I had a super early start due to the Adidas King Of The Road 16.8 km "fun" run I had entered. Possibly due to the heat, the race was starting at 6:30am and runners could start lining up at 6:00am, while the info booth was open at 5:30am for people like me who still needed their race kit. I was all set to get up at 5:00am then, only someone started making loads of noise in the hotel at about midnight, sounded like they playing Hungry Hungry Hippos or something. It wasn't long before I heard some angry knocking at their door and they shut up soon enough.
Without a clock radio it was lucky the alarm on my Garmin worked the first time I had ever used it, and I was awake but a little dazed and confused at 5am - I was about to start brushing my teeth with muscle heat gel. I stepped outside the hotel and had about a 10 minute easy jog (excluding the world's slowest pedestrian crossings) to get to the starting area. There was just a few light drops of rain beginning to drop the second I got outside, but within minutes it had become a tropic al storm with thunder and lightning. The rian was so heavy I couldn't even go any further, I just had to wait undercover.
After a while I noticed a lot of runners getting dropped off in taxis across the street, but then disappearing from sight. I dashed across the street to investigate and found hundreds of people hanging out inside the Raffles City mall - no idea why it was even open at 6:00am. It was a relief to see I wasn't the only one not brave enough to continue through the rain. At the end of the mall I waited around for another fifteen minutes before I started noticing a few people going down the escalators towards the City Hall train station, so I went to investigate that too. It turns out there is a connected underground walkway between that station and Esplanade station, which is actually much closer to the information booth and start line.
The rain was just slightly lighter at this stage, so I went out in the rain to go to the information booth and see what the hell was happening. I stayed on the footpath so I didn't bother to check for puddles, only to ended up stranded in water. I made it to the info booth but my shoes and socks were already soaking wet. I got my race kit (and whole bag of goodies, but what the hell was I supposed to do with that on race day?) and they said the race was temporarily delayed and they had another update coming soon. The runners who had braved the outdoors to get this far were now all huddled under a bridge next to the start line, so I went there and waited too. Some time later they said the race was cancelled, thanks for coming everyone! So that was the end of that...
Since my shoes and socks were so wet (I would never have been able to run in them anyway) I decided I'd take them off and jog barefoot back to the hotel. The footpath surface wasn't too bad, so everything was going alright up until...I lost traction, slipped and slided, then crashed down on my hip and head on the footpath. I was a bit dizzy but managed to get up and keep going. By the time I was back at the hotel my hip had already started to go pink and purple and my neck was sore.
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| Slippery when wet. |
With the bad weather and the cancelled race, I had to come up with a whole new plan for the day. I switched some plans from the next day, and was off on the train heading west of the city. I got off at Clementi and discovered an awesome bakery right next to the station. Not a surprise it wasn't one of the chains, but a local store selling Chocolate & Oreo buns, donuts with sprinkles and other great stuff. I tried to find my own way to West Coast Plaza because the free shuttle bus hadn't started running yet. I walked right past the place because it didn't have a big sign out front, and then once inside discovered that a lot of the stores were still closed at 10am. There was a Nike Outlet there, but from what I could see inside it didn't look like they had much stock, and not really at a discount, so I didn't stick around to find out.
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| Super bakery. |
I got the shuttle back, and then a few train stops closer to the city to Redhill. I had written down some rough instructions how to get to a park from here, as it wasn't on the free tourist maps since it's too far from downtown. I made it eventually, but I was starting to seriously doubt I was going in the right direction as it look a lot longer than I expected, I was just about to consider turning back and giving up. Finally I made it to Telok Blangah Hill Park. There was two directions to go next, I started with the Forest Walk which I wasn't familiar with. It turned out to be walking through the tree tops along a metal path - I have no idea how they construct these things in such hard to access places. I didn't go all the way along the walk as I had to turn back eventually, but it was a good side trip other than not having much of a view besides what was directly below.
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| Forest walk with me. |
I turned back and took the Henderson Waves route I had come for, which is this weird wooden bridge thing which crosses high above the street. At the other end is the cable car station which can take you all the way to Sentosa Island (for a price) but I wanted to follow the path some more. The path becomes Marang Trail further along, and takes you all the way down to the harbourfront pretty quickly, it was a fun walk.
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| Henderson Waves. |
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| Also Henderson Waves. |
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| Cable car to Sentosa. |
To get to the actual harbour you have to go through the Vivo City mall, so I stopped in at the Giant supermarket - the name represents the brand and the store size, but also the queue to get out. All I wanted was some bread rolls and fruit for lunch, and it took forever to get through the express queue. With that sorted I found at exit at walked across the gateway bridge to Sentosa Island, or you can also get the monorail.
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| Boardwalk to Sentosa. |
At Sentosa I passed by Universal Studios, but I had already evaluated that it was too similar to the Hollywood one to bother with. There was a larger version of the merlion called Merlion Tower, and the Imbiah Lookout, but I don't know what I was supposed to be looking at - Singapore I suppose, but the skyline isn't too remarkable other than Marina Bay really. Down the other side of the island was a beack walk along Palawan Beach and then Siloso Beach. By the time I had completed both of these I thought my knee was ready to explode, so I got a shuttle bus from the entrance to Fort Siloso instead of walking any further.
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| Universal Studios. |
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| Not the real merlion. |
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| Singapore's version of The Wiggles. |
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| Singapore's version of a Gaudi park. |
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| Siloso Beach, couldn't be any further from Singapore. |
Since I had an unlimited three day metro pass I made a few more quick stops on my way back to the hotel. First to China Town to visit The Tintin Shop, which was closed when I came by yesterday, and also to pick up some cheap souvenirs. Next was Clarke Quay which I spotted from the top of Fort Canning Park but didn't know much about. It seemed to have a lot of restaurants, many with a western feel, but they weren't opening for dinner just yet. Finally to Dhoby Ghaut (pronounced something like Doby Gahut if you were wondering) to see if I could find something for dinner.
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| Clarke Quay, logo is a bit too much like "ca" for my liking. |
My first stop at Plaza Singapura near the station exit was the Cold Storage supermarket. They had a spot near the deli where they would cook pizzas while you wait, for ony $7. This was interesting and the pizzas looked ok but somewhat familiar, with choices like margherita and spinach, OH MY GOD THAT's DOCTOR OETKERS!!! Instead I started towards the hotel and stopped in at the Baja Fresh mexican restaurant for a decent plate of nachos.
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| Nachos! |
Back at the hotel I figured I'd take a look through one of those food centres for any interesting snacks. I went up and down a few rows before I came across a place selling Pig's Organs Soup and I figured I might be a little out of my depth. There was a place selling all juice drinks for one dollar, I think I've seen the same thing in several other cities like Barcelona (maybe), I got the NZ Cherry Red Apple but it was pretty watered down.
STEP-O-METER: 38861 steps (and 4km on Garmin watch)
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