We went for our weekly walk at Bukit Batok Nature Park this morning. The moment we climbed up the first flight of stairs, we spotted several sociable White-crested Laughingthrushes calling out with their distinct trills.
Bukit Batok Nature Park is a 36-hectare urban park in Singapore developed in 1988 on the site of an abandoned granite quarry. Set amidst undulating secondary forest, it combines dramatic geological features, WWII history, and rich local biodiversity.
Just a short 15-20 minutes' walk from the car park, we arrived at the Quarry and lookout points. At this central plaza, we were able to look out over a tranquil quarry cliff and a deep, clear water pond.
Asian Water Monitor Lizard is a common sight here.
Other than nature, this park features well-paved walking paths, a children's playground and fitness stations.
We had originally planned to go on a walking trail up to a World War II Memorial. However, based on a notice on the park board, the trail was closed for maintenance works till end of next year.
So instead of hiking through the trail, we drove up to Lorong Sesuai, which is near to the top of the hill where the World War II Memorial is located.
A memorial plaque and staircase mark a historical site tied to the Japanese occupation and the battle for Singapore.
We climbed up the stairs and it's a dead end at the top. Next to it is the Bukit Batok Transmitting Station.
As we had not achieved our required number of steps for the day, we decided to walk further down along Lorong Sesuai to take a look at the Colonnial Houses. As this is a residential area, there were notices around the vicinity to remind visitors to lower down their volume.
On Google Map, we realized the Former Ford Factory was just nearby. As such, we took a 2-minutes' drive over to check it out. Though the main gate was opened, the security guard told us that the place was closed today (Monday).
We had a Pickleball session this morning at the newly opened ActiveSG Punggol Sport Centre. This was our first time here and quite a few of our friends in the group had difficulty locating the indoor pickleball courts. We had feedback to the staff that the place was quite warm and stuffy. Hopefully they can do something about it. There are also outdoor sheltered courts which we will probably try out the next time.
Next to the pickleball courts is a very big hall of badminton courts.
As this place is new, the basement car park is currently free. :-)
Ever since the start of the elevated haze situation, we had temporarily halted our weekly Sunday morning walk in the parks. As the condition has improved over the past few days, we decided to resume our hike but maybe a short one. Lower Peirce Reservoir was our top pick for today.
When we looked across the reservoir, we were not sure if it was misty or hazy.....
When we were here earlier this year, this section of the nature trail was closed for maintenance. Now that it has re-opened, another section of the trail is undergoing the similar maintenance till Mar 2027.
During our last visit, I managed to capture a "confrontation" between a squirrel and a snake. This time round, we did not see much wildlife activities, but we did spot a Colugo as we were exiting the trail.
Part of the boardwalk is right next to the reservoir. There were hundreds of Pond Skaters skating on the water surface.
Though this was a short hike due to the closure of some trails, it was still a good walk after stopping for a while.
As we were walking towards the car park, we saw several groups of macaques having fun and doing their "monkey business" under a tree.
In the past few weeks, I'd been meeting up with some of my JC classmates either over a coffee or a pickleball session. Glad that after 37 years since we all first met, we were still in contact and able to meet up every now and then. There are more people in the group and hope they can all meet up going forward.
After about a month of elevated haze condition, it seemed to get better these few days. At least I can now see the buildings at the distance pretty clearly. And such a beautiful morning sun! :-)
The haze situation had gone from bad to worse over the past few days. It had reached the unhealthy band in the Air Quality Index for quite a while now. We could hardly see those building at a distance.
At night, we heard the sound of fireworks and quickly went up to our roof terrace to check it out. There was really fireworks display at Jalan Kayu area. What a time to have fireworks which probably added on to the hazy environment.
We spent the afternoon at Toppen Shopping Centre and bought quite a few stuffs from Decathlon and IKEA. In the evening, we had our dinner at BTY Grilled Fish (半天妖烤鱼). Known for its modern Chinese hotpot-style grilled fish, this massive franchise brought its famous bold flavours, fresh fish, and an incredibly affordable self-service bar to JB's vibrant Tebrau dining hub.
We ordered the popular, melt-in-your-mouth Lingbo fish (凌波鱼), and paired it with one of their famous Fresh Peppercorn (青花椒) broths. The fish arrived with a lightly charred, crispy exterior that absorbed the simmering broth perfectly. There was a 50% discount at that time for all their grilled fish.
For info, if you followed them on Facebook or Xiaohongshu (小红书), they will serve you the below side dish for free. And we did just that.
One of the highlights of dining here was their incredibly wallet-friendly RM3 self-service bar. For just RM3 per person, we got unlimited access to the following:
• Steaming hot white rice
• A variety of free-flow carbonated drinks and beverages
• Fresh seasonal fruits (like sliced watermelon)
• Soft-serve ice cream to cool down after a fiery meal
Today was Tracy's birthday, and we wanted to celebrate by having great meals one after another in JB. We had a fantastic Lalapot dinner last night. This morning after checking out, we again drove to Mount Austin area to have our brunch at XY80s Kopitiam (相约80年代怀旧馆).
Stepping into XY 80s Kopitiam at Mount Austin felt like stepping straight into a time machine.
After ordering our food from the menu, the ultimate icebreaker was their free-flow old-school snack counter. We could help ourselves to bins of the exact childhood biscuits and snacks that filled plastic jars decades ago. It immediately sets a relaxed, storytelling mood for the table while we waited for the main spread to arrive.
The spread on the menu was incredible. There were so many selections, and they all look delicious. We spent quite a while to go through the menu to decide what we wanted. We will definitely come back again to try out some other dishes.
After our meal, we went round the shop to take photos. It really brought back a lot of our childhood memories with things such as old-school telephones, ancient record players, classic magazine covers, and even retro sewing machines cleverly repurposed as dining tables.
We then went up to level 2 of the shop and there was a mock-up living room in a corner that further triggered more of our memories of the 80s.
How many of you have actually sat on these chairs (below) when you were young and kena "kiap" by them? Haha.....painful......
