Singapore's Summit

I read today that Sitting is Killing You. And thus, I was motivated to get off my butt, away from my computer and up Bukit Timah Hill.

I kid. I already made plans to climb to Singapore's summit before reading that article, but it makes so much sense. We weren't made to sit down for long hours at a time and not even spurts of exercise changes that fact! (I hit the gym in the morning too.) I hope all the small things add up - walking, not sitting while on the train, extended periods of outdoors like these...

I underestimated the climb to the top. And it amazed me when I saw an elderly couple make their through the trails. I think they'll live to a hundred!

My legs. They are killing me. I hadn't exercised much during Feb and Mar and now I'm paying for it!

I'm going to indulge in this lifestyle - freedom and the great outdoors - for awhile before I start working. Then it'll be a whole different ball game.

Cycling at Pulau Ubin

Yong Liang and I made our way to Pulau Ubin on Friday. The weather was awesome while we were on the bus to Changi Village. We were rather quiet on the bumboat over to Ubin because its engines were freaking noisy and we had to shout to be heard. Saw Tekong, which I'm glad never to have to set foot in again, and the SAF chalet, which from photos I've spied is awesome but almost impossible to book.

We went to rent our bikes and they were $8 instead of the usual $5. Apparently they were new mountain bikes which arrived that day! They were really good. Also, YL is damn good at cycling. We reached Chek Jawa in about 10 minutes.

We climbed the tower and the view was great, but dark clouds began to gather.







It's rather different from the last time I went, which was rather sunny. This time round, it was also high tide so we didn't see any crabs.



We did see many mudskippers though! They were all over the place.







I enjoyed the long walk on the platform. It was windy and it didn't look as optimistic as we felt. When we came out from Chek Jawa and unlocked our bikes, it started to rain. We considered cycling in the rain but decided to take shelter instead.





We waited there for more than an hour! In the meantime, we killed tonnes of mosquitoes and YL shared his expertise on bicycles. When the rain cleared, we raced back to somewhere near Meeting Point 1 where the bike rental shops were. After two coconuts and cleverly using the lockers at the Information Kiosk, we headed out again, this time to an insane bicycle track located on the west side of the island.

Ketam Mountain Bike Park was insane. I've been to Ubin so many times I didn't realise that there were still many places for me to discover! The Bike Park consisted of exciting trails and there was this crazy S-shaped undulating track called the Dirt skills park. YL handled it like a pro, while I got stuck at certain places. There was once that I fell off the bicycle and into the grass!

There is a reason why I didn't bring my camera along! I can't find much information about the place online, but if you're interested you could take a look at this. When I find a good way to secure my camera on myself, I'd definitely go in and take a couple of pictures.

We went on to explore and there was this "playground" for bikes where you could cycle onto a see-saw device and stuff like that. Those were really a bit too difficult for us to handle! The Blue routes were easy while the rest led us into thick forestation. The track was ridiculously steep and it was muddy. We pushed our bikes up and down again. It seemed impossible to cycle!

All the while it was drizzling on and off and the track had great big puddles. By the time we made our way back we were drenched and ridiculously dirty.



We got the bicycle uncle to hose us, cleaned up and had dinner there after that.

After the whole thing I realised how much I enjoyed cycling and that cycling in the rain was nothing new. I still remember one of my night cycling trips with Jie Yu where it started raining and we were thoroughly drenched and shivering while cycling back from City Hall through Little India to Serangoon.

I was on a high for the longest time from this great adventure, but I think I'll be hiding indoors from the rain for awhile! And I look like I've been through a wrestling match. Exaggerating, but well, I never had that many bruises from cycling, ever!

You Can Come Too Too Too

Cycling Madness

Excuse the hair because it was blown about in the wind for 3 hours.

Night Cycling II

I'm thankful that the bus driver let us up the bus and got us to Marina, although he could probably have let us stop at the end instead of throwing us at the end of this trashy route. You could probably make out the hotel and Marina just behind. The rain was freezing cold, and hit us really hard. Anyway, we braved the rain and made it to shelter and bought some stuff to eat at 7-11. There were a lot of people just outside the place, drinking, playing truth-or-dare, and basically getting wasted. Young punks. We decided to go to a place with a better environment. It was still raining and we were cycling a little bit, and Jie Yu almost slipped when he made a sharp turn. The floor was freaking wet.



I've just realised that this photo is a tad blur. Anyway, we sat where the Esplanade was in view (I've taken a stand - it's an artistic and cool structure) and had our curry puffs and other stuff that we got from 7-11. We were thinking of what our options would be if it rained, but as it turned out, it didn't stop raining. So we just sat there... and waited.



And listened to music from his mp3 player. There's a mix of a whole lot of good stuff, songs that were old and new. Finally it was about 6 and the buses had started their services already. We decided not to wait any more and take our chances to get back to his place. I had tuition at 1045 and work at Sony, so I wanted a few hours of shut eye, no matter how measly.



We went to the Esplanade for the toilet (the last proper photo I took). After that we got rejected by buses, trains and cabs.

So we had the tough job of cycling all the way back at 633AM. It was rather insane because we knew we were going to be wet, the visiblity was a tad poor, and we were a little tired. Okay, it is kind of hard to feel tired when you're wet and shivering, so I was really very motivated to get back as soon as possible. We had to cycle at the side of the road, obviously, which was where all the puddles were. So as we did that, we created mini fountains with water splashing from the front wheel, and from the back wheel to my back, and of course all around my feet. My camera was still in my pocket, and I feared for its safety, but it was already too late. We just wanted to get back and rest, and take advantage of the fact that it was still early and that there weren't too many vehicles on the road.

Did I mention the amount of water actually coming from the sky?

It wasn't a thunderstorm but it was crappy enough to be cycling. The only up side about the whole thing was that it that the temperature was cold. That, I can handle. We made it past Little India and from then on, it seemed like the whole place was called Serangoon. I actually thought we'd be back soon, but there was Pasir Panjang and all the other weird places on the NEL line, before we actually reached back, dripping, but happy to be in one piece.

Something similar to the feeling after the 24km route march.

We took two photos of our wet selves, but they didn't turn out well, so I'll leave it to your imagination. Ooh, and my shoes were wet. I didn't have time to go home to change because of my work commitments so I wore them for the entire day, which is why my feet still stink faintly.

A harder scrub of dettol today should do the trick.

PS - A huge thank you to Chris who bought me the Levi's from Taiwan!

Night Cycling I

I was just saying how much I hate writing (and you thought blogging was supposed to be natural and an easy art of self-expression) but I've got to do it anyway because it would be such a waste not to note down the experience that's causing my feet to stink till today.



On Saturday night I went to Jie Yu's place after work ie standing for 10 hours for the night cycling trip we planned. It was kind of ambitious as we wanted to make it to most parts of Singapore in the course of the night. The initial plan was to head to Clementi, and then to Choa Chu Kang, Woodlands, Pasir Ris, the Esplanade and then back to Serangoon. Jie Yu had already planned the route. Streetdirectory.com is amazingly helpful. The planned route was about 120km.



Jie Yu took a lot of effort to plan for the trip, which included borrowing really good bikes. This was the better one that I was supposed to be using, but I felt more comfortable with the other one instead! Guess I'm not tall enough for it! Most of the stuff that we needed to bring were packed in his bag, while I carried my camera, handphone and wallet in my berms. They were irritating to cycle in because they came below the knees. I'll remember to wear shorts the next time!



And so we headed to Toa Payoh from Serangoon, which was a rather short route, and one that we've travelled a couple of times before. However as we crossed the overhead bridge, we had an episode of misplaced contact lenses! Okay, so maybe misplaced isn't the right word, but somehow Jie Yu's contact lens dropped out from his eye. Luckily enough he saw where it landed, and due to our amazing foresight, we had the solution with us and so he put it back where it belonged, and we carried on like it didn't happen.



Our first stop was at the void deck of a mystery girl whose identity I've decided to keep a secret. Anyway, she passed Jie Yu a bottle of Gatorade and helped us take this photo. Cool stuff. We continued and made our way to Clementi. We passed by Mount Avernia (sp?) hospital and the entrance of Macritchie reservoir. After that we came across a place where there were quite a few people waiting for cabs at the main road.



Jie Yu kept telling me I should take a photo with the place that I might probably be working for next time! Which reminds me - we passed by SPH earlier as well. We decided to head inside to take a photo with the very famous Mediacorp sign.



It was kind of difficult to hold the camera steady after cycling so intensely. We weren't exactly panting but I could feel the blood being pumped a little harder through my veins, and that really doesn't help when you're trying to take a good photo at night. The other option was to set it to 2 sec timer so as to reduce the movement from actually pressing the shutter button, but the best bet would've been to get a tripod, which is just too bloody heavy to carry along on a cycling trip. After that, we made our way out of there and pedalled furiously towards Clementi.



We were on the road that was headed to Holland V and Queestown. We were actually toying with the idea of going to Holland V. I've never been there before actually. But I decided that I was not really hungry, probably because of the adrenaline rush, while Jie Yu had his dinner just while ago, so we continued cycling till we reached Clementi MRT station. I felt that it was the thrilling and exciting cycling terrain, with plenty of slopes which allowed us to cruise through without doing any actual cycling. We went up to about 27 km/h, while our average speed on normal roads would've been about 17km/h.



Eventually we stopped at the coffeeshop situated just beside Clementi MRT station for supper. I like my ba chor mee dry. Haha... It's amazing how many people were having their meals despite how late it was. By then it was already 1245AM. The meal really re-energised me, since my last one was more than 6 hours ago. Half an hour later, we were ready to go. We were supposed to head for Jurong which would in turn lead us to Choa Chu Kang.



For some strange, unplanned reason, we went pass The Chevrons. Weirdly enough, the only time I ever went there was with Bryan, Charles and Chia Keat, people from my platoon whom I later realised I couldn't really click with. We did catch War of the Worlds because we couldn't get in to the KTV at Chevrons. Ooh yeah, travelling around Singapore really brings a lot memories attached to all the different places I've visited.



It was here that we started to get a little lost. According to Jie Yu's plan we weren't suppose to go pass Jurong MRT station (my favourite interchange) which looks brilliantly lit in the middle of the night, and neither were we supposed to be at the Science Centre (I think they're having a dinosaur exhibit) and the last photo over there would be of the Discovery Centre. We continued cycling because apparently we were on the right road (Jurong Town Hall Rd), but once we saw Chinese Garden MRT station, we freaked out and was convinced that we were going the wrong way. On hindsight, it was the right path, but of course we didn't know it then! We then went in the opposite direction (which now you know lead us further down the wrong way) and travelled cluelessly until I saw the back of a school that looked strangely familiar to me.

I felt as if I had just seen a ghost. I knew the place was coming up but since we were going by the back of it, I was caught by surprise. It's been 6 years since I've been there, because frankly there was no reason for me to go back. Much has changed though. It was no longer River Valley High School. Instead it was a newer-looking building, and has become Commonwealth Secondary School. The structure was still more or less the same. It was crazy but I didn't know how deeply I've buried my memories till I saw the school compound again. The hair on my arms were standing on their ends. The feeling of going to school there came back to haunt me.



This is the reservoir which faces the school. When there were 2.4km runs, we would take a left turn, run 1.2km of the circumference and turn back. I used to run to the midpoint and walk back. It was perfect imagery of my life in lower secondary - half-fucked in everything I tried to do (totally-fucked up my studies, which was why they kicked me out after that), low on self-worth... basically I was a screwed up kid. Of course without him, there wouldn't be me. What would I have given to give that kid some identity. Growing up was so awkward and different from primary school. He was the kind who'd stick to the people he'd want to befriend, although he wasn't exactly lonely and had his own small clique (which was basically formed from the outcast of the rowdier, crazier guys in class). Of course I'd be the complete opposite. Still as awkward as ever that's for certain, but I've actually been called dao a couple of times. I wait for people to approach me, to ask me out - I take don't take initiative, yeah, that's probably because I fear rejection. And sitting on this side of the fence actually allows me to dish it out instead of taking it.



Looking back, I don't quite understand how he managed to fail more than half the subjects in Sec 2 (my average was about 46.7%). The guy who got A B B for As is still in a bit of disbelief. But getting out of there was probably the best thing that happened since getting in. For so long I've been pretending it's okay, and that I've moved on and put it behind me. It's good for times when I need to do a bit of storytelling (one of the things I related to the prof at the interview for SCI) though.

Just facing the reservoir and the deserted school flooded me with so many memories. On a more light-hearted note, Xiaxue lives at Teban Gardens (which was where we were, more or less) and went to RV too. Anyway, after being confronted with so much pain, all I wanted to do was to get out of there ASAP, and being somewhat familiar with the place I led the way back to Jurong MRT station. In my haste I pushed a bit too much and ended getting a major cramp. At the time we were close to a traffic junction so I stopped there and literally threw myself on the floor for a stretch. By the time we reached the station it was 220AM and we'd already wasted an hour.



After orientating ourselves, we managed to get to Bukit Batok MRT station. I was quite frustrated with the fact that I didn't get it right away, that the centre track was the on which would lead us to BB and ended up following a general direction that got us lost in the first place. So that sucked big time. The photo above is one of the Macdonalds at the station. I kind of like the place. It's cosy and all. I used to live in Bukit Batok.

We decided that instead of going North, we'd make our way to Harbourfront instead. Earlier when we were at the reservoir, the thunder had started rolling. When we left BB train station, the wind was starting to gain momentum and we tried desperately to cover as much distance as we could, in hope that we would actually be able to get to another part of Singapore where it wasn't raining.



Of course, as luck would have it, it started raining. The drizzle progressed to become a torrential rain and we were stuck at the bus stop outside this incinerator at Toh Tuck Lane. Descriptions just don't cut it. Here's one of the few videos that we took (we were stuck at a bus stop at 317AM, waddya expect!) of our situation. I sound horrible in the rest, so there.