It’s been decades since I walked through an actual jungle, but the heat and scent combined with the chatter of monkeys and song of tropical birds is like being gently lowered into a giant sound bath.
This blast to the senses is exactly what I want from a holiday: an adventure that’s exciting and unexpected. But what makes this walk through Singapore’s Bukit Timah Nature Reserve so unique?
Well, 45 minutes ago I was an air-conditioned shopping centre, trying on shoes and buying designer handbags with eye-watering savings (top tip: check out Charles & Keith for bags £40 cheaper here than they are in the UK).
Where else in the world do you step from shopping bargains to spotting monkeys and chipmunks amid the 28°C heat?
Singapore’s foresight in preserving the original jungle that once filled the countryside is just the tip of an extraordinary City In Nature initiative that has transformed this city state.
Hotels delight with greenery at every turn (I’m greeted with a giant living wall when I check into the Park Royal Collection Marina Bay), while business centres have extraordinary herbal and wooded retreats in the sky, such as CapitaSpring, where workers can sit, charge laptops amid the foliage, and relax with lunch-hour yoga amid the tropical flowers.
Reclaimed land beside the sea has been turned into the brilliant Gardens By The Bay – a green park that houses the amazing Supertree Grove (check out the evening light and music shows).
Meanwhile, Singapore’s National Parks Board aims to plant a million trees by 2030 and create 200 hectares of skyrise greenery. In fact, the flora starts at the eye-wateringly huge Changi Airport (home of the world’s biggest indoor waterfall and a six-acre indoor forest).
Leave via a car and just 60 seconds later the first cool thing you see are the beautifully arranged Goliath-sized floral tubs in the middle of the highway, forming the most gorgeous central reservation you’ll ever see.
Then you learn that each giant pot – the size of a family hot tub for six – is on wheels and can be moved in minutes by the army, turning the highway into a giant emergency runway, and suddenly, that cool flower display becomes the coolest fact x 100.
They’re also preserving the jungle, to ensure road building didn’t put wildlife at peril – huge walkways were built and trees planted so that monkeys and squirrels could cross the highway in safety, oblivious to the traffic below.
As a child, I lived in Singapore, when shanty towns still existed and before skyscrapers were built. When I went for my jabs at the age of five, I jumped out of the GP’s ground-floor window and ran straight into the jungle that was behind the surgery.
I’m certainly lacking that energy now – and you do need it to tackle the dense jungle heat. But there’s an easy path, regular water refill points and plenty of clear signposts (as well as warnings not to feed the monkeys).
If you fancy a meal you’ll never forget, grab a taxi towards the Malaysian border (50 pleasant air-conditioned minutes) and arrive at Bollywood, a farm curated on the edge of the jungle. Here, you’ll be taken on a walking tour, with sticks in case of snakes or wild boars.
It’s unlike any other nature tour – our guide breaks into the fruit of a lipstick tree and daubs her face with red to show how it landed its name.
Learn to spot which bananas you can eat and which you can’t (avoid the ones growing upside down) and then sit in the hippiest restaurant you’ll ever find to eat – under fans – a selection of mouth-watering meals with the locals.
You don’t need to love nature to love Singapore. It’s blessed with mod cons that any consumer could wish for. But grab a three-day tourist pass to travel on the sparkling local trains (no eating or drinking allowed) and you’ll find yourself amid all the flora and fauna you could dream of.
You may even spot the otters that have returned to the wild there.
After hours of walking and exploring each day, I swam amid the foliage
beside the pool at the friendly Park Royal Collection Marina Bay Hotel,
admiring the skyscrapers.
It’s surreal, a shopping heaven, steamy and soothing in a way city breaks don’t tend to be. It makes you realise the power of plants and wildlife within a city setting.
Want to start your trip feeling refreshed?
I was worried three nights weren’t enough for a 12-hour trip.
But I left the office at 6pm, caught a Singapore Airlines flight at 8.30pm, enjoyed champagne (thanks to a luxurious premium economy seat, which felt more like a business-class experience) and a delicious meal, watched a movie and slept like a baby – arriving in Singapore fresh as a daisy.
Returning decades after going to school there, it made me want to put my roots down once more.
Shopping is a must. But if you’re disappointed a store doesn’t have your shoe size (locals tend to have smaller feet, so 7s and 8s are sold out quicker by tourists) ask if they have an outlet at Changi airport, as the biggest shoe sizes are stocked at the airport to cater for tourists.
Fancy a tipple in style? Atlas Bar is the most impressive cocktail bar you’ll ever visit – and is like stepping into a vast film set. The Great Gatsby is the vibe and, if lights are low use the torch on your phone to help light your face for that perfect Insta shot.
It’s situated in the Parkview Square building, but if your taxi driver looks blank, ask for Gotham City and he’ll whisk you straight there. The building is straight off the Batman set – as is the heavy-bound book of cocktails the size of the Magna Carta.
Sip, pose and enjoy.
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