It's always an exciting experience :)
Inspiration
Across the mirrored sky
To see a perfect, little beauty.
The house is dreadful enough, but what would these plants look like in their nocturnal shadows? A branch, or an arm? Was that the reflection on the fern? Or is someone, or something, watching you?
Alluring Mystery
Far from the city
To me, the sky is a visual symbol of promise and potential. That's why I always remind myself to look up at it, and why I love to see it unhindered by urban features. The one urban feature that has some magic to it are the roads. Where will they lead? What is en route? The lush foliage, the sky from a different perspective, or perhaps a quaint row of shops and houses?
In Singapore, there is a dearth of local folklore that hasn't been summarily dismissed as old 'grandmother stories'. However, the taxi drivers have a rumor that a few of them take quite seriously. Some drivers will avoid Mt Pleasant Rd after 9 pm, 9.30 or 10 - depending on who you ask - because rumor has it that ghosts will appear in the rear passenger seat. The manner of ghost depends on who you ask, but it's often a 'pontianak' or female Malay ghost, typically in white. You can see why below.
Even some who aren't particularly religious will err on the side of caution. The road is highly forested with old colonial mansions in tudor black-and-white architecture, some still occupied, dotting its length. The shrubbery is overgrown, the houses are often quiet, and moss creeps up the gates and fences. It feels like an eerie cemetery in the daytime. Imagine how it must feel at night: darkly lit, the queer orange glow of the occasional streetlamp, and the sheer isolation of that hardly-used route. It's no wonder ghosts stories emerge. Of course, it doesn't help that the old police academy sits at its entrance. Are these apparitions the lost souls of conscripted cadets, disgruntled with their premature deaths?
Cycling is always an adventure waiting to happen! :)
~ RIDE ON ~
