AhPek Biker - Old Dog Rides Again

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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Singapore : Lost In SinCity

Singapore City : 28th April 2013

A duo ride, cycling with unclear route, just cycling lost.

Our route : Roughly - F1 Pit Building>Newton Circus>Orchard Road

Distance covered : roughly about 15 km.

Time : 9:30 am - 11:45 am
Time Taken : approx. 2:15 hrs. (including stops for brunch, photo shoots)

Route Recommendations :
1. Riding with no clear routes and destination is fun, just be sure to ride safe. In this way, there is no hurry and some gems of places can be discovered.
2. One can ride along the external corridors of some of the complexes and use pedestrian bridges to cross over busy roads, but do cycle with care on these corridors.
3. The area around Sultan Mosque has interesting old shop houses and nice graffiti murals.

PRE-RIDE

Reflections of greenhouses of Gardens In The Bay onto the waters of Marina Bay.

Two days earlier I had arrived in Singapore. On my first day here, my cousin-in-law Thomas had taken me on a night ride around Singapore City (... see Knight Riders In The Lion City)

Happy cyclists at the Marina East Barrage.

The previous day, a small group of us - together with two Singaporeans friends as guides - had explored the Park Connector Network, a long but interesting ride that took us about seven hours (... see more at Singapore Connexxions).

Much earlier in the morning we had taken part in the OCBC Cycle Singapore event (... see more)

THE RIDE

With the OCBC Cycle Singapore 2013 over, the five of us (Kevin, Tailim, Kellie, Suit & me) rode off to Newton Circus for brunch.

At Newton Circus, my Brompton was getting hungry too.

Here I had nice hand-made mince beef ball noodles. The beef balls were very good, but the soup was average only.

We all also shared some Teochew Style Stewed Duck that came with bean sprouts and groundnuts (... see more).

With that nice lunch over, the other three had to go their own way. Tailim & me, the two old dogs, decided to explore Singapore City and headed towards the business district - towards Orchard Road.

There was some construction ongoing, so we had to ride carefully, trying to avoid the tight traffic.

Passed by Isetan. Hey! There is a Food Republic here, they have very nice food (... see more).

It started to rain, so we had no choice but to swing in and cycle along the shopping mall external corridor.

But at times, we had to go onto the external walkways, but a least these are shaded by the trees.

Sin was most happy to be cycling at a relaxed pace here, slowly exploring the area.

Crossing Handy Road was easy as there was a handy pedestrian crossing around.

We even passed by the old Cathay Cinema, which is now not a cinema. The owners have maintained the front facade and had built a spanking new corporate office behind.
Seeing the old facade everyday must be a reminder to the present management that they have a past reputation to maintain.

In fact there were quite a number of buildings with the old front preserved and new buildings built behind them; some of the new buildings having some architectural elements of the old.

The nice buildings were not the only things to be enjoyed, there were other pretty sights too... heh! heh!

We were not the only one taking advantage of the mall external corridors; a trishaw man took his place here to have a snooze in the cool weather, an umbrella propped up to shade himself from the glare.

Slightly further on, were were cycling along the side corridors of the Raffles Hotel - the timber ceiling and old hanging lamps gave a throwback to the time of the colonial heydays.

The front of the Raffles Hotel.

Diagonally opposite is the Needle Monument. Is this the new structure that will replace the old Centopath.

We are now back on Beach Road, where our hotel is situated. Nearby, the towering Gateway Building looms skywards. Designed by renown architect I.M. Pei, it's sharp angular design makes it looks wafer thin - almost two dimensional.

At the Hai Lin Street junction, a Stargazer wall mural was our introduction to more street art of Singapore. Further on, we made a left turn.

Tailim posing with some of the street art wall murals.

A neo-Aztec wall mural street art.

Making that left turn has brought us to the Sultan Mosque neighborhood. We found ourselves in an area of preserved colonial double-storey shop-houses - an Arab enclave surrounded by modern skyscrapers.

The shops here try earnestly to project their own unique image; like this bicycle shop owner who has gone out and has put up a tongue-in-the-cheek sign stating not just "Out" but "Out For A Ride".

Colorful condom graphics of an aptly named shop.

The favorite of the old dog in me - " All We Need Is Love & A Dog" graffiti.

Reflections of the two "Old Dogs" cyclists onto a shopfront glazing, we seem like phantom riders.

We were in luck again, there was a modelling photo shoot being carried out here.

The Filipina model was most sporting and did not mind posing with the two old dogs cyclists.

Round the next corner, we caught a glimpse of the Sultan Mosque.

A warning to cyclists not to forget where they parked their bike, lest something like the above happens - creepers growing onto a bicycle.

Front view of the Sultan Mosque.

Time to head back to our hotel, check out time is coming soon. And what safer way then to use the pedestrian bridge to cross over busy Beach Road.

Safely back at our hotel, the Park Royal Hotel on Beach Road.
After checking out from the hotel, Tailim & me went to try out the renown Fei Fei Wantan Noodles (... see blog)

Well, it has always been interesting to ride "lost', we get to see nooks and corners which shows their own uniqueness.

We shall be back to ride in Singapore again!

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