Your Simple Guide to Hiking Singapore’s Coast-to-Coast Trail – Checkpoint 1
Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by Adam Watts
Singapore is a country filled with lots of hiking trails, from the highest point at the top of Bukit Timah Hill, to the Southern Ridges, to the wetlands in the north, and lots more I haven’t explored yet. But the Coast-to-Coast trail ratchets the difficulty up a notch, combining multiple parts of many hiking routes and going – mostly – from coast to coast.
This is the first part in a series of posts exploring each checkpoint along the coast-to-coast trail and some of the highlights around each. And some lowlights too because not all of it is going to be absolutely amazing and unmissable.
So let’s get started. Checkpoint 1 takes us from Jurong Lake Gardens out west to Bukit Batok Nature Park.
Jurong Lake Gardens
Checkpoint 1 officially starts outside of Jurong Lake Gardens, and as such, if you want to hike the full 36km of the coast-to-coast trail, you don’t need to enter the gardens, but I highly recommend checking them out. They’re a delight!
I went with the excitement of starting the coast-to-coast trail, thinking that I should wander through the gardens just to say I visited, and boy am I glad I did.
Think of Jurong Lake Gardens as an elegant aperitif before your fine dining experience, or your warm-up pre-game shot, depending on your preferred lifestyle.
It’s no secret Singapore is a very green city with a lot of parks and open spaces.
But it’s not just a case of let’s put a park here, let’s put a row of trees there. All the public spaces are well thought out, providing a lot of age-appropriate enjoyment for visitors. And nowhere is that more evident than Jurong Lake Gardens.
For starters, the kids’ play areas are super creative and fun, not just a swing set and slide. There are maybe half a dozen or more different types of activity, based around a specific animal, all part of the overall Forest Ramble.
Monkey Play, for example, is this set of climbing ropes and nets:
This is Frog Play, which I couldn’t resist a few light bounces of, until I realized there were people nearby and I scurried away.
There are also Crab Play, Squirrel Play, Otter Play, Snake Play, Heron Play, Ant Play, and, umm, Adventure Bridge.
Beyond just those play areas, there’s so much more to Jurong Lake Gardens.
PAssionWaVe @ Jurong Lake Gardens provides various water sports activities on the lake itself. And yes, that capitalization is correct, even if hurts to write and look at.
Clusia Cove is “a three-hectare water playground where children can experience water movements that mimic tidal patterns, surface ripples and directional currents similar to those at coastal shores,” according to the website. But it was closed during my visit for Covid reasons.
Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden are part of the overall area too, but were closed for renovation during my visit.
On a day with no restrictions, you could spend many hours in Jurong Lake Gardens, relaxing and having a grand old time. But we’re here to work, so let’s hit the road. Exit Jurong Lake Gardens and find Checkpoint 1.
Checkpoint 1: Jurong Lake Gardens to Bukit Batok Nature Park
If you’re coming by MRT, start at the Lakeside MRT station and around there is the official start point, although I’ll be perfectly honest, I didn’t find it. Not finding the start point is a terrific way to start this guide to the coast-to-coast trail I know, but I promise it’ll be better from here on.
The entire trail is well signposted, by which I mean if you walk more than 100m without seeing one of these signposts, you’ve almost certainly taken a wrong turn:
Maybe because I was unfamiliar with this route and what kinds of roads and paths the trail took, or I’m just horrible at following directions, I went astray in this first stretch several times.
And one reason you’ll definitely need to detour several times is the ever-present construction obstruction. Wherever you go in Singapore there is always construction. New HDBs or condos being built, road widening, entirely new MRT stations being built, there’s always something happening. It’s the price you pay for living in a country building for the future.
(Yes, America, consider yourself shamed.)
You just have to notice where the construction detour ends and get back on the right path. Look out for those brown coast-to-coast trail signs and use the official maps as guidance, which I found very helpful since they show the exact roads you should be following.
A big part of this route has you following underneath the MRT route, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. Like everywhere in Singapore, it’s very clean and pleasant.
Like lots of walking trails in Singapore, you’ll find yourself often walking alongside a canal.
One stretch of the route features 12 statues of the Chinese zodiac animals and what years each has been since the start of the 20th century.
After 7km or so, you’ll reach Bukit Batok Nature Park! You made it!
You’ll be welcomed by Phil the Leaf, so-named just so they can celebrate your achievement with the worst pun in the world: “Phil-nomenal!”
Bukit Batok Nature Park itself is worth a visit, but I’ll save that for the next post.
Continue the journey with checkpoint 2 of the coast-to-coast trail!
If you’re looking for more content about hiking in Singapore, check out:
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