After coming back from Perth, I've been jetting about to KL, Ipoh and Phuket. After a whole month of travelling, I can now settle down and start posting more pictures of Singapore! This post is going to be the first post with pictures that were taken entirely in Singapore, I guess!
I had always wanted to go to Bishan Park ever since it got revamped (it was a major overhaul indeed!). But although I kept telling myself to go in the middle of 2012, I couldn't find the right time to do so as I had to collect data for my thesis, read lots of journal papers, and basically do my thesis such that life won't be so miserable for the 2nd part of my Honours year. So now - with no thesis to work on - I decided to make a trip to Bishan Park - FINALLY!
It was really easy to get to Bishan Park. I just had to take a direct bus to my alma mater and instead of walking into my alma mater, just follow the path next to it.
School was out for the year when I went - so it was really, really quiet. I went back again early this year before attending a conference, and I could hear teachers giving lessons. I really, really enjoyed my 4 years in this school. Even now I still go back to visit every Chinese New Year. Some of the teachers who taught me have left, but some others remain. And they still recognise us! Right now I still love the colour combination of yellow and grey (which were the colours of my school uniform), I keep my prefect's badge and collar-pin, and of course, I keep the Chief Commissioner's badge I obtained from St John Ambulance Brigade. I think I kept one of my school uniforms as a souvenir.
The path into Bishan Park was essentially straight.
There was a condominium block next to my alma mater. It's been there for as long as I remember, and it is situated between my alma mater and another secondary school.
During my secondary school days, this was just a concrete canal, which became pretty flooded during rainy days. Now - it has been transformed into a meandering stream. This is supposedly Kallang River, and it flows through the entire length of Bishan Park. Lots of work had been put in to convert a concrete, lifeless canal into something teeming with fish, plants and even birds. The technique used to construct this stream is known as soil bioengineering. It makes use of techniques like geotextile wrapped soil lifts together with planting of tropical plants to prevent erosion and encourage more life.
Not just plants were used. Rocks were also laid on the riverbed. Water levels still rise when rains get heavy. Hence there're lots of warnings around telling people to stay away from the floodplains during bad weather.
There's a nifty filter in Adobe Photoshop CS4 (what I typically use) called "Posterise". I find that the filter gives a really interesting effect to my pictures!
This is the original appearance of the picture just above. No photoshop, no filters. I like both pictures!
Anyway check out the dark clouds! They were starting to come in.
And guess what? The skies were still kinda blue on the other side (behind me)! It's not the first time I've seen such bipolar weather. I remembered seeing such bipolar weather in Sentosa when taking pictures with a couple of buddies, but that was ages ago!
Thanks to the rainy season, there were lots of wild mushrooms growing! This was really small-scale compared to a massive mushroom bloom I saw about 2 years ago. That mushroom bloom was seriously epic, with at least 100 times more mushrooms that what we're seeing now.
I really, really love mushrooms. For some reason I find them highly adorable. And not to mention - I love eating mushrooms. All sorts of mushrooms! Including the enoki mushrooms, thin-stemmed mushrooms with tiny caps that are often found in steamboat restaurants. The other day my friend and I finished at least half a big plate of enoki mushrooms, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!
Bracket fungi growing on a nearby log. These are also known as shelf fungi (check out its shape!), and are very common in tropical forests. They're usually found on logs or trees.
Besides bracket fungi, there were other fungi growing on the same log. When I went back for a second trip (just recently!), the fungi were still happily growing. I wonder if this area's perpetually moist, making it a good breeding ground for fungi.
I spotted some more growing near the floodplains, and went down for a closer look. I actually didn't expect the floodplains to be THAT muddy, and ended up with extremely dirty slippers. Luckily I had some tissue.
Bishan Park has quite a lot of beautiful sights, including mushrooms during rainy seasons. Check this out - I found a gorgeous butterfly taking a rest on a branch. So I whipped out my telephoto lens and took as many pics of it before it flew off. It was so cooperative - I got at least 3 shots of it before it finally decided to go off.
Bishan Park's surrounded by housing estates - mainly high rise buildings. I can see high rise buildings from the start of the pathway...and a few hundred metres down, more flats loom in the distance!
I had walked pretty far already, and it was time for me to walk back to the main road. On the way back, here's one pic I took! Took this mainly because of the reflection in the water.
Another reason why I wanted to head back - the impending thunderstorm. Shortly after I left the park and got to the bus stop, I heard thunder and the next thing I knew? Heavy rain!!! And when I first got to the park, it was still sunny! I'm still surprised by how drastically the weather could change. Then again, Singapore's way more predictable than Melbourne. Melbourne's weather can change anytime - hence we call it "four seasons in a day".
Nevertheless, I like the 3D effect of the dark clouds! Sometimes overcast days make sceneries look more interesting. Experienced it during my Phuket trip and also in some other trips.
Here's another instance where heavy, dark clouds made life interesting for me. Similar experience to what I had in Bishan Park.
I went to Sentosa for a walk along the beach (partially to chill out!), and I initially thought the weather would be good as it wasn't that cloudy...
But I was quickly proven wrong when I saw this!! The winds were increasing, the clouds were quickly coming in, and gosh, the waves were getting stronger! Had to leave straightaway. These clouds were similar to what I saw in Bishan Park before I left. I was pretty disappointed that I had to leave so fast.
And that concludes my first Bishan Park trip after its major overhaul! I went again another day. Will post pictures of that trip soon!