The Scenic Route

Today I rode the bus. I haven't taken a long bus ride since I started driving 3 years ago. Every once in a while, I would take a 10 minute bus ride into town, a short, cool ride in off-peak hours, bypassing the crowds. Today I took a 45-minute ride, tracing an old bus route I used to be familiar with. But as the bus went through familiar roads, I realised the scenery has changed over the years. When you drive, you just want to get from point A to point B in the shortest time, trying to avoid traffic jams and the number of electronic toll points one would have to pass. Now the bus, it takes the scenic route, and how that scenery has changed...

The little coffeeshop selling that peppery pork rib soup I like, the Eurasian restaurant I always promised myself I would try buy but never did, the cake shop seducing customers with those famous and fattening, delicious durian puffs - they were still there, but they look different. Perhaps it was because I haven't visited in a long while, or perhaps the surrounding shops have changed, hence the familiar looks a little out of place, familiarly unfamiliar. New apartment blocks have sprouted up along the bus route, whole new condominium estates seem to have grown overnight, government housing spot new upgraded features. Things one would have never noticed if one were driving. Today I saw them.

Sometimes, in our haste to get from point A to point B using the shortest, easiest way, we overlook other options. Getting through life is pretty much the same, we can take the direct route or we can take the scenic route. Sometimes, taking a slower but more scenic route is not bad at all. Having said that, I'm looking forward to taking the scenic route, my bags are already packed.