IT was rainy day I climbed Singapore's highest mountain/hill together with my friends. Also it is public holiday for presidential polling day. My wife and I joined a group of my friends to climb the mountain which is the first such activities during my stay of more than 3 years in city state. The heavy rain spoiled our pleasure trip effectively. We were already wet once we reach nearest bus stop from the mountain. I thought mountain would be so high before I see it physically. I even couldn't able to see mountain peak when I approach nearest bus-stop.
With the help of my friend who had been there once before, we all crawled in the rain until we reach the visitor center at the bottom of the mountain. There, we wait another friends by sheltering in the visitor center. The wooden visitor center is two story high timber building in which there is an exhibition hall for incoming visitors. The entry fees is free and we all enjoy the exhibition while waiting until rain stop. There are not much rooms to be showcased in the exhibition center. We took some photos for good memory in future and continued to climb the mountain after gathering all friends and rain pause.
First of all, we were required to choose 4 available routes differentiated by different colors which are ranged from easy to difficult. As the rain make country routes slippery, we easily chose the shortest and smooth route and continue our journey. As soon as we start, we are greeted by a couple of monkey who tried to grab some of our plastic bags in which some snacks are placed. But the monkey together with her child didn't succeed to get his target. It's amazing to see a monkey cradle her baby under her body. It look like a kangaroo from Australia. This is first thing worth going there, my wife and I agree.
The entrance route was too steep for us who are not familiar with climbing mountain. Some of our friends are complaining for too steep and even they wanted to surrender without reaching peak of the mountain. There are 2 resting station before we reach the peak. Only first step is steep and the rest route between other stations are relatively mild. We saw some visitors as well as group climbers from the secondary schools with uniform. It's worth to breath fresh air as well as seeing scenery by the route. The well maintained roadside trees are quite tall and unbelievably straight. All the view around are green package which can make our tired eyes a bit relax.
Since the route is stretched to about 1km around, we reached the peak after half an hour climbing. The peak is not as interest as we thought. There is one rest-house and a stone infront of it. There is three sentence on the stone that can be read
Ht. : 163.63m
Lat : N xxxx
Long : E xxx
We all took some photo infront of the black stone for remembrance.
Then we ate the foods we brought together and take a rest only.
Sadly there is no view point to enjoy.
We thought there would be some great view to enjoy after we reach peak as we enjoy from climbing our mountains back home. It's major upsetting for mountaineers I think. Anyway, we gain some good experience from this trip. In return, we also went to quarry site which is beautiful granite mountain wall around the lake. Unfortunately that is not sunny day and it couldn't be as beauty as it is. So we took some photos and return home. It was so pain at the whole body in the following day early morning. But we all have enjoyed the atmosphere and hope no one would complain for such small thing.
At least we all can satisfy ourselves that we have stepped the highest point of city state.
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