I had three full days to enjoy Singapore,
and enjoy it I did, despite the horrible air quality (thank to Indonesia’s
habit of burning large sections of rain forest) and one particularly rainy
day. As I mentioned before, one of the first things I did was run a ropes
course along a reservoir on the east coast of Singapore. It’s amazing
how such a tiny city/country can harbor large tracts of green space and what is
essentially rain forest. The course had moments from pretty easy,
climbing ladders and crossing fairly firm bridges to holy cow hard, moving
sideways along logs hung in a zig zag pattern with gaps of a full foot between
the zig and the zag. You can see the course on the map in the picture,
along with some of the interesting obstacles. I was the photographer, so
no pictures of me. Which is really too bad because one of the more
interesting parts of the course entailed a Tarzan-like swing from the tree tops
into a cargo net that is supposed to stop your swing. Which it did for
most people. I, on the other hand, having spent a fair amount of the last
year flying on a trapeze, came off the platform with my toes pointed and my
legs stuck together like they were velcroed that way. And flew right
through the cargo net! The only thing that stopped me was the connection
point of the safety harness, which was attached to a wire rope. Had I not
been connected, I think my shoulders might have stopped my momentum, but I was
in well past my hips when I came to a halt. The safety observers thought
it was pretty funny. Then again, they also loved that I did all four zip
lines upside down :-)
My last afternoon I actually found a trapeze rig that had
single swings for $10 and three swings for $20, so I brought one of my guys
(all the rest of the big talkers backed out) and we swung around for a
bit. He did great – got his legs up and into a knee hang on the
first try. He was pretty pleased when I told him that not everyone did so
well, though he kept his feet flexed the whole time so I’m not sure how
exactly he didn’t slide right off.
The endlessly changing nature of Singapore is one of the things I
love about it – no matter how often I visit, there’s always something
new to see and do. Happily, this new stuff fit right in with my sense of
adventure!
Love ropes courses. Looks like a fun time. It's too bad you never get out and do anything wildly exciting and adventurous. ; )
Hehehe for the big talkers who backed out.
Posted by: Jennifer | October 24, 2010 at 08:51 AM