On that weekend afternoon, I headed for Adam Road Food Center and began the journey with another Anywheel rental. I cycled on my merry way until, to my surprise, I came across the Japanese Association (from which I had recently obtained my JLPT) and turned into a little path that seemed to be made of wooden planks and dead leaves, part of the Adam Park Connector.
 |
| The wooden boardwalk Park Connector. |
That was actually a fun little ride, at the end of which I ended up at a charming little spot of green called Kheam Hock Park.
 |
| The underpass at the foot of Kheam Hock Park. |
Next to the park was a tunnel that led under the Pan Island Expressway. From there, I passed a few ancient-looking gravestones and carried on my way up along Kheam Hock Road till I reached this humongous overhead bridge that spanned Lornie Highway.
 |
| This one was a pain in the ass. |
It had a bike ramp which was absolutely torturous going up and worse going down... but the view of the highway from the bridge itself, overcast sky and all, was something else.
And then it was a long smooth ride along Lornie Road, alongside MacRitchie Reservoir. Things were nice and quiet, with occasional downward slopes which were an absolute joy. Eventually, things petered out at MacRitchie Reservoir Park.
 |
| A nice ride along Lornie Road. |
After that, the most frustrating, tooth-grinding part of the journey began. I was supposed to travel along Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, passing the Ang Mo Kio-Bishan Park. However, the construction works around the area made wide detours necessary, and the entire experience thoroughly unpleasant.
 |
| Construction works. |
 |
| Arrived here after many detours. |
 |
| Checkpoint Five. |
It was a while before I got to Checkpoint Five due to all the detours I had to take, and all the obstacles I had to navigate. I wasn't riding the bike; the bike was riding me.
 |
| The track along Ang Mo Kio Linear Park and Luxus Hills Park. |
Once I reached Nanyang Polytechnic at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, that part was thankfully over. The architecture along this stretch was interesting, and so was the greenery. This was Ang Mo Kio Linear Park, and immediately after that, Luxus Hills Park.
 |
| Checkpoint Six. |
Also, Checkpoint Six at the end of Luxus Hills Park. This signboard was located oh, so innocuously. After Luxus Hills was this rickety bridge made of concrete blocks, spanning a nice view of the canal.
 |
| This lovely bike ramp. |
After turning in northwards into Yio Chu Kang Road, I was confronted by a nice bicycle ramp on some steel steps. This one was far more pleasant to use than the last one, the incline being a lot less steep.
 |
| Houses opposite the river. |
 |
| The Singa at a bike stand. |
From there, I turned into Punggol Park Connector right by Sungei Tongkang, where I had a nice view of the houses opposite. There were also quite a few people fishing even though I'm pretty sure it's illegal. Still, it was a smooth ride from here. Also, check out this Singa on a bench!
 |
| Nicely cultured green. |
I don't know why, but I was rather taken by this cultured patch of greenery right here. It looked particularly fetching amid the wild shrubbery. Around the area was also a nice view of the widening river.
 |
| Breathtaking river view. |
As I went on, a particularly low underpass made me glad I wasn't a basketball player.
 |
| The underpass. |
 |
| Checkpoint Seven. |
Checkpoint Seven was right where Sengkang Swimming Complex was, and I ended my exploration of the Coast-to-Coast trial for the day.
Thoughts so far
Honestly, this was a mixed bag. The construction works at Bishan made this super annoying. But if I had to evaluate the trail excluding this, it would actually be a lot more pleasant than the one I endured the week before - because the trail here was at least meant to be bike-friendly. Let's face it; at some point the work on Bishan will be done, but Bukit Timah Road will remain a pain in the ass.
The fact is that this part of the Trail had plenty of interesting features. Whereas the previous part of the Trail felt like a legacy codebase with a new feature (bike paths) shoehorned in, this part at least felt like a codebase that was meant for this particular function.
No comments:
Post a Comment