So, earlier on, we had taken the bus from Kembangan (Lengkong Tiga, actually) to Springleaf here at Jalan Tua Kong.
And so now, what with us being full, yet not wanting to go anywhere else, decided that instead of taking a bus, we'd simply take a slow, stroll style of walk home.
It's interesting how I find Opera Estate easy to get in yet difficult to get out. It's like I don't mind taking a bus into the area but when coming out, it feels kind of troublesome a chore just to walk to the bus stop- knowing that the bus doesn't bring you directly back to your bus stop but instead stops at Jalan Kembangan near the MRT station and you have to walk all the way home.
Maybe that's why I decided it better to just simply walk all the way home instead.
Decathlon at Chai Chee isn't very far from our side of Kembangan anyway.
The route this afternoon took us along the north direction of Jalan Tua Kong. This was the route one would take if you were heading towards New Upper Changi Road instead of Upper East Coast Road.
I grabbed a couple pictures of the charming houses.
Terraced most of them were, with lovely green plants of all sorts in their gardens here and there. I got somewhat fascinated by the presence of the coconut trees. No idea if they had been planted or built around, but they gave the place that distinctive rural feel.
Sometimes it is scenery as this that makes you wonder what the place was like before.
From Jalan Tua Kong we slipped into a little path lining the back walls and back doors of them houses- a path that you generally might not notice were you not familiar with the area- and then came out onto Fidelio Street, with Swan Lake Avenue right ahead.
It's interesting how I never knew of Swan Lake Avenue, or any of these operatic street names until I came to this place.
And it's even more interesting just how this particular pavement lives up to its name. Now, I don't know how the other streets of Dafne, Dido and Norma look like, but this pavement here is graceful, very much like the renowned ballet itself.
Mistake not, from this spot one looks like one is walking directly under the sun, but a little bit away further in front there is some sort of a semi-covered shelter which is, in actual fact, a frame, with lots and lots of green draped over and around it.
I wish I knew what those plants were.
They might have been vines, or some sort of plant that has vines.
But I'm not sure.
I don't normally pay attention to what grows above my head whenever I walk there.
That being said, I think I might have seen morning glory flowers once, or twice falling gently from the roof of the frame.
It is a bit of turn coming from this side to get to New Upper Changi Road.
You first come to the end of Swan Lake Avenue, make a right onto Jalan Terang Bulah, then walk a little bit until you come to this tiny slip of a road, then climb up the steps to the main road.
On some days if we do want to go to Bedok, we take a right and walk up.
Today, however, we made a left, and walked along the road (opposite Decathlon) until we came to the junction of Siglap Road.
Special mention must be made of the MRT track here.
I don't know how it is, like, how it was planned, but whilst much of the EW Green Line is above ground on the eastern side of the route (save for the part between Expo and Changi Airport), there is this little bit of a tunnel here.
For some reason- which we'll probably never know why- engineers decided it wasn't possible to build the track above ground on this part, and so, instead of pillars, the train slides into a short tunnel under the hill (whichever name it is) and comes out on the other side around Jalan Senang.
These pictures show only the start of the tunnel, one side looking towards Bedok, the other looking towards Kembangan and Eunos.
I walked the pavement on the Decathlon side, admiring the golden rays of this afternoon's sunset as they cast a glorious, serene, quiet glow over all them skillfully pruned shrubs and bark-peeled trees.
But it is the light that gets to me.
No doubt, I might be romanticizing it a little but it spots like these that remind me just how there are some places on this island that look their best only when the sun begins to set.
Not any other time.
It is hard to describe.
But look at the golden light in the horizon quietly glowing over the dusky twilight shades of Jalan Senang, Jalan Selamat, Jalan Sayang, and the whole suburban neighborhood that forms Chai Chee-Kembangan, and you might understand.
I could not stop looking at the sunset.
Neither could I stop wondering at just how thoughtful and pensive this part of the neighborhood seemed to be.
I have no idea why I took picture of this tree.
Maybe it were the presence of the white plastic chair.
Maybe it were the structure behind that interested me.
What it was, I wish I knew, but perhaps that's only something the Transport guys will know.
Whatever it was, the structure continued down the slope where I now strolled, and soon enough, somewhere in the middle of the downslope, the MRT track popped out of the tunnel, becoming back one of above ground, the roof of Kembangan MRT station came into view, and the condominium Astoria Park rose into view.
My route now took me back to flat ground where I passed by Jalan Senyum, and then finally, into the road of Jalan Kembangan, near Leng Teck Hood Yee Temple, it became for me.
