Day 5
Haw Par Villa, Bukit Chandu and the Southern Ridges
Morning
Haw Par Villa and Hell's Museum
A statue park commissioned in 1937 by Aw Boon Haw, who made his fortune with Tiger Balm, to give the public a lesson in Chinese morality in three dimensions. More than a thousand statues and a hundred and fifty painted dioramas tell Taoist myths and moral fables, in unapologetic kitsch that is frankly disturbing in places. The Ten Courts of Hell, a tunnel where every punishment is illustrated without restraint, were folded into Hell's Museum in 2021. It is the only museum in the world entirely devoted to depictions of the afterlife. The park is free, the museum ticketed.
Reflections at Bukit Chandu
A colonial bungalow on Pepys Road, turned into a memorial of the Battle of Pasir Panjang on February 14, 1942. Here the 1st Malay Regiment, led by Lieutenant Adnan Saidi, held the hill against a far larger enemy force, down to hand-to-hand fighting. The museum reopened in 2023 with a completely redesigned exhibition built around eyewitness testimonies. Small and sober, it is the most powerful of the war memorials in the area.
Afternoon
Henderson Waves
The highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, 274 m (900 ft) long and 36 m (118 ft) above Henderson Road, completed in 2008. Its structure of seven steel waves forms alcoves of balau wood where you can sit in the shade. It links Mount Faber Park to Telok Blangah Hill Park and is the most photogenic stretch of the Southern Ridges. Lit from 7:00 PM to 2:00 AM.
Mount Faber Park and Faber Point
One of the oldest parks in the city, on a hill 105 m (345 ft) high, first called Telok Blangah Hill and renamed in 1845 in honor of the engineer Charles Edward Faber. Faber Point, the summit, has a wall of brick murals tracing the history of Singapore and a viewpoint overlooking the port, Sentosa and the southern islands. It is also the upper station of the cable car.
Evening
Singapore Cable Car
In service since February 1974, it is the first cable car in the world to have linked a continent to an island. Two lines: the Mount Faber Line runs down from Faber Peak to HarbourFront, then crosses the channel to Sentosa, and the Sentosa Line then serves Merlion, Imbiah and Siloso Point along the ridge of the island. The ride at dusk passes over the port cranes, the cargo ships at anchor and the Sentosa canopy, and it is the finest way to arrive at the hotel.
Booking · No booking needed, but an online ticket lets you skip the end-of-day line at Faber Peak: www.mountfaberleisure.com (new tab)
Good to know
The most physical day of the module: about 10 km (6 miles) of walking with some climbing, 5 km (3 miles) of it on walkways with no water point. Wear closed shoes, carry two liters of water per person and set off before 9:00 AM. Reflections at Bukit Chandu is closed on Mondays. Your luggage is transferred in the morning from Duxton to the Sofitel Sentosa.
