Waterfront Walk
Today was an exciting day. After our lunch at Pasta Manna, we took a long walk along Kallang Basin. What was meant to be a relaxing walk with some sightseeing of expensive condominiums overlooking the river, turned out to be an exhilarating adventure!

We parked the car by the indoor stadium and crossed Tanjong Rhu Bridge. Like most people, we walked along the paved waterfront labeled as the Geylang Park Connector in the Streetdirectory. As we walked, we went under the East Coast Parkway flyover and came to a "fork" in the road. We could either follow the jogging tracks around the park or jump down 1m to hit a rocky path beneath us flanked by the sea on the right and a forest on the left. Without hesitation, the "leader of the pack" opted for the latter and I followed suit. The new road we were on was vastly different from what we were walking on before. The smooth pavement of the jogging track gave way to a dirty path on big rocks that slope downwards toward the sea. We walked on a little and came to the end of the rocky path. Here, a small man-made drain-like tributary cut through the path about 1.5m below us and flows out into the sea. Three wooden planks lay across this gap between the rocks which was about 2-3m wide. It seemed like something out of a dream (or nightmare) and frankly speaking, I don't think I've "walked the plank" since my OBS days. The leader tested the sturdiness of two planks before crab-walking across to the other side of the rocky path. Then came my turn. Fear was already instilled in me, but somehow in all that euphoric madness of the day, I tested the planks, and managed a brisk straight walk across the planks. What a sense of achievement that was! Reminds me of the book by Dan O'Sullivan on how we should always try to get out of our comfort zone. Walking, tramping, skipping, and hopping along the rocky path, we marveled at the beauty of what we see around us. The sky was blue, the sea was beautiful, the breeze whipped up ripples in the calm sea and provided us with cool relief from the scorching sun. Crickets were chirping, and the tall grass were blown backwards as if paving the way for our adventure today. A chameleon scampered past in the grass, a blue-feathered kingfisher flew above our heads and into the woods. It was just amazing.

Not knowing where we were going, we just followed the rocky path along the sea. On and on we tramped and skipped, like our Maple characters without our weapons. There was no one around, and all civilization seemed so far away. Then my phone rang - my dad. Finally some bit of civilization. Then as we walked on, we started seeing more and more of civilization in this wilderness. Debris was floating in the sea - foam boxes, rusted metal, plastic bags. They were also strewn among the grass. A helicopter-like plastic contraption hung on the tree, looking like it had fallen flat onto the tree branch. Below the tree stood an abandoned red suitcase; the brightness and boldness of the red seemed to say "come, look at me! open me up! (and maybe you'll find body parts in there)". Soon we saw two motorcycles and the end of the rocky path. We couldn't see what was at the end so we trekked on, curious to know how the motorcycles could get there. When we arrived at the end of the path, we got our answer, but what a silly one that was! I'll leave that to all of you who haven't been there to find out for yourself. All I can say is that today was one heck of an adventurous day! :)