The Wandering Lodges: Oooh, Look What I Found!

Brad’s been out of town since last Sunday and will be gone until late Friday night. Lucky guy is back in the States, eating red meat, drinking affordable wine and visiting friends. Oh, yeah… and attending multi-day conferences and long business meetings. Semi-lucky guy.

After a week of staying up late, watching crappy television while chatting one-on-one with Dagny's toys (only to be disappointed by their less-than-stellar conversational skills and lack of laughter at my awesome jokes), I decided to do something productive and slightly more sane with my time... Like organize my iPhoto albums! Whoo-hoo! But as fortune would have it, while I was sifting through some pictures last night, I found a fun batch that I had set aside to place in my blog, and then completely forgot about! These are from about two months ago, but better late than never…

It was Saturday, and the morning started with our usual round of chores. Now I assure you, this involved no coercing on my part whatsoever, but two of Dagny’s favorite activities are Swiffering the floors and doing laundry. Here she is, slaving away on our balcony.

"One day a handsome prince will come for me. Hopefully the glass slipper won't be ridiculously small... I have such big feet already!"

"Would you like me to also fold what's on the drying rack, Wicked Step— er, Mom?"

Once our chores were done, we headed to MacRitchie Reservoir, where there are miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers) of trails to hike. Sure, there are some parks and playgrounds around our apartment, and even a beach nearby, but Brad and I were ready for a day in the woods!

Heading out!

Very cool trees... the stuff of fairy tales and haunted forests.

Adventurer vest with pockets for collecting pebbles and leaves? Check. Minnie Mouse water bottle? Check. Hiking shoes? Check. Everything in coordinating shades of Diva Pink? Checkity check.

Believe it or not, the trails were kind of tough! Of course, we aren’t used to hiking with a 22-lb. kid on our backs, nor are we accustomed to slogging through a rainforest in 95-degree heat and off-the-chart levels of humidity. But I was pleasantly surprised that on an island that appears relatively flat, there were some pretty impressive climbs.

The forest was very dense, and filled with all kinds of sounds I wasn't used to hearing… squawking and strange chirping and shrill monkey calls. About 20 minutes into our hike, we encountered our first bit of wildlife… sunning itself on the trail in front of us was a 3-foot monitor lizard! As soon as he saw us he slid off the trail and none of my pictures of him hiding beneath the lush plants came out very well. But it was fun to see (and a little scary!). He was definitely much bigger and more dinosaur-like than the lizards I’m used to seeing around the apartment!

Our destination was the Rainforest Canopy Trail, which ended up not being quite as close as it appeared on the park map. But we enjoyed every step of our hike, and Brad and I got such a kick out of showing things to Dagny and watching her reactions to the world around her. And the long, hot, and hilly climb was definitely worth it... Who wouldn't be excited by the chance to walk across swinging bridges in the treetops of the rainforest?

Canopy bridge. We were probably about 75-feet up from the ground.

I almost missed seeing this guy! I was so focused on the bridge and clinging (yes, clinging) to the handrails that at first I didn't notice him sitting not 15-feet away from us, staring at me and probably thinking, "What a wuss."

View out to the reservoir from the bridge.

All in all, the hike took us about 5 hours. We were exhausted by the end! About fifteen minutes away from the parking lot, as Brad and I were walking and discussing where we should stop for ice cream on the way home, the usually-still trees around us started rustling. Then they started whipping frantically back and forth. And then came the cackling shrieks of monkeys. And then came the monkeys themselves, dashing across the trail in front of us and hopping up and down in the trees beside us!

And as I fumbled for my camera, I just kept thinking, “These are WILD monkeys! Dozens of them! I’m like Jane Goodall!”

See the monkey sitting on the fence to the right? He darted right between Brad and I. Dagny kept pointing to all of them and making monkey sounds. SO. CUTE!

Monkeys everywhere!

Some of the babies could have fit in the palm of my hand. I love this little guy. I would have named him Diablo, with those cute horns of his.

When we got home, Dags put on Daddy's hiking boots and started walking around the apartment. She must have had a good time, too, and didn't want the day to end!

Here are a few more pics that never made it into a blog post, but I love looking at. They are from National Day, which was quite a while ago (August 9^th). It has now been 46 years since Singapore first established their independence from Malaysia!

We kicked off our version of celebrating National Day by going to the TOP of Marina Bay Sands (the super-cool hotel/casino that looks like it has a cruise ship perched on top of it). The elevator ride alone was pretty amazing... we rocketed up almost 60 floors in just under 10 seconds. I was a little wobbly when we stepped off at the top. And once I found my stomach again (which bottomed out around the 20th floor), we found our way over to the terrace bar for a drink of the most expensive, but most delicious Chardonnay I've ever had. They charge about $30/glass, but part of that must also be for this impressive view...

Daddy and my darling diva. The girl loves anything pink, pouffy, and covered in bows. And watch out, future boyfriends... this one has a serious affinity for jewelry!