Happy Chinese New Year 2012

Its Chinese New Year and NICI-Mania is on a long holiday break. Spotted, an eccentric creature lurking around our house..

That creature is slithering at full throttle, we have to run faster to catch up to it..

Finally we managed to get closer...

Side view of the creature looks very familiar..

Its a lion dance creature! Our lion dance entry last year will tell you more! Meanwhile, what is this lion doing at our house? As we look under the disguise.....

Its minily Jolly Mah under the lion dance costume!!

Minily Jolly Mah and NICI-Mania wishes everyone Happy Chinese New Year 2012. Enjoy the festive occasion!!

Blue Jolly Mah (Jolly Mäh)

A blue Jolly Mah (Jolly Mäh) appears in NICI-Mania and other Jolly Mah sheep curiously gathers around to see this peculiar looking blue color Jolly Mah.

No one at NICI-Mania had seen this blue Jolly Mah sheep before as it is an extremely rare breed. Much to our surprise, there were 2 blue Jolly Mäh where we found it.

The even bigger surprise is, out of the 2 blue Jolly Mah, one of which has a cute round face with eager eyes saying "Please bring me home". You are looking at him now, he is the one NICI-mania brought home.

Flying blue Jolly Mah! Jolly Mäh is already super happy to have finally found a home as they have been around in the market at least 3 years ago.

That was the time where the NICI retailers in Singapore have a whole lot of Jolly Mah sitting and lying in all kinds of colors - white, black, blue, pink, grey. All of which were sold out pretty fast and never got restocked. It was a rainbow array of colors back then.

If you're searching for a blue Jolly Mah sitting plush, its almost impossible now unless you look for those fake ones from China. NICI-Mania was originally not a big fan of lying nici plüsch but this blue Jolly Mäh pretty much captured our heart.

See, blue Jolly Mäh can be a sitting nici plüsch too! Look at how cute the way he sits.

The classic blue Jolly Mäh tag. This is the only one we have still in good condition. Our previous classic Jolly Mah tags are all crumpled and messed up because we did not cut it off and keep it nicely.

This lying blue nici Jolly Mäh is 15cm but look how much bigger it is than the normal sitting 15cm Jolly Mäh plüsch. The face of blue Jolly Mah is clearly much bigger. Jolly Rosa: Why are you using me as reference?!

Jomo the brown Jolly Mah and blue Jolly Mah are now the only 2 really rare nici plüsch here at NICI-Mania. 25cm sitting Jolly Jomo was found in Malaysia NICI shop which was also a huge surprise for us.

Blue Jolly Mah poses with a Telecaster. Because of his unique color, other Jolly Mah nici plüsch seems to be a little jealous of him. Our next mission, we hope to find a grey sitting Jolly Mah somewhere. If we can't find one, we would probably get one of the many lying grey Jolly Mah in Singapore.

As we mentioned earlier, there is one last blue jolly mah left, hurry down to Raffles City CNS to get it before its gone. Update: This post is about one month belated after we got this jolly mah, but the last one could still be there as it is not that popular. It also took us for about more than a month before we eventually decided to buy this blue sheep from the shop.

Jolly Mäh MacRitchie Reservoir Park 2

Here is part 2 of Jolly Mäh at Singapore MacRitchie Reservoir Park. Enjoy~ (previous Jolly Mäh MacRitchie Reservoir Park click here)

We are also wondering where are all the animals. We did not see any animals at all in our entire hiking trip.

We love the road signs in MacRitchie reservoir park which gives us a guideline on how much further we have to go. Remember we successfully completed the MacRitchie treetop walk earlier? Jelutong Tower is our next closest destination on the map we've shown you previously. Jolly Mäh has already been hiking for nearly 3 hours and we found this!

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Remember this interesting animal that we called the lizard with shiny armor? Shiny skinks, so thats its name. What are Shiny Skinks? (according to whats written in the picture):

1. Look out for them in sunspots on the forest floor. Oh, but we found him on the boardwalk.

2. Skinks are able to regulate their body temperature and are often seen warming up in the sun. So thats what you were doing when we saw you!

3. Skinks are a family of lizard with glossy, shiny scales..blar blar, etc etc..(useless information goes on) Obviously we know that already -_-

Jolly Mäh being extra cautious passing by a wet muddy area in MacRitchie reservoir park . A timely reminder that rainforest is the major forest type here in Singapore.

Jolly Mäh did not see any of these unique creatures in the forest. They must all be hiding in fear of the playful Jolly Mäh sheep who would catch them and play if he sees them. And soon, Jolly Mäh is at our next destination - Jelutong Tower

You could climb up the spiral staircase to the top of the Tower to get a panoramic view of MacRitchie Reservoir Park. But after having walked 3 hours through the forest, lots of up and down wooden stairways, Jolly Mäh is too fatigue to even think about going up.

The boardwalk, well I tried to type broadwalk just now *shrugs*. This boardwalk is one of the significant feature of MacRitchie reservoir. The boardwalk encircles the perimeter of the scenic MacRitchie reservoir and many walking trails through the forest. Jolly Mäh wished that there were more of these boardwalk within all parts of the forest as it would be much easier to walk on some parts of the treacherous forest trails.

Jolly Mäh spotted some people at MacRitchie Reservoir fishing! What a relaxing activity to do in an evening with a comfortable weather. Other than fishing, Jolly Mäh also saw a group of people kayaking which seems quite fun!

Jolly Mäh now finds a comfortable place to sit down and take a short break.

Still a pretty long way to go and Jolly Mäh enjoys the fresh green air. Jolly Mäh schaf liben gras = Jolly Mah sheep loves grass in English. We're having fun learning to speak some German.

Jolly Mäh then continues his journey and passes by some people playing golf. According to the map, this is the Singapore Island Country Club. It is not part of the MacRitchie reservoir park, it is just beside. Because our route is along the perimeter of MacRitchie reservoir park, we can pass right by the country club.

Jolly Mäh finds a small water fountain. Say cheese! Jolly Mäh gives us a classic NICI schaf pose. Schaf = sheep, did you still remember from earlier? NICI schaf Jolly Mäh liben gras!

Shortly after, Jolly Mäh walks on this beautiful trail slapped right in between the waters and there's this coconut tree in front of us that bears no fruits.

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MacRitche reservoir in Jolly Mäh's view

Jolly Mäh then saw a signboard pointing towards the direction of MacRitchie reservoir park, Jolly Mäh is only 2.7km away from reaching our final destination. We have already spent almost 4 hours hiking.

Jolly Mäh is back on the boardwalk again! This is a beautiful scenery used as one of the advertorial pictures for MacRitchie reservoir park which we've seen before. Don't be surprise to see a lot of people jogging along this particular boardwalk as it is absolutely sublime to be walking with MacRitchie reservoir on one side and trees & grasses on the other side.

Upon seeing the sublime sunset scenery, Jolly Mäh sat down on a wooden bench to appreciate the sunset scenery. It is not supposed to be this dark now, just that some thick clouds were covering the evening sun. This is quite a poster picture of Jolly Mäh that we really like. What we didn't know was a surprise guest waiting for Jolly Mäh right beside and we only noticed its existence after taking this picture. Who is our special guest?

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A GREEN WORM!

Jolly Mäh did not know he was sitting right beside the green worm on the wooden bench until we saw it! But it seems like it was aimlessly crawling around didn't know where to go. This should qualify for "interesting animals found at MacRitchie Reservoir".

The green worm has no leggly legs, so it was crawling in an amusing way but the speed was quite fast! Every step it crawls, it covers the whole body length. Our mirthful Jolly Mäh just can't stop looking at the green worm and we have to literally drag him away from the worm to continue on our journey back.

1km more to go but our legs can barely keep up with our body!

The final 1km seems like an unending road as Jolly Mäh crosses through the bending boardwalk along MacRitchie reservoir.

One thing that keeps us going is the beautiful greenery scenery around us and also, the fact that there is no other way out except going back to the main entrance of MacRitchie reservoir park where we came from.

The grand finale of Jolly Mäh MacRitchie Reservoir Park adventure? A tree growing sideways 180 degrees! They even carved AHEAD LOW BRANCH on the boardwalk. This tree is not chopped down or dead, its just living its life in its own peculiar way.

Finally we'll show you a simple illustration of Jolly Mäh's 10km journey at MacRitchie Reservoir Park on a map below. Including the extra route to MacRitchie treetop walk, Jolly Mäh's total journey should be about 11km. We did not go to the elusive zig-zag bridge as it was closed that day but you can see the pictures on the MacRitchie Reservoir Park website we've given below.

MacRitchie Reservoir Park map

MacRitchie Reservoir Park (Singapore National Parks)

Location: Along Lornie Road

Opens daily from 7am to 7pm

Best time to visit: 6 to 6:30pm

Jolly Mäh MacRitchie Reservoir Park

Jolly Mäh is at MacRitchie Reservoir Park! Jolly Mäh is exhilarated as MacRitchie reservoir is the oldest reservoir in Singapore. Let's join Jolly Mäh now to his enthralling hiking trip today. Hope you'll enjoy the scenery of forest and grass, and of course the reservoir.

MacRitchie Reservoir Park has several routes you can take on, the whole MacRitchie reservoir park hiking trip will be 10km today as one of Jolly Mäh's main destination is the MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk in the middle of the route. Jolly Mäh is lucky that today's weather is cosy and not too warm.

As Jolly Mäh commence onto his MacRitchie reservoir park's first trail, this interesting animal appears right in front of us! Looks like a lizard of some type with a shiny armor. It doesn't look too friendly but its not intimidating us, Jolly Mäh is clever to stay away though.

Jolly Mäh will now be going through the MacRitchie nature trail. It is a forest trail in MacRitchie reservoir park that runs a couple of kilometers with nothing but tall rainforest trees encircling you and there is no o

As Jolly Mäh ascends the wooden stairway, we slowly infiltrate into the deep rainforest. We wonder how long is this MacRitchie nature trail is gonna take..

3.9km to MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk! One of our milestone destination today. After walking up the wooden stairway, we arrive at the ingress of the MacRitchie nature trail and..

awaiting Jolly Mäh is a daunting forest trail where you can't see the end. But there's no turning back now for Jolly Mäh, so let's go! MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk here we come!

After 2.5km of forest trail that seemed never ending, we finally saw light of the exit. Jolly Mäh was all tired and hungry, so we decided to find a spot for a little picnic and..

Jolly Mäh found an ideal spot to rest our legs and feed our stomach! That's Jolly Mäh's owner taking off his shoes and resting on the picnic blanket.

This wonderful spot is a shaded hut on top of a slightly hilly slope. We think this is the most cosy place to picnic or rest at MacRitchie reservoir park en route.

Jolly Mäh, what's our meal today? Jolly Mäh dishes out the most wonderful, perfect food for picnic - BREAD & HAM! Coupled with soy milk drink and orange juice, a delectable tree break we call it. Not advertising for NTUC FairPrice but their orange juice is pretty good compared to other FairPrice house brand products.

Jolly Mäh decides to take a nap after the sumptuous bread + ham meal. Aren't you a little too comfortable Jolly Mäh? We have to continue our journey to the MacRitchie treeptop walk remember?

Jolly Mäh jumps up joyously and gave us the cliché NICI plush toy pose. Enough of acting cute, you are already the most popular NICI toy, let's get going shall we Jolly Mäh? Another 1.4km to the MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk isn't too far away.

Finally, we arrived at the MacRitchie treetop walk, or the HSBC treetop walk. Jolly Mäh you made it! Good thing we had a break and some food earlier or else we would be starved! The treetop walk signboard here is in the middle of the road, you can still walk further up as there isn't a sign saying "Entrance". We walked up and found nothing, so we turned back in search for the way to the MacRitchie treetop walk.

This dodgey looking stairway downwards is the entrance of the MacRitchie treetop walk. Jolly Mäh could not understand the logic as to why we have to walk down a stairway for the treetop walk, isn't the treetop walk one of the highest place in MacRitchie reservoir park? Jolly Mäh can only wonder..

Jolly Mäh is finally here at the MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk. It is a 250m aerial suspension bridge, so be prepared that it way sway or shake when you walk on it. If you're afraid of heights, we don't recommend you to cross the bridge as it is a ONE WAY ROUTE! Once you step on it, thats it! Jolly Mäh are you ready?

Jolly Mäh gives a fearless sign of YES! What a brave sheep our Jolly Mäh sheep is. You might feel a bit shaky initially on the treetop suspension bridge, after a while you will get used to it.

On top of the MacRitchie treetop walk you can have a panoramic view of the surrounding lush rainforest. This is one of the highest spot in MacRitchie reservoir park, it is worth the extra kilometers coming here. Jolly Mäh totally enjoys the slight breeze brushing through his plush.

This is Jolly Mäh looking down from the suspension bridge, the forest below the treetop walk is thick and dark, you can't see the ground at all.

Jolly Mäh strikes another daring pose on the MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk while maintaining his joyful smiling face showing no signs of acrophobia.

Jolly Mäh gives us another pose saying goodbye as we approaches the end of the MacRitchie treetop walk. Look at that freakishly tall tree growing right beside the suspension bridge.

Remember we climbed down a stairway at the entrance of the MacRitchie reservoir treetop walk? Now Jolly Mäh is climbing back up, not the same wooden stairway as this is a one way route as we mentioned. Jolly Mäh can only advance forward..

After going up, now we're going down! This downward stairway looks like it has no end to it, how much further Jolly Mäh has to go before reaching the ground?

If you thought this was the end of Jolly Mäh's journey, this is not even HALFWAY after 2 hours of hiking. Jolly Mäh has to make one big round along the MacRitchie Reservoir to go back to where we started. There are no shortcuts back home after the treetop walk, so stay tuned for the second part of Jolly Mäh MacRitchie Reservoir Park