This time when I said to my wife about camping; to my surprise she immediately agreed and started to pack things. We are going for camping but we didn’t have any camp gears. We planned to buy tent from Giant – in Tampines Retail Park and then to go to ECP.
In Singapore if you want to Camp in any park you need to register yourself. It is a very simple procedure – and you can do it in minutes using AXS website.
There are few rules to know before you apply for Camping. One rule which worried me is:
“The person to whom a permit is issued must be present at the tent at all times and must not leave the tent vacant or unattended to, and must show his permit to NParks officers for verification upon request. Any tent left vacant or unattended to may be removed by NParks without notice.”
To me this rule is not realistic. When you go for camping you think about loads of other things to do other than just camping. And the important point is you will wish to do it with your family. What is the fun in just leaving your spouse back in tent? Or letting your spouse do it when you stay back in tent? I don’t understand!
Any way I booked and got my print out from an AXS machine (there is one very near to my HDB). And we headed out direct to Giant.
It was pretty easy to buy a tent – because you know your budget. Anything around than 30$ was good. I got one from xTreme (3 Person water proof) tent for 34$. Bought some sand play toys for my kid. Great!
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We reached the spot and searched for a good location to pitch the tent. In ECP you can pitch tents at 2 places – Park area D and Park area G. Park area D is nearer to the main ECP center and food courts. Park area G is almost the end of the beach. Just opposite to National Sailing Center.
We chose area G – for no reasons. We found the place quite. It was our first camping – we didn’t know how to mount this tent. After struggling we sought the help of a neighbor who was BBQing although this time. He helped us to understand the basics of the tenting – then it was a breeze.
Basically there are 2 long poles – to be inserted diagonally in the packets that run through the tents diagonally and clamp the hook in the four corners to the corresponding end of the diagonals. Then use the anchor to pitch the tent to the ground. That’s it.
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Meanwhile my daughter has started to play with her sand toys. After pitching up the tent we joined my daughter in her sand games – we made crabs, sea horses, castles etc. When it is boring we played with waves. Then back to the sand.
After some time we thought of flying kite. My daughter loves kite very much. The previous day, I had bought an expensive Cindrella kite from Musthafa. But unfortunately the kite didn’t go up. We tried hard. My daughter was very angry with me. She must have been thinking: why daddy cannot put this kite up in the sky. What’s wrong with him and the kite? We tried for some time and then we decided to put an end to this drama as everybody around us started wondering what’s going on?!
After buying some drinks we decided to go biking. There are no shops around car park area G – except a drinks and snacks stall in the bike rental place. I and my wife rented a bike each. My bike had baby seat – where my daughter perfectly fitted in. We started our bike ride from Park area G to the SKI Park – almost 5 KM and bought some food from the food court and then returned back. Almost 10KM ride in bike. It was tiring but a refreshing ride. I and my wife loved riding bike together. My daughter was bit worried though, saying: daddy it is dark, we go to home and sleep!
We returned to our tent and had our food. We relaxed ourselves lying back watching the stars and hearing the tides and the airplanes.
The only thing that irritated me is the wind. No wind and it were hot. We stayed there for some more hours and left later.
Altogether the trip is refreshing and we look forward to go again!
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