Southerners in Singapore: First Biking Excursion

Last weekend we had a long holiday weekend and Drayton was able to take off Monday so that we all were able to play together for the day. We decided to go over to East Coast and rent bikes. Now we did bring bikes with us to Singapore but we shipped these bikes before we knew where we were going to live. There were some condos that we liked that were near bike paths and we thought that would be a great opportunity to get the kids outside and exhaust them. Those same condos though were smaller (less than 2,000 square feet) and were all in locations that didn't really allow us to live without a car, since the closest MRTs were about a mile away. In the end, we chose a condo in a great location and great layout and couldn't be happier with our decision - except we have no place to ride out bikes!

So for this outing we decided to go ride bikes on the East Coast path but since we have no way to get our bikes over there (since we don't have a car) and it's too far and dangerous to bike over there from our condo, we knew we would rent bikes there. It's about a 20 minute taxi ride to get there and we arrived to find thousands of our closest friends and neighbors out renting bikes, walking, camping out and hanging around. East Coast Park is the largest park in Singapore and is right on the water, although not the sort of place that visitors want to hang out on the beach (imagine 50 huge tankers right out in the water in front of you!). It has pretty areas though and it offers visitors a place to explore on bike paths and play under the trees and we wanted to join in on the fun!

We rented bikes for all five of us and set off down the path towards the Changi Airport. Now after years of reminding our kids to stay right when biking at home, especially at Bald Head Island where paths are narrow, and suddenly we were having to yell for them to stay left! Definitely took some practice and reminding but we started to get the hang of it. Of course, there was always the random people who just walked down the middle of the path because, well it's Singapore and it seems like that's what people do a lot here (see my post of Sidewalk Etiquette here!).

Once you go several kilometers you leave East Coast Park and start on the Changi path that actually parallels the airport runway for about 8 kilometers. Sounds like it wouldn't be that exciting but needless to say seeing huge plans take off and land right beside us was a highlight for the boys. And it was under the trees and much quieter and less populated so I thoroughly appreciated that. Eventually we reached Changi Beach and the Changi Ferry terminal where there's another park and camping area. It was the perfect place to take a break, buy some drinks and watch the water for a few minutes while we cooled down. Then we headed back home and made it back to our starting point without any major wipeouts (except for me who managed to tip over once while looking back to point out something to Sumner and hit the curb) and with no one crashing into anyone else which was something I didn't think was possible when we first started.

Hard to take a pic through the trees of a plane landing as you are biking but here was Drayton's attempt.....

A fun morning - 32 kilometers covered in about 2 1/2 hours - and we finished just as the haze started rolling in (from burning being down in Indonesia that then spreads down and covers Singapore with dangerous clouds that really affect the breathing and your eyes and causes headaches). Perfect excuse to head back into the city and go see a movie!