Its a banner day! In 3 days, I've covered 27 miles. That's a marathon plus in 8 hours. I'm no athlete, so I count that as pretty good. In celebration, I'm taking tomorrow off.
So, onto Day 3, which started out as a great and ended in exhaustion.
The morning was cool: 79 degrees at 8:00 am and a little bit of a breeze. I felt pretty good, just tight muscles. I was out the door early, picked up the 7 bus to Dhoby Ghaut, and then retraced the MRT route I took to get home yesterday. You can see me here, looking pretty happy:
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| At the entrance to Haw Par Villa |
Continuing yesterday's journey, I'm again walking along West Coast Highway, a 3-laner that goes around the southwest of the island.
I add this pic here for a reason. Even though this a major road, you can really see how nice it is. These overpasses are frequent, colorful, and make all parts of the island completely accessible. On this road, I thought I was going to be out on my own. I was surprised to see that there's neighborhoods just over on the left and many people going about their day.
Then just ahead, I duck into
West Coast Park. Its bigger than I expected and plenty shady. There were quite a few things to see here:
First note the irrigation. In the rainy season in Singapore, it can really come down in buckets. All that water has to go somewhere. Throughout the country, small channels like this one lead to bigger ones, which lead to major ones, which end in the surrounding waters. It's really amazing that between this and the sun, the ground can be completely dry 30 min or so after a major storm.
Next, I pop out to the coast and take in some more views of container ships, refineries, and yachts.
This catches my eye:
Local fishing boats and a beach. I did not believe that there was a single natural beach in Singapore, well maybe a few small ones in the north. Back along the tree line, fishermen were busy putting together their traps for the day's work, just like you can see in Malaysia and Thailand.
In the far back of that picture, the road runs out and I follow the trail back inland. So, I'm just walking past "Marsh Pond", when "Whoa!!":
I see this guy. I think, is it a croc? It's 3 feet long, nose to tail. Pretty cool. I immediately text my wife to let her know my peril. Turns out, its a
Malay Monitor Lizard, one of the largest lizards in the world. I had reason to be afraid. I put my palms out flat and slowly back away.
North of West Coast Park, I say a little good bye to all the shipping containers, well aware that I will see more. I decide to head left across the Pandan River and then what I think will be a relaxing stroll by the Pandan Reservoir.
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| Pandan Reservoir near Jurong East |
The reservoir is the largest in Singapore serving up water to the businesses that surround it. I pop up on the southeast side and make it for a miles or so. That was enough, because while beautiful, it was completely un-shaded and the sun was hot. I quickly finished my first bottle of water. As soon as I could, I detoured off the west side.
And it didn't get better. That's because we were headed into Jurong, designed as an industrial area. It contains many, many building that look like this:
Now, I knew this part of the journey was going to be boring and long. But its getting on 9:45 now its both hot and humid. The weather crept up on me. Worse, as its an industrial area, there was little consideration for trees and places to stop for a rest. So, what do you do when you get down, get out your umbrella:
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| Jim and his 'Caring for Cambodia' umbrella. The smile is just a ruse. |
So, its another 2 mile slog through industrial parks, until I finally make it to this hawker center:
Time for a break, some cold water, some Pau and a repositioning of the shoes which are starting to hurt the feet. I'm short on steam at this point, so I make one final push to here: The
ChineseGarden.
I stopped in here with the family back in October and it was lovely, a great spot to take the kids. The Ru Yun T'a Pagoda in the picture above is climbable and offers some fantastic view. I did not make the attempt today.
At the end of my journey, I made one last stop at the Rainbow Bridge that connects the Chinese and Japanese Gardens to rest up.
Just around the corner was the Chinese Garden MRT, the end of my trip. In a well thought out decision, I decided to nix the MRT and take a taxi home.
Total route (walking and slogging): 10.23 miles. 3 hours flat.
