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, the man 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 improving fables, in a kitsch that is fully owned and frankly disturbing in places. The Ten Courts of Hell, a tunnel where every punishment is illustrated without restraint, were taken in 2021 into Hell's Museum, the only museum in the world entirely devoted to representations 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 14 February 1942. It was here that the 1st Malay Regiment, led by Lieutenant Adnan Saidi, held the hill against a far more numerous enemy, down to hand-to-hand fighting. The museum reopened in 2023 with a completely redesigned display, built around the testimonies. Small, sober, and the most powerful of the war memorials in the area.
Afternoon
Henderson Waves
The highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, 274 m long and 36 m above Henderson Road, delivered 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 piece 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 high first called Telok Blangah Hill and renamed in 1845 in honour of the engineer Charles Edward Faber. Faber Point, the summit, carries a wall of brick murals retracing the history of Singapore and a belvedere looking over 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 comes down from Faber Peak to HarbourFront then crosses the channel to Sentosa, the Sentosa Line then serves Merlion, Imbiah and Siloso Point along the ridge of the island. The ride at dusk passes over the cranes of the port, the cargo ships at anchor and the canopy of Sentosa, and it is the finest way to arrive at the hotel.
Booking · No booking needed, but the online ticket avoids the end-of-day queue at Faber Peak: www.mountfaberleisure.com (new tab)
Good to know
The most physical day of the module: about 10 km of walking with some climbing, of which 5 km on walkways with no water point. Closed shoes, two litres of water per person, departure before 9:00 AM. Reflections at Bukit Chandu closes on Mondays. The luggage is transferred in the morning from Duxton to the Sofitel Sentosa.
