Bukit Timah Summit, Singapore – A Test of Soul and Sole
In 2022, my friend invited us to their home near Bukit Timah for breakfast. We started early from our hotel and boarded the Downtown Line of the Singapore MRT to reach the Bukit Timah MRT station. It was around 10.15AM when we reached and my friend Srinivas told us to meet him at a nearby bus stop after we complete the hike to this peak – apparently the highest point of Singapore (not really a comparison to Indian mountains but worth it).
A bright day it was when we got out of the station, turned on the GPS and crossed an overbridge towards the hike. Many morning hikers were headed towards this beautiful neighbourhood and we were awestruck looking at some of the homes that stood alongside the beautifully decorated gardens.
Finally, after walking for another 10 minutes, we reached the starting point of the Bukit Timah Summit. It is a hike to the top most point of Singapore through a steep elevation of a mountain passing through a forest. While climbing up we could hear strange bird sounds we had never heard before. While we were pretty excited about the hike, the elevation kept becoming more and more steeper and my heart started pumping harder. I am not a regular mountain person and with the bright sun shining, the entire body was drenched in sweat and honestly my shoes were not really suitable for a hike. At times I felt I was losing grip but the climb was indeed challenging after the first 15 minutes.
Srinivas has told us, there’s a route that brings you downhill on the western side. The nearest landmark was a milk farm. We knew we would reach our destination through the wild very easily. The hike takes around 40 minutes to reach the top and another 20-25 minutes to get down to the city. Samiksha is a trained mountaineer and it wasn’t really big deal for her but by the time we reached almost 70% of the uphill hike, I was completely out of breath. And the best part? We didn’t carry water! I still remember, there were monkeys coming out in groups around every turn uphill, as if they waited for us to just vanish so that they could claim the trail. I was kind of nervous about being so close to the wild (I’m not a forest person either!). The strange sounds coming from between the tall trees, the mongolian-faced monkeys and some really beautiful birds flapping their wings every now and then – all of it made it a recipe for my anxiousness to slowly build up.
Honestly, I might have dramatised the entire scenario a little too much inside my head, because passerbys were pretty casual about their morning fitness routine trailed by monkeys from the trees and rocks!
Finally after 40-45 minutes, we reached the top. There’s this rock that says “Bukit Timah Summit” and people pose in front of it. We did too! It was a proud moment for me; an accomplishment I would say because fitness and hikes go hand in hand, and for me even waking up early in normal days is a challenge.
My calf muscles were already paining when we decided to take the route Srinivas had suggested. There was a narrow wooden path in the middle of a dense forest, cut out as stairs that seemed to lead nowhere. The strange sounds kept increasing and suddenly the sky became cloudy. Yet another recipe for anxiousness! We kept walking towards the trail and found the road was closed due to maintenance. There was another route and we decided to take that. Another 5-8 minutes into that route we realised, there was no network and we hadn’t really connected the data services to pre determine our GPS route map. Hence, no internet, no route guidance, a dense forest in a foreign land, unknown species of animals and what not, and to make it worse – clouds slowly covering the sky. I was a little nervous about it but we kept walking downhill.
A little more into the route, the wooden path became narrower and suddenly we spotted a monkey sitting on the fence. We stopped! We had seen these monkeys on our way up, but this time this monkey was different – sharp eyes, sitting in absolute zen, balancing on a narrow wooden fence and looking straight towards us. I got myself together and approached it. I have encountered many monkeys in India, in my city and elsewhere. Once back in 2005, I literally ran from a family of monkeys because they ate all our food and attacked us in our lodge in Puri, Odisha. Anyway, I slowly moved closer while Samiksha was behind me. And then something happened that hammered its face in my memory forever. The monkey didn’t blink – it looked straight into my eyes like a monk and I felt for a moment that it was challenging me to cross its habitat. “Would you do it?” it seemed the monkey asked me inside my mind. Well, I might have, but I didn’t have the courage at that moment to fight a Singaporean monkey – because its eyes were telling me, it knows kung-fu! Jokes apart, we both stood there for some time, waited for it to move away, but in vain. We decided to go back and follow the same trail that brought us uphill.
I remember, our speed back uphill to reach the summit point from this unknown route was pretty faster than our initial speed of ascent because I felt an unknown force was following us inside the forest. When we reached the summit point again I was a little relieved. We walked down towards the city using the same route which we took to climb and a new challenge came my way. My shoes!! I was wearing nylon Zara shoes which are absolutely not capable of a steep climb or descent. There were times I felt my shoes will tear apart due to my own body weight and it was very tough to balance. I for the first time in my life realised that a descent can be more painful and complicated than an ascend. Lesson learned – choose your soles properly.
Finally after 25 minutes, we came down and met Srinivas. We laughed about whatever happened in the wrong route. My friend exclaimed, the monkeys can be intimidating but they are harmless. I added, “may be for Singaporeans only”.
Later we went to his place, a huge residential complex called “Sanctuary” and the view I saw from above was breathtaking. The view from their common area is a perfect blend of the Bukit Timah forest and the concrete jungle.
Today when I look back at the experience – all I remember as highlights are the unfathomable stare of the monkey into my soul and my favourite soles giving up on me when the road went downhill, or should I say – life went downhill!
