On my brother’s recent trip here, we went hiking together to Singapore’s highest peak, the Bukit Timah Summit. It’s only a few kilometers away from our place and although I’m very familiar with the area, having made it our MTB playground a decade ago when I was still active in offroad biking, I had never actually reached the summit!
I’m not as fit as I was before the pandemic, so I was a little worried whether I could make it since I haven’t run or even hiked more than 2km recently. We started a bit late, around 9am, and when we reached the entrance to the nature reserve, there were already lots of hikers making their way up, including those already on their way back.
Experienced runners doing their hill reps whizzed past us at a running pace along slopes where just walking up felt too challenging for me. I tried to slow down to keep my heart rate reasonable, already gulping down one bottle of energy drink before we were even halfway up. My brother offered me his drink and we reminisced about climbing Mt. Makiling years ago, a moderate 1000 meter climb, where we foolishly decided to reach the summit without enough water.
I’m no experienced mountain climber, just a weekend mountain biker who that day cycled up to the foot of Mt. Makiling and continued hiking up the famous peak with whatever water was left in my bottle. We made it up, enjoyed the view, and a few hours of trudging later reached civilization in the dark. While my brother could catch a jeepney from there, I still had to ride my feels-like-a-ton-heavy all-iron full-suspension bike home. Ah, the invincible feeling of youth!
I may not feel old, but I was still daunted by the challenge of climbing Bukit Timah hill. A few minutes into our climb though, we reached a spot where hikers were snapping photos at a marker stating “Bukit Timah Summit – 163.63m”. At 164 meters, we have reached the highest of Singapore’s natural peaks.
The climb turned out to be tougher than expected, a humbling reminder that staying in shape post-Covid is no walk in the park (or up the hill). But reaching the top with my brother, huffing and puffing, brought back fond memories of our Makiling adventure. The journey may change – from rugged mountains to city park hills – but the camaraderie of brotherhood and love for a good physical challenge endures. And in the end, that’s what truly matters, whether we’re scaling hills or mountains, or just reminiscing about our past adventures over a well-earned post-hike sliced fish and meatball soup.
P.S. Here’s a song for our Nanay who is celebrating her birthday today. We love you!
Leave a Reply