For many tourists, Singapore is well-known for its food and shopping. Maybe even the zoo. But not many people know of all the parks in this little city-nation. For the past few weekends, we've had occasion to explore some of them and we have many more to visit! We already wrote about the ever-so-beautiful and expansive
West Coast Park in a previous entry. It has a couple of great playgrounds f, it's right on the water, it has a big off-leash dog park, a mangrove, a bicycle obstacle course, and beautiful flora.
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| No idea what this statue represents |
The park closest to us is
Kent Ridge Park. Last weekend, we walked for about twenty minutes to its northernmost entrance, and explored the stroller-friendly portions of the park. We heard lots of birds and other animals, and walked through a shaded footpath.
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| No choking the birds at Kent Ridge Park |
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| If you are a loan shark who charges people exorbitant rates, you will get thrown onto a hill of knives |
Since Dewi fell asleep in the middle of our outing, we decided to walk our way home through Pasir Panjang Village, a small restaurant/retail area close to where we live (also home to one of our date night locations,
Hoo Ha Cafe). After the Village, she was still asleep so we walked through the former amusement park by our home,
Haw Par Villa. There is no other word to describe this place, but "strange". It has free admission, so our curiosity got the best of us. Singaporean friends had informed us that they used to go on school field trips to this place, before all the amusement park rides shut down. Now, it is an interesting place to see, though it's not very well-maintained. The most memorable part of Haw Par Villa is the "Ten Courts of Hell" exhibit. You walk through a dark cave with dioramas of horrific torture scenes for various sins one may have committed during their life. Not recommended as an outing with your grown kids who may be traumatized after viewing this exhibit.
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| Labrador Park |
Today we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at
Labrador Nature Reserve. We'll have to come back to visit the other parts of the park, but the playground area by the water is beautiful and scenic. Dewi loved watching the waves crash onto the rocks. Though the start of the morning was hot hot hot, once the sun went away and we spent time in the shade, we were able to cool down and enjoy our surroundings.
