singapore: day 2

on day 2 we rose and found some breakfast in a hawker center around the corner from the hostel.  right outside the center we caught a bus to the bukit timah nature reserve.  the reserve has the only old-growth forest left in singapore, covering about 400 acres.  it was hot and our intention was to rent bikes and make our way to the summit, but there was no rental location actually at the reserve, so we just hiked to the top.  the main route is paved, but we chose an unpaved route for the majority of it.

signs everywhere saying don't feed the monkeys but we didn't see any, just some monitor lizards.  there was so much forest that we couldn't see anything in terms of a view of the island.  i'm not complaining, it was nice to see the island in a bit more primal state.

we left there headed to kong meng san phor kark see monastery, the largest in singapore.  we first stopped in a female monastery assuming that was it.  a lady in there told us that the male monastery was what we were looking for and it was just down the street and closed in 30 minutes.  i wanted to stay and check this one out, but she insisted that kong meng san phor kark was amazing and we should hurry.  according to our guide book we still had two hours, so we quickly left.

here's the one shot i got from the female monastery.  sorry, i don't know it's name.  i guess it could be the same name though.

 

now apparently the highlight of the male monastery was the pagoda of 10,000 buddhas, which we managed to miss in our rush.  very unfortunate.

 

we made our way back to the quays downtown and waited around for an hour for a discounted entrance to the asian civilizations museum.  we walked down to the merlion that we had seen from the bumboat the day before, but there was nothing else to it.  as for the museum, you could have spent an entire day in there.