Our May Day Riding Adventures

Emile and me with our bicycles

Some call it Labour Day some call it May Day. Nevertheless, it was a Public Holiday and both of us were at home with no plans. We were lazing around the house when one of my friends, Emile, messaged me out of the blue to ask whether I would like to go cycling with him.

• Related: Bickering Over Bickertons – Start of Our Riding Adventures

Without any hesitation, Ann and I changed into our exercise gear, unfold our Bickertons and away we went via the Park Connector Network (PCN) at Pasir Ris Farmway to meet up with Emile at our planned starting point at Punggol East Container Park.

It started drizzling as soon as we met up but that did not dampen our spirits for the ride. We had no plans on which route to take and we just rode with the flow. We cycled towards Hougang via the PCN, went off course towards Kovan and headed towards Simon Road.

Simon Road bears a lot of memories for me as I was stationed there during my National Service days as a Regimental Policeman for the 1st Transport Battalion back in 2001. The camp is no longer there and a Condominium has taken over the small plot of land.

Anyone from Simon Road camp who still have photos of the place? Do share it with us.

Japanese Cemetery Park

We continued our ride and decided to check out the Japanese Cemetery Park off Yio Chu Kang Road. This park has a very rich history where a Japanese brothel owner, Tagajiro Fukaki donated a part of his rubber plantation to be used as a burial ground for more than 1000 Japanese comfort women who served the soldiers during World War 2 and died in destitution.

• Read more: Japanese Cemetery Park

*image: Flickr

The park was gazetted as a memorial park by the Singapore government in 1987 and the Japanese Association oversees the maintenance of the cemetery.

• Check out: Mute – A photo documentary about the Japanese Cemetery Park by Chia Aik Beng

Kampong Selak Kain

We then cycled down Yio Chu Kang Road and headed towards the last remaining village in Singapore named Kampong Selak Kain.

According to Wikipedia

“The kampong was also known as Selak Kain in Malay, which meant ‘hitching up one’s sarong (skirt)’ as people hitch up their sarongs to wade through floods whenever the village experienced flash floods in the 20th century Singapore.”

There are still about 10 houses left in the Kampong and we got to see the few remaining ones by the main road. We did not venture in as we did not want to disturb the peace of the village.

It seems that this May Day ride has been a very educational one as we passed by many places with a rich historical background.

Coney Island

Ann stretching out those sore muscles from the ride

Next, we cycled towards Coney Island via the Buangkok PCN which cuts through Sengkang and Punggol. We did not explore much of Coney Island as we were quite hungry. We rested for awhile at Coney Island stretching our sore muscles and thighs.

The resident monkeys were out in full force at Coney Island rummaging through trash and Ann decided that it was wise that we do not disturb them.

We then decided to backtrack and cycled towards Jalan Kayu for dinner.

Jalan Kayu

At Jalan Kayu, we ended up at Tang Tea House for dinner. Tang Tea House is no stranger to us. We have been to their Simpang Bedok outlet every other day and we would probably be their regular customer once our house is ready in 2019 at the end of Jalan Kayu.

But that will be a story for another day. 🙂

Punggol Waterway Park

*image: Deoma12

After our hearty dinner, Ann and I said goodbye to Emile as we rode towards Tampines via the Punggol Waterway Park PCN.

The weather was cooling from the drizzle before and this was our first time cycling through the Punggol Waterway Park. We were quite amazed by the route that runs parallel a waterway and cuts through the Waterway Point Mall all the way to our house in Tampines while dodging some wild boars along the way. 😆

7 hours after we started our ride, we finally reached home. It had been a very fruitful Labour Day holiday for Emile and both of us.

We learned a few things along the way and managed to sweat it out with a personal record of 42.5 kilometres ride for Ann and me. It seems that we are going to be like a Fat Starfish the next few days.

If you are curious about our route, you can view the Relive video of our May Day Riding Adventures below.

Till next time.

Relive ‘Punggol-Sengkang- Jln Kayu’