So I don't really know how it is, but I actually do have a whole bunch of pictures on what is a relatively short ride on a relatively short road.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate, East Coast Road to Mountbatten Road isn't that short.
Chonkycam came out somewhere around the Siglap area, where, across the road from the bus stop I caught sight of a row of shop houses, holding what I think is a restaurant serving Indian cuisine, a spa, and a pet store.
Further on the view changed to houses, houses, and more houses.
Were there anything significant about these houses?
Ummm, I don't know, except that most of their gardens seemed to have big canopied trees (to shield them from curious busybody eyes along what is now presently a very busy road).
There was one building that, from this side of the road, looked like some of the flats in either UK or Europe.
I can't be sure.
I've only seen pictures.
But there they were, looking somewhat familiar, despite me never having seen those in real life before.
Near these flats was an arts school, housed in a single-storeyed building that looked like a house, or a hut, with lots of open space where I suppose children in the arts program could run about and express themselves.
From here the bus passed down more pretty little houses, a gas station, an overhead bridge, even more houses, then the intersection of Still Road.
Here onwards towards Mountbatten, the road transformed itself from one of residential into one of shops, cafes, restaurants and shop houses where heritage mixed with the new and you got cafes like Chin Mee Chin, Ampang Yong Tau Fu, the coffee shop offering Beef Wellington at a good price, Isshin Machi, and (the now closed) Mei Chin Restaurant that will always bring me good memories of roast duck, fantastic wanton dumpling soup, and the elderly couple who always remembered me every time we went there.
More restaurants come ahead closer to the Joo Chiat junction where you get places like Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice, Zaffron Kitchen offering South Indian and North Indian cuisine, a Mongkok Dimsum, and a BBQ Box which I've been to a couple of times and absolutely love.
After the junction, however, come another stretch of restaurant familiars, like the well known Alibaba that serves up local fare with your wine and beer, Stirling Steaks, a Korean fried chicken restaurant, a pizza place (I think), the culturally-rich Kim Choo Kueh Chang with her Nyonya Peranakan fare, an ice cream cafe called Birds of Paradise that's known for its signature waffle cones, another place serving up casual Thai cuisine, and a bakery that once used to be Nanyang Old Coffee but I can't remember what it is now.
The architecture at some of these shops is classic and functional, even box-like, but there're some that retain their classic designs as what East Coast Road used to be a long time ago.
The road doesn't continue looking like this for long, however.
Right after the bus stop where you'll pass a bakery known as Butter Studio, a provision shop called I-Tec, there'll be the junction where there's a Katong Laksa, following which you'll pass by a building that now houses a church, and then after that, the highly noticeable Katong Shopping Center.
How long this building will continue to be here, no one knows.
Right now there're a bit of news saying that the place has been sold, and en-bloc(ed) but then there're not that much news of its happenings and goings-on either.
Do I know the place well?
A little.
I know there used to be a dental surgery on one of the upper floors.
I also know there are a couple of print shops and photocopy shops as well as a host of helper (maid) employment agencies here and there on the first three floors.
There's a coffee shop in the basement at one end of the shopping center.
But besides that, I hardly know anything more.
Maybe one day I'll go and take a couple of pictures of the place (if they'll let me), but right now, today, on the bus, I rolled on.
There aren't that many pictures after that.
Maybe I'd gotten familiar with the route that came after.
Maybe I didn't feel like taking pictures for the day anymore.
But there's a Singtel signals station (or however they call it) at the end of Tanjong Katong Road, and another condominium following it after that, and that's all I now have.
