Singapore: Katong, Marina Bay Sands, and Little India

Asia · Solo Travel

Solo traveller · 14 min read

The sun was already harsh by the time I got to East Coast Park, but there were tourists out anyway, taking photos in front of the old houses along the shore. My friend Ashish, who lives in Singapore, met me there for the morning. It’s a genuinely famous sunrise spot, a long running and cycling stretch that follows the coastline, and if you kept walking by the sea from that exact point, you’d cover about 15 kilometres before reaching the airport.

Ashish pointed out something being built just offshore that I hadn’t heard of before, a land reclamation project called Long Island, planned to run about 20 kilometres parallel to the existing coast. The idea is straightforward once you hear it: Singapore is an island facing real risk from rising sea levels, so the government is building a second strip of land specifically to act as a natural barrier, with a freshwater reservoir forming in the channel between the two. Singapore currently draws a meaningful share of its drinking water from Malaysia, and projects like this are part of a longer push toward water self-reliance through more reservoirs and heavier recycling.

Worth updating since I actually stood there looking at it: as of mid-2026, this has moved from concept to an active timeline. Preparatory works are set to begin by the end of 2026 in the waters west of Bedok Jetty, the first of two phases in what officials describe as an 800-hectare project, roughly twice the size of Marina Bay. The new reservoir it creates would become Singapore’s next one, adding to a system currently built around 17.

We rented bikes right there at the park, a dollar for the first thirty minutes, unlocked with a QR code scan through the app. Simple, cheap, and honestly the easiest way to cover this stretch of coast.

Two kilometres of cycling got us to Katong, where the architecture shifts completely, colourful Peranakan shophouses, a genuine 19th and 20th century heritage style built specifically as shop-below, home-above units, so a family could run a business and live above it at the same time. The mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indonesian influence in the design is really the whole story of Singapore’s cultural layering, condensed into one street. Even in that harsh sun, tourists were out clicking photos in front of the houses, so at least I wasn’t the only one melting for a picture.

Ashish pointed me to 328 Katong Laksa, a ten-minute walk away, and the queue outside told me everything about its reputation before I’d even ordered. I had a small bowl of Laksa with Otah on the side, minced fish cooked inside a banana leaf, on his recommendation. The fish had properly absorbed the banana leaf’s flavour, mild spices, coconut milk, rice noodles, chilli, and a marinated egg that tasted nothing like a normal boiled one, egg yolk included. A small bowl was genuinely enough for a full lunch. This might be one of the best single dishes I’ve had on this entire trip.

I’d booked a 5:30pm slot on the SkyPark’s 56th floor, $39 for a ticket with no food or drink included, current pricing sits closer to SGD 23 to 32 depending on your time slot, so I actually paid on the higher end. Only Tower 3 is accessible for non-hotel guests, Towers 1 and 2 stay reserved for people actually staying at the hotel, but the view from Tower 3 alone is more than enough.

Gardens by the Bay sat directly below, Cloud Forest and Flower Dome both visible at once, with the sea, Marina Barrage, and a clear line on the Singapore Flyer beyond that. The F1 track runs right alongside it, the same one used for the Singapore Grand Prix, and the dome-shaped building near the Flyer is the National Stadium. As it got dark, I could see rehearsals underway for the National Day Parade, fireworks practice included, purely by coincidence of timing. It’s not on the level of the fireworks show I once saw in Bangkok, but watching a full rehearsal unfold from 56 storeys up is its own kind of good luck.

By full dark, the view changes completely, the Merlion side lit up, the Fullerton Hotel and CBD towers below, the Flyer glowing against the road. If you book the $48 ticket instead of the $39 one I had, you get a drink included, worth knowing before you choose a tier.

The next morning, after a slow start at the hotel, I made it to Fort Canning specifically for what’s become a well-known Instagram spot, a tree tunnel with a genuine queue of people waiting their turn to photograph it, right by Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. From there I weighed the MRT against a Grab to Lau Pa Sat and took the cab purely to save time, Grab in Singapore runs roughly ₹100 to 150 per kilometre depending on how close to peak hours you’re travelling.

Lau Pa Sat is a heritage hawker centre, and it’s genuinely built on land that used to be sea before Singapore’s long history of reclaiming ground with sand. Huge ceiling fans, a structure that still feels like the original heritage building, and food from Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia, and Turkey all under one roof. I went with mixed rice, tofu, fish, okra, and chicken, for $8.50. The chicken, steamed and well-seasoned, was the standout, the fish carried mild spice nicely, but the tofu was only average and the okra tasted noticeably different from the okra I know from home, not really to my taste. Worth knowing: Singapore imports roughly 50 to 70 percent of its food, a large share of it from Malaysia, which explains a lot about the produce here tasting slightly different from what I’m used to.

A Ma La-style stall nearby let me pick raw vegetables straight off a display and build my own rice combination on the spot, a genuinely new experience for me, and one worth trying even if you don’t know exactly what you’re building.

I booked an evening river cruise, paid somewhere between $18 and $28 depending on the segment, current standard 40-minute tickets run closer to SGD 22 to 25. The boat itself has a nice touch, wooden furniture giving it an old-world feel, and it passes right by Boat Quay, restaurants lined up along the water in a way that made me want to come back and actually eat there rather than just sail past. The ride ended up shorter than advertised, closer to 15 minutes than the stated 20 or 40, and honestly, out of everything I did across these two days, this is the one activity I’d have been fine skipping.

Clarke Quay itself, right where the cruise ends, is clearly built for nightlife, loud music, a riverside setup, and Zouk, one of the city’s well-known clubs, sitting right there. I’m not much of a nightlife person myself, so I only walked through, but if that’s your scene, the colour-contrasted architecture and the riverside energy make it an easy recommendation.

I’ve noticed the same thing in Chinatown here that I first noticed in Katong, the colour and design of the buildings does most of the storytelling before you’ve read a single plaque.

A quick MRT ride via Clarke Quay and Dhoby Ghaut got me to Little India, noticeably more crowded than I expected, and it turned out to be Sunday, the one day construction workers get off, and the day they come here to shop for the entire week ahead. Tekka Centre had ethnic wear and a genuine fish market inside, Jothi Store was stacked with Indian decor pieces, and the Indian Heritage Centre sat close by. Serangoon Road runs right through the middle of it, the purple line running underground beneath the street itself, and I picked up a copy of Tabla, Singapore’s weekly newspaper for the Indian community, with the tagline “Heartbeat of the Indian Community” printed right on it. Madras Bakery was packed, apparently four times busier than usual on a Sunday, and I had a milk tea there, though I’ll admit milk tea generally isn’t my preference, the milk here gets added separately rather than brewed in.

One note if you’re testing payment cards here, my Niyo Global Card worked without any issue across these two days, while an SBI Forex card had failed on me earlier in the trip. Worth checking your specific card’s international acceptance before relying on it as a backup.

I went back to Lau Pa Sat by 8:30pm to see the evening version of the same place, tables and chairs laid out for street food, the area outside blocked off entirely, famous specifically for Satay, running until midnight. By that point I genuinely didn’t feel like eating again, and a 20 to 25 minute queue made the decision easier. Some days end on a full stomach, some just end.

MBS SkyPark	~SGD 23–32 depending on time slot; $48+ tier includes a drink
Singapore River Cruise	~SGD 22–25 for the standard 40-minute route
Grab pricing	Roughly ₹100–150 per km, higher during peak hours
Payment cards	Test your specific forex/travel card in advance; acceptance varies by issuer

Between this and the rest of the Singapore leg of the trip, I’ve now written up the Orchard Road and Night Safari day separately (A Day in Singapore: Orchard Road to Night Safari), and the final day at Sentosa Island and Universal Studios (Sentosa Island and Universal Studios Singapore: An Honest Day-by-Day Guide), if you want the full picture of how this trip actually went.