I planned this morning's ride a number of days earlier. The idea was to set off at 5:30am in order to catch the sunrise. I guess everyone should know by now that I do this quite a bit. Anyway, it was to be a group of four bikers and we were going to explore the sunrise at the Lim Chu Kang cemetery. You see, someone told me that the Muslim cemetery there was very beautiful at the crack of dawn. So I was really eager to see for myself!
The meeting place was the usual Esso station along Upper Thomson Road. This is a really good place to start off because everyone could fill up with the petrol of their choice. There are three stations lined up side-by-side (Shell, Esso and Caltex) and another station (SPC) across the road. I do not think you will find another place in Singapore with so many options within a stone's throw of each other. Unfortunately, one of the guys could not make it at the last minute because of a minor emergency...and another guy...well...let's just say he was not contactable. Hahaha! Murphy struck again! Interestingly, somebody (whom I did not expect at all) turned up at the station to join the ride. So that made three of us! Oh yes, Murphy struck last night too because one of the riders also had a problem with his bike and could not ride with us...so he turned up with two additional wheels!
So off we went at 5:40am. As usual, I started the group off along Old Upper Thomson Road. Everything went smoothly. I led the way to Mandai Road, BKE, Turf Club Road, Kranji Road, across the Kranji Dam, through Neo Tiew Road, Lim Chu Kang Road, and eventually we arrived at the Muslim cemetery while the sky was still dark. It was immediately clear to me that it would not work out at this place because the tree cover was pretty dense. So we headed over to the Chinese cemetery instead. The place held much more promise!
We stopped here for quite awhile waiting for dawn to break...and eventually it did. Unfortunately, the sun never quite showed up because there was heavy cloud cover at the horizon. Almost half the sky was covered with thick and heavy clouds! Despite this, I captured as many images as I could possibly capture...hoping for the best. Eventually, I decided it was time to move on with our ride and headed off towards Tuas.
Along the way, I managed to spot a few areas with good promise. We stopped along the side of the road a few times to take pictures. These were new stops that I have never tried before and I was pleased as a peach that I found them!
Another place we had wanted to visit was the beautiful beach that many spoke about in Tuas. We found the place alright! And the light was beautiful! However, there was no space for parking and the place looked all fenced up. So we rode around to find an alternative place to park, hoping also to find an access point. Eventually, we found a road leading up to the beach area but was told that we could not park there, and that the entire place is out of bounds due to road contruction! We decided to head back to the original spot where we saw the beautiful light. When we got back there, the light was no longer beautiful...it was glaring...flaring...and the entire scene had lost all of its beauty and charm. It looked flat and boring in this strong and direct light. Ten minutes was all it took for the light to disappear! Oh well, its simply not to be, I suppose.
Soon, I realized I was running on empty - my tummy, that is - and decided it was a good time to have some breakfast! And so we had some at Jurong West. After breakfast, we continued back to Lim Chu Kang for more riding, eventually ending the ride at the car park at the Kranji Dam. At this point we stopped to take a group picture and some pictures of Andy's bike. That marked the end of the ride!
Fast forward to photo editing...and I realized Murphy was one sneaky fella! Although I captured some images at the cemetery and the other spots, I found that the pictures were unusable! There were many dust spots, funny looking pieces of hair, bad colour balance and impossible exposures. I've never had such a huge batch of photographs go to waste due to these things. Argh!
All is not lost though. I did manage to get some pictures...hehehe!
Remember I was at the Mobil Refinery area one night? Well, we were back there again today. I could not take any pictures in the first spot that I scouted out. This place has guards looking out on elevated guard posts much like the prisons! AMAZING! And there were "No Photography" signs posted all along the perimeter fence! I suppose this prompted me to simply take the scene all in without being distracted by the photography. And it was a BEAUTIFUL scene! What with the industrial pipes and drums and lights dressed up by the beautifully lit morning sky!
I did manage to grab a photograph as we were leaving the area though. After turning out, I looked back to see this scene.
A little further on, I spotted a little road just off the right side and saw a bridge over a waterway. I decided to give this spot a try as well. So we parked right on the bridge and started clicking away.
And just to show you that I am a little crazy when it comes to reflections...here's another one.
Well, that's about all the pictures I took today of the places that we were at. Interestingly, I have gotten really fond of taking pictures of the people who went on the ride. So I took a few shots to give you a better sense of who was on the ride today.
...and this is Andy...
So that's the way it was this morning...Murphy, my best friend, did not fail me after all. He showed up and did a swell job of changing the plans. But in the end, I am convinced it was the best way to have spent the morning...riding along...solving problems...enjoying the company...and just being alive!
Come join in the next ride!
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