going on circle

Today is the opening of the full Circle Line, adding yet another mileage to Singapore's MRT network.

We were kind of out of ideas for things to do on this Saturday, so we decided to hop onto the Circle Line and take the chance to visit Clementi, a Western part of Singapore which I haven't been to for a while. Yes, could have gone to Boon Lay but no thanks.

Just to be clear, the Circle Line was opened in stages with the first stage being Bartley to Marymount, second stage the Eastern end of the loop from Tai Seng to Dhoby Ghaut, and now the final portion in the West from Caldecott to Harbourfront. In fact I travel on the Circle Line quite often even before today's full opening, so not much surprise. It wasn't so much about checking out new trains and new tunnels, more like finding out the travelling time to see if I can take this route when I go to work next week. Of course, with the Circle Line it felt less of a mood-spoiler to go to the Western part of Singapore. One weird thing I experienced today was that while the display board at the Station said the train was heading towards Harbourfront, we were only told near reaching Buona Vista that the train would terminate at one-north. This was kind of like once when I boarded a train heading to Jurong East but ended up terminating at Yishun. Bummer.

Just to complete the circle, we took a series of bus rides for the return journey. Interesting journey, we passed by Bukit Merah, Chinatown, Little India, etc. Lots of "street views". No doubt, that would require the luxury of time, but at $1.8 with free sceneries, it kind of beat the $2+ underground ride. That is, like I said, if you have the time.