SINGAPORE & BORNEO short break/stopover

SINGAPORE - MacRitchie Reservoir Park

WHERE TO? HOW LONG?

You may be on your way somewhere else, or need to make the most of your precious time with a short break. Many travellers spend just one night in Singapore, but if you plan to stay a little longer you will have a great opportunity to savour what this part of the world has to offer. That’s why the suggestion here is for a lengthier stay, including a short break on the nearby larger island of Borneo.

SINGAPORE

Singapore is built on trade and is now the 2nd busiest port in the world. Singapore is where many of the world’s civilisations meet up in a jungle setting.

SINGAPORE DOWNTOWN
The Downtown area is concentrated around the mouth of the Singapore River. Few cities offer as many cultural influences in such a tight space - Little India, Chinatown, the Arab Quarter and the British Colonial District. All of these areas are easily accessible on foot.

Not to be missed:

The Arab Quarter’s fine cloths,silks, spices and aromas. Lounging in a Lebanese cafe/restaurant. The golden dome of The Sultan Mosque best seen from the pedestrianised Bussorah Street
SINGAPORE - Sultan Mosque, Arab Quarter
Little India’s sounds, perfume/herbal scents, and restaurants.
The Colonial District’s grandiose Raffles Hotel, where the ’Singapore Sling’ cocktail is served to you amongst beautiful tropical planting. A walk up into nearby Fort Canning Park will give you a chance for a breather and a good vantage point for views down onto the busy streets.
RAFFLES HOTEL - Cocktail Station
Chinatown’s shops, temples and interesting museums - the Chinatown Heritage Centre and the Fuk Tak Ch’i Street Museum. As a testament to the multiculturalism of Singapore here you will also find a couple of Indian temples with contrasting decor and iconography to the Chinese ones.
SINGAPORE - Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple
Downtown’s shopping mecca Orchard Road -a street littered with huge shopping malls.
Street food at the Hawker Centres throughout the City - these are open air complexes with large numbers of food stations offering affordable and hygienically regulated meals.
Waterfront dining and drinking at the restaurants and bars down on Boat Quay.
Indulging in the Chilli Crab delicacy at the JUMBO East Coast Seafood Centre.

FURTHER AFIELD IN SINGAPORE

Getting around is easy with the MRT metro and bus network supplemented by plentiful and reasonably priced taxis.

The Botanical Gardens

Near to downtown but seeming a world away are the city’s Botanical Gardens. Here you can enjoy the peace and tranquility of beautifully landscaped grounds with lakes and luxuriant vegetation. The orchid garden is a delight.

Holland Village

Holland Road Shopping Centre and the nearby streets are the “go to” destination for souvenirs, offering pretty much anything you could desire in Asian crafts, textiles or art. Nearby you will find a range of restaurants, as well as the Holland Drive Market & Food Centre, a ‘hawker’ street food venue. Holland Village is an easy going suburb with traditional shophouses and colonial architecture.

SINGAPORE - 'Hawker' Food Centre menu

MacRitchie Reservoir Park

The park has a number of waymarked trails taking you along the waters edge and into the jungle surroundings. The highlight is the view you get from the Tree Top Walk, which is an elevated walkway over the rainforest canopy.

Sentosa.

The best way to journey across to Sentosa Island is by cable car across the harbour from Faber Peak.

SINGAPORE - Sentosa Island cable car

This offers fantastic views of the south of Singapore Island and a glimpse of the maritime hustle and bustle that keeps the place alive. On Sentosa the Palawan beach has full facilities, or if you prefer something quieter head for Tanjong Beach. Foremost amongst the attractions is the massive S.E.A. Aquarium. Right at the end of the island is the furthest point south on the Asian continent, marked by a monument, and offering a viewpoint of the numerous gigantic cargo ships that gather in the Straits of Melaka before making their journeys onward to other parts of the globe.

BORNEO - SARAWAK

Fly into the Malaysian part of Borneo, called Sarawak, at Kuching. This is a 1.5 hour flight from Singapore.

Damai Beach. Heading out from Kuching airport a taxi will get you to Damai Beach resort in about 50 minutes.

Damai Beach has a nice white sandy beach leading down to the warm sea fronting the resort.

BORNEO - Sarawak: Damai Beach

A short walk from the resort will bring you to the waymarked trails of Santubong National Park, taking you into the jungle with its clear streams and waterfalls crossed by walkways and bridges.

A little further on, within easy walking distance, you will come to the Sarawak Cultural Village which has 7 reconstructed traditional houses, communal longhouses and other buildings. There is a theatre for musical and dance performances. Demonstrations in the houses include the traditional arts and crafts of weaving, beadwork, tattooing, games, sword and blowpipe weapons. There are a number of local restaurants nearby to supplement the fare on offer at the resort itself.

SANTUBONG/DAMAI BEACH - Sarawak Cultural Village

A nearby island, Pulau Satang Besar is a 30-minute organised boat trip from Damai Beach. This is part of the TALANG SATANG NATIONAL PARK , which comprises a number of islands. This one is a turtle sanctuary with pristine white sandy beaches. Rangers provide an escorted talk for visitors.

Bako National Park

To get there you start with a 50 minute taxi ride from Damai Beach to the ferry stop at Bako wet market. You then have a short boat ride to take you and your luggage across to the Park. This is the only way to get there, and the absence of traffic amplifies the mid jungle feel of the location. Basic accommodation is available in Forestry Service chalets. Unfortunately, day trippers from Kuching or Damai Beach miss out on a lot of the wildlife action which only happens early on and much later in the day, so an overnight stop is recommended.

This is a special place where the waymarked trails allow you to enjoy the full sights and sounds of the jungle canopy, and it’s streams and waterfalls.

BORNEO - Bako National Park

Around the park HQ and on the trails you are most likely to see many of the bird species, along with long-tailed macaque monkeys, and perhaps flying lemurs. The big draw here are the proboscis monkeys - an endangered species- the males have large noses and big stomachs. You can catch sight of them at dawn and dusk feeding among the mangroves at the shore line.

Kuching

Kuching, with over 300,000 inhabitants, is the second largest city on the Malaysian part of Borneo. Like Singapore the city has long been an ethnic melting pot with large groups of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian origin -and visitors are made welcome. Again like Singapore this city has a well preserved core of 19th century colonial architecture.The colonial centre is situated on the south bank of the river, it is compact and easily navigated on foot.

The waterfront is a major attraction, its lawns decorated with sculptures and seating, a great place to watch the traffic on the Sarawak River. Sampan ferry boats take a few minutes to travel across to the north bank from the jetty opposite the old colonial courthouse.

KUCHING - Waterfront

The Sarawak museum is the prime tourist attraction, housed in the city’s largest remaining colonial building set in beautiful gardens. This is a treasure trove of historical and cultural items.

The main shopping streets lie just back from the waterfront in the Chinatown area set in traditional shophouses built in the 1890s.

A 15 minute walk from the river takes you to Reservoir Park, which is an attractive oasis with tropical birds and wildlife.

There are a large number of restaurants and ‘hawker’ food stall centres around the city - Kuching has a deserved reputation for its food offerings.

FURTHER AFIELD FROM KUCHING

Semenggoh Orangutan Nature Reserve

It will take just a 30 minute taxi ride (20 km)from Kuching to get to the reserve. Here you can see Orangutans in their natural habitat. This is a Rehabilitation Centre - providing sanctuary for injured, orphaned or rescued captive animals on a large reservation where they can roam freely. Observation is aided by the established feeding times maintained by their caretakers at a central feeding station which is placed about 20 minutes walk away from the entrance. Other wildlife to be spotted on the reserve include gibbons, giant and pygmy squirrels alongside numerous bird species.

KUCHING - Semenggoh Orangutan Nature Reserve

Hopefully this has given you some ideas to plan your own trip. Safe travelling.

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