Treetop Canopy Walk

This is the second trip the class has made to the MacRitchie Reservoir in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but my first visit due to my three day snow delay getting out of Raleigh (apparently I was the only one in the airport that morning at 4am that was unaware of the massive storm hitting all of the northern connection cities-oops). So I was very excited to hear that the class wanted to go back and do the Treetop Canopy Walk because they didn't have time to complete this extra loop the first time. Mike Orbach accompanied us on a lovely adventure...the first challenge was finding the trail head and we sent our taxi drivers on a fun adventure. When we finally arrived we headed off on a nice trail through the reserve and immediately came across a bunch of long-tailed macaque monkeys! They were everywhere and didn't seem to be bothered by our presence. We even came across a mother carrying a newborn, which was very exciting. After frantic picture taking by the class we headed up to the suspension bridge in the rainforest canopy. It was a refreshing view and you could even see the skyscrapers of downtown in the far distance. We continued on our way and encountered even more monkeys! They were misbehaving a bit but I won't get into details to keep this a PG rated blog entry. A bit further down the path Melissa and I were just enjoying the view when a slight sprinkle of what I assumed was moisture falling off the leaves trickled down a few inches from my face. Good thing I didn't move because as I looked up I noticed a naughty little monkey relieving itself from an overhead branch. So after a lovely morning in the rainforest we were trying to make our way to the end of the trail and wound up in the Singapore Country Club parking lot. Just picture a bunch of sweaty environmental students in a parking lot full of Mercedes. Needless to say the security guards were very concerned by our presence. But we made it back to the real world eventually. So far my favorite adventure in Singapore. It's amazing that such a peaceful place exists so close to the city!
Kelly