Today we woke up early to go on the HSBC Tree-Top Hike with our Nursing Director, Beth. We had to get up early because there is no way we could hike any time after 11 here, as we would melt. The tree top hike is a hike at McRitchie Reservoir that allows you to hike across a bridge that is about 25 meters from the forest floor. It allows you to see the tops of the trees - a view the monkeys have every day (spoiler alert)! We started off at 0830 and were dripping by 0834. It was a fantatic view once you got up there. After the bridge, we decided to hike on to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Little did we know that would take longer than four hours.
We enjoyed our time, though, even though it was extremely hot and a hard hike. We saw a bunch of large monitor lizards . . . and monkeys. So we were searching for monkeys the entire time and hadn't seen any of them by 11. Finally, we saw a few. We managed to take a bunch of pictures of them being cute, grooming and lounging on the trees.
We then heard one monkey making the weirdest sound, right above us. I thought, "oh, I hope he's okay." Hmm. What I should have been thinking was "oh, I hope we are okay." We looked forward onto the trail ahead and saw roughly THIRTY (I know exaggeration is part of my personality but trust me, I am not embellishing at all this time) monkeys - coming towards us. If I wasn't writing my will in my head and deciding who - Liz or Beth - to throw in front of me and use as a shield when they attacked, I would have taken a picture. Sheer horror struck us all and we realized that we were about to be the victims of a monkey ambush. Damn my orange peels in my bag. We stood frozen in our tracks for a minute as they inched towards us.
Then our savior, Katut (pronounced Ka-toot), yelled from behind "naughty monkeys! naughty monkeys!" We turned to see a Singaporean carrying a bag of Durians (undoubtedly fresh from the tree tops) and a stick. He was waving the stick in the air. He told us to not make eye contact and to pick up sticks and wave them around. We did so and walked with him into the throng of naughty monkeys. Finally they backed off but watched us closely from the side of the road as we walked on. We were literately shaking in anticipation of a monkey flying into the air and onto our backs to grab our bags and throw our blackberries and water bottles onto the ground in frustration when they found no bananas. Luckily, we made it through the mad riot and safe to the other side of the trail.
We finished our hike around 1230 and our legs were undoubtedly jell-o. I lounged by the pool in the afternoon and read some NCLEX (nursing boards), dozed off and dreamed about the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. I have no idea why they were plotting our deaths but I WILL find a cute friendly monkey by the end of this journey.
A special thank you shout-out to my main man, Katut for saving our lives. Off to Little India for dinner!
And note the price of our huge dinner for two: 6.90. Mmmmm. Tastes better when it's cheap.
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