seeing a Malaysian blue coral snake.

(Side rant: I’ll just mention now that I did NOT see the Malaysian blue coral snake. Which sucks – I would have loved to. BUT what I did see was the same shade of blue that is on those snakes… everywhere. While there isn’t much rubbish in Singapore, there would be little, teeny, tiny wrappers that were the exact shade of blue that is on the stripes of the blue coral snakes. and I would see those wrappers (or plastic, or SOME kind of blue-colored rubbish) everywhere. TEASING ME!)

Dairy Farm had a couple different trails to walk – the Wallace Trail as well as the Dairy Farm Loop. I started with Wallace Trail, which was significantly shorter.

And here is where some trouble came to be.

When I was taking my camera out of my bag, I noticed it had gotten wet. The condensation from my water bottle had seeped onto the bottom of my bag and my camera happened to be sitting in a puddle of it. I wiped off my camera as best as I could but didn’t think much of it. This beauty has been through A LOT with me.

I turned my camera on and… something about a CF error? A card function error? It was not taking photos. I opened the slot for the memory card, but it didn’t look wet. I opened the slot for the battery, but that didn’t look wet either. It didn’t seem that water had actually seeped INTO the camera, but I couldn’t be sure.

After turning my camera off and on a few times, it seemed to maybe be working again. But oh, wait, the “joystick” isn’t working. I can’t move to the left or right in the Settings menu…

I tried taking a few test pictures, but then the worst thing happened. My camera started taking picture after picture after picture, unprompted. I turned it off and somehow, the screen was saying “images processing.” How was the screen saying anything, even on OFF mode?

Distraught, I let my camera be for a few minutes. I finished the Wallace Trail and then began walking the Dairy Farm loop. I couldn’t get my mind off my camera. Had I broken it? Was it beyond repair? Oh, God, what am I supposed to do… buy a new camera? I tried to think about it – I still have quite a bit of time left in Asia. Without a camera, there would be so many missed opportunities for wildlife photography. I would have to buy a new one. Whether dipping into my travel fund or my “return home” fund… having a working camera is definitely a priority for me.

I heard some loud shuffling nearby and was able to see two wild boar sniffing around the ground. This was the first time I’ve seen wild boar in Asia – maybe anywhere! They can be aggressive but these guys didn’t seem to pay me any mind at all… this time.

I continued along the trail but couldn’t enjoy it because I was still thinking about my camera. Maybe after having it OFF for a while had done the trick and it would be OK now? Well, the perfect opportunity presented itself. I looked away from my camera and a few steps from my feet was the tail of a snake, exiting the trail path.

OMG! I thought for sure that it would disappear into the bush but actually, it started climbing up a thin tree within perfect observation view. I took a video with my phone and then tried my luck with my camera. Thankfully, it worked long enough to take some lovely photos.

This snake was one I hadn’t seen in a while – a bronzeback. And a much larger bronzeback than the two I’d seen back in Indonesia. What a cute guy! I love those big eyes.

Yay!

I think it’s called a striped bronzeback – I believe there are six types of bronzebacks in Singapore.

After maybe two or three minutes, the snake got bored and retreated into the deeper bush. Yay! This was now the third day in a row that I had seen snakes. 3/3! A++, Singapore!

I walked to the farthest point on the Dairy Farm Loop which, surprisingly, took me to the Bukit Timah summit. I hadn’t initially planned that, but OK! Cool!

On the way back down, I spotted a small lizard. I didn’t manage to snap a photo in time but what surprised me about this lizard was the tip of its tail. While its body was dark brown, the tip of its tail was bright green and curled, almost like a chameleon. It seemed to be wiggling it around like a lure. I looked up this behavior online and found that it actually does that as a defensive technique. It is hoping that a predator will attack the lure (and thus shed its tail) instead of its face. Wild!

A few minutes later, I ran into the boars again. They, like the snake, were crossing along the path. The first one stopped, looked at me, then hopped into the other side of the forest. The other boar stopped, looked at me… and I think began to assess me as a threat. It looked like it might charge, so I looked away and began slowly walking in the other direction. This guy luckily went back into the bush. Phew!

I completed the loop and decided to check out the Wallace Trail ONE more time. It was a quick trail after all. Halfway through and I started hearing LOUD claps of thunder nearby. They got closer and closer. Oh, boy! I finished the trail and as I made it to shelter, it began raining. I waited until things calmed down and then headed back to the bus.

Dairy Farm was a lovely adventure – complete with a bronzeback and wild boars!

In terms of my camera… once I’d gotten home, I had my fingers crossed that I would be able to at the very least upload my photos from the past few days. Thankfully, I was able to. All hope was not lost! I took out both the memory card and the battery and laid my camera on its side. I hoped this would allow the camera to kind of “air out” overnight. The next day and ever since, my camera has been fine. I am going to upload my photos to my laptop after every session from now on, to avoid potentially losing a whole week worth of photos if it starts to act up again.

However, I hate to say that her end days are likely near. I’ve had this camera for – believe it – 15 years at this point and I’ve been wanting to get a new camera for a while. One with Autofocus that works. One with… BLUETOOTH. Mirrorless. UPGRADES! That said, I am hoping that this baby will at least see me out through the rest of my Asia trip – that would be so ideal.

City by Night

On another evening, I returned downtown. So many of my adventures were outside the city – in nature reserves, so I’d hardly spent any time in the city with the exception of my own neighborhood. I figured the skyline would look pretty cool at night so I walked down there.

My first stop was to check out the Supertrees because I’d heard they were lit up at night. As I got to the viewpoint, I noticed people were kind of standing around. I wondered if maybe there was some kind of light show that was scheduled to happen? Sure enough, ten minutes later, it started. Music began to play (the Jurassic Park theme lol) and the Supertrees began lighting up in sync with the music. What a cute experience – and I didn’t even know about it prior to arriving there!

I also wanted to walk down to the marina again to get a nighttime shot of the city. I made my way through the mall and after (briefly) getting lost, I managed to find my way to the water. I wasn’t able to get a shot of the skyline because there were a bunch of people standing near the fence, watching… a water/light show!

This one blew Kuala Lumpur’s out of the water. The lights and water displays were cool and all, but what really did it for me was: images projected onto misted water. It was the trippiest, most surreal thing. It felt like I was looking at a magical portal to a different universe. The music playing was also so surreal and trippy. It was very enjoyable!

After ten minutes or so, the show ended and I was able to get some nice shots of the city. Just lovely! I thought the lights would be a little more colorful. Instead, it was very clean and uniform.

Which makes sense, in many ways. Singapore is certainly a regimented city. Lots of rules, regulations, etc. No drugs, no crime, no VAPING (AHHH!!).

After the skyline, I began my journey back to my hostel.

(Bottom left is my favorite building in Singapore!)

I was chuckling that I ended up stumbling upon two light shows that I didn’t even know were happening (Skytree and then at the marina), RIGHT on time. What a fun, unexpected treat.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

One of the farthest adventures, but also one of the most exciting to me, was my trip to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. By public transportation, the trip was about two hours. Because of its distance, I knew I wanted to make the most out of my day there. I woke up at 5.50am and arrived at the Visitor Center by 8am.

Sungei Buloh is supposed to be a hot spot for wildlife – and there have been frequent sightings of king cobra there. King cobra aside, its a bird haven, with many migratory birds coming to the area. Beautiful kingfishers, otters, crocodiles, etc. Lots of potential here! And it’s right at the border between Singapore and Malaysia. In the early morning haze, I could see Malaysia across the water. How cool!

Early on, I met another photographer who suggested, “if you wait for the tide to come in, in about 10min, you might see crocodile.” Hmm, that could be cool!

I walked along the boardwalk for a bit, looking towards the water but also at the mangroves, too, in case of any vipers. I didn’t spot any but I did see a couple beautiful kingfisher flying around and some other critters.

There was much to explore at Sungei Buloh, so I continued my walk. I made it to an onion-shaped hide, serving as a bird-watching space. Many crows were hanging around the area until I arrived. Then they scattered.

I made it to the hide, walked around inside it, looked outside one of the windows and then caught some movement.

OMG! A paradise tree snake! I had been hoping to see one of these the last couple of days, as they were supposedly somewhat common. I’d never seen one before. One of the things that’s special about these guys is that they are regarded as “gliding” snakes. They can flatten their bodies and glide from tree to tree if needed.

This snake was so silent, as are most of them. I couldn’t believe it was just right next to me, slithering between the panels on the wall, searching for small lizards to feast on.

What beautiful patterns this guy has! Really gorgeous.

And, thankfully, my camera was working. The snake cooperated and I was able to get at least one decent shot.

Someone else came up to the area and I was warning them of the snake. I think they thought I was pointing towards something in the trees. They ended up walking RIGHT up to the snake, not seeing it. I was like, “whoa, whoa, whoa!” pointing to their feet.

The snake hung out in the area for some time. I ended up having a chat with an older Singaporean man who had spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania when he was younger for work. He was a sweet, old man. He had binoculars with a tripod attached to them, “because my hands shake,” he explained. I humored him with conversation for a while and eventually he continued along.

I saw some more mudskippers as the water started to fill in the wetlands. They began inching their way up the mangrove roots.

The park was separated into a few different sections, with many different paths to choose from. Something was telling me from the very beginning to get to the Buloh Tidal Ponds, but I took my time. Had I gone before the tide came in, I would have bumped up my chances of a king cobra spotting (they tend to hunt during low tide, which I didn’t know until later). Alas. Apparently, that’s usually the area where people see them.

What I did see were birds, birds, birds. And monitor lizards! Again… some of them were SO big. At times, I had to share the walkway with them. They flicked their tongues out, assessing whether or not I was dangerous. “I’m just passing you by,” I’d tell them, and they’d listen, sticking to their lane. Crazy guys.

I ended up seeing two guys with huge cameras. I talked with them for a minute and asked about king cobras. They were looking for them, too, but weren’t sure where they were exactly. As we talked, a hornbill flew directly overhead, maybe five feet above us. It happened so fast!

I took several breaks to just sit in the bird hides and look out to the wetlands. There was a view tower that was multiple stories high, so I hung out there for a while.

Later, I returned to a mangrove area to try my luck at mangrove pit vipers again. Nope… but on my way, I saw ANOTHER paradise tree snake.

What is with me seeing multiples of the same species so often lately?! This one seemed to have more yellow on its patterning than the first – which seemed more black/red.

By the time I arrived at the mangroves, it started to rain. HARD. I sought shelter in a spot with benches. I laid down and looked up at the ceiling. On the ceiling were Sungei-Buloh related themes painted on square wood tiles, presumably by children. Cute. I ended up trying to have a nap while the rain poured down around me. At least I was dry.

The rain eventually lessened. I stopped back at the Visitor Center to use the toilet and refill my water. I briefly considered heading back home but because I had cell service, I checked in on Facebook. Someone from a Singapore wildlife group had gotten back to me on where they’d recently spotted a python. Ugh, OK, I should go check it out. I navigated through the rain and ten minutes later, found the tree. The tree, yes. Python, no. Damn.

Bonus: photos below showing low & high tide of same mangrove spot (too bad I didn’t get the framing right!)

As the rain got heavier, I hid in another shelter. Luckily, Sungei Buloh is FULL of these damn shelters haha. As I looked out onto the birdlife, I spotted something in the water. What is that… a tree branch or something? Couldn’t be a crocodile… but then I was able to confirm that it was. Not nearly as close of a photo as the one from Kakadu in Australia, but hey! Saw a croc!

I’m also going to share a throwback of that Kakadu photo because it is perfection.

I ended up doing another lap around the tidal ponds. Despite wearing my rain poncho, my shoes were getting soaked. Man, this was brutal. I should probably not have done that.

Around 3pm, I began my journey back home. It had been a LONG DAY! But guess what? I changed my mind. Because I had to take the subway line going towards Pasir Ris anyway… I decided to just pay Pasir Ris another visit. MANGROVE VIPERS. I told myself – it’ll be quick. You’re leaving Singapore soon… just enjoy these wildlife moments while you can.

Well, there were no snakes in store for me, but what I WAS able to capture a picture of was some otters, up close! EEK!!!

Windsor Nature Park (& MacRitchie again)

My last full day and I was up at 6am again. I wanted to take full advantage of my last day in Singapore… and it was my final day to try and see a Malayan blue coral snake. (I did not.)

The night before, I posted on my Singapore wildlife group asking where I should go. Replies varied, but one person told me that he sees them pretty regularly after rain at MacRitchie. Ugh. MacRitchie was fine and all, but it was so big and ALSO there were so many people around. I preferred the quieter spots.

I was very back and forth with where to go the night before, but I decided I would go to both MacRitchie AND Thomson Nature Park. I also wanted to see if that viper was still there – sometimes vipers don’t move from the same spot for days.

I got to MacRitchie around 7am and began walking the other direction from where I’d gone the first time. I couldn’t believe that even so early, there were already a bunch of people jogging/walking the trail. I was annoyed because some groups were being pretty loud. “You fuckers are going to scare the wildlife!” I wanted to scream at them lol.

Daylight entered the scene. I was hiking through the exact area where the Facebook person had circled for me, where he said he sees them regularly. But… nah, I wasn’t seeing them. I ended up exiting MacRitchie and heading up to Thomson Nature Park. What I SHOULD have done is taken a bus to Thomson first, then backtracked down to MacRitchie. Would have made more sense directionally. Oh, well.

I walked around Thomson Nature Park and this time, there were plenty of monkeys. No viper.

After Thomson, I began walking back to MacRitchie. I told myself I’d walk along the Windsor Nature Park path before going to the MacRitchie Tree Top Walk, then going to the mangrove boardwalk before finishing. Alright, itinerary set. Boy, was it a long day. I ended up walking 51,000 steps LOL. That is the most steps I’ve walked in 6 months of traveling. And yet somehow, it didn’t feel that bad? I don’t know how. I mean, my feet were kind of wet from walking in damp shoes from the day prior… so you’d think I would be miserable. But I think more than anything, adding the nuts/dried dates into my diet has honestly been really helpful for my stamina. I kept snacking on them all day and at times, I felt like I was losing energy but all in all I did pretty good.

Windsor Nature Park was quite lovely. There were little streams around the area and lots of dense jungle. I had my eyes scanned for any and all wildlife. I saw a very beautiful yellow bird which I guess is called a black-naped Oriole (someone online said it looks like Wolverine and I agree haha). And a terrapin!

I ended up taking the wrong path at one point. I’m not sure how I got things confused. I basically was walking along a trail that was along the fringe of the nature park. Well, here I got my snake sighting! But it was just of its tail as it was slithering deeper into the bush.

That is one thing about those fringe areas – where nature preserves/jungles/etc. meet manicured suburbia. They are pretty good for wildlife and I guess snakes because they want to get the rodents that are hanging out eating food in suburbia… but then they want to be able to quickly retreat back into the jungle. Anyway. That’s why all I saw was its tail. I don’t even know what type of snake it is. I thought it was a striped keelback but who knows, maybe it was a kukri? It looked like lateral stripes running along its body in reds, browns, etc. Of course, I was bummed I didn’t snap a picture in time. It happened so fast. I even questioned it for a second – snake or lizard tail? But with lizards, you always hear them scurrying throughout the foliage. Snakes are very quiet – you almost never hear them moving. And the movement was very snake-like.

I re-corrected my route and wound up on a cool part of the trail where I was on a highly elevated boardwalk. I kept scanning over the edges and… sure enough, I was able to spot another snake!

This one was REALLY beautiful. I don’t think the photos I captured really do it justice, to be honest. While it has a lot of bronze/slate grey coloring, it also has a rainbow coloration spanning its body. I’ve since learned this is called a blue bronzeback snake.

The bronzeback was behaving in a manner in which I’ve never seen before. It was kind of undulating its neck left and right, almost like it was doing a dance. Apparently, this is just par for the course with these snakes, but it seemed like such a strange behavior. As it moved its neck, the rainbow colors really came through. How lovely and colorful!

This blue bronzeback ended up being my final snake sighting in Singapore (which is what I really wanted to title this post). That makes 13 snakes in five days of nature walks. That is honestly a record. In this regard, Singapore KICKS ASS. It has all the modern conveniences of city living but then you can just take a bus/train for 30min to some gorgeous nature preserve with such wide variety of wildlife. Insane. That is the dream, honestly, to live somewhere with such a perfect balance – city + nearby nature/wildlife. A+++, Singapore!

I ended up checking out the Treetop Walk, too, before wrapping up my day. I had been pretty close to it on my first visit to MacRitchie but it was closed on Mondays and of course, the day I was there was… a Monday haha. It was cool to walk along the canopies but I didn’t see any wildlife up there. I think maybe very early morning or closer to dusk might provide some better sightings!

After my 51,000 step day, I returned to my hostel to just fall apart. My feet were like “okay, you are DONE.” I was dragging haha. But after gourging on food, I bounced back quick.

Honestly, bummed to be leaving Singapore so soon. You know, whenever I talked to other travelers about Singapore, they’d say, “oh, three days is enough.” Honestly – it seemed like three days was the standard from anyone I talked to. But for me, even a WEEK hasn’t been enough. I really would love to go back to Sungei Buloh again. And to go to so many other nature reserves in the area, too. Who knows, maybe in a few months, I will come back to Singapore before flying to Hawaii. Bonus points if Jasper joins me! We shall see.

Rose, Thorn, Bouquet

Rose

I knew Singapore had potential for some cool wildlife sightings but I had no idea it would be just so SATURATED. Not always – a lot of the time, I had to walk around for a long while in order to see, let’s say, a snake. BUT there was plenty of wildlife in all the reserves. Boars, snakes, snails, mudskippers, birds, otters, stingrays, spiders, etc.

I think my favorite sighting was… mmmm, it’s hard to say, but I think the viper. It felt so unexpected and neat to see a lethal creature just hanging out on a tree branch.

Thorn

Uhh, well the obvious one for me is the “No Vaping” rule of Singapore. I think that’s ridiculous.

But the more serious thorn for me was the camera scare. I am really, really hopeful that everything will be okay with it moving forward! Camera bodies (which I am assuming is where the problem is) are expensive, like ~USD$1,000, so that would really put a significant dent in my savings. I am glad that at least for now, it seems to be OK again. Fingers crossed!!!

(Also: wet shoes.)

Bouquet

I think the bouquet goes out to Singapore in general. While it has some things I don’t like about it (notably the No Vaping law), I think it is an excellent country/city. As mentioned earlier: it’s got the perks of a beautiful city with futuristic architecture and designs, saturated wildlife in its nature reserves, an excellent variety of food, etc.

Initially, I only planned five nights in Singapore. I ended up extending an extra two because I got a better deal on accommodation. After booking it, I thought, shit, what am I going to do for seven nights? Am I going to be bored? But I was dead wrong. I wish I had seven more nights! Or, well, maybe three… because I don’t think I can keep doing this all day, non-stop wildlife exploring for much longer hahaha. I NEED A BREAK.

Miscellaneous

Did you know that Singapore is only 60 years old? Neither did I until about a week ago. Basically it was a Malaysian territory (sort of – like an independent port town?) then it was colonized by the British… then occupied by Japan during WWII… then it was Malaysia again, sort of… and finally, Singapore.

While in Tioman Island, I applied for my Vietnam visa. Usually, as an American (hee-hee), I get my visas granted like an hour later or maybe 24hr later. But this one was taking a while. Almost a week had passed by and I still didn’t have a response. I looked online and started to worry. Sometimes people have issues where they have to pay again or pay for some company a lot of money to expedite it, etc. In the end, it turned out that my application was just delayed because there was a public holiday in Vietnam. All good now!

Also on Tioman… one of the dormmates was letting his alarm go off over and over and over again. Two mornings in a row. The first morning I was half asleep and just let it happen, but the second morning I was annoyed. After it went off for probably two minutes, I shook his bed and went, “OY!” If I say “Oy,” it means I am NOT happy.

Some other things for Singapore. Wayyyy less women wearing hijabs, which I’m thankful for. I am glad that after I leave here, I won’t be seeing nearly as much of that anymore. I mean I am all for people doing what they want but I don’t like the lack of expression that comes with hijabs. Is that ignorant to say?

I also think that I subconsciously was trying to make up for lost time in Singapore in terms of all the walking trails. It’s just that in the Philippines, in Indonesia, I wasn’t able to just go on a nature trail whenever I wanted. It had to be a tour, etc. You all know that story. To be able to take advantage of so much nature on my own was really awesome!

If I don’t come back to Singapore before this Asia trip is over, I would DEFINITELY like to come back one day when I have more money. While Singapore has been awesome, it has also been expensive. The cheapest hostel dorm I could find was USD $20, which leaves $30 for food/entertainment in terms of my daily budget. Of course, I can amend that budget and spend more as needed, but in general I try to stick to that budget.

It also would be nicer if Singapore didn’t feel so regulated. I mean, yes, it’s great that crime is super low here… but there are signs everywhere and it just feels Big Brother-y.

Reflections

I’m tired, y’all. It’s 11.44pm here and I am going to finish piecing this together once I get to Vietnam tomorrow. (Update: I’m in Vietnam and I have finished pieceing this together.)

My feet are tired. My eyes are tired. When I get to Vietnam, I am going to do my laundry, get a haircut, and just… rot. Lol. I have booked a private room for three nights in Hanoi. I’m not sure how much I will do there at first. Some housekeeping things for sure. My visa in Vietnam is two months. There are MANY spots I want to check out, but I also have a lot of time. The luxury of not rushing around.

I’m looking forward to the food. Food, food, food. Cheap food. Cheap accommodation. I think from here on out, things are significantly more affordable for a backpacker on a budget. Thank God for that.

Sigh.

I’m going to bed.

Until next time, sending you all my love. x