Usually, we’d affiliate scorching springs in areas with volcanic exercise. So for Singapore to have a scorching spring appears impossible. However we even have 2 scorching springs; one which is positioned on the primary island, and the opposite which is positioned on Pulau Tekong, which is utilized by the navy and never accessible by the general public. So if you happen to can’t journey to Japan as a consequence of Covid and also you miss soaking in an onsen, then this would possibly place to go to.
I made a decision to go to the recent spring in Sembawang throughout the current New 12 months break. I’ve been listening to a lot about this place however by no means had the possibility to go to because it’s not probably the most accessible of points of interest. It’s positioned off the primary street (Gambas Avenue) beside a navy base and there isn’t any carpark beside it. The easiest way to get there’s to take a public bus to the closest bus stops (alongside Sembawang Highway) and stroll, or park on the nearest HDB carpark and stroll. Both means, it’s a brief stroll of round 500m which ought to take you quarter-hour or so.
Upon strolling into the recent spring park, I may catch the faint whiff of rotten eggs and sulfur within the air, paying homage to volcanic exercise. Which is unusual as Singapore shouldn’t be recognized to have any volcanic exercise though we’re contained in the Pacific Ring of Fireplace.
A number of years again, the recent spring was truly contained in the navy base and consisted of only a standing pipe with a faucet for individuals to replenish their containers with the recent water. Nevertheless it has been now became good public park the place we will entry the recent spring conveniently.
As it is a public scorching spring and its free to make use of, there are some guidelines to make sure everybody has expertise. We may solely soak our toes. No bathing or soaking of your complete physique is allowed because of the small measurement of the swimming pools. And in addition as a consequence of Covid restrictions limiting the variety of individuals sitting and soaking their toes, we needed to restrict our time to fifteen minutes.
How is the expertise? Should you’ve by no means been to any scorching springs abroad, then this may very well be a novel expertise. However for me, soaking my toes in 45°C water, in 30°C warmth and 90% humidity wasn’t precisely a calming expertise. It will have been good if Singapore may have it’s personal pure onsen sort of facility, however I suppose the move of scorching spring water is simply too small to have one thing like that.
So after soaking our toes within the scorching spring, it was time to attempt one other exercise; cooking eggs within the scorching spring.
It’s superb how many individuals had been cooking so many eggs that day. A household of 4 had a carton of eggs cooking in a pail. We positioned our eggs below the operating scorching water for half an hour and acquired 2 comfortable boiled eggs.
One of the best time to go to the recent spring park might be early within the morning (the park opens at 7am and closes at 7pm) when it’s cooler and never so crowded. What may you do there apart from soaking and cooking eggs? Many individuals carry their very own folding chairs, pails, tubs and meals for a no frills outing. It’s additionally stopping level for a lot of cyclists who’re touring the northern aspect of Singapore.
