Running to the Sembawang Hot Spring Park

Sembawang Hot Spring Park, which is located off Gambas Avenue in Yishun, recently underwent a complete renovation.

The new park features cascading pools and a water collection point, accessibility for wheelchair users and educational panels to learn about Singapore’s only hot spring park’s history and geology.

Running down from Punggol

Last Sunday, my running buddy Terence and I decided to run down from Punggol to the Sembawang Hot Spring Park and check it out for ourselves.

I admit that I had been looking forward to the run, because I was intrigued by the prospect of a hot spring right here in tropical Singapore.

Our running route

The route that we had planned was through the park connectors and the footpaths, taking us from Punggol Waterway Park and through Sengkang Riverside Park, as well as past Seletar Airport, Seletar Country Club and the Singapore Orchid Country Club.

I rarely frequent this part of Singapore as it is quite far from the east, where I live, so it was a pretty nice exploratory run.

There were a few traffic lights along the way; usually when I run, I don’t really like to pause my run at traffic lights because this usually upsets my running momentum, so as long as there were no cars, we didn’t stop.

We stopped our run after about 21km, and that was near Khatib MRT Station. We walked the rest of the way, and that was approximately an additional 3km, stopping for cold drinks at a McDonald’s along the way as we were feeling quite thirsty by that point.

The Sembawang hot spring park was crowded

When we got to the Sembawang Hot Spring Park, I would say that I was quite taken aback by how crowded that place was.

There were plenty of people milling around the hot spring, soaking their feet in the pool, or drawing water from the hot spring using their own buckets.

I guess that this newly-revamped place is still considered as a novelty in Singapore, which was why there were large crowds.

Pails are available for rental for those who don’t have their own, but with only a limited number of these, you have to wait for others to finish their turn first.

Can cook raw eggs

We didn’t bring any raw eggs along with us and there were no eggs on sale at the park, so we didn’t try cooking some eggs, but I did see some in the process of being cooked at a small hot spring off located to the side of the main area.

Apparently though, if you cook the eggs in the hot spring for about 10 minutes, you can enjoy soft-boiled eggs, Ya Kun style.

Soaking our feet in the hot spring

The main hot spring area for soaking of your feet is quite small, and the temperature of the water ranges from 40 degrees C at the base, to 70 degrees C at the top.

Terence and I took off our shoes and soaked our feet inside the bottom pool for a short while, before the ever-increasing crowds together with the heat and humidity got to us. I guess that having a hot spring in tropical Singapore, where it is hot all year round, is not exactly the best idea.

What else you can do at the Sembawang hot spring park

For those who wish to hang around the park and enjoy quality time together as a family, there are also several seats where you can enjoy a picnic too, as well as some lush greenery in order to to get closer to nature.

But other than that, and a small cafe where you can dine at the park, I think that there really isn’t very much to see and do at the Sembawang Hot Spring Park.

I reckon that most people can probably see everything that’s available at the park in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Heading for breakfast

After spending time at the park, we walked over to the nearby Chong Pang market in Yishun for breakfast, as the variety of choices there, are much wider than the small cafe at the park.