Bus Ride Sights: Upper Serangoon Road- Yio Chu Kang Road

I took quite a lot of pictures on this ride. 

It was one of those long ones. 

Times like these I'm thankful to have the camera, and the mood to utilize it.

I don't always have both together at the same place and the same time. 

Today the camera came out somewhere along Tekka Market. 

From there the bus trundled down Serangoon Road, passing by row after row of shop houses all the way until The Centrium (and the road into Mustafa) 

I'm actually not familiar with how these shop houses look. 

Because I'm usually walking under them, not seeing them from the upper deck window of a double decker bus. 

But I can tell you that the shops in these shop houses are remarkably interesting. 

From Tekka Mall all the way to The Centrium and City Square Mall, you get an eclectic mix of shops offering anything and everything ranging from the likes of clothes, touristy trinkets and gifts, handbags, handphones, handphone paraphernalia, jewelry, religious and cultural artefacts, and daily necessities. 

This is a place where you can get a ladies' handbag, a set of shiny, clanky, colorful bangles, a pair of wireless ear buds, and a pack of digestive biscuits at the same time. 

It's a haven when you need to urgently restock stuff. 

And you don't have to worry that they won't have sufficient there. 

I'm less familiar with the shop houses beyond City Square Mall however. 

I just don't seem to have had the chance to walk much there. 

One thing I do know is that there's less retail along this side. 

Maybe because it's further away from the shops that sell fresh fruits and vegetables to workers who come down during weekends. 

Or maybe because this side of Serangoon Road was designated more for industry than for retail. 

This is the part of Serangoon Road where you'll find shops selling spare parts, ball bearings, electrical stuff, and maybe a machinery part or two. 

The route enters into the Bendeemer suburb right after here. 

It's been a long time since I dropped into this area. 

I've (unfortunately) have never been very familiar with it, and at the moment, am not still. 

There used to be a bakery right close to the bus stop. 

And on the opposite side under some of the blocks was a McDonalds. 

I might have sat there once with a friend who happened to be there. 

But that was a long time ago.

And I haven't paid much attention to this area yet.

Perhaps one day I will. 

After all it's got its own charms. 

Like these shop houses that I'd completely forgotten were there. 

I really have no idea what it is they have here. 

I've never quite paid enough attention. 

Except that these shop houses lead to this particular block of flats (which I've always noticed even when traveling downtown on the other side).

This block- a standalone on its own without any other accompanying block next to it- used to be painted red, and so stood out from its immediate surroundings like a lone ranger in the middle of nowhere.

I wish I knew more about this block- when was it built, who was it built for, why is it so far away from the other blocks in the Geylang Bahru estate on the other side, and were there any shops or facilities intended for them besides the playground downstairs.

But that will have to wait for another time. 

I didn't have time to get down the bus today.

The bus continued round the "Jalan Besar" circle (as I call it) and turned its way up towards Potong Pasir. 

I've said it before. 

I'll say it again. 

This circle here has to be one of the most fascinating parts of our little island. 

Because it is from here that the roads head towards various parts of the island, and also it is across here that the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) streaks over, bringing you smoothly from the Eastern part of the island at Changi Airport all the way towards the West where it ends somewhere around Tuas Road. 

What fascinates me about this turn is just how it not only connects you from the east to west (via MacPherson Road and Jalan Toa Payoh) but also northeast to the south (Potong Pasir and Bendeemer Road) 

A series of condominiums and new housing blocks stretched out on the other side of the much-widened road. 

I don't know the exact estate name, but I like to think of them as Bidadari- named after the cemetery that once used to be there. 

It's funny how the slopes of a cemetery can, in a matter of years, become a flat, organized, structured ground.

I remember the graves that were here. 

I also remember the trees (still) standing after those graves were exhumed and cleared. 

There're some parts of this route that, thankfully, still remain. 

Like this viaduct which starts from somewhere around Youngberg Terrace, crosses over the junction of Bartley Road and Braddell Road, and merges back to Upper Serangoon Road around the Upper Serangoon Shopping Center. 

I don't know when this viaduct was built, but if I'm not wrong, it's been at least 15 or so years. 

The presence of the viaduct created glorious light and beautiful shadows underneath. 

It was quite wonderful seeing the normally-shadowed plants glow so charmingly in the late afternoon light. 

The bus turned into the Serangoon estate from here. 

I've grown a little bit more familiar with this housing estate in recent years. 

It used to be such that I never came here (despite its proximity to my school and childhood home) that I think I only came here twice- once to borrow a copy of Archie Comics, and a Sweet Valley High paperback from the rent-a-book bookshop in the estate shops here, and the second, to return them both. 

Thing is, I never managed to borrow other books of either series from this bookshop again. 

Of course things around Serangoon estate have changed a great deal now. 

No more is the bus interchange in the same place it usedt o be. 

It's moved to be right next to NEX mall now. 

The quiet neighborhood (for the longest time without a shopping center to call their own) now boasts NEX- a mall filled with street-style brand stores, a library, a  gym,  a Daiso, a Scarlett, two 24-hour supermarkets, and a host of cafes and restaurants catering to the youth, theh adults, and the families alike. 

From here the bus trundled along, going past the Boundary Road junction onto Yio Chu Kang Link, then Yio Chu Kang Road. 

It's somewhere around this junction where we catch sight of the Serangoon Stadium and the Serangoon Swimming Pool. 

The bus goes uphill here, passing by a couple of housing blocks before coming upon a wide junction where a quaint little Christian Church painted baby blue stands by the side.

From here onwards there're a couple of terrace houses.

Then a private nursing home. 

Then a few buildings that house (what I think) is an employment agency, a paint shop, an interior design agency, an animal clinic, and a few other services which I now can't quite remember.

The camera returned to its case somewhere around here. 

Because right after these buildings was a condo (or two) right along the road, another church (a chapel, really) and I'd be soon getting down.