How is it that I ended up taking so many pictures on what is a relatively short bus ride, I don't know.
Perhaps I hadn't been very pleased with the pictures of this same route which I'd taken some time earlier, so this time out came Chonkycam (again) and she got busy snapping away.
The route today began from the bus stop along Jalan Eunos between Jalan Awang and Jalan Ismail.
From there the bus went straight, passing by the building that held the now renovated Veganburg, the junction near the (new) polyclinic, then made a right into Geylang Road.
Here the bus passed by a well-known Management Training Institute, another building that I know held a couple of offices, a petrol station, and finally the bus stop that I know marks roughly the starting point of the enclave we call Geylang Serai.
It is at this bus stop you get down if you want to go to Joo Chiat Complex and the shops on Joo Chiat Road.
It is also here that you usually will get down if you want to go to the wet market right opposite the road.
But the bus stop for the Haig Road Market and Hawker Center is the next one, and that's where you get down if you want to have putu piring or go to KINEX, the shopping mall next door.
The shops at this Haig Road side are somewhat interesting.
Let's just say that they've got a bit of heartland vibe, and so you can expect a Cheers, a 24 hour fruit stall, a couple of household shops and Swee Heng Confectionary with a selection of the most delish breads and cakes on sale there.
There's now a (new) coffee shop here as well.
From here the bus went on towards the precinct that we commonly refer to as Geylang, passing by some shops which I've since come to recognize.
There was the (old) Sian Chay Medical Institution where they offer free water from the water cooler outside their clinic so thirsty passersby can fill up their bottles.
There was also the JB Restaurant that I went to once and which I know is famous for their (very Malaysian-style) Sam Lor Bee Hoon.
After that came a host of random shops, including a laundry shop, then a couple of hair salons, then after that, several coffee shops that sometimes double up as restaurants.
There're a lot of hair salons along this stretch, one must note, but they're all at random spots here and there, so you don't really notice until you come upon one.
There're some iconic buildings this stretch of Geylang Road however.
Like the Lai Ming Hotel, which the more I look at it, the more I think it has a history and a story that goes beyond the street-style perspective of present-day Geylang.
Then there's the Eastern Aerated Water Company which I am pretty sure too has a story of its own to share.
It's buildings like these that often make me wonder just what Geylang used to be like.
Surely the Aerated Water building here was meant to quicken supply to their customers.
What sort of business was it that used to be carried out?
Who were the people that patronized this area often?
Where did they come from?
Perhaps there's a reason why parts of Geylang have been quietly preserved this way.
No doubt, there'll be some who think of this area as seedy and dangerous, but if you look hard enough- parts of Geylang actually do give off a small-South East Asian-town vibe.
There was no time for me to be thinking about these things today.
The bus trundled on, first passing by a couple of handphone shops, then a condo apartment with really long balconies overlooking the main road, then a coffee shop selling what I think is claypot frog porridge of some sort, and finally what I think is a nightclub/pub with a really huge synthwave (neon) signboard.
Like every other place that has a neon signboard, whether they be a salon, a handphone shop, a massage parlor, or a club, this spot would stand out at night, for sure.
I haven't had much of a chance to drop by this area at night when twilight has fallen and dusk has come.
Maybe one day I might do one of those late afternoon series just to watch where the rays of the evening sun shine.
But today I was on the bus, and the bus carried me on, taking me past the last row of shop houses somewhere along Geylang Lorong 1, past the open field that once used to be part of Kallang Airport and finally the junction leading towards Kallang MRT.
