Normally, we might affiliate sizzling springs in areas with volcanic exercise. So for Singapore to have a sizzling spring appears most unlikely. But we even have 2 sizzling springs; one which is situated on the principle island, and the opposite which is situated on Pulau Tekong, which is utilized by the army and never accessible by the general public. So when you can’t journey to Japan resulting from Covid and also you miss soaking in an onsen, then this may an excellent place to go to.
I made a decision to go to the recent spring in Sembawang in the course of the latest New Year break. I’ve been listening to a lot about this place however by no means had the prospect to go to because it’s not probably the most accessible of points of interest. It’s situated off the principle highway (Gambas Avenue) beside a army base and there isn’t any carpark beside it. The greatest solution to get there’s to take a public bus to the closest bus stops (alongside Sembawang Road) and stroll, or park on the nearest HDB carpark and stroll. Either method, 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, harking back to volcanic exercise. Which is unusual as Singapore isn’t recognized to have any volcanic exercise though we’re contained in the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Just a few years again, the recent spring was truly contained in the army base and consisted of only a standing pipe with a faucet for individuals to refill their containers with the recent water. But it has been now changed into good public park the place we are able to entry the recent spring conveniently.
As it is a public sizzling spring and its free to make use of, there are some guidelines to make sure everybody has an excellent expertise. We may solely soak our ft. No bathing or soaking of your complete physique is allowed as a result of small dimension of the swimming pools. And additionally resulting from Covid restrictions limiting the variety of individuals sitting and soaking their ft, we needed to restrict our time to fifteen minutes.
How is the expertise? If you’ve by no means been to any sizzling springs abroad, then this may very well be a novel expertise. But for me, soaking my ft in 45°C water, in 30°C warmth and 90% humidity wasn’t precisely a soothing expertise. It would have been good if Singapore may have it’s personal pure onsen sort of facility, however I assume the circulation of sizzling spring water is simply too small to have one thing like that.
So after soaking our ft within the sizzling spring, it was time to strive one other exercise; cooking eggs within the sizzling spring.
It’s wonderful how many individuals have been cooking so many eggs that day. A household of 4 had a carton of eggs cooking in a pail. We positioned our eggs beneath the working sizzling water for half an hour and bought 2 mushy boiled eggs.
The greatest 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 convey their very own folding chairs, pails, tubs and meals for a no frills outing. It’s additionally an excellent stopping level for a lot of cyclists who’re touring the northern aspect of Singapore.