It's been so long since I last took this bus from Hougang to Yishun that I don't remember how long it has been anymore.
There's never been a need for me, I suppose, in all these years.
But today I was running an errand, and because the errand needed me to be at the Home Team NS Clubhouse opposite the Khatib MRT Station up north in Yishun, I went.
The bus takes a somewhat straightforward route that begins from Bedok Bus Interchange, trundles down Eunos Link, Hougang Avenue 3 and Hougang Avenue 2 before it makes a turn right into Yio Chu Kang Road.
I got up the bus on Yio Chu Kang Road somewhere near the turn of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5.
The view becomes somewhat increasingly rustic as the bus moves along.
It's not that kind of 'village rustic' I mean- even though Kampong Lorong Buangkok still stands there- but the kind of rustic that reminds you just how the countryside of this island used to be.
You know, there was once a time when being upcountry and being downtown meant two very different things.
Times pass, people move, places change, but in a strange way, atmosphere somehow still remains the same.
All along this road there're condominiums and construction and road works - it is the Seletar area after all- but look hard enough and the trees- the pockets of forest- are still there.
Doesn't matter that you'll pass by under the SLE as the bus trundles along, you'll still see the trees, plus a couple of junctions to which I don't know lead where.
I found it interesting how the view on one side differs from the other.
It's like if one side had more trees and views of buildings popping up from between the canopy, the other side had landscaped trees, terrace houses, and factories.
I wish I knew what factories these buildings belonged to- but I don't- but I think they belong to the technology hub on the upper Ang Mo Kio North side.
Nearing the end of Yio Chu Kang Road, the bus made a right onto Lentor Avenue, passing by a series of condos on the left, under another stretch of the SLE, before going past part of the Lower Seletar Reservoir and finally into the estate of Yishun and Khatib MRT Station where I got down.
