23 August 2009 ride report

A couple days ago, I thought that going out for a late night ride with a few other bikers was a good idea. After all, the weather has been pretty good. Even though it did rain in the afternoons, by night fall, the roads were usually dry, the air was cool and the traffic was almost non-existent. I polled around and eventually got two others to join me for this ride. I even planned a route on Google Maps!

It was to be a nice ride with nice curves, uphill and downhill, separated by relaxing, straighter stretches, filled with great spots for night photography with scenes of the harbour, the city, the industrial areas, followed by a little spot of supper if we should get hungry by the end of the ride. Perfect!


Before setting off, I checked the 3-hour nowcast that the National Environment Agency publishes. It signaled a cloudy night with no rain. So I packed my camera bag, got into my gear (without the rain liners), and headed out to meet the other rider.


We should all be familiar with Murphy to know that he's a real busy body and loves to meddle around with everybody's business. So quite characteristically, he decided to show up tonight...yup...it rained! Since we already set out, I decided to just stick with my non-rain gear. My riding mate (only one because the other one was put on standby and could not join us) decided to put on his rain jacket quickly and we continued on our way. We did change our route...but hey...it was a night out riding and nothing was gonna stop the fun!


It was a relatively uneventful ride. We hit the curves at Portsdown Road and it was real fun. We then continued on to South Buona Vista Road and rode downhill, following a few cars and a truck. If you are not familiar with this road, let me tell you that it is the road with the most number of bends in Singapore. So its a real fun ride. But it was wet tonight...and no...we did not skid...but the truck in front of me did while negotiating one of the bends. Good thing we were maintaining a healthy following distance!


So eventually we got to where I really wanted to be - the industrial area of Tuas. I wanted to get there to see the lights. There were still some light showers when we got there but the lights made it worth the while. We rode around the area scouting for good angles and stopped at several places to catch the light.


The first place we stopped was a nice cul-de-sac that was deserted. It did smell rather funny, kinda like a sewer. And then I found out that we stopped right next to some big tanks of process water...still...the view was relatively nice and I managed to get close enough for this shot.

I've always loved flames. I love the way they dance in the breeze. I love the quality of the light that radiates from them. I love their shapes, always changing, always morphing, constantly giving light and warmth to the surrounding darkness. So I simply had to photograph this up close. Don't you think the flame looks so animated?


We made another stop around a long, sweeping bend. There we had a good view of the refinery. Unfortunately, there was a fence that made every picture ugly. So I hopped across the drain and went right up to the fence to take this picture.

There is something special about industrial scenes. I love the multi-coloured lights. I love the big drum tanks, the high chimneys. And I especially love the way the sky looks because of all that stuff that is pumped out. Yeah, not good for the environment, but great for this picture, I think!


We did stop in a few other places and it was really fun. But since it was raining, we decided to call it a night and start heading for home. Along the way, I chanced upon this scene and could not resist stopping for another spot of photography.

It took me awhile to setup this shot...what's more, the road was so deserted, it took us awhile before there were enough cars passing by to experiment with the shot. Eventually, we managed to catch a cab passing by.


It was getting late and we started to see lightning in the sky. So we packed up and decided to get back on our way. As we were riding down a particularly dark and lonely road, we saw this scene on our right and simply had to stop again.

I think this picture is really beautiful! It reminds me of a painting rather than a photograph. Much like some of the paintings I saw when I was at the Musee De Louvre. Immediately after I took this picture, the sky was completely lit up by lightning...and we knew we had to hurry. So off we went again!

This is the route that we took tonight. It is very different from the one I originally planned. It is hard to tell from the picture, but this route is almost 70km long and is almost double the distance of the original one. You can click on the and see the route in Google Maps and follow along our journey.


I'm glad I went on this ride tonight. It was relaxing and made for a perfect end to the day. I can't wait to ride again.


Come join us next time!