(Warning: Picture-intensive. Do not view with slow connection!)
Yep, I finally did it. Ok so it was quite ad-hoc (yeah right! I planned in advance!) but well, I really travelled around Singapore today. So here’s my route (in black, duh..)
So, enjoy my re-creation of my journey 
Start: Blk 425, Pasir Ris Drive 1
Time: 10.40am. Boarded 109, and headed for my first stop: Changi Village
Ride details: 109, SBS812A, 20min, $0.87
So I arrived at Changi Village next:
Yup, rustic charm hidden away in a corner of our island nation. More pictures can be viewed here.
Of course, this was just the start, so here, I boarded service 2.
Headed for Bedok Road (Simpang Bedok Post Office).
Ride Details: 2, SBS7410E, 25min, $0.93 (after rebate)
Then, I arrived at Simpang Bedok, only to my dismay that the next bus would only arrive 15 minutes later!
Oh well, no choice but to wait since its the only bus that’s available there which would bring me to where I want to go.
Finally, at 11.47am, service 10 arrived. Kinda crowded cos it was a single-decker.
Ride Details: 10, SBS2816B, 15min, $0.10 ($1.90 fare cap reached)
Ahh, East Coast Road at last. There’re really a lot of roads in the East!
Here I am at Siglap South CC. Now I need to get on service 13 to connect to service 36 at Mandarin Gardens. Sure enough, the bus came very quickly, and was relatively empty.
I thought 608 had been withdraw WEF 28-04-2007? But the plate is still there…hmm…
Ride Details: 13, SBS3885U, 10min, $0.00 ($1.90 fare cap reached)
Ah, Mandarin Gardens. Wait, this isn’t it. Mandarin Gardens was behind me when I took this picture! *sheepish grin*
It’s some other condo along that stretch of Marine Parade Road lah…
So I was here, waiting for service 36 to take me to the twin durians. Yep, the Esplanade was my next stop.
There was this guy at the bus stop who looked kinda familiar but was kinda irritating cos he boarded the same 36, and he was talking on his mobile non-stop. It seems like everyone in the bus was chatting on their mobiles, it was that noisy.
Ride Details: 36, SBS2803M, 20min, $1.18
En route, I caught a faroff glimpse of the upcoming Singapore Flyer ferris wheel while atop the Benjamin Sheares Bridge!
And finally I arrived at the Esplanade, where I had to make a quick dash for the gents (too much water and exposure to aircon makes the bladder a little full). But as I came out to wait for the next bus, I got an even better picture of the Singapore Flyer:
And I saw the “Ducktours” Amphibious Vehicle approaching, so I decided to let it have its place on this blog too!
Yup, and now I was in the southern/central part of Singapore. Next stop, VivoCity! I was hoping for a double-decker on service 97 but well, it didn’t happen.
Ride Details: 97, SBS3855G, 20min, $0.62 ($0.25 rebate)
97 was a good route cos it passed through the CBD. I’d wanted to take some pictures of One Raffles Quay, but well, there was this bunch of foreigners who hogged the whole of the rear of the single-decker, so I had no choice but to sit on the right. But hey, I got some good shots of the beginning of the CBD!
Crossing Esplanade Drive into the CBD.
The very grand, six-star Fullerton Hotel, where the convo ball is going to be at!
Again, because it was a single-decker, I didn’t have the opportunity to capture better images of the CBD (other buses blocking lah, seats taken up lah, you know lah, all kinds of crap). So after an uneventful ride, I got off at VivoCity.
See that lot of people? That’s mediacorp filming something over there! I saw Ix Shen, Jin Yin Ji and Felicia Chin, but well, I didn’t go up to them and ask for autographs or pictures. I had a task to complete. But anyway, I broke for a while at VivoCity for lunch and some snaps. Here’s one of Sentosa.
Notice the boat in the middle of the picture? It’s a “chinese junk”. Yeah, with the inverted commas, cos its really waaayyy too small to be a real junk. More pictures can be seen here.
Time to move on. Now the next leg would be rather long, from VivoCity to West Coast. So I headed over to the bus stop and waited for service 143.
After an almost one-hour break, I was back on the road.
Ride Details: 143, SBS9058B, 30min, $1.18
Nothing much to capture on 143, except for Haw Par Villa, also known as the Tiger Balm Gardens, after the folk at Tiger Balm. It’s apparently disused now, although I do have some recollection of visiting the park in the earlier days.
Sorry for the poor quality. I was on the wrong side of the bus again and it was moving too quickly. Heh.
Anyway, after half-an-hour, I arrived at my next destination. Here, I was going to transfer to service 30 to take me to Boon Lay.
Taken along West Coast Road.
Again, I was hoping for a double-decker cos in the west, it’s quite Jekyll-and-Hyde, there’s greens on one side and industrial estates on the other. But again, there was only a single-decker. So taking into mind the time constraits, I boarded it.
Ride Details: 30, SBS356A, 30min, $0.72 ($1.90 fare cap)
I did get to capture Pandan Reservoir though:
I chose to take service 30 cos it brought back memories of my time living in Taman Jurong. Yes, I once lived there, and I moved when I was 5. Anyway, I managed to capture my old housing estate:
No it didn’t look like that in 1988. My old flat was demolished, although there are still some remnants of the old flats, I couldn’t take pictures cos I was on the wrong side of the bus (this picture was taken from the rear of the bus).
Then I arrived at Boon Lay Interchange, only to find that 172 had just left. BAH.
Ride Details: 172, TIB692K, 30min, $1.03 ($0.25 rebate)
No pictures of Boon Lay Interchange cos apparently taking pictures in interchanges is now strictly prohibited. Or says the forums. Heh. But I do have some pictures of the journey to Choa Chu Kang Interchange.
Check out the old-school design of this bus stop along Old Choa Chu Kang Road! Even those along Old Tampines Road have been redesigned. Heh.
An orchid farm along Sungei Tengah Road. Common sight in the north-west, considering most of the land there is used for military purposes and cannot be developed residentially.
The sign board of the nursery, Cheng Tai. It even has a bus stop named after it.
So there I was in Choa Chu Kang Interchange. Again, no pictures. Here, I had to decide between 925 and 927 to take me to Woodlands Road, where I could get on 178. I decided on 927.
Big mistake. Two 925s came before the 927 finally arrived. 25 minute frequency. Shocking.
Ride details: 927, TIB685G, 20min, $0.65
It was a good thing the bus took the expressway. I was now almost in the northernmost parts.
927 on the KJE, exiting to Woodlands Road
Finally I arrived at Woodlands Road. Alas, before I could take proper pictures, 178 came. So I decided to skip it and take some shots instead.
This is Woodlands Road. My actual plan was to board 178 here, head to the Woodlands CIQ, take a few shots, then head to Yishun. But the frequency for 178 was horrid!
So I looked and looked, and decided that I would board whichever came first: 170 (to the CIQ), or 960/961 (to Marsiling MRT)
960 arrived 2 minutes later.
Ride details: 960, TIB826S, 15mins, $0.62 ($0.25 rebate)
The road to JB (Woodlands Road lah!) was pretty long, but lined almost exclusively by shrubbery and factories. The bus, again, was crowded, so I had no chance to capture the Singapore Turf Club at Kranji, nor Kranji MRT, where most of the cross-border services congregate (160 to Kotaraya, 170 to Larkin, 170B to Kotaraya, CW4(HI) to Kotaraya). Although there’s also the SJE from Queen St Terminal, if anyone needs to know how to cross the border.
So 960 took me all the way to Marsiling MRT, where I had to cross the bridge and wait for 856.
My good fortune, the MRT arrived just as I was closing the shutter.
It was already 4.30pm, and I hadn’t seen the border yet. But well, my point in choosing 856 was that it would really take me through the north of Singapore.
Ride details: 856, TIB1001Z, $1.03 ($0.25 rebate)
Finally I secured a good seat in the second carriage of the bendy bus that arrived. Holding my camera in anticipation, I was not disappointed.
Here you see the road leading towards the Woodlands CIQ. Yup, that’s how you get onto the Causeway and enter Malaysia. Only cross-border services like 170 will take that route. For now, 856 is headed towards Yishun Interchange, via Admiralty Road and Sembawang.
Typical scenery along Admiralty Road. Further up, Admiralty Road West is more developed, with industrial areas and shipyards. Sembawang Wharves is also along ARW, but 856 doesn’t pass by it.
Home of the ‘famous’ Chong Pang Nasi Lemak, Chong Pang City is located along Sembawang Road, opposite the ADSD complex.
Finally, I was coming to the end of my journey. But first, disembarkation and reboarding at Yishun Interchange meant no pictures for my last bus trip for the day.
Ride details: 39, SBS3672S, 40mins, $1.23 ($0.25 rebate)
The queue for 39 was long, and the bus had a full-body ad, which meant choice seats were hard to come by. But, I still managed to get some pictures.
The bus exits TPE at Jalan Kayu, a requirement for most “express” services. This facilitates transfer between buses headed for different sectors in the north-east/eastern parts of Singapore (and also to fulfil the PTC regulations).
On the left of the picture is Seletar Camp, in use since the British came to Singapore. The main gates are no longer guarded for civilians now live inside the compounds, and aviation companies have also set up shop inside. The plan is for the area to become an aviation hub in the future, and conversion works are already in progress. Private jets often land at Seletar Airport, which is also within the compound.
Finally, after 7 hours and 20 minutes, and $10.16 in bus fares, my first-ever journey in Singapore is complete.
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did travelling it.
