Day 12: East Coast Beach
Another day with no real plans, only the vague idea that I might visit a museum. But first, a bus back to Chinatown, where I sought out the original Ya Kun Kaya Toast for their namesake dish—runny eggs accompanied by a stack of thin toast with kaya spread, a coconut cream, egg, and sugar custard that’s greenish and grainy, sandwiched between. Unfortunately for me, they also snuck a thick pat of butter inside each one, but with some finagling, I managed to salvage a few slices.
Because the coffee I ordered was similarly laced with dairy unbeknownst to me, after Ya Kun I walked down the street past a crew of artsy pals to DAWN, a minimalist espresso bar I’d saved on Google Maps. The tiny cafe was empty except for the barista and one customer seated at the bar that filled the entire narrow space, which was v beautiful indeed. Indirect light. Raw cement walls. Porous off-white marble counters. Amber glassware. Gorgeous Brooklyn Millennial bait. I read there while sipping a safe oat latte, then walked past the capitol building and an arts college to the National Museum of Singapore.
The building housing the museum is incredibly pretty—an imposing white colonial structure nestled among large green trees and other foliage and a wide lawn. The juxtaposition of it and the contemporary arts building next door is, I would say, the definition of architecture across Singapore, the somehow harmonious blend of sharp, clean lines with the old and ornate. Anyway. I went for the history. I wanted to better understand how this little island city/country came to be. The short of it: Singapore civilization dates back to the 1200s, and in following centuries, the Portuguese, Dutch, and Malay fought over the territory before the British established their port in 1819 and declared it a colony. The Japanese took control during WWII after winning the Battle of the Straits and occupied it until VJ Day. In 1963, Singapore was freed from the British and merged with Malaysia briefly before declaring outright independence two years later. Such a new little guy! Yet how quickly they’ve gotten their biz together.
After my history lesson, I bussed to Orchard Road. I didn’t particularly want to shop, but I wandered a bit and ate lunch in the Japanese mall food court (kitsune udon, come at me) before getting back on the bus. But when we neared the hotel, I wasn’t ready to disembark. So I stayed on, and moved to the second floor of the double-decker. I rode for nearly an hour out to the outskirts of town, close to the airport, until we reached the end of the line, Bodek Mall. From there, I took another bus to as close to East Coast Park as I could get, a waterfront promenade I’d earmarked.
It was around 5:30 or 6 p.m. by then and the sun was starting to lower in the sky. The walking and biking paths were filled with tourists and after-work exercise enthusiasts. Families huddled around picnic tables and sat on top of the stone barriers that extended out into the water.
The light, the trees, the breezy air, and beach smells were all so pleasant I just…kept going. And going. The bikers and joggers became fewer and farther between and I began to wonder what might live in the trees and underbrush surrounding either side of the path. I turned up the volume on Kim Taehyung and kept moving. Two hours later, long after the sun had set and the streetlights had turned on, I had nearly reached Marina Bay. The bridge across, however, didn’t seem to have a pedestrian walkway, so I gave in and took the bus back to the city center before resting at last.
