Henderson Waves

It was a spontaneous decision on my parents' part. I do miss those spur-of-the-moment stuff we used to do as a family. I wonder when exactly did we stop going out. When my sister and I were younger, we would have these exploratory car rides around Singapore, where my dad would drive randomly into the most ulu corners of the island. These all happens at night, of course, where the thrill factor is amplified by many times. I remember once, when I was around 6 or 7, we were going through this dark forest-y place and my sister shouted, "有坟墓!", which means, there's a cemetery. I screamed and promptly burst into tears. Such joyous memories.

I was reminiscing about all that, as Dad drove us (Mom and I) to Henderson Waves, a 274 meter-long pedestrian bridge that spans Henderson Road to connect Mount Faber Park to Telok Blangah Hill Park. All that was from the National Park Board website, of course. Apparently (brace yourselves for another bombardment of stolen information), "at 36m above Henderson Road, Henderson Waves is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore." The car was parked in this little car-park beneath the bridge, and we trekked up the winding path up to the actual bridge.

According to the website, the bridge is described as having "distinctive wave-like structure consisting of a series of undulating curved "ribs". These “ribs” also double up as alcoves providing shelter to the public." They seem to have forgotten the little fact that the "ribs", as they lovingly call it, have empty spaces as wide as a person's head (trust me, I've tested it out) in-between them, so it isn't much of an effective shelter. Both sunshine and water is able to easy pass through. Thankfully, we had the good sense to go there after nightfall, so at least we didn't have to brave the sweltering heat.

I've had to actually see the bridge before I got the name. I had been thinking it was extremely weird to call a bridge a 'wave'. Doesn't exactly give you much confidence in the bridge's stability, does it. What they were trying to do was to create this wave-like pattern at the side of the bridge. The full wave is only visible from the back of the bridge, while only the top parts of the wave is visible when you're on the bridge itself. The whole structure is wooden and does look quite fluid, which is a plus point. The curved sides of the bridge gives me a curious desire to lie against it and roll about, while shouting 'I'm surfing on the waves!". If only there weren't so many people around.

People. I know Barbra said that people who need people are the luckiest people in the world, but do we really need people needing people in the most obscene ways possible, while on display right at the top of the 'tallest pedestrian bridge in Singapore" ? It churns my stomach to see couples (barely outta their adolescence) cuddling underneath the 'wave-shelter-that-has-too-many-holes-to-count-as-a-shelter' shelter. I'm pretty sure there are laws against such graphic fondling, and to witness them with both your parents at your side is just plain mortifying. It took so much effort to pretend as if I didn't want to join in.

The place does look quite pretty at night, with soft glowing lamps lighting up the bridge, and it would be a lovely place to go with a significant other. Aiming spit bombs down at the Henderson Road motorists is just too romantic to pass on.