The Plant Observatory

The Plant Observatory

This site was created by Kwan to document his collection of tree related photos. It helps us identify the plants in Singapore. He has amassed a database of 1500 plants since 2007 on this website.

It catalogues by botanical names, common names, plant family and plant grouping.

He has expanded into field trip series and nature observation series to share his encounters during his field trips.

On his terms of use page he described how he started the site and the difficulties encountered in cataloguing the plants. He uses only his own photos, so we can imagine the amount of time and effort involved. He demonstrated a passion for nature very rare in our materialistic environment.

Singapore Next Bus Arrival Times

SG Buses App

There are several apps providing next bus arrival times. Some are clunky, some are slow or hang. I now stick with SG Buses. It is fast in retrieving bus arrival times and can do so for both SBSTransit and SMRT buses. It is available for iPhone and Android.

Quickest way to find out arrival times of buses at a bus stop is to touch the Nearby icon. Immediately it will display a range of nearby stops. Select the one you are at and it will present a screen showing all the bus services calling there. Click on the black button against the bus service and it will display the arrival times of the next 2 buses almost immediately. It is even faster than the one produced by the bus company.

When you first start the app you get this screen.

Touch the Nearby icon resulting in this screen.

 
Tap on the bus stop you are at. Check for the bus stop number from the bus info board or the bus stop pole in case there are more than one bus stop with the same name.

You will see a list of bus services calling at this bus stop. Tap on the black icon for the bus service to get the arrival times for the next 2 buses. You can tap on several bus services and then decide which service to use.

Sometimes you may accidentally tap on the road name. Just backtrack to the previous screen. In case you want to bookmark the bus stop just tap and hold on the bus stop at the Nearby screen. It will bring up a menu for you to choose. Tap at the Bookmark icon.

In the unlikely case you cannot find your bus stop, another approach is to tap the Roads icon at the Nearby screen and search the road listing from here. To speed up the search you can touch the scroll icon and drag it.

Singapore Bus Routes Explorer

Singapore Bus Routes Explorer

Ever want to see the whole route for a particular bus service? This site helps you visualize the whole route. Click on the bus service number you are interested in. The tool will show you the whole route. Zoom in to check out the bus stop location. Make sure you are in the right direction. If not, click on either route 1 or 2.

Want to check out another route? Click the cross on the green bar on the top right hand corner and it will return to the default, listing all the bus service numbers. Scroll to the bus service you want and click on it.