Autumn
garden
Casual breakfast ride
If you thought the 7am start of the previous ride was early, then you would be even more impressed by the 6:25am start for the breakfast ride the next day. Even more impressive was the fact that Steve, today’s riding partner, got up and started riding even earlier. Today we were going to ride through East Coast Park to visit the newish Terminal 4 at Changi Airport for breakfast.
There are at least two good things about starting so early. First, it is cooler (Strava said it was 27c with 88% humidity). Second, there is less traffic. This means we can ride faster and on relatively empty roads. You’ll see on Strava that we fanged it through the business and financial district. We didn’t stop for any photos but I do recall my surprise of hearing roosters in the financial district.
If you are inclined to ride 52km for breakfast in Singapore then you could consider this route on Strava. NParks Eastern Coastal Loop also heavily features the East Cost Park.
To get to East Coast Park we made our way through Marina Bay and across the barrage. NParks has themed East Coast Park as “Recreation for All”, this park has something for everyone. It has inclusive gardens for all ages and abilities, facilities for cable skiing, Singapore’s tallest outdoor play feature, an Xtreme Skate Park, facilities for inline skating and cycling, and so much more. Our first stop was near Six Pipes Jetty Beach. Steve’s cute little drone was here to take some footage of us!
Just look closely how many container ships there are out on the horizon!
We visited Changi T4 for breakfast. This is the “budget terminal” which began operations in October 2017. T4 aims to serve a larger community of passengers, ensuring that our passengers can travel with ease of mind with greater travel options. T4 boasts environmentally friendly design elements with optimal use of natural lighting and energy management systems. In 2018, T4 won the Prix Versailles Architectural Award for South Asia and the Pacific as a testament to its state-of-the-art design.
I could have taken some more phots – but I was clearly focussed on getting some breakfast into to me. We visited a Kopitiam for a breakfast set, with soft boiled eggs, toast and coffee. I certainly found it enjoyable filling me up after 25km of riding!
In my haste to get to breakfast, I neglected to tell you about the Jurassic Mile along the bike path. Jurassic Mile is Singapore’s newest and largest permanent outdoor display of life-sized dinosaurs. More than 20 different pre-historic creatures from nine different species stretch over 1-kilometre of the cycling and jogging path. Expect to see carnivorous and herbivorous species, defensive dinosaurs, as well as those that fly. The tallest dinosaur stands at almost 5 meters high!
I didn’t take phots here either – but you can look at some at this article by The Straits Times.
On the return trip, I took some nice photos near the Marina Bay Area before heading back Tiong Bahru.
Thank you Steve for being such a great riding partner and for making our visit to Singapore very memorable! Hope to ride with you again sometime soon.
On my return to Tiong Bahru, I rewarded myself with a cold brew coffee and apple pastry from Glass Roasters in Tiong Bahru. My ‘local’ coffee roaster produces the perfect cold brew for the hot and humid climate of Singapore!
Some of you may know that, I like Japan. Japan is well represented in Singapore. I visited Takashimaya Department Store, ate lunch at Nakajima Suisan, bought books at Kinokuniya, and had afternoon tea at TWG Tea (I have never experienced such a BIG tea menu).
Mary joined me at TWG Tea. We then headed towards the UNESCO listed Singapore Botanic Gardens for an afternoon [3.5km] stroll! Wow, those gardens are amazing. We concluded our walk with a dinner in the gardens at The Halia (Malay for ginger – which makes sense because it is in the ginger garden). It was pretty active this night because there seemed to be a “halal” speed dating in the event space! The food, nevertheless, was good.
I finished the night by looking for craft beer. Tiong Bahru did not disappoint. I found a small local bar, Canjob Taproom and proceeded to drink some beer and eat spicy popcorn chicken as I contemplated all that I had done, and what was left to be done.
Afternoon tea and night lights…
We booked a traditional afternoon tea at a function centre which looks out onto a small tradition Japanese garden Happo-en.
As you can see by the photos it’s a real delight. The Koi fish were amazing- we could have spent hours watching them.. and their colour was amazing!
While enjoying the afternoon tea, we realised this was the very first garden we visited on our very first day in Japan back in 2008 when we had a goodwill guide provide a half day tour.
We finished the afternoon tea just on sunset. At this time the garden is lit up in red, highlighting the garden. This is only done in autumn and it really highlights the features of the garden.
Amazing Chrysanthemums…!
You have to give it to the gardeners at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for the amazing display which was on this week.
Following in the steps of Monty Don
On Monday we followed in the steps of Monty Don by visiting The Humbler Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou. But first we had to buy rail tickets. If hell is hot an sweaty then I’ve found hell on earth the Shanghai Railway Station ticket office. We lined up only to find that we had to go to another queue for English speakers. It seems like most Chinese are also English speakers so the queue felt very very slow! Only standing tickets were available. I was now getting very concerned, expecting an Indian style crush with me hanging out the door. But everything got better as soon as we arrived at the waiting lounge, air condition, free water from Tibet. Even better the train that turned up was a new High Speed train. Very impressive. In fact the Chinese rail system is very impressive in the way it handles the numbers.
We were feeling a bit lazy so we accepted an offer from a tout for van for 6 hours at the cost $20, less walking, happier legs. Off course we knew there would be a catch and were prepared. I got some ties and a pillow case or two at a silk shop :) and we had a chartered boat for the cruise which was a little more expensive than a regular cruise would have been.
I guess at this stage you’d expect me to write something about the garden. Well the garden is very impressive. But can I do a Monty? No! I suggest you check out his DVD. In the mean time admire the photos we’ve uploaded.
