This was another long, long, long, long ride.
And it delighted me.
You know, it's one thing to have to take a long ride because you've got a purpose, a destination, a place to go, a task to do.
But it's another thing altogether when you're on a long ride simply because you want to, simply because you wish to.
There was no purpose for us to go to Sembawang this afternoon.
Except that it was a special season for me, I love long bus rides, and The Hedgehog suggested we should go.
Lunch first, of course, at the briyani place along Geylang Lorong 1, and then it was to the bus station across the road.
Something quaint about the bus station here is its reminiscence to old days where there were no bus interchanges and all (if not most) buses stopped at little shelters like these where drivers stretched, clocked their shifts, went to the restroom, had strong coffee and caught up with their fellow colleagues.
I don't know what goes on inside this little room these days, but I imagine it must more or less be the same.
From here the bus turned out towards Merdeka Bridge, passing by a very scenic scene of the Kallang River, before heading towards what was once the site of British Petroleum and which is now long gone.
The bus took a left, turning into Crawford Lane and then into North Bridge Road. Here came a couple of public housing blocks (including one-room rental ones) in an estate known simply as North Bridge Road.
A left and a right followed after and then the bus came onto Beach Road.
Here it passed by ParkRoyal Hotel and then, after the junction of what I think is Ophir Road, a very new property that's got the word 'Midtown'.
Somewhere around here the bus did a sort of turn- along Middle Road, maybe- and then on Victoria Street right in front of Bugis Street I was.
The bus made a left again, and then she was on Rochor Road.
Here she trundled straight on past Sim Lm Square, past the road near the KKH Children's Hospital, and then it was onto Thomson Road.
I took a couple of pictures on this road, first of Goldhill Plaza (with the Starbucks Coffee sign very dominant from the road), then the open space of Old Police Academy, following which were the well known plant nurseries of Far East Flora at the foot of Caldecott.
Here the bus made another turn, going past one of the entrances into MacRitchie, then up along Upper Thomson Road.
One might think that there isn't much of a landmark to be seen here, and in a way it's true, except that perhaps I've come to recognize the lay of the land a little bit and I can recognize the trees of Windsor Nature Park that are right behind here.
After this the bus went on, passing by the stretch that I usually refer to either as Sembawang Hills, or the Casuarina Curry side. Indeed they're landmarks no less, but in particular one has to notice especially if you're going to the Lower Peirce Reservoir that side.
We came onto the junction that turns into Seletar Expressway, and then after that there was the entire stretch along Sembawang Road.
Honestly I don't really know what it is that lies along this route.
From the pictures it looks like there's a golf course of sorts- the Sembawang Golf Course as Google Maps tells me- then a row of shops in a row of shop houses, more shops, then the junction that turns into Gambas Avenue.
I've never been on Gambas Avenue before.
So I don't know how it looks like.
This bus didn't go into that route either.
So I still don't know.
What, however, I do know now, is that there's a Sir Manasseh Meyer International School somewhere in that region, and that Sembawang Shopping Center is along there.
I also know that there're a good number of terrace houses, a couple of housing board flats, new developments, and condominiums here and there.
It's times like these that I wonder what it's like staying in a place up north.
Or what it is like staying at a place so close to quiet and rustic Sembawang Park.
But Sun Plaza's interesting- it's got a wide range of F&B and a range of shops- and it's convenient- the bus took me to the bus interchange where the shopping center was just next door.
Better yet, I now know where Old Admiralty House (Canberra House today) is, and how surprised I am that, unlike what I had imagined, it was right in the center of everything, not somewhere in the distance by the sea.