Surreal ride

Jun distance travelled: 349 km

To Tuas West, 106 km. Talk about hot money. The sun's rays beat into my wallet and my coins radiate heat. At a SPC petrol kiosk in Tuas, the cashier asks if I've petrol. Beside me is a rack full of bicycle tools. I've not seen such an array, not even in a bike shop. Cheaper too. The only creatures out in the open are a few stray dogs and some ang moh bikers. So it's true about mad dogs and Englishmen being out at mid-day. I reach a dead end - the entrance to a live firing area. Though death lurks afoot, it is so picturesque. I stop by a Christian cemetary, with its colourful flowers dotting the green grass, and windmills blowing in the wind. One of them has a smiley on it. The signs prohibiting the burning of paper money are incongruous. I cycle on. The vegetation towers on either side of me. Bamboo arches across the road, forming a canopy. A man emerges from the side, carrying a durian. Dogs bark. I halt. Another man says it's a dead end. I head off-road in my 1.25" slicks to join the main road.