Chinese Garden:
How to get there: Chinese Garden Station (East-West Line) – Walk out of the station for 5min.
Tip: Climb up the 7 storey Pagoda to get a view of the entire garden and the neighbourhood and don’t miss the Bonsai Garden and the Garden of Abundance.
Note: the Japanese Garden is nearby, however, I did not get the time to visit.
Henderson Wave Bridge:
How to get there: Telok Blangah (Circle Line) – Walk out of the station and stay on Henderson Road for 10min, in the direction of Telok Banglah hill park. Climb up the stairs on the right side of the road. At the top of the stairs, turn on your left for the bridge.
My first reaction was that the bridge is a lot shorter than it appears on the pictures. I now understand why this place is not on top of the list of tourist destinations. Especially after the climb to reach the top. The view is not that great either, you can get the same view from other places.
Mount Faber:
How to get there: Leave the Henderson Wave Bridge and turn on your left in the direction of HarbourFront station. You will reach Mount Faber after a 10min walk.
Get a Mocktail (I recommend the Wild Berries) from the Arbora restaurant and enjoy the view of cable cars going to and coming from Sentosa. The view is worth the price.
If you have the time, take a cable car from Mount Faber to Sentosa. I heard the trip is worth it.
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands:
How to get there: Bayfront station (Central Line) – From Mount Faber walk down to Harbourfront station to take the Central Line. The ride lasts close to 1 hour.
This is probably one of the biggest malls in the world and if you are into shopping then you will be served. Prices seem to be on the high end though, so I hope your wallet can take it.
To do: there is a waterway on the ground floor of the mall and you can take a little boat to cross it.
Step out of the mall to see the Art and Science Museum, the Helix bridge and it is a 10min walk from the Garden by the Bay.
Ramadan Sultan Bazaar 2019 (Ramadan period only):
How to get there: Bugis Station (Downtown Line) – Walk for about 5min to Arab Street in Kampong Glam and stop at the Ramadan Sultan Bazaar from some local cuisine (try the Lemang) and take a seat on one of the benches in the Malay Heritage Center.
Golden Tower Tower:
How to get there: There might be a train that goes here, however, I walked from my hotel on Arab Street. According to Google Map, it’s an 8min walk and it’s more or less accurate.
Get the bus from here to Kuala Lumpur. The different buses are Billion Stars, StarMart, etc. The ride lasts less than 6 hours and it will cost anywhere around $15 to $20 US and you can buy them on the spot or using an app like EasyBook.com. Note: tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged either.
Tips:
- I took the 12:30 am trip to Kuala Lumpur thinking that I would have time to sleep on the bus and arrive around 7 am. However, this was not the case. You will have to go immigration at both the Singaporean and Malaysian borders and depending on the driver, you might not really get any sleep. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 5 am and my hotel booking was only from 3 pm that day, so I ended up paying a walk-in rate for the just 3 to 4 hours of sleep. So my recommendation is to get an early morning bus instead unless you already have a hotel room booked. You might not be able to sleep on the bus.
- Do not buy a return ticket if you are coming back to Singapore. My original return ticket cost me around $US21. However, I ended up not using it and bought a new one while in Kuala Lumpur for $15 I think.
Must see places that I did not get the chance to see:
- Jurong Bird Bark: There was no direct train to the park (not that I knew of) and according to the reviews, it would take a whole day to really get the full experience.
- Sentosa: It started raining and half of the day was already gone.