FOUND 18 hours later, after spending night in forest
Crystal Chan, The New Paper 24 June 08
HE had been to MacRitchie Reservoir to jog, in April.
So Dr Brian Takei, 48, felt nothing would happen to him on his next visit.
But just half an hour into his jog on Saturday, Dr Takei, who is the Royal Bank of Scotland's Japan representative, tried taking another route towards the reservoir.
He said: 'I thought of viewing the reservoir from an inlet, so I decided to take that route.'
That turned out to be a bad decision.
It caused him to be lost for more than 18 hours and he had to spend the night in the forested area, scared and alone.
Dr Takei, who was rescued by the police and National Parks rangers at 9.40am yesterday, said: 'I was afraid of finding corpses and being bitten by poisonous snakes as I kept stepping into holes in the ground.
'In Japan, it is common to find corpses in remote areas near Mount Fuji as people tend to choose such places to commit suicide.'
Dr Takei, who is married with a daughter, said he often travels to the region to do internal audits.
Knowing he is a regular jogger, a colleague recommended he visit the MacRitchie Reservoir.
He said: 'Previously, when I visited Singapore, I jogged around the city area as it was near the hotels I stayed in. But at MacRitchie, the air is fresher.'
On Saturday, three days after arriving in Singapore, he decided to go MacRitchie Reservoir for a jog after eating nasi goreng for lunch.
He took a train to Novena and from there, he took bus 162 to MacRitchie Reservoir, arriving there around 3pm.
OVERCONFIDENT
As he had jogged around the eastern part of the reservoir on his previous visit, Dr Takei decided to try the Yellow Trail, an 11km path near the western part of the reservoir.
He said: 'After jogging close to the rangers' station, I stopped to rest for 10 minutes.
'I spotted what seemed to be a half-done path behind four big rocks.
'I assumed it was another route towards the reservoir, so I walked along the path. I didn't think there would be any danger and I was overconfident of my ability to trek through the area.'
Bad move.
The path was isolated and Dr Takei had to make some detours as there were some fallen trees.
Determined to get back to where he was, he tried to turn back, only to lose his sense of direction after making a wrong detour.
Realising he needed help, he called a colleague in Singapore to get the police's number.
He said: 'I didn't know if it was 911, 919 or 999. I called the police and I was transferred to the rangers, who said they would look for me.'
That was around 3.20pm. Instead of staying put, Dr Takei continued walking through the woods, hoping to return to his point of origin.
He said: 'I thought it would be easier for them to find me if I got out of the forested area.
'I ventured further into the forest and I kept calling the police on my handphone.
'The police told me to try to get near the reservoir as they were ferrying the rangers around by boat.'
By sunset, Dr Takei's handphone battery had gone flat, and he had suffered cuts and scratches on his arms and legs after walking through thorny vegetation.
For safety reasons, he also stopped moving about when darkness fell.
He said: 'I lay on the soil and each time I heard human voices in the distance, I shouted to tell them where I was. But I guess they were too far away to hear me.
'I shouted till my voice became hoarse.
'It was hard to sleep and I only had an hour of sleep around 6am, until it began raining around 7am.
'I was also afraid of snakes as I could hear animals moving about. Luckily, nothing happened to me.
'I was also very thirsty so I licked up the rainwater that fell on my face.'
When the rain stopped around 8.30am, he began walking around until he finally came near the reservoir at 9.30am.
He said: 'At that time, I saw the rangers coming off the boat and I shouted to them.'
WIFE BERATES HIM
He was taken to the rangers' station, where he was given crackers and energy drinks, before being taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for outpatient treatment.
After that, the first thing Dr Takei did was to call his wife, who berated him for being too adventurous.
He said: 'She said that I am no longer a teenager and I should have been more cautious.
'She said I was lucky my curiosity didn't kill me.'
Still, the experience will not stop Dr Takei, who will return to Japan on Friday, from visiting MacRitchie Reservoir again.
He said: 'I think it's a very good nature reserve but I'll not take that same route again.'
