Really Jialat

Woke up a bit late and arrived at Rail Mall carpark around 715am. The plan was to walk / jog from here until Kranji side via the rail corridor…ending at the Rainbow bridge. From there we planned to take a bus back to rail mall (about 25mm ride) and end our excursion with breakfast. I tried this route 2 days ago but that was disrupted by heavy downpour almost midway. Sunny clear day today! The entrance to the rail path at this time could only be accessed north of Hillview mrt. The path looks like is undergoing some sort of upgrade with new topsoil and grass. Likely once this settled in coming months it will be a proper “path”. This continued until junction 10 mall; instead of going into cck park connector, we accessed the rail path via the heavy vehicle carpark right after the mall. Theres a little opening and bridge to get over to the left side, which is the rail path. On the right is the car park for heavy vehicles. This joins to a path beside a huge monsoon drain with new HDBs on the...

Arranged for a mid morning trek up Keppel Hill. Started at 9.30am from Seah Imm carpark, as we were planning to do the 'clockwise' loop, I parked at the eastern side carpark from the food center. This place is pretty accessible as its along West Coast highway and one of the lines directly stop here (Harbourfront). We walked to the West side carpark and entered into the 'wilderness' from a huge old tree. The path leads to the bunker / bomb shelter from WW2. It's pretty dark in there. A steepish ascent. No problems with ropes provided to assist. We come to the 'reservoir'. Looks more like a large pool. Great sights from the top, as we reached the build up area (restaurants?) at Mt. Faber. On the way down back to the car park (east of the food center / interchange). Massive trees! A quick change of clothes are we were off one of my favourite makan places, "Formosa Delights" @ Clementi Road. Really good Taiwan / Szechuan inspired food and great Chinese...

 Woke up 5.30am to roaring thunder and rain; no cycling today. I sat down on the kitchen floor, procrastinating on things I could do. 6.45am - lets go the Wetland Reserve! Tried to get my son to go as well but he looked sleepy so solo it shall be! Since 2010 when I started cycling, I used to passed the road that points to "Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves" and alway a passing thought that faded as fast as I passed it while cycling across the Kranji area towards Neo Tiew / Lim Chu Kang. This area is really very special place akin to days of past, pre-developed Singapore. As I reached, I could see that will be untrue soon with massive so-called consolidated factory, business buildings sprouting in the area like fungi on a wet morning. There are 2 entrances. I opted to park at the Neo Tiew Crescent entrance (turn of the main road) one which I think is the newer section of the park. The place is well equipped with park amenities and even has a room with cold drinks / hot food vendin...

After a long long 2 years, the borders are finally open for driving between Singapore and Malaysia. 3 of us in an electric vehicle (EV) with the mission to drive all the way to Tangkak, u-turn...charge up and head back. Total of 450km. Emotional moment for all of us as we got our passports chopped and crossed the border. Things that we take for granted for so long. We tend to miss things only when they are gone. Driving and Charging. Charged from 25% - 99% in about 30mins. Pretty well equipped station run by a super helpful, super friend manager. We chit-chatted while we charged. Apparently this station opened right before the pandemic hit in 2020. Ah...back in JB...our favourite place for Bak Kut Teh and claypot Catfish. Been a while! Really do hope that this holds up.

Saturday morning. Left home around 630am, picked up our exploration guru DS and parked at SIM carpark. The entrance to Clementi Woods starts from a bus stop just across the road. The 3 of us entered the area just as the sun was rising @ 7.10-ish. IMO perfect timing. Crossed the overhead bridge to the bus stop. Entrance to the 'forest'. We could already breathe the fresh air infused with that greenery nearby. There is a clear path, so no worries about getting lost here! Lotus thrives. A bit of traffic jam as there is a small stream crossing that requires one to drop down about 4-5 feet. After a couple of minutes of waiting we decided to cut queue and went down via another route. Took our shoes off and lowered ourselves into the stream (only knee high at most). It was pretty muddy around there due to rain from previous days. We got through and went on while the queue was still slowly clearing. View from the old railway road.....pretty impressive! Cut back into the trail on the op...