©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd 126

West & Southwest

Neighbourhood Top Five 1 Southern Ridges (p132) in culture, art and food serious twitchers for a spot Stretching your legs for a while wandering around of birdwatching in the park-to-park walk along colonial Gillman Barracks. mangroves. the Southern Ridges to Mt 3 Bird Park (p129) 5 (p128) Re- Faber, then hop onto the Landing a peckish, rainbow- living a little 1950s tourism cable car for gob-smacking coloured parrot on your arm at this wonderfully quirky views of the city, port and at family-friendly Jurong and offbeat theme park. Island. Bird Park. 2 Gillman Barracks 4 Sungei Buloh Wetland (p128) Immersing yourself Reserve (p129) Joining

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Ay f Jurong er ait o R Str aj ah PASIR â# Exp 5# wy (A PANJANG 1##æ YE) TERMINAL 2# 0 5 km Jurong Island Sebarok Pulau e# 0 2.5 miles Channel Keppel For more detail of this area see Map p220 and p221 A 127 Lonely Planet’s Explore: West & Southwest Top Tip Singapore Each Friday night the Science Centre (p129) This vast area is packed with sights that together would offers free stargazing at take a number of days to see. But you don’t need to visit the Observatory in the them all – none are absolute must-see attractions, most Omni-Theatre building are quirky or somewhat specialist – so pick and choose (p131). Visitors take turns what best suits you to plan your foray into western Sin- peeking through the gapore without wasting too much travel time. telescopes at the starry Bundling sights together into one trip makes sense. sky above. Additional talks The Science Centre (p129), Omni-Theatre (p131) and Snow and slide shows are often City (p132) stand side by side, while a number of sights in conducted; visit www. the northwest are accessed via Kranji MRT station. science.edu.sg for Consider timing your visit to Mt Faber Park (p128) to schedules. coincide with sunset, so as the sun goes down you can either be on the cable car or at a restaurant or bar on the summit. It’s then easy to get back to your hotel via the West & S HarbourFront MRT station. 5 Best Places to Eat ¨¨Tamarind Hill (p130) w outh Local Life ¨¨Timbre+ (p130) ¨Deals Look into the combined ticket deals for the ¨¨Naked Finn (p128) Science Centre, Omni-Theatre and Snow City. Likewise, ¨¨Faber Bistro (p130) est S (p129) is part of a three-in-one ticket For reviews, see p130.A deal with (p114) and the Night Safari

(p115). You can also get various Sentosa Island deals if ingapore you’re travelling there by cable car. Best Natural ¨University treasures Western Singapore’s 1 universities harbour some lesser-known cultural Escapes ¨¨Southern Ridges (p132) diversions. The National University of Singapore (NUS)  is home to three museums (p128) in one, as well as the ¨¨Sungei Buloh Wetland visually stunning Lee Kong Chian Natural History Reserve (p129) Museum (p128). Further afield you’ll find the Chinese ¨¨Kranji farms (p131) Heritage Centre (p129), a tranquil museum exploring For reviews, see p128.A the Chinese diaspora at Nanyang Technological University. ¨ Sun-kissed The west and southwest are full of Best For parks, hills and nature reserves. They’re wonderful c places for strolling around, but don’t underestimate Kids the strength of the Singapore sun. Slop on the ¨¨Jurong Bird Park (p129) sunscreen, slap on a hat, and pack those water bottles. ¨¨Science Centre Singa- pore (p129) ¨¨Snow City (p132) Getting There & Away For reviews, see p128.A ¨MRT This vast area is actually served pretty well by the MRT. Some attractions have namesake stations. HarbourFront, , Boon Lay, Chinese Garden, Pioneer and Kranji are all useful stations that are either walking distance to sights or have bus connections to them. ¨Bus For the more out-of-the-way sights you’ll need to combine MRT trips with a bus ride. The Kranji Express is a handy minibus service you can use to visit the farms in the northwest.