Bus Ride Sights: Orchard to CCK

There hadn't been much time in recent weeks for cross-island bus rides, but with this being the Lunar New Year holidays, and with me wanting to spend some time just stoning and staring out the window, I decided post-lunch (at Plaza Singapura) that the day was apt for a long bus ride.

I knew I didn't want to go to the east. 

I knew the east quite well. 

Neither did I want to go to the west. 

I'd gone there not too long ago. 

So, in between this route and that, a northwesterly direction seemed to make the most sense. 

There are two buses on Orchard Road that head towards the northwest. 

One is 190. 

The other is 972.

At the bus stop, I decided I'd hop onto the first one that came. 

It would be 190. 

The route this bus takes is an interesting one. 

From Dhoby Ghaut it goes down the entire back stretch of Orchard Road through the lane at the back of Ngee Ann City, then turns out from ION before turning right into Scotts Road. 

Down Scotts Road the bus goes before turning into Stevens Road where it then goes along the entire stretch, past the Metropolitan YMCA, past lots of condominiums, and several hotel properties, including Mercure before finally reaching somewhere near the Mount Pleasant Veterinary Hospital. 

From this little hill, it turns into the PIE and off it goes all the way northwest until it hits the BKE. 

I don't know how it is after the bus exits the BKE, but it turns into the Teck Whye (I think) housing estate, it trundles past part of the old KTM (now Green Corridor) route, and then it somehow finds its way past a community center and a collection of neighborhood shops before it reaches the Choa Chu Kang Bus Interchange. 

The best part of the route has to be the expressways. 

Maybe it makes me think of those long coach rides on the north-south highway in Malaysia where the journey just seems to go on for hours and hours on end. 

Maybe it makes me think of palm trees and hills and more hills. 

I don't know. 

But there's a subtle- no, obvious- change in the atmosphere the moment the bus turns from the Veterinary Hospital into the PIE. 

It feels as if the world suddenly shifted from the Urban to the Rural, where the Land no longer has skyscrapers and concrete rising out from the ground, and where the stresses of the City are left far, far behind. 

That particular stretch was very therapeutic, I assure you, and it made me kind of sad when it had to end. 

I had really enjoyed it. 

Because even though it might have been a mere twenty minutes, I got to see natural forests, I got to see space stretched out beside me, and I got to see structures (those weather satellite things) which I don't normally get to see.