The other day I wrote that I'd come to Choa Chu Kang from Orchard Road on Bus 190.
If you're wondering what I did after arriving at the bus interchange, well, I wandered around Lot One for a while, browsing, seeing the shops, trying to decide between heading straight back to the east on Bus 67 or hop onto another bus to continue the West Side circuit a little bit more.
Well, the latter won.
I mean, I'd come all the way here anyway!
So, up Bus 172 I went.
The route this bus takes is an interesting one.
At least that's how it seemed to me- having had Westie school mates talk about this bus route all the time yet never having taken it before.
From the interchange the bus turns out, going down Choa Chu Kang Drive, then Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1. I sat up when the bus turned into Avenue 1, because whilst I wouldn't pay much attention to the road on other days- Avenue 1 I had come before- from another direction.
There had been a time in my life where I used to come to this place at Hong San Terrace, and 172 has a stop directly opposite.
I too used to come to some of the shops- I even had a meal of salted egg sotong and char siew rice with a father and son duo- but I'd only seen the shops from inside, and didn't know that it looked like this- like a little village of sorts.
Admittedly it was a bit poignant seeing this area, even as the bus zipped by, but there was just a little inner smile, a breath of thanks, and as soon as the bus trundled down Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 into Brickland Road, the poignancy was no more.
For one, I hadn't known this side of Choa Chu Kang being so close to the nursery and Old Choa Chu Kang Road.
How is it that one can make a right and find themselves leaving the blocks and blocks of flats behind to a view of trees, more trees, and sky.
It was amazing, I tell you, seeing how the scenery rapidly changed.
All along the entire stretch of Old Choa Chu Kang Road I was captivated by the scenery, and the fact that all this land had been untouched (I think) for the longest time since pre-war days.
Yes, there's that sense of timelessness when you're on Old Choa Chu Kang Road.
Old roads- they capture more than the living. They capture life.
The same can be said of Jalan Bahar.
Even though the timelessness there is perhaps more of a permanent nature.
In any case, it was lovely passing through Jalan Bahar again.
I'm not new to this road.
I used to cycle on here, coming from Jalan Boon Lay along this very road towards Lim Chu Kang Road towards Neo Tiew and Kranji, but it has been quite some time since I've been here, and it was strangely calming seeing the serenity and the restfulness of the road once again.
I don't think I took many pictures of Jalan Bahar- maybe just one or two- of the area after the Civil Defence Academy and near Nanyang Avenue.
Some places I didn't think I needed pictures. :)
And then that was more or less it- back to the urban view of homes and flats and traffic lights and landscaped trees before the bus turned into Boon Lay Avenue and Jalan Boon Lay.