Funemployment - Part I

Up until 2011, Malaysia's national rail service (KTM) operated a train service into Singapore on a line that stretched the north-south axis of Singapore from the Singapore-Malaysia border in the north to the city center in the south. KTM also owned the land on which the line was built.

In 2011, the train service started terminating at the northern end of Singapore. The land was returned to Singapore, and it is in the process of being preserved as a green corridor. I understand that the track was about 24km long.

My parents downsized to their condo that same year. Their condo's location is awesome - it is right next to Singapore's nature reserve, and I have enjoyed many hikes in the area every time I return to visit. Their condo is also close to the halfway mark of the old KTM line. This time round, I decided to walk the line. I headed north on the first day and south on the second day.

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Starting out early one cool-ish (for Singapore) July morning, I accessed the line near Rail Mall and headed northwards. Before long, I was at a cast iron bridge over Upper Bukit Timah Road, and soon after that was my first distance marker of this trek - the 13km marker. This first part of my trek wound through private housing estates, then past some military installations, and then through Bukit Panjang, a public housing estate. This took me to the 16km distance marker. From the 16km marker, the landscape gradually became more industrial. Throughout the entire trek, Upper Bukit Timah Road (which turns into Woodlands Road) was on my right most of the way. Although I was physically surrounded by greenery most of the way, traffic and construction noise was ever present. Highlights en route included a kingfisher perched on the 16km marker, an iguana, lots of butterflies, and a Hindu temple.

The trail appeared to end at Sungei Kadut not long after the 21km marker, which was quite close to the northern tip of Singapore. This was where I wanted to end my hike on the KTM track, as the Kranji War Cemetery was close by.

Kranji War Cemetery is the final resting place for 4,400 servicemen and servicewomen from World War II, and it is a very sobering place to visit. 850 of the deceased could not be identified; their gravestones were marked with a cross and the words "Known Unto God". I felt a profound sadness whenever I saw these graves.

The defense of Singapore in World War II was a multinational effort and the names of the deceased gave proof of that; buried there were servicepersons from units from Singapore, Malaysia, Great Britain, India, Nepal, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Numbers-wise, the Australian and Indian regiments seemed to have the most casualties.

My total distance walked this morning was 8.1 miles. I took a little over 3 hours to complete it, including the time I spent wandering the cemetery grounds. After visiting the cemetery, I took a bus back to my parents' condo.

My route is on one of the attached photos (ignore the last 0.06 miles represented by the straight line; I forgot to save the workout before stepping onto the bus).

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