Little Guilin and the Bukit Batok Quarries

Bukit Batok has two flooded granite quarries, and most people who come out this far only see one. Little Guilin, officially Bukit Batok Town Park, is the famous view: granite cliffs dropping straight into turquoise water, a short walk from Bukit Gombak MRT. Bukit Batok Nature Park is the second lake, up a hill with fruit trees and a wartime plaque. We'd give the area a whole morning and see both. If you only want the photo, 20 minutes at Little Guilin around sunrise will do it.

The pair belong to the wider Botanic Gardens and Bukit Timah area, west of the Bukit Timah summit trail most visitors climb from Beauty World. They're separate parks with different addresses and different rules, which matters if you've brought a dog or a car. Town Park doesn't allow pets and has no carpark. Nature Park lets dogs in on a leash and has its own parking. Both are open 24 hours, so the only planning is getting there early.

The lake at Little Guilin

Town Park covers 42 hectares along Bukit Batok East Avenue 5. In the 1950s the quarry here was loud enough that people called the area "coughing hill", and the pit flooded in the 1980s. What's left is the lake and its cliffs, and sunrise is when they look their best. The park is wheelchair accessible. Keep an eye on the sky while you're there. A grey-headed fish eagle is possible, though never promised: look for a dark-brown upper body and a grey head.

The rules are few. Fishing isn't allowed, and groups of more than 30 need a permit, applied for a month ahead. Don't climb the fences or go into the water, however still it looks. There's no hawker stall by the lake, so bring water, especially if you're carrying on to Nature Park afterwards.

From Bukit Gombak MRT

Bukit Gombak MRT (NS3) on the North-South Line is the station to aim for. Take Exit B onto Bukit Batok East Avenue 5 and walk five to eight minutes along the road, roughly 400 metres, to the park. Bukit Batok MRT, one stop along, sounds like the obvious choice but puts you in a different town centre with a longer walk. Bus 945 also works. It stops at Bukit Gombak Stadium, stop 43569, or at stop 43561 across the road. With no carpark at Town Park, a taxi drop-off beats driving.

If you've brought the dog Town Park won't let in, or a child who'd rather run than stand and look, Bukit Gombak Park across Bukit Batok West Avenue 5 is worth knowing about. It's 4.8 hectares and open 24 hours. Alongside the dog run and a butterfly garden, there's a 400-metre loop with 108 steps, which should use up some of that energy before the quiet bit.

Bukit Batok Nature Park

The second quarry is a walk rather than a look. Nature Park covers 36 hectares along Bukit Batok East Avenue 2 and Avenue 6, and its own flooded quarry sits just beyond the playground. The plaza is wheelchair accessible, and fishing is banned here too. If you're driving, the carpark is on East Avenue 2, with 99 car lots, five motorcycle lots and one accessible lot. Fees apply.

Nature Park rewards sitting still. Straw-headed bulbuls and Malayan colugos are here, and the grey-headed fish eagle shows up on this side too. Some of the trees bear fruit: rambutan, mango, breadfruit and durian, with nectar bats doing the pollinating for the durians. It's slower than the lookout at Town Park, and it's the reason to stay longer than the photo.

NParks lists Beauty World, Bukit Batok and Hillview as the stations for Nature Park, but from Little Guilin it's about 20 minutes along the Hillview Park Connector. We'd start at Town Park around 7am, while the early light is on the cliffs, and reach Nature Park by about 9am. That leaves time for the quarry view and a slow loop before the heat builds.

The steps on Lorong Sesuai

During the war, the Japanese built the Syonan Chureito shrine on this hill, then destroyed it themselves in 1945 so the returning Allies wouldn't. What remains is a memorial plaque and a staircase on the Lorong Sesuai side of the park. NParks has closed that stretch of trail for maintenance, so check the notice map on its website before you plan around the steps, and make sure the plaza is open before you walk over.

Two more quarry lakes

If one lake leaves you wanting another, Dairy Farm Nature Park has one too, reached from Hillview MRT instead. Its lake is Singapore Quarry, since the old Dairy Farm Quarry has been filled with earth. The park is open 7am to 7pm every day, Mondays included, and the quarry 8am to 6.30pm. The Wallace Trail runs 2.2 kilometres from Hillview to the old cowshed and takes about an hour. The Wallace Education Centre keeps shorter hours, 8.30am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday, and closes on Mondays. Carpark A, a short walk from the station, has 50 lots with fees.

Closer to Beauty World, Hindhede Nature Park is the quarry at the foot of Bukit Timah. Its carpark trails are closed for development works until 31 December, so walk in on the boardwalk from the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre. Hindhede Drive is 10 to 15 minutes from Beauty World MRT, and the summit above has demolition works until March 2028. Rifle Range Nature Park is a 66-hectare quarry wetland, open 7am to 7pm, where the Colugo Deck puts you 31 metres up. Pets aren't allowed there.

Breakfast and the midday heat

Eat once the walking's done. Bukit Batok West Hawker Centre, at 469 Bukit Batok West Avenue 9 in Harmony Village, opened in 2025 with 22 stalls and typically runs from 7am to 10pm. If hawker centres are new to you, picture an open-sided hall of small cooked-food stalls with shared tables, where you return your own tray when you're done. It's a short bus ride from Bukit Gombak, which you'll be glad of after the walk.

If you're heading back towards town on the East-West Line, Clementi 448 is the west-side hawker centre people still recommend, and it's best for lunch before 12.30pm. For breakfast nearer Holland Village, we'd pick Ghim Moh.

When the midday heat arrives, head indoors to the Former Ford Factory, three minutes from Hume MRT Exit 1. It's open 9am to 5.30pm from Tuesday to Sunday, with last admission at 5pm, and closed on Mondays. Tourist adults pay S$7.13. The TreeTop Walk at MacRitchie also closes on Mondays, and the Botanic Gardens and MacRitchie story has its hours.

If you still have kilometres in your legs, Zhenghua Park runs further along the Rail Corridor towards the north. Otherwise, let the two quarries be the morning and save the rest of the west for another day.