Go West, young man — and then, when you’re done, head east. The best way to travel across the island is on the purple prince of the SBS Transit fleet. Jonathan Evans gets his kicks on bus 66 

I embarked at Jurong East Bus Interchange, lucky enough to board a long, citrus-themed ride, all yellow and green. Or at least I thought I was lucky, until minutes later, the Chinese fellow opposite started obsessively picking his nose, and an Indian man belched so loudly he almost derailed the bus. 

Jurong is so enormous you’re not sure if you’ll ever get out of it. It’s a city unto itself, home to copious industrial and residential estates (263,000 people live here), as well as quirky attractions like the BirdPark, Singapore Science Centre and Snow City. I love those huge signs that scream out ‘We love Jurong GRC’ – next to a picture of smiling residents who are the exact same people on GRC signs in every other neighbourhood. 

Gradually we ease into Bukit Batok. In keeping with its lofty topography there’s a rather upmarket feel to this area – shortly before the somewhat less swanky but essential refuelling stop that is Botak Jones. Bukit Batok’s Botak (try saying that after a few beers) is in a food court among a host of flag-festooned residential blocks. Fully replenished, I’m back on Jalan Jurong Kechil, passing a host of Javanese massage houses before reaching Dunearn Road. 

There’s an amazing house at 266 Dunearn that looks more like a museum of Balinese crafts than a private residence (pictured right); it’s spraypainted in gold and has a garden of bronze Buddhas. Suddenly there’s another stark change in our surroundings: Race Course Road on our left telegraphs the outer reaches of Little India. 

Anyone who’s spent a weekend around Serangoon Road will know Sunday is gentlemen’s day. The parade of Indian manliness spins off in all directions, but mostly down the centre of the road. Past the tourist hangouts like Dunlop Road and Mustafa Centre, you find a minireplica of Bangalore street life, where electronics shops, jewellers and spice outlets heave with customers as semi-naked men lie asleep outside open stairways. 

Next up is Bendemeer Road – essentially an extension of Little India, with the bustle, colour and charm replaced by rundown homes and postage-stamp parks. Aljunied, the area we’re entering now, is named after an Arab merchant descended from the prophet Muhammad – so it’s no surprise to find the impressively angular Sallim Mattar mosque on the corner of Aljunied Road. 

We crawl farther east, skirting the edge of Geylang and into Macpherson proper with its leafy HDB estates. It seems like a design for contented community life; there are immaculately manicured grassy banks, shops and food outlets. All of which makes Marine Parade Town, our next stop, pale by comparison; all we see here are more tower blocks. Standing out in ominous black and white is the Kaki Bukit Centre Prison School, where jailbirds go to be instilled with ‘desirable moral values’. 

If the name ‘Bedok Reservoir Road’ hadn’t given it away already, we’re on the home stretch, and here the blocks are more colourful than ever. And there it is: Bedok Reservoir on a sunny afternoon – much larger than I’d expected, and gorgeous. You can only envy the residents of a new development called Baywater, who even have a view of the lake (‘reservoir’ sounds clinical – this is something far prettier). There are excellent transport connections and hundreds of shops here, as well as Bedok Park behind Baywater, dotted with unintentionally funny signposts that ask you to ‘Be Considerate: Pick Up Your Dog’s Poo’. Then there’s Bedok Reservoir Park, which houses Forest Adventure, an aerial playground where you can abseil over the lake like a suburban Tarzan. 

The only thing to disturb the calm here is the drone of roadworks. Turn down Bedok North Street One, and we’re at journey’s end: Bedok Bus Interchange, where a new McDonald’s has aroused the kind of feverish excitement normally reserved for a total solar eclipse, or the Second Coming. It’s louder than Zouk on a Saturday night. I wouldn’t normally stop for fast food, but the atmosphere is so infectious I can’t help but sit back, grin and raise a plastic cup (of Coke) to traveller’s happiness. 

Fare watch: ez-link card started on $47.15; finished on $42.30.