Day 11: East Coast Seafood Center to Stadium

After 11 walks, this is the day I close the loop around Singapore.
However, as it is often said, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Today is that day.

It starts out easy enough. Its the afternoon again, so its hot. The eastern side of Singapore, however, always has a breeze, so while its 91 degrees outside, it feels a lot cooler.

I pick up at East Coast Park and head south towards the city.

East Coast Park at East Coast Seafood Center

East Coast Park stretches most of the 10 mile length of Singapore's east coast. Forty years ago, I could not have taken this path as the entire park including the long, thin beach is man made.
Today, its a pleasant walk. I stay on the walking path for speed. Even on a Monday, there are people camping,

Take a ticket and get a campsite

surfing (or at least trying to),

Dude, no waves today... or really any day. The water
in the straits is protected by the Malaysian and Indonesian land masses.

or just enjoying the views.

The government is hugely focused on hygiene (not a joke), so every few miles there is a very clean restroom and shower.

One of the many clean restrooms along the beach

From one of the breakers, I grab a picture looking northeast.

Happy to be headed home

I'm a little busy today but I may come back here to do a little prawning. Click the link to learn more. It's totally worth it. An added bonus is that you get to BBQ onsite whatever you can catch.

Okay, maybe not. But it is popular and open 24hrs a day

A little further south, near Marine Parade, I was surprised to find this: the Amber Beacon.

The Amber Beacon... lovely in the daytime.

The beacon serves as a navigational signal for boats. It was also the site of a nefarious activity in 2009. Singapore culture loves hauntings and this places earned fame instantly for being paranormal. While a non-believer at heart, I didn't stick around to find out.

 

I took a quick break at the Road Safety Community Park before hitting the end of the beach. This is a spot where local fishermen take boats out to sea.

Fishing boats at the end of Tanjong Katong Road

At this point, reclaimed land prevents the walk along the coast. I veer slightly north and continue along the waterway at East Coast Park.

There are a lot of joggers and cyclists here. The path is a friendly reminder of what I'm doing.

I need that reminder because now is the part where my plans go awry. Today's goal was to walk through the reclaimed land to Marina Barrage, then cross over to Gardens By the Bay before completing the Singapore Loop at Marina bay Sands. This construction project at the Tanjong Rhu Flyover prevented that:

I should have planned on more construction.

Diverting back into the city (my only possible plan), I pick up the Geylang Park Connector. In the end, I'm glad I was diverted, because I get this fantastic view of the Singapore Indoor Stadium (center) and the new National Stadium (left) which is where the old one used to stand.

A view of the Singapore Sports Hub

The cool thing about the stadium is that the seats shift to fit any sport being played. Here you can see that the retractable dome is still being worked on.

Thanks to the detour, I'm out of time today. I'll have to pick up the slack tomorrow when I plan to finish this whole thing. Wanting to see more of the new stadium, I head across the river and walk through the sports complex. I take the Stadium MRT back home.

Route: 6.36 miles, 2 hours, 06 minutes.