expiration date 

this is probably our longest bike ride thus far. we decided to try and take the Western Adventure Park Connector Network (WAPCN) trail, which is basically going around Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Panjang and Bukit Batok area. it’s pretty far for us, because before we get there, we had to cycle to Bukit Batok, which is about 14-ish kilometers away from our home. together with the WAPCN trail, we ended up cycling for a little over 40km today. pretty good!

we were supposed to leave in the morning. but as usual, none of us can wake up early. so, we ended up leaving around 10:30 to cycle to Bukit Batok and meet up with Oscar.

it took us about an hour to get to Bukit Batok via the Ulu Pandan Park Connector. not bad… and on our meeting point, we found 12 statues of Chinese Zodiac. that made aina’s day :D

before continuing the journey, we stopped by Botak Jones to get lunch… it’s been a while since i went to the Botak Jones. and it turns out that the Bukit Batok’s joint is the halal Botak Jones.

after lunch, we rode to the Little Guilin, which is very pretty… we took tons of pictures there. but since i’m using film, we have to wait until it gets developed before i can post them up here. the film has been developed, so i’ve added some new pictures on the entry and in the photo album (link at the bottom of the entry).

then it was a quite a long way to get to Choa Chu Kang park. but the Park Connector was so easy to follow and the views are very pretty, that the journey was very enjoyable.

once we get to Choa Chu Kang park, we stopped and rested there for a while. aina loved the park, because it has a pretty big playground, along with sandpit area. very nice! there are kids taking rollerblading lessons, other kids studying (yes, in the park, on Sunday)… and the bathroom was very clean!

after buying ourselves some cold drinks, we left the park and heading for Bukit Panjang. we passed through the famous Ten Mile Junction, but unfortunately, it’s was under heavy construction.

huge sports complex at Chua Chu Kang.


getting lost…

one of the cutest thing we saw was a few RC Car circuits, located underneath the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) flyover. there were bumps and humps, bridges, and all kids of obstacles. there are score boards and all, too.

at Zhenghua park, which is located right along the BKE, we found another cool playground.

aina was totally in love with this playground, she kept asking us if we can come to this playground again some other time… well, i kinda doubt it: first, it’s about 20+ km away from our home… and second, the trail on Zhenghua park is pretty tough; it’s very hilly, i kept running out of breath and had to push the bike up the hill, instead. but i had to admit, the playground is one of the best one i’ve seen.

after leaving the playground, the trail on Zhenghua park didn’t get any better. in fact, it got even worse. the hills got steeper and the path got narrower. the worst was at the end, where it met the Dairy Farm Nature Park: the trail changed to a Mountain Bike trail…

oh no! a 3-speed roadster with a 3.5 year-old on a child seat is no match on the pretty crazy mountain bike trail… that part took forever to finish, as i hardly rode the bike… lots of pushing! we were so tired and rather panicky, that we forgot to take pictures on this leg. oh well.

we finally managed to get out of the mountain bike trail and followed the Dairy Farm road to the Rail Mall, where we stopped by Coffee Bean to get icy cold drink (i was hoping for ice cream, but there is no ice cream parlor at the Rail Mall) and dinner at EAT.

by the time we’re done with dinner, it was already 7:30pm and i didn’t feel comfortable riding 15-ish km home in the dark. so we left our bikes at Oscar’s apartment and planned to pick them up next weekend.

so, bye Finch. bye Thyme. see you next week!

ps: if this is not enough, there are more photos on the WAPCN Trail - Feb 2011 photo album and Oscar’s facebook photo album.