Recently we revisited Pasir Ris Park, which has always been one of my personal favourites although we haven't been there for ages. In Singaporean terms it's quite far away from us: about 25 minutes in the car on the east coast of the island.
On arrival we figured the best plan would be to let the kids play in the playground first to let off some steam then tackle the bike riding. What a pleasant surprise we got! The playground has been massively expanded with all manner of activities for kids, from toddlers to more adventurous 10-12 year olds. The original existing equipment such as the flying foxes and climbing frame have been moved around and lots of exciting new stuff added like climbing nets, a wobbly bridge, obstacle courses, a maze and a play area for the littlies.
The park is well established which means it's lovely and shady with hundreds of mature trees providing shelter from the sun. Being on the coast means there's often a sea breeze to help cool us down as well. The last time I went with the kids was about 6 months ago when there was a lot of building going on. I guess that's what put me off going back until last Sunday when we jumped in the car and headed down there, the main attraction (we thought) being the bicycle hire place. Niels is craving bike riding since our trip back to Holland in August when he got a new bike, and there are fairly limited opportunities in this busy city state.
On arrival we figured the best plan would be to let the kids play in the playground first to let off some steam then tackle the bike riding. What a pleasant surprise we got! The playground has been massively expanded with all manner of activities for kids, from toddlers to more adventurous 10-12 year olds. The original existing equipment such as the flying foxes and climbing frame have been moved around and lots of exciting new stuff added like climbing nets, a wobbly bridge, obstacle courses, a maze and a play area for the littlies.The kids went crazy and for the next hour or so hubby and I were more or less redundant, sitting on tree roots swatting at marauding ants and occasionally topping the kids up with water. They quickly made friends with a bunch of local kids and were racing around enjoying themselves with the unselfconscious abandon that only children can achieve.
Finally they seemed to be slowing down a bit so we headed to the bike rental place and picked up three bikes in pretty good condition for about $15 for two hours. The park is perfect for cycling because it's completely flat and there are loads of paths to choose from. The size of the park and it's long, thin shape mean you can happily cycle for 20 minutes or so before having to make choices about where to go next. You can even join a park connector which will lead you to other parks in the area, by-passing roads and traffic. We stopped at the mangrove swamps so the kids 
could run up the observation tower and look for birds, and again at the end of the cycle way (behind Wild Wild Wet) to look at all the ships in the marina. Then it was back towards the main part of the park again. When they'd finally had enough we had lunch at the very basic Chinese seafood restaurant there, filling up on seafood fried rice and lemon chicken. As is typical in Singapore, the food was tasty, cheap and perfectly safe and we washed it all down with icy mugs of fresh lime juice. Feeling like we needed a sleep we could only shake our heads in disbelief as the boys raced off to the playground again. Hubby succumbed to the heat and his full tummy and crashed out on the grass for a while until it was time to go. Wiping away the sweat dripping from their 
red-flushed faces we bundled the kids into the car, turned up the air-con and headed home. Pasir Ris Park has moved firmly to the top of our favourite parks list and we can all recommend it if you have kids of any age, if you fancy jumping on a bike for a relaxing ride, or even if you are one of those mad people who enjoys jogging and are looking for plenty of pretty, shady space to run around in. Just don't trip over the sleeping Papa's.
could run up the observation tower and look for birds, and again at the end of the cycle way (behind Wild Wild Wet) to look at all the ships in the marina. Then it was back towards the main part of the park again. When they'd finally had enough we had lunch at the very basic Chinese seafood restaurant there, filling up on seafood fried rice and lemon chicken. As is typical in Singapore, the food was tasty, cheap and perfectly safe and we washed it all down with icy mugs of fresh lime juice. Feeling like we needed a sleep we could only shake our heads in disbelief as the boys raced off to the playground again. Hubby succumbed to the heat and his full tummy and crashed out on the grass for a while until it was time to go. Wiping away the sweat dripping from their 
red-flushed faces we bundled the kids into the car, turned up the air-con and headed home. Pasir Ris Park has moved firmly to the top of our favourite parks list and we can all recommend it if you have kids of any age, if you fancy jumping on a bike for a relaxing ride, or even if you are one of those mad people who enjoys jogging and are looking for plenty of pretty, shady space to run around in. Just don't trip over the sleeping Papa's.
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