Kayak Rental at Bedok Reservoir

Kayak Rental at Bedok Reservoir
Bedok Reservoir has a very bad reputation in Singapore due to the amount negative events taking place there. Be it suicides, accidents, violent crimes or "wild dog attacks" Bedok apaprently has got it at. Despite all these horrible things happening there, I went to Bedok for a bit of kayaking and to move my rusty old bones a bit.

The reservoir itself is not exactly tiny, but it's by no means huge. The jogging route around the water measures about 5km in length, to give you an idea. Besides kayaking, you can also spend time in an doing a forest adventure in an aerial garden , which involves exercises and obstacles above ground.

The kayak rental place is located near the car park and you should check with the Water Venture regarding events taking place on the lake that day. We did not check previously and had to learn that we could only go around in a specific area on the water, marked by a buoy, as there was a water-skiing competition of sorts taking place on the opposite site of the river and people from the Water Venture were practising for a youth Olympics. If I remember correctly, we paid SGD 35 or so for a 2 hour rental of two kayaks and a locker to store our belongings while we were out on the water. Apparently, in Singapore you need a license if you want to go in a closed kayak (unlike other countries), my guess is because of the risk of drowning if your kayak flips and you don’t know how to do an ‘Eskimo Roll” to come back up. Anyways, we rented two open kayaks and then had to carry them together with the paddles about 50 meters to the edge of the water. A girl form the Water Venture gave us a 5 minute instruction on how to paddle and where to stay away from. Unfortunately, watering the kayaks is not as easy as it could be. All around Bedok Reservoir there are soft grassy slopes and also some wooden piers, however, at the Water Venture the place to bring the kayaks into the water is a slope of rough, sometimes jagged stones that can be quite treacherous to navigate if you are carrying one end of a kayak. The same holds true for when you try to make your way out, as the stones under water are very slippery with algae.

The kayaking itself was a nice, relaxed experience and there is lots of activity going on in and around the water. However, beware that the sun can be very strong on the water, so best use some sunscreen. We probably didn’t use the full 2 hours, as our range of movement was rather limited due to the aforementioned competitions. If you need to change/shower afterwards, there is a public shower + bathroom near the Water Venture that is reasonably clean and gets fumigated twice daily.

Following the kayaking, we went for the 5km walk around the reservoir to finish at a restaurant near the water, where you can take a drink to cool down or sate your hunger. All in all, a nice way to escape the more hectic sides of Singapore for an afternoon and get some light activity done in a nice, relaxed environment (if you are not scared of ghosts, that is).