What do members of SWET do on a sunny Saturday afternoon? Besides the usual Bukit Timah weekend treks, SWET embarked on something very new last week. We went cycling with our friends round the eastern coastal park connectors.If you haven’t already learned about the new park connector, it is a 42-km network, built at a cost of $22 million, which links up the popular East Coast Park, Changi Beach Park and Pasir Ris Park, and other parks in the east, such as Bedok Reservoir Park.Jane and myself started from my house to Macs at ECP where we met Esther, PG, Yi Hui, Marzuki, Jaspal, Chu, Simon and Sze Wei. I must say that it was a really leisurely and enjoyable ride. (except for some who had to cycle on $6/hr bikes with gears which were virtually impossible to switch and seats which were too impossibly huge)The entire route was extremely scenic except for some parts where we had to go through the town centres and weave through the crowd. ( That really reminded me of the time we were cycling in Chengdu, China to get to the panda reserve after our ice climbing) Apart from that and a few minutes of getting lost around Expo area, the entire ride was extremely smooth. We even got to stop at Changi Village Hawker Centre for refreshments.Personally, I do not cycle around the roads in Singapore much. Namely because of the number of accidents pp keep warning me about. But this cycling trip has boosted my interest in using biking as a means of getting round the country instead of simply as a leisure activity.I read this line by Ted Turner in the papers recently about the inefficient use of resources: We have a 200 pound person driving a 4000 pound car to get a quarter pound hamburger.Isn’t it so true? Aren’t we guilty of wasting resources/energy just to make things easier for ourselves? So this cycling trip has in some way influenced me to bike, walk and take public transport more in a small bid to do a part for the environment.Now what’s next in our SWET leisure calender, you ask? That will have to be blading round the park connectors.Photos later….
Prior to joining the Women’s Everest Team, she has numerous trekking experiences in Malaysia, Tasmania, Australia, Nepal, Taiwan and has led an expedition to Thailand. An independent traveler, Li Hui has backpacked across Canada, Vietnam and Australia and spent a season skiing in Vancouver.