Hiking - NS55 Interactive Trail Walk

Hi Blog,

Mr A (my army friend) showed me a trail on Friday (last min...) and asked me to bring him to complete this trail in the morning. What trail are you asking? It was about NS55 Interactive Trail hosted by Singapore Government. (news about NS55) Actually, it sounded exciting and it seemed like a short hike for the morning, so...

Let's GO! Cepat Jalan! (It is a drill command used in Singapore Army to mean quick march or walk fast in Malay.)

Based on NS55 trail site, this interactive trail has 7 discovery points and at each point, we can interact with the surrounding space with AR, information and quiz; which have significant value to Singapore's history. I read that there is a reward after the completion of the walk and I wondered what will that be?

After reading, I felt motivated and decided to give this a try. They also have two options for users to participate in this walk. (NS55trail official website) Admirable and considerable.

But if I can sleep a while will be best...

but... Time to go now if not, I will be late.

I was still wondering, should I just wear a top over myself or not...

Today's weather seemed nice.

I travelled all the way to one of the busiest stations in...

...my trisuit and no one bothered. Ugly me haha...

After meeting Mr A, we headed down to our first checkpoint.

Since we were early, let's snap some pictures here...

WHAT?! There was a queue???

Sigh... No choice... The ladies took their own sweet time to snap and pose... I gave up.

I heard Mr A explain that this place is listed as a MUST-to-GO place on other countries' websites. No wonder... 🤦🏻‍♂️

Anyway, it has been a long time since I stepped into Fort Canning Park. If I could remember correctly, there was an old swimming pool here where I loved to swim at

Wow, I wish I can visit Fort Canning at night, here must be beautiful.

OOoo! I remembered! This place!

It is the legendary Battlebox at Fort Canning Hill. I will visit this place next time :)

Some reading material for Fort Canning

I still can remember I was briefed by a guide about this stair, which was used as one of the defence strategies to protect the hill. I was mind blown by how a simple strategy in layout can become a strong fort.

Beneath these amazing plants...

...inside the hill, there was an underground network of bunkers and tunnels.

Some reading material about it.

Here is the entrance to Fort Canning Battlebox.

Anyway, let's stay focused on the topic. Fort Canning is the first stop. So we can use our phone browser and enter the interactive mode. (Take note, don't refresh your browser and you need to get near the location to activate the checkpoint.)

I just took a virtual screenshot of Fort Canning which you can click on this link to interact at home. 

Oh, view the interactive AR here.

Before you moved on to the next stop, do take some time to visit Fort Canning Hill a bit. Oooo, check out this beautiful Banyan Tree.

Remember to visit this Fort Gate.

Because this Fort Gate used to be one of the most important strongholds of the commanding centre. As the guide explained last time, these strong heavy iron gates were so heavy, which required at least one strong guy or two regular guys to push or pull the gates. And to have them open inwardly is also part of the defence strategies. They would use the inner Fort to inspect the goods or people.

Coming up here, also have many strategic thoughts like the wide window from inside Fort and narrow opening, enough for the guns to defend the Fort safely.

Interestingly, this narrow stair also had many thoughts too like tall steps, a narrow staircase and a gate at the entrance which can only open inwards... Any enemy who wants to take down this Fort, definitely can't do it by force.

Maybe an air strike will take it down quickly and luckily, they didn't.

If not, there won't have such a gate anymore.

Some reading material here :)

Next stop - Clemenceau Avenue. To be honest, I didn't understand why this place though...

After scanning, then realised this location had some history. By the way, here got some interesting playground for the kids and park for the riches. You can drop by to take a look. For me... This place had a swimming pool which I missed.

This place had happened a big event of protesters.

You can go and read more on the virtual site.

This VR was interesting and explained what had happened. Quite happening and one of deep impression over this whole trail. 

We decided to cut across Fort Canning and passed by some amazing locations in Fort Canning, but I need to stay focused on the NS55 Trail so can't comment much

Across the hill and time to walk along the urban side of the trail.

Mr A was busy texting and while I tried to kill some time.

Oooo! Singa the Kindness Lion, was declared as a mascot for the National Courtesy Campaign in 1982. My childhood favourite mascot and had never got so close to it before.

The next stop was this central fire station. Why so special about this fire station? Because it is one of the oldest fire stations and still operates today. Besides that, its building structure is also unique - red brick outlook and it is in British Colonial style.

I see many fire stations were abandoned, I didn't record or did any urbex trips there because it was just an empty space for vehicles and offices. Just meh.

Oh yeah. I forgot about this sculpture is located on another side, I should have walked further down. Check out the virtual tour here

Scan and experience a firefighter in the past interacting with you.

I don't snap too many pictures here as the guards won't allow it.

Besides the oldest fire station, there is the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory, one of the oldest and smallest churches in our little red dot.

From here, further down...

A quick one at SMU. I am not a smart kid; so I can only pose here to pretend that I am a smart noob.

Hmmm... SMU provides a lot of support to Singapore National Service personnel and after National service.

You can read more here

or scan to try out their trivia

Hmmm, Mr A and I were wondering... why there were a lot of people busy working on their phones... Not Pokemon Go, they were playing something else.

The next stop is beside Raffles City. I guess I won't need to explain more about a shopping mall, right?

Yes! This is our 5th Stop - Civilian War Memorial.

Check this out... groups of people/family busy with their phones... I was very curious about what were they working on. They were not playing NS55 though... Mr A told me to stop doing boring stuff and joined them. But since I started, I will want to complete it.

This place brings sad vibes... because...

of this...

Read up more here

Sad music though... in the AR

(Thanks Mr A) I always want a picture of me standing here with this memorial. Hope the leaders of the countries don't enter wars...

Because those people (no matter which side) who had sacrificed in the wars, had families... What is worst is, they could only be remembered by symbols, words or memorials while the leaders remembered by their faces and names in the history book. Is life that cheap for you?

Looking high up... But at the same time, why we honoured them? Because their homeland was invaded and they stood on their ground and defend their lives. That is honourable. Not like they wanted wars, they wanted to stop wars in every single moment of their living. Salute to them.

Some information to honour the sacrifices.

Anyway our next two stops - are Esplanade and Floating Platform.

Honestly, I only know these places but don't have a chance to step into one or even have any business in there. But these places definitely had become a significant icon

From what I can remember most of the Safra marathons hosted in Singapore, will always use Esplanade as the starting point. Yup, correct! Too bad, I don't like crowds, especially with a group of demigods and elite joggers.

Oooo... I thought they will have their quiz and information on the durian side of the Esplanade, rather than this location.

I didn't see the AR of this because we were almost finished but you can check it out here.

The most famous and the most-recognizable spot in Singapore is the Singapore River which most tourists will love to snap their photos at.

Lastly, The Float. I had not stepped onto the platform at all, and it was gone.

I guessed that it became part of my memories.

Where they used to celebrate our National Day which I only viewed on TV, and skipped a few years 😅.

At least, one thing is for sure. I am a proud Singaporean.

Let's do some closure.

COMPLETED! Simple trail though. Hahaha! I feel that there is another better way to do this trail and I will share it below.

So this is my award. If you like this, you can click here to download the stickers.

And I had to submit a screenshot of sharing this postcard on my social media to Camokakis and hope I can win a limited edition EZlink card.

Overall, it was a unique trail for a try, with interactive virtual and the effort is admirable but yet... can't draw much interest from the public. I feel I have an idea for the next trail, they should make it like a treasure hunt. Instead of showing where to go and interact, they can have the user answer a few questions which require the user to find the answers from the information and then once they got the right answer, they will direct them to a hidden spot where a QR is located to retrieve the puzzle piece.

Oh well, I doubt they will consider my idea anyway but if I have a chance to do it, I will make sure it will be a fun and adventurous experience.

OOO! I Won! Hahaha! But... their app got an issue... When I stood in front of the redemption corner, I can't click on the redeem button at all! What a scam! Oh well... I hope I am the only one...

I came back after emailing and rectified the whole issue, and here I got it, my reward! but I sell it anyway. 😁

Jeff