Bukit Batok nature park

Set close to the centre of Singapore Island, I hiked towards an abandoned quarry site in Bukit Batok Nature Park. Not only the sound of birds hovered in the air, but a distant wooden flute breezed a relaxing melody through the park that was established in 1988. When I reached the old quarry, now filled with water, a man faced the lake, his flute notes echoing off the cliff face opposite. His melodies rang through most of the park which was in the process of eliminating all plants that weren’t native to Singapore so that it would truly be a nature park.

changi parks

Returning on the bumboat from Pulau Ubin Island, Changi Village and the nearby parks beckoned. At the ferry terminal I headed to Changi Point Coastal Walk first. A trail wrapped its way over the shoreline where I was one of only a handful of other hikers. 

Gardens by the Bay’s Super tree grove

I arrived at the most photographed place in Singapore and lucked out on two counts — it was nine in the morning before tourist buses arrived and a weekday.