Road trip via Bus 80

Yesterday, after celebrating my mom's birthday (even though she in not in Singapore) and meeting up with relatives from the Philippines and Singapore at Vivocity, we headed to the Harbourfront Bus Interchange so the kids could check bus brochures. Ira and Kelvin have been collecting these for a few months now. It was actually Ira's idea and Kelvin got into the hype.

Since it was still a bit early (around 8:33pm) we decided to take the bus going home. We estimated the cost to be cheaper but the travel time to be almost double. MRT from Harbourfront to Sengkang is around 40 minutes @ $1.71 per adult, plus the bus from Sengkang Interchange to our place (5-10minutes).

We predicted that the kids would be asleep by the time we get to Paya Lebar but we were wrong. They were both wide awake and very much curious about the surrounding, esp the bus stops. Ira checked the bus numbers at every bus stop. He was sort of counter-checking if the route on the bus numbers he has at home are correct. He would check the bus stop name or the road name and would tell us what buses serve the route. He seems to have memorized the routes of the bus numbers he has!

Bus 80 goes from Harbourfront to Tanjong Pagar to Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Lavender, Kallang, Geylang, Paya Lebar, Serangoon, Hougang and, finally, Sengkang. We were able to see the railway station - of the train that goes to Malaysia - at Tanjong Pagar. Then the customs port with the very big digital clock clearly seen from the road. We passed by People's Park Complex and Clarke Quay, and had a glimpse of the CBD buildings. Then we drove pass the touristy Victoria Street and Bugis Junction, and the infamous Geylang Road. We spotted some places that we would want to visit some other time. 

After an hour-long trip, we were  around Kovan and Ira remembered the place. He mentioned that bus 119 passes through that road (Upper Serangoon) and confirmed it by checking the bus stop again. He was so proud to tell us that he was right! Few more minutes and we were already on our destination. Ira was pleading for us to go to the interchange first. He wanted to check more bus numbers. But we told him we needed to go down at the next stop and that he can visit the interchange some other time.

It was a good, long trip around Singapore. It's like a tour of the central and eastern part of the country. We're contemplating on doing another road trip, on a different bus route, some time in the future. The kids would definitely love that.