Old Beng Went To Bukit Timah Hill

lim peh ka li kong

Me and my cha-bo-lang sometimes go for our Sunday morning stroll at the following few places : Botanical Garden, West Coast Park, Sunset way and Bukit Timah Hill provided we wake up early. Many times, Old Beng could not wake up early and will just hope that my cha-bo-lang will let me sleep longer. Sunday morning leh!

Yesterday, we went to Bukit Timah Hill although we woke up a little bit later than usual but the weather was fine without sun, very cooling.

When we reached the carpark, it was full as usual and many vehicles were parking along the road side illegally. I felt pity for the residents who stay there.

Luck was with us cos when we reached the carpark, we found an empty lot, heng ah, don't have to waste time waiting for lot.

When we got out of our car, me saw some monkeys sitting on top of the parked vehicles in the carpark and 1 monkey even shit on the top of a car. Ai-ya, forgot to take down the car plate numbers to buy 4D, who knows, shit is luck, according to the Chinese.

I heard of a sad incident which happened at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill not too long ago. The monkeys have been coming out from the forest and started to go around the carpark area to look for food. As monkeys move very fast and sometimes it is quite dangerous because drivers could not see them dashing across their moving vehicles.

Heard that 1 monkey was knocked down by a car and it died as it was a fatal knock. The passer-by who were there saw that a whole gang of monkeys all crowded round the dead monkey and 1 of them (probably the mother) was hugging and carrying the dead monkey, crying loudly and letting out loud shrieks mourning the lost of its child.

Anyway, back to our sunday stroll. Me and my cha-bo-lang climbed up the slope and boy the slope was quite steep man, probably at a 45 degrees inclination. Old Beng me managed to climb up with my cha-bo-lang but to be honest, quite siong though, think me getting old already.

We finally reached the top and on our way down, we saw a path at the side of the hill - Catchment Path and we decided to take the route and see where it would lead to. Anyway, how big can Bukit Timah Hill be?

The path wasn't too difficult to walk as the roots of the trees formed a natural fleets of steps and with the cool breeze and surrounded by so many trees and strolling with loved one was in fact a very great feeling. Halfway down, we saw a direction board showing the routes of the Catchment Path we were walking, hmmn looked alright to me.

After descending for about 20 minutes, we came to a big open space with just low-grass field. We saw many grasshoppers hopping and flying around us, guess I have not seen so many of them since my childhood time.

We continued to walk for another 30 minutes and saw a small road with a signboard indicating that it was a bicycle route and a warning sign to the people who would like to walk on the route as the cyclists sometimes do cycle in very fast speed and the route was indeed narrow.

My cha-bo-lang asked me whether we should take the bicycle route or walked back to where we started, the Catchment Path?

I was not sure why I was stubborn but told her that we would continue to head forward and I was sure that we would be able to get out of the "quiet" area but in my heart, I was actually just pushing my luck. And yes, after walking for another 15 minutes, we came across a road, no longer the field road but road for vehicles with road chevron and road-sigh and saw a police car sped past us.

While I was standing at the side trying to figure out which direction to walk, my cha-bo-lang told me that there was a monkey just above my head. When I turned around to the direction she was pointing, I saw 1 huge monkey staring hard at me less than one foot away from me. I slowly turned my face away and walked away calmly.

Actually my heart was racing like hell cos I was bitten by a monkey when I was a small boy and that attack landed me in hospital thus I have this phobia towards monkey.

We continued to walk along the road but it was so deserted that not even a car drove pass us and I started to have the thinking that we were lost! Of course, in front of my cha-bo-lang, I pretended to be calm and cool if not, sure lose face one.

Then, we heard the motor-sound of a car coming from the road behind us and it was a van. I quickly waved for the driver to halt and asked him where the road will lead us to and which direction we should head to get back to the entrance of Bukit Timah Hill.

We told him that we were walking in Bukit Timah Hill and the next minute, we landed there without the slightest idea of where we were. He told us that we were rather far away from Bukit Timah Hill and he offered to give us a lift. We told him that it would be fine for us to walk but the expression on his face told us that it was not a very good idea so both of us hopped into his van.

He drove for about 20 minutes before we reached Bukit Timah Hill and he dropped us at where we parked our car.

My cha-bo-lang teased me the whole day for been such a sotong and got lost in Bukit Timah Hill.

I really have to thank the driver, Mr Lim, who was so kind to give us a lift although he wasn't heading towards the direction of Bukit Timah Hill.

There are still kind people in Singapore after all.

lim peh kong wan liao