Well I was wrong about today being an easy day…

We left our apt around 9am with Ron’s classmate Nitin and his wife Nimisha. We headed to MacRitchie Reservoir where they have hiking/walking/running trails. We arrived around 9:30am and began walking. The reservoir itself is for rainwater collection and around it is lush forest. There is a wooden bridge-like trail that goes around the water’s edge and there are some inner trails that go through the forest. We all started walking together but then maybe 1km in, Nitin and Ron decided to jog so left us girls to walk.

On the following map, we started at the bottom right side with that little red dot with an arrow saying “You Are Here”. We walked along the trail against the water and up the left hand side. Nimisha and I turned back at the Jelutong Tower, sort of near where the yellow trail goes at a right angle. The guys ended up going all the way around: jogging and walking (as they called it: the “girly way”).

The water of the reservoir is very green. Probably lots of moss and algae.

There are lots of visible fish in the shallow water and there were also lots of turtles sticking their heads out of the water. They were so cute! I had a pet turtle when I was a kid but sadly it got eaten by a neighbor’s cat when we went on vacation.

Apparently there are monkeys in the forest although I did not see any. Ron said that he saw two monkeys since they went a bit deeper into the forest.

I did see this big lizard though, I heard it rustling in the leaves. It was probably looking for water or food as it was slithering its tongue. It was probably about 1-2 feet long.

Nimisha and I made it about 5km in to Jelutong tower where we climbed to the top of the spiral staircase, maybe up 6 or 7 rounds. It was wonderfully breezy up top and you could see how lush the forest really was. It seemed quite overgrown though as you couldn’t really see the trails as you looked down.

Yay! We made it!

It was already 11am by the time we made it to the tower so we decided to walk back the way we came. It was faster on the way back and we ended up at the parking lot around 12:30pm. The guys were already waiting for us and were ready to go out to eat!

We ended up in Little India at a restaurant called Anjappar specializing in Chettinaad cuisine, South Indian cuisine and apparently spicy and aromatic.

We had the following dishes:

Cauliflower and Potatoes

Fish Manchurian with gravy

Mixed veggie curry

Chicken

We had lunch with all sorts of bread (ie, naan and other styles) and overall, it was tasty although not as spicy as we expected. The fish was a bit tangy and a bit dry inside without using sauce. The chicken had a bite to it so was very good. The service left something to be desired though. The mango juice was served warm with a bit of ice on top so it was sent back but then didn’t reappear until we asked the waiter. They forgot one of our masala teas. A second helping of naan took more than 20 minutes to make. Overall, just strange considering the place seems it would be high class because it was high tech. They use wireless PDAs to write down orders and the bathroom doors are these special sliding doors.

But after that 10km walk, it was good to eat something filling. The after lunch treat were these little sweetened saffron seads. They sit in a bowl at the entrance so when you leave, you take a little scoop of it into your palm and eat them. They’re apparently good for digestion. It sort of tastes like sweet perfume to me. It’s not bad, just different.

Nimisha dropped us off back and home and we were ready for nap. It was only 2:30pm or so but we’d already had a big day. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just relaxing as we’re already starting to feel some soreness in our muscles.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring…