SUNGEI BULOH

2016-02-16, 9:19, JASON

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David, one of our friends we met at a party, is into hiking. He's done some trails around the Singapore area and said there was one that was pretty good up north. So, we took his advice, and decided to go to Sungei Buloh.

The area is a large marsh reserve that remains mostly natural, but someone put a trail that goes around the outer edge of the park, right at the north of Singapore. As a result, when you're hiking, you can see the Johor skyline, which is the nearest state of Malaysia. It's pretty surreal that some parts of Singapore are still kept natural, and so you can get a good view of what the island was like before development.

Throughout the hike, you can run into various wildlife such as crocodiles, monitor lizards, tree snakes, and mudkips skipping around in the mudflats. They get pretty close so you can see them hobbling. Because the park is open scheme, it allows the wildlife to get pretty close to people, so as long as you don't mind them they'll keep along their way. But, some of those monitor lizards are huge! Aside from the reptilian varieties, you do get some monkeys and really cool tropical birds flying around. There was this crazy one with a huge beak; it looked straight out of the Amazon.

Along the path, there are viewing decks built 'onto' small ponds so that you can walk out, and look past the foliage at some of the fish. There are people with pro camera lenses (bigger than my head) doing nature photography at these lookouts. Actually, most of the day was filled with these people; some even had camo covers on their camera to not scare the animals. Maybe we'll see them on National Geographic someday.

Pretty much, if you're down for a hike or an occasional escape from Singapore, Sungei Buloh is the way to go!