Sunday, September 19, 2010

National Stadium, MBS and Marina barrage ride -19th Sept 2010


Sunday again and time to ride! Joining us for the first time is GL on a Flamingo London and Boo on her Trek MTB.  Kudos to GL, who is from Woodlands and made the trip to national stadium. He was the first one there... and early he was.. 7am to be exact. Boo on the other hand rode all the way from Bedok.. and make me embarrassed. Me and Sitoh took the easy way there.. by MRT. If u haven't tried taking ur foldie to the MRT, u are really missing out a great deal. Anyway...
We had a quick breakfast at Kallang Mac Donald's and headed to the first place of interest. The great Kallang stadium.  As we closed in to the place, u can feel the "presence"... I remembered the crowds lining to go into the stadium and the bustling of activities. But today there was just Francis, Tah ching, Amy, Adrian, Sitoh , Boo , GL and Myself.  We loiter at the steps not know if we should go in... then GL just bumbled along and found a gate unlocked and we were in!  We rode around full perimeter and absorbed in all the details. Most of the stuff are already gone but the memories are still there,  triggered by the pillars, walls and big seiko clock. Inside the stadium, overlooking the soccer field, the wooden benches are stripped and piled in nicely on the ground( what was formerly the track) It was a sad sight seeing the great stadium being tear down. Well, I suppose everything changes and when it is time to go.. it is time to go.  Bye bye National stadium, Thanks for all the memories..  I will remember u! 

The next spot is the MBS. We snaked along the river and made abit of detour as the SG F1 race is happening and there are big fences around the town... this is not good for bicycles... but we will find a way.  At the helical bridge, it was another photo opportunity and we snapped away. I still can't understand the design rational of the helical bridge. To me it is a royal waste of steel and just horrible demonstration of design for design sake..  From the bridge, we could see MBS almost completed and rode towards the wooden broad walk. MBS shops are mostly open but it was more quiet as it was still early in the morning.  I am guessing that this place would look magical at nite... maybe another ride to see this. 
From MBS, the route to Marina barrage was uneventful. Not a nice ride here as there was quite a lot of trucks shuffling dirt...Add the sun to the equation.. we just hit it and reached the barrage quickly.  No one knew if we could cycle to the "top" floor garden.. but we all wanted to..  So we snaked in casually to the the quite corner and just rode up. The view was lovely and many kites in the sky. Sitoh was telling us that this is now the place for students to fly kite and eat home made bee hoon..  Well, if i can do this over again, I will time my ride to reach just before sunset... I think the city lights would look really nice from here.  It was getting around to noon and very hot.. we headed back by crossing the barrage and doing some MTB terrain riding.. and exited at Fort road junction. Then it was a quite zip to Kallang indoor stadium bridge and ended at old airport road food market.  Francis and I had the  superb Wanton mee, while Boo had carrot cake.. the rest just drink sugarcane as it was just too hot. 
Ok, think I must be boring everyone with the details..   Pictures of the ride and look forward to more friends joining! 

Live to ride, ride to eat! 

from Left, GL, Alvin, Boo,TC, Adrian,Amy and Francis
Got tickets? 
turnstile stopped turning
bye bye National stadium, "referee Kayu" will never be the same again! 
Bicycle rules!
Clock still works though
wahhhh...
GL and his Flamingo
a lap for all the memories!
GL doing a lap too.






Alvin in Hero Stance
inside the stadium, sans planks
Track is gone too
left this lonely piece.. what should I do? :)
Adrian and Fixie VS TC with MTB..see Fixies and MTB can co-exist!
Amy at MBS broadwalk
Boo with her Trek

the helix bridge I cant understand..
al fresco haircut
beautiful view at Marina barrage
Francis and Adrian at the 2nd level
kites in the sky
Francis and his Zen look
Roarrr!
yeah.. like army man..this is fun!

my motivation for the ride.. old airport road wanton noodles
I prefer carrot cake!
Chee cheong fun and sugar cane juice!
cheng teng for me!

4 comments:

  1. it's really cool! Seiko should do a ad on the still running clock....how come nobody thought of taking it away! it's going to be teared down anyway!

    "Francis with the zen look"..haha, always!

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  2. we all thinking of kapo-ing the clock.. just don't know how. Indeed, this is a great opportunity for seiko...

    Francis is the man.. looking effortless everytime and always ready with a smile.

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  3. Appreciate yr pics of Ntl Stadium. Was last there during the Msia Cup of the 70s. So sad to see national icons disappear one by one in Spore.

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  4. morning Alvin, I am glad to share and happy u liked it. Same here.. my memories of the stadium included the semi-pro league matches there. Then there was Abbas saad, Nasir nasi, kadir yahya and of course sundramuthy.. I witness his bicycle kick against selangor... it was amazing and when the ball went in... everyone cheered.. Who said SG people are quiet... I thought the place would collapse under the stomping, and screaming. It was wonderful!

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