One of my tutees live in the Yio Chu Kang/Sengkang area. It's definitely not near my place. I spend more than an hour on the train and bus, take an additional 15 minutes walking from the nearest bus stop to where she lives, deep inside the neighbourhood of private landed houses, and do all that in the opposite direction two hours later. My mom thinks I'm crazy. Yet, I'm not complaining.

Being at that area of Singapore always put me in a very good mood. There, the houses are large and sometimes palatial, but they don't knock you over with pompous arrogance like the ones in Bukit Timah do. A forest is nearby and one is constantly surrounded by lush greenery and that sweet 'forest scent'. A few bus stops away is the Sengkang New Town which offers an equally pretty sight. The flats are new, well-designed and nicely spaced out, with lovely open grass plains that stretch for kilometres across one can almost see the horizon. Very rare for a HDB estate which is typically characterised by high-density housing and uninspiring park connectors.

On the way back I'll always opt for taking the NEL from Sengkang, even though taking the red line from Yio Chu Kang can save me half an hour of travelling time. I love taking the bus to Sengkang because it's never crowded and the scenery along the way keeps me invigorated. It brings me to the bus interchange built adjacent to the MRT/LRT station and Compass Point Shopping Centre. Similar to AMK and HDB hub, just a lot more palatable. Overall, there's this nice, humble feel about the place, although I can't quite put my finger on it.

So despite the insane travelling and the fact that I am severely underpaid by my tutee (according to one of my relatives who thinks I should be getting nothing less than $45 per hour), I'll always look forward to my weekly visits to this sparsely populated new town. Having said that, I don't think this place will stay the way it is for long. Ambitious development plans are underway, more bulldozers and other arcane machinery are moving in, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes yet another over-peopled neighbourhood and everything pretty much goes to hell. Sigh.