SG "Tour"- DAY 4(Sengkang)

Woke up this morning at 10.30am, and I thought. Since yesterday I did not have the chance to go to Sengkang the day before, why not go today? Maybe not. I felt sleepy, and my muscles were aching from the tiring ride the previous day. Drank some milo mum made early that morning, and out of curioisity, I flipped through the issue of My Paper that was left on the table. An article caught my eye. There's a GUNDAM Fiesta going on at Compass Point, and today's the first day! Perfect timing. I told Mum I was going to leave for Compass Point at 12 and would only be back at 7. She asked the usual,"Why not ask some of your friends along? Aren't they having their holidays as well?"

Simply, I said as we left for the bus stop,"I don't think my friends would want to walk with me under the hot sun taking pictures of HDB flats, though they might be interested in the first GUNDAM fiesta in the country." Mum was meeting Dad to go buy stuff and have lunch that afternoon.

Boarded 189 and left for Clementi. Transferred to service 156 to Sengkang, on a journey which lasted more than 2 hours. A bus is the way to go if you wanted a slower and more relaxed pace in travelling. The bus wasn't crowded at all throughout the trip. Reached Sengkang Interchange at 2pm, and it felt almost as though I had arrived at another country. Alright, first stop, Compass Point. There it was, just the way I had imagined the scale of the fiesta to be as I read through the advertisement earlier that morning. Relatively small, with numerous exhibits of the various designs of GUNDAM model kits on show.

I left on a short tour around the shopping mall, before going on to the Interchange complex which contained the Bus interhcange, LRT station and Sengkang MRT Station. Deja vu. I dreamt about this place a couple of months back. It was a dream where I was at a theme park in Genting with some friends, and the shopping complex had the same decordations found on the wall of the interior of Compass Point, on the fourth floor. A ship, a lady and a pirate if I could remember correctly. Compass Point definitely has almost every shop you could find at West Mall, except it was missing a cinema. However, the shopping mall was more lively and had more space than West Mall, though it only had 4 floors compared to the 5 that West Mall has.

As for the interchange complex, it was from another dream. I can't say for sure if that dream truly was deja vu, but the only things that were exactly the same was the LRT train, the interior design of the place, and the staff on duty at the basement, who surprisingly also wore the same lime green unifroms that only the SBS service staff wore.The staff on duty at the MRT platform wore the maroon uniforms put on by SMRT service staff. I did not realise it until I saw the lift and escalators that linked the LRT platform a couple of floors up and the MRT platform in the basement. In that dream, I was on the way from after making a visit to school on Teachers' Day, alone. In that dream, it started with me alighting from a bus and meeting other friends in school. The MRT Station, surprisingly had a basement for an LRT platform, and a platform a floor above.

I did not go down to look at the MRT platform, but I went up onto the LRT platform. It's different from the one at Bukit Pangjang. And there they were, 2 service staff in their bright, lime green uniforms chatting to each other. Similar to that dream, I missed 2 trains before boarding a train, finally. Went on Route C(or was it route B?) along the compassvale side of the route, before alighting and boarded another train for route B(or was it route C?). I kind of got myself confused with the simple network of the LRT system there, for it is in the shape of the figure 8. However, the 4 routes were rather confusing. For example, would the train I board go on route A, before continuing on route D when it arrived at the Sengkang LRT Station again? And the directions of the route change at 3pm, which were rather interesting. You don't see the trains change directions along any other LRT or MRT line in Singapore (I'll find out if it's the same for Punggol next Wednesday when I try out the line) at 3pm.

I alighted at Fernvale, and started taking photographs once again. By then, school students were already dismissed from school, so it was kind of a great, last minute plan, where I did not have to squeeze onto a over crowded LRT train. There's something about the train itself. Not only was it different than the trains you would see on the Chua Chu Kang LRT line, the trains were also faster, although you had to wait between 2 to 5 minutes for a train to arrive. Compared to the Chua Chu Kang LRT where you would see trains passing by almost every 2 to 3 minutes, I saw a train pass by on the Sengkang LRT line roughly every 3 to 5 minutes, maybe more.

2.50pm, all the way till 4pm. As expected, I did not get lost though it was my first time there, thanks to the LRT line. I did not expect that I would complete walking the full route within 2 hours! One thing that I could observe about my "tour" so far. The archietecture and design of the HBD flats there are definitely more attractive and they sure look more modern than the HDB flats in the western parts of Singapore, in places such as Jurong and Bukit Panjang. Some of the flats even looked like condos without the fences and swimming pools! Perhaps, the flats at Punggol would look similar, or even better?

Took a break at 4, before returning to Compass Point for the Fiesta. It was real crowded by the time I got back, though the queues at the cashier wasn't as long as I had expected. Bought a little gift for my brother who would be turning 16 the coming month, before boarding 156 and headed back to Clementi Interchange where I boarded 106 back home. Arrived at my doorstep at 7.15pm.

Here's some of the photographs taken this afternoon:

Oh, and if you would like to see more, Here's the links to the 4th day of the "tour" and the GUNDAM Fiesta @ Compass Point.

"sg tour"-DAY 4(part 1)

"sg tour"-DAY 4(part 2)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32772&id=1040930846&saved#/album.php?aid=32772&id=1040930846

SG "Tour"-DAY 3 (Tampines via Pasir Ris, Loyang, Changi, East Coast Park,Telok Kurau, Kembangan, Bedok)

To students studying in government schools, todays a holiday as it's Teachers' Day. Here's wishing everyone who has taught someone at least once in their life, Happy Teachers' Day!

I obviously overslept again, since it was already the holidays. I woke at 7.30am instead of 7.15, changed, packed 2 sets of spare clothes, a towel, camera and lens, and left for Tampines MRT Station. Boarded 106 at 7.50am, and arrived at City Hall MRT Station only at 8.45. Successfully avoided the morning train crowd by boarding the train there. Reached Tampines 35minutes later at 9.20.

Met up with Jon and WM before w walked to Sunplaza Park to rent our bikes. Estimated time we would complete was 6 hours, from 9.40 to 3.40pm. We wre told that, if we were to rent the bike for a whole day, it would be the same cost(whole day rates from 9 to 6pm) of $18. We started off quite well, until we reached the chalets at Changi. Lots of humps and slopes, which slowed us down alot. Jon became tired after that, and we were slowed down greatly.

Stopped at Changi Village for drinks and a 20-minute break before we continued toward East Coast Park. The sky started to become overcast as we entered the route that ran along the airport runway, and it got really windy. I stopped many times to take shots of planes, and was still able to catch up with them. The sky became more overcast as we cycled on. It was only when we reached the Changi entrance of the park that it started pouring, badly. The rain drops felt like tiny niddles pricking our legs. Stopped at a shelter, waited for the rain to subside before we continued on to the nearest sheltered fast food outlet for lunch. It was really cold. From that point, I was unable to take any photographs for fear it might damage the camera.


After lunch, we continued on, via the Singlap Park Connector. More relaxed, slow cycle to Telok Kurau. We made a small detour due to on-going construction work at a junction. We were stunned when we reached the pitstop, as, it was closed. We reached the pitstop at 3pm, 40minutes ahead of schedule. However, we had to move on in case we could not reach the next pit stop before the closing time at 6pm. We passed Sean's place that afternoon, and if only there was enough time, we might just have been able to knock on his door, rest fo 30minutes before moving on. Had walked along that stretch of park connector three times before, but this was the first time we were actually cycling on it.

At 3.30, we reached the Bedok Park Connector. it ran all the way to Bedok Reservoir Park. This route was extremely challenging for us. Numerous steep hills, rough cycling surface, lack of directional signs which confused us, and a overhead bridge that did not have a slope. So, we were forced to carry our bicycles across the expressway,not push them across like we had been doing since morning. At 4.15pm, we made it back to the Tampines Park Connector.

The remaining route was relatively easy, on level ground. No slopes or humps to cycle on. The directional signs finally returned! At 4.35, we made it back to Tampines MRT Station, and 10 minutes later we returned our bicycles, an hour and 5 minutes behind schedule.


Total distance covered on the park connectors alone, 31 kilometers.
The distance covered in the parks was unknown as none of us kept count.
Total time taken, 7 hours, 5minutes.


Great achievement for all of us, and we plan to go on this trip once again in December, when their A Levels are over. This time, we'll start off from Telok Kurau Park, and I'll take more photographs as long as the weather would be in ur favour.

Went to Tampines Mall after that for dinner. before that we went to a new Japanese fashion shop. They were having a sale, and the items there were unique and unlike the usual stuff Giodano and Hang Ten were selling. 7pm, we all left for home. We went to Pasir Ris to look at the new safety feature, before taking a train back. I alighted at Bedok, and took 196 back to clementi, before taking 106 back home. The Clementi Bus Interchange is beggining to become my regional Bus Interchange to the Eastern part of Singapore!

You might wat to check out Jon's and WM's blogs, as well as this site for more pictures!