This is a route I used to take.
But back then I didn't have a camera.
And even if I had one, it wasn't in vogue to take pictures of one's daily commute.
Of course, everything's better now; no one really bats an eyelid if you whip out a camera or a phone to snap your surroundings- be it the bus or the train.
My route this afternoon started somewhere near the Serangonn Central Bus Interchange.
Those familiar with the area will know of the estate opposite NEX shopping mall commonly called Lorong Lew Lian.
Further up from the estate along Upper Serangoon Road towards town is a row of single-story shop houses, then a kindergarten, then the Braddell Road-Bartley Road junction.
After this junction comes what used to be the Bidadari cemetery but is now the new Bidadari housing estate.
The camera came out around here.
I wanted to take pictures of the estate.
But, being the slow coach that I am, all I managed to get of the new housing estate was a non-descript road junction, the shelter of the bus stop outside the estate, and a block or two.
I was more successful with the area formerly known as Sennett Estate (right opposite Potong Pasir).
I took a picture of the junction.
Which, when you think about it, it really is.
Because not only does it lead you to both MacPherson Road and the PIE, this area is in fact a roundabout that connects the areas of MacPherson, Kallang Bahru, Bendeemer, Upper Serangoon Road and Jalan Toa Payoh together.
You don't feel it so much when your bus is trundling down the road, but if you look at the map you'll realize that- as much as the PIE cuts right across- it is from this spot that you can connect to (almost) the other parts of the island.
Let's start with MacPherson Road from which you will head towards Upper Paya Lebar, Tai Seng, Ubi and Bedok North.
Slightly further down is the estate of Kallang Bahru, Geylang Bahru, and the Kallang River all the way to the National Stadium and the sea.
If you take the route like I did on this afternoon, you will enter the areas of Bendeemer, Jalan Besar, Rochor, Fort Canning, Orchard and downtown.
But if you go ahead and make a U turn to the other side of the roundabout, you'll get to Jalan Toa Payoh which then leads you to the edge of Toa Payoh Estate, the Balestier area, followed by Whitley Road, Bukit Timah Road, and finally Woodlands Road, Bukit Batok and Choa Chu Kang.
This be quite a significant spot, I should say.
My bus today led me down towards Bendeemer, past the Lai Wah Restaurant, the Micron (formerly Texas Instruments) Buiding, then the vehicle repair shops near the junction of Lavender Street.
In front of the Lavender Street junction was Jalan Besar, beginning with Kam Leng Hotel on the right, Hoa Nam Building on the left, then the range of shop houses right after with their pubs, their cafes and their unique specialties.
I can't tell what sort of businesses they are- they're very much random- and some of the shop houses seemed to be closed- but a good number seem to revolve around bathroom fittings and lighting fixtures.
Bathroom fittings are the quintessential feature of Jalan Besar, by the way.
This is the place to come to when you're wanting a new tub in your bathroom, a new toilet bowl, or maybe a sink. This is also the place to come to when you need to replace a broken toilet seat cover. The spare parts are all here.
How it started, I don't know.
Maybe it has something to do with the (heritage) of night soil carriers on Lavender Street.
Maybe it has something to do with the Jalan Besar area catering to traveling businessmen in the 50s until the 70s.
One doesn't really know for sure.
We don't quite bother too much either.
It's good enough that we know where to go to when we want to fix the bathroom.
I got to Rochor after Jalan Besar.
Here I got a picture of Sim Lim Tower.
Like Sim Lim Square and OG Building on the opposite sides of the road, she's one of the first buildings that comes to mind when you think of Rochor area, and Rochor Road.
At one time we might have thought of the housing blocks across the road from Sim Lim Tower, but they're now gone, and we're left with these buildings, the river and the Queen Street Bus Terminal right behind.
We don't think of Rochor as anything more, anything less.
But this area is also a crossroads, where from one direction you can come from one end of Upper Serangoon Road, or Bedok North, or Toa Payoh, to the foot of Fort Canning Hill behind YMCA, and from the other direction, you can be connected from Bugis, Beach Road, Kampong Glam and Arab Street all the way to Bukit Timah Road, Woodlands Road, and even old Jurong Road via Kampong Java and Keng Lee Road.