Sunday, March 05, 2006

Kent Ridge Park

Last Saturday (4/3), I took Irza to Kent Ridge Park for cycling and a bit "exercising". The park is close to our previous home at Normanton Park, and also close to my office in Science Park I.

There are several access roads to this park. If you're taking a cab or driving your own car, your best bet would be the main access road on Vigilante Drive, off South Buona Vista Road. By taking this road, you can go straight to the carpark B, which is at the centre of the park on top of a hill. You can also enter the park from Pepys Road, off Pasir Panjang Road, from which you can directly enter the canopy walk in front of the Reflections at Bukit Chandu museum. Other alternative ways are from the end of the Science Park Drive, or from the back gate of Normanton Park (only for Normanton Park residents).

Since our purpose going there is for cycling, we went straight to the carpark B on top of the park's hill. Just next to the carpark is the World War II Plaque, with a tank exhibit which appeals to the kids (see left picture). From the top of the hill, we can have great view of the sea south of Singapore, and the small islands nearby.

From there, Irza cycled to the canopy walk. It takes about 5-10 minutes bicycle ride to reach the western end of the canopy walk. The notice tells us that we are not allowed to ride the bicycle along the canopy walk, you'll need to push the bicycle. The boardwalk is passing through the rainforest on the foot of the hill, so we can enjoy the view of the rainforest from the top (see right picture). Well, we can say it's the smaller version of the Treetop Walk at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

The boardwalk will lead you to the end of Pepys Road, just in front of the Reflections at Bukit Chandu museum (see left picture). This World War II Interpretative Centre museum is built to commemorate the gallantry and sacrifice of men of the 1st and 2nd Battalion Malay Regiment who defended the western section of Singapore from Japanese's invasion in February 1942.

From there, we retraced our steps through the canopy walk, and back to the carpark B. We went to the lookout point, which is the highest point on Kent Ridge Park hill, and took some pictures from there (see right picture as one of the examples), before we went back to the carpark and headed home. You can see other pictures of Irza at the Kent Ridge Park by clicking here.

Before heading home, we went to Queensway Shopping Centre nearby to have breakfast at McDonalds there. As usual, Irza ordered his favourite big breakfast even though he also had some of my hotcakes. More pictures of Irza at the McDonalds Queensway Shopping centre can be found here.

Read the Indonesian version of this post.

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