Well, my cycling deficit from yesterday was made up for tonight. It was the usual meeting place, same route but slightly shorter distance. The other constant is i'm still the only non-roadie. K says his favourite part of the journey is neo tiew road. At night there's practically no cars passing through. The street lamps, paced at equal distance from each other, cast a low, dim glow without which we would be enveloped by darkness. Sometimes one or two lamps are not working and we literally cycled blindly through a dark stretch, albeit momentarily. Being the unimaginative (and/or boring) person I am, the only thought that went through my mind is: how's the authorities going to know about the malfunctioning lamp-posts, and who's going to rectify the problem? We are Singapore all right, number 1 in everything, surely we can't allow such a defect to prolong or even exist!
K says he enjoys cycling at night: the air is chilly, cool; a very soothing and plesant feeling. He likes cycling across the Kranji dam, where Johore can be seen just across the sea. 'Very surrealistic,' says K with a wry smile. It's as if one is at the edge of our tiny island; cycling on home ground, the view of Johore passes by in mere seconds. Our neighbour's really not very far from us - it's, well, separated and linked to us by a causeway that is burdened with the history of disputes between the two neighbours.
It's a downslope when we come to the end of neo tiew road at the junction that links with lim chu kang road. On the left side of the road, there's a structure, a sort of temporary building that holds the living quarters of a sizable number of foreign workers. It's most probably overcrowded; a cursory glance from the road tells one that the living conditions are likely to be unpleasant, sordid even. The contents of their quarters, their clothes and belongings, are bursting out from the interior. The latrines, which appear to be sited just next to where they stay, are repungant; almost instantly one is greeted by the stench when cycling past the place. But such are the living conditions for these workers, who amongst them are Indians, Bangladeshis and Maindland Chinese, i reckon.
I am cycling at a far-flung corner of the island, where the inhabitants are wild animals and norturnal creatures in the jungle, and quite a couple of stray dogs. What can one expect these workers to do after a long, hard day of work, which probably involves labouring under the sweltering sun in the day? There is no entertainment and there's nothing to look forward to except yet another day of dreadful work. Perhaps the only comfort is that they are earning money which is needed to feed their families back in their homeland, and this must be a pillar of motivation for them, if not the only one. Going down the slope, i cycled past many who were sitting by the side of the road; some were alone, others with their friends, chatting. At night it's when they finally have time to themselves, to rest their tired and probably overworked bodies. Yes, the night is in many ways better than day: It's cooler, quieter, less harsh; it gives one solace.
We ended our ride at Fong Seng. The time was nearly 1130, but we were still earlier than last week. As usual i ordered iced-milo. This one was just as bad as last week's: there's more ice than milo and i finished it very quickly. Then i ordered a can of 100plus: this one can't go wrong for sure.
A lady walking next to a man just reached the prata shop. Then she smiled and waved at me - well, she looked like she was waving at me. So i waved back, fearing that if indeed i was the recipient, it would be very impolite if i did not acknowledge her greetings. It was good she didn't approach me. For the next minute or so i tried recalling who she is. Ahhh....It's Ps, i suddenly recalled. She had trained with us for the K.L. ride more than a year ago. In the end she couldn't go for the trip because she couldn't afford to take leave. A mountaineer and an outdoorsy lady, she's one of a group of female Singaporeans who are going to scale Mt Everest. Actually, i don't know if they have already done it or are still training for it. But i recall she's one tough lady, very fit. She's also very pleasant and affable; I've had nice conversations with her. When we were leaving, i thought it polite to approach her and say hi. I must have looked silly, for instead of calling her name, i went past her and made myself conspicuous in front of her. Well, i just wanted to make sure i got the right person! I did, and we chatted quite a while until i remembered K and Chin were waiting for me at the roadside. We parted ways and i cycled the boring route towards home.
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