We had quite an amazing journey yesterday!

Yesterday was a day of discoveries for Catherine, Darius and I as we embarked on an unplanned and rather adventurous trip in conjunction with the Circle Line Discovery event.

It all started off with our Sunday Easter Mass at our church, which Darius had behaved well throughout. Before he had attended the childcare centre, he would be frightened of the ‘loud’ noises from the hymns or some words spoken through the mic, ending up in screams and tears most of the time. However for yesterday, we were glad that after 2 weeks’ exposure to the other kids and a more noisy environment at the centre, his reaction to the noises had improved.

Only on one or two instances that he had appeared cautious with his lips beginning to dip downwards, a tell-tale sign that he was to start crying out anytime soon. After hugs and calming words however, he managed to overcome his fear and even got so relaxed that he fell asleep over Catherine’s shoulder near the end of the mass. We were very happy and relieved that we no longer have to face the stares from some of the other church goers again whenever Darius cries out in fear. ^^

Sleeping peacefully...

As one of his childcare teachers had explained, his fear of noises was probably due to his lack of exposure to them. Most of time when he was at home with us, the environment was generally much quieter. So after he gradually got used to a noisier environment with other kids in the childcare centre, his fear began to disappear, like what we had observed on him yesterday.

So after the mass, we headed for lunch and were undecided on what to do next since we had not planned for anything. Initially, we were thinking of visiting some nearby shopping malls but since we did not have anything to buy, it could turn out to be a boring trip.

Catherine then suggested us taking on the Circle Circle Discovery event which happened to be held yesterday — we could explore the 11 new stations along the Circle Line which were specially opened to the public prior to their official opening on 17th April 2010. What actually got us interested in the event was the free admission to four museums near its Bras Basah MRT Station, since it would be a good opportunity for us and Darius to visit them.

Circle Line's 11 stations that were temporarily opened yesterday

With our decision set, we took the MRT from Marsiling MRT Station along the North-South line and alighted at Bishan. From there, we walked over to the Circle Line via its underground connector.

We had initially thought we would have a direct access to the Bras Basah Station from Bishan via the train but was disappointed when we could not see its station listed in the directory along the platform. We thus walked up to the Control Station and checked with the staff there for directions.

We were told that the new Circle Line stations that were opened that day could not be accessed from our current station by train. Instead, we had to ride to Bartley Station and take a free shuttle bus to MacPherson Station, before we could take a train from there to Bras Basah Station. Wow! That sure sounded like it’s going to involve quite a substantial amount of transfers and navigation just to get there.

At that point, we were having second thoughts about continuing on with our adventure trip. However, after seeing that we had nothing much to lose except wasting some time (which we had excess of yesterday since we had no other plans), we decided to stick to our original plan and continue on with the trip.

Aboard the train heading towards Bartley Station, we were analysing the train map and realised that instead of taking the route suggested by the staff at Bishan Station, we could get to the Bras Basah Station via an alternative route: We could get there from the Dhoby Ghaut Station along the North-South/North-East Line instead since the two stations appeared to be connected on the map. This route would help us avoid the shuttle bus ride in case it’s not stroller friendly.

With that decided, we alighted at Serangoon Station where we would be able to transfer to the North-East Line towards Dhoby Ghaut Station. Hmm… Seems like Singapore’s train system is beginning to get more complicated with more lines and stations added. This somehow reminded me of the times when Catherine and I navigated ourselves around in Tokyo using its train system, some years back before Darius was born.

Unlike in Tokyo, Darius is joining us on our adventure trip!

Alighting at the Serangoon Station, we began to head for the North-East Line. At that moment, Catherine suggested that we should double check with the station’s staff first that the Bras Basah Station wwouldd indeed be accessible from Dhoby Ghaut Station. This would help prevent us from wasting time traveling there and only realising it won’t work out later.

We were soon glad to have double checked as Catherine’s suspicion was not unfounded — our plan would not have worked! Although one could get to the Dhoby Ghaut Station from the Bras Basah Station, the other way round wasn’t possible during this open house due to some ticketing issue.

With that cleared up, we returned to the train platform and waited for the next train towards Bartley Station. It wasn’t long before we reached the station and we made our way up to the surface together with a bunch of other people, seemingly also wanting to get to the MacPherson Station.

The last time when we were here, the place was eerily deserted and going from the look of it, this station would be just as deserted yesterday if not for the event.

A banner on the Circle Line Discovery event outside Bartley Station

The wait for the shuttle bus took quite a while but we waited patiently as we were already mentally prepared to face these hassles.

So in the end, had going through all this trouble worthwhile for us after all? Find out in our following posts! ^^

Darius loves to poke at openings ^^|

(continued in the next post here)

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