Starting at Kembangan MRT station at 9am and heading southwards towards the Siglap Park Connector, and towards East Coast, I made steady progress without stopping much. I was alone.
However not deep into East Coast had I to slow down my pace a little owing to the fact that I didn't have my cycling tights on (I couldn't find them) and fathomed to try wearing briefs instead, resulting in abrasions and seam burns that slowed me down considerably and had to stop many a times. In East Coast, the pond that was forever under construction was completed and transformed into a 'cable-ski' feature, where skiiers get dragged along cables on winches instead of jet skis. The Changi Beach Park connector was long and boring and quite the cause of many saddle sores. To my left was Changi Airport strip and plans can be seen taking off and landing. It rained lightly for about 1/2 an hour or so, constituting about a kilometer of the ride, which I rode through.
Exiting the connector was SAF ferry terminal in sight, a ferry terminal for military uses. Then it was back to another beach park and then the Changi jetty that brings people to the offshore islands. After which the park connector became teacherously uphill with lots of irritating humps.
Then the Loyang Park connector and others, finally reaching Tampines Mall at 1pm where I stopped for lunch.
The park connectors were rather tricky to follow as the arrows just disappeared constantly.
1/27/2008
176
I left Lakeside MRT station at 7.30am, and decided to head towards Kembangan by following the MRT tracks towards the east. I left on an empty stomach and at the next station, Chinese Garden, I had my breakfast. The scenery was rather inspiring because well, it was designed by the government to be themed with oriental overtones. Hence Chinese Garden, deeper in which contains a lesser known Japanese Garden.
8am I had my breakfast and at 9am, I started off. I followed rather closely to the MRT tracks as is possible, though expressways at times had me to do detours but parallel. I reached Dover MRT station in about 20 minutes which was rather good time. The other stations that I passed by had little spots of interest. Buona Vista held the Ministry of Education headquarters and at Redhill, the train tracks went underground, leaving me much to speculate as to the next place to go.
Redhill had a lot of car showrooms; Toyota, Porsche, etc.
After Tiong Bahru, the route was sketchy and I ventured blindly, leading me up an arduous hill by the expressway. The sun was blaringly hot. After a while, I saw Chinatown, a place that used to be zoned for Chinese to be the majority of the residents. Such zoning nowadays is of course, obsolete.
In minutes after some hard peddling, I reached the Singapore River, one of Singapore's iconic historic landmarks. Once a dirty river for barges, now cleaned up and transformed into a hip place for tourists and the young alike.
City Hall is the sort of the business district of Singapore. There are many commercial buildings located there, as are some landmarks. St Andrews Cathedral, Singapore's oldest Catholic Church is there, as is The Esplanade, Singapore's specially built theatre for the arts. New projects include a ferris wheel, and a racetrack to host the upcoming F1 Grand Prix.
Heading east still, I reached Arab Street, the old zoning for Malays to reside. There, is the Sultan Mosque.
Forging eastwards more I arrived at Geylang, nearest to Kallang MRT station. Geylang is known locally as the red-light district of Singapore. I had a breather there and ate the most wonderful and softest and proportionately sweetened beancurd you'll ever find in Singapore, and perhaps even the world.
I met up with a friend for lunch at 1pm, and reached Kembangan at 3pm where I was to start on the Eastern Park Connectors again, but this time in the opposite direction.
The ride is the same, though I got lost quite a few times. The weather was clear, if a little hot.
I finished the entire thing, reaching Kembangan MRT station at around 8pm.