Henderson Waves

This was a totally new one for me, never heard of Henderson Waves until I noticed it being mentioned as the location for a scene on the Singapore Airlines safety video. Yes, I actually paid attention and saw the location looked interesting.

So, after some research, I found it was actually a footbridge over Henderson Road connecting to Mount Faber. Hmmmm, it's well away from just about everything, but maybe I will combine a visit with a cable car ride, as that starts on Mount Faber.

Decision made: now I needed to figure out how to get there, with MRT being the preferred way for me to get around, especially off the well-beaten track like this place is.

Some googling later, it seems the closest station is Telok Blangah on the circle line, and from there, it's what various people call "within walking distance". Which is good, if other people think it's within walking distance, then for me, it is nothing :-)

As usual, the weather gods were looking like they would make the day interesting, with the sun poking out between the rain clouds, but me being me, and this time actually remembering to pick up a plastic bag for the camera, I decided to go anyway.

So after the usual breakfast, fuelling up, and taking a shower in sunscreen, it's off to the MRT.

Getting to Telok Blangah station and heading for the surface, I did the deed and asked Google Maps how to get to the Henderson Waves, and after a quick "thinking" from it, it told me it was a little over 1.5km

It's not too bad, even with the sun beating down on me, and yes, that's what the sunscreen is for. The actual walk was basically easy slopes until getting to Telok Blangah Hill Park, when it started to get harder, ending up with an "interesting" hill to make it up.

Getting to the top, there was a small seating area with some other tourists who looked like they were recovering from the hill I had just walked up; me, being me and being known for talking to everyone, we exchanged sympathies on the hill walk.

For the whole walk from the MRT station, I had only seen a few people, and even one jogger, yes, really a jogger in 33 C heat with humidity off the scale, but now at the top of the hill heading onto the Henderson Waves bridge, there was a crowd of people coming off it.

Something told me it was one of those mainland Chinese tour groups, but the lack of a guide with the little flag left me a little unsure; anyhow, not a problem, as they passed me and headed off toward the car park. Er, well, that's what the sign said anyway.

Heading on to the bridge, my initial thoughts were more than a little underwhelming; it was nothing special, just a normal footbridge with some wavy architectural detailings, hence the name; it's a wavy bridge over Henderson Road.

Honestly, I was not sure what I was expecting, but anyway, I would call this bridge "interesting" and never know, maybe much better at night, but that's something for another day.

One thing I did come across while doing some research is that this footbridge seems to be popular with birdwatchers; it was even covered in the local paper. I did spend some time looking around, but did not see any signs of wildlife. Oh well, maybe it was the wrong time of the day.

While there was no sign of any local wildlife, I did see some interesting architecture. Just check out this development and tell me it does not look like an impressive alien spaceship.

Again, after some research, I found that the impressive alien spaceship is actually Reflections at Keppel Bay and is a luxury residential complex. It looks like an interesting place to live, right on the ocean and close to Sentosa Island; I would just hate to think how expensive it would be to live there.

So, getting to the far end of the bridge, it was time to ask Google Maps for directions to the cable car terminal. It seemed it was a little over a kilometre, which was better than expected, and given the ominous-looking sky, those weather gods were gunning for me again.

The bad news is that the route to the cable car station was all uphill and not a gentle slope, but more of an uphill hike. Well, it is called Mount Faber for a reason: it's the closest thing to a mountain that Singapore has.

Heading toward the cablecar station, the rain started, but thankfully only very gently, given I was around half a km from the destination.

By the time I reached the station, the rain was getting heavier, but at least no thunder (yet!).

Regardless of the behaviour of the weather gods, I was going to ride the cable car, so getting a ticket to the Harbourfront station was more expensive than expected at S$33, ouch, and they even had signs up to upgrade to the glass-bottom car for an extra S$15.

If the weather had been better, I might have done that, but in this case, that's a non-starter.

Boarding the car, I was lucky enough to have it all to myself, so I figured I could get some photos, but not really, as each car is Hello Kitty branded with stickers on the front, making it difficult to shoot through.

Thankfully, looking backward, it was not too bad, so I managed to get at least one ok shot.

Not good, those weather gods must have noticed me riding the cablecar, as the rain turned very heavy about halfway to the Harbourfront station. Oh well, it's the tropics, so it's time to abandon the rest of the day and go look around the harbourfront shops, then back to the MRT.

So, in closing, was the visit to the Henderson Waves worth it?

Well, on its own, not to me. It was interesting, but it was not something I would go out of my way to visit again. However, when combined with something else like the cable car, then it's worth doing, and maybe at night it's better, remember the walk from the MRT is not flat and could be challenging for some people.