The plan was to go to Bedok.
I needed shampoo.
But because we wanted to have dinner at Isshin Machi over at East Coast Road, we decided to make it a late lunch/ early dinner thing before taking a bus there.
I was quietly delighted by the plan.
Especially when I found out that the 14 bus route would be a long one.
I like long bus rides.
They give me a chance to stone.
They also give me a chance to take pretty pictures of the scenery along the route.
We got up the bus at the bus stop that sits somewhere between the Sin Hoi San (Seafood) Restaurant and the coffee shop that sells one of the best wanton soup noodles in the area.
Across Still Road the bus went, entering the area I like to call "Telok Kurau that side".
Technically it isn't Telok Kurau but I think there're very few shops amongst the lorongs and generally everyone comes here for the coffee places, the cafes, and restaurants.
I don't know exactly how many there are, nor which they are, but I've had a meeting at Penny University (it's a coffee cafe) once and I've had good chye tow kuay at a coffee shop here.
From here the bus passes by the grounds of St. Patrick's School, then the junction leading to Frankel Avenue, then Siglap.
It's a good thing that the blocks of Siglap Estate are still around.
Of course, no one lives there now- the shop signs on the ground floor have been long removed- the staircases long been boarded up- but it's a little nice seeing the blocks standing there still.
From here, the bus headed on along East Coast Road, passing by Bedok South Road, the SingTel building, Bedok Food Center (with very crispy orh luak) across the junction that leads you to Bedok Camp.
Down New Upper Changi Road the bus then goes before turning right into Bedok North Road and Blk 85 Fengshan (with the very popular hawker center, delicious Cantonese-style porridge, sambal stingray, and Ah Balling tang yuan)
I took this picture because of the lanterns hanging from the branches of the trees.
I thought they looked charming.
It wasn't merely just the lanterns alone.
All the trees- every single one of them- were genuinely beautiful.
Until today I'd never realized just how huge they were.
I'd never realized just how large their canopies were.
Or even how majestic they truly were, standing like graceful sentinels by the road in the glow of an early evening sun.
