Fort Canning Park a Quiet Sanctuary in Bustling Singapore

Day 79, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Tuesday, March 24, 2026; Singapore.

Finally – I found an art supply store that carries the Tombow brush pens I’ve been seeking. But even in modern and vast Singapore, it wasn’t as straightforward as I expected.

Singapore is a favorite port for cruisers. The city/state (but really a country, too) is compact, safe to explore on your own and easy to traverse on its excellent subway, or MRT, system. The signs are in English and you just tap on and tap off with a credit card. Local residents are eager to offer help if needed. And if you don’t want to take the subway, taxis are plentiful, not expensive and also take credit cards. I find I never need local currency, although I have a small stash left from years ago.

As is typical, we have two days in Singapore (last year’s one day was an exception), but Elaine and I only had today, as we are leaving at o’dark hundred tomorrow morning to fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to tour Angkor Wat and other temples.

I have yet to visit Singapore’s lauded Botanical Gardens or its famous zoo, but during our short visit today we enjoyed a morning at Fort Canning Park near the city center. We barely scratched the surface of exploring the 45-acre public park.

The Gothic Gate into the park was just about a half mile from the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It’s actually a set of two white archways, and I took time before it got too hot to sketch the second one.

While I sketched, Elaine explored the Garden of Memory, a former cemetery where salvaged gravestones are built into the walls. It sits below former army barracks that now serve as an event venue.

We passed through gardens, an archeological dig at the site of a former pre-colonial palace and the Raffles House, named after Sir Stamford Raffles, considered the founder of modern Singapore.

Huge trees stretch over the gardens, some of which have playful statues and sculptures.

We missed more than we saw. The park’s tree tunnel is Instagram-famous. People line up to get that perfect shot on the spiral stone staircase leading up to a canopy of trees above.

During the early days of World War II, the park was a British military base, and the Battle Box is where the British decided to surrender to the Japanese. We didn’t find the spice garden – there was major construction going on and we thought it was closed, but perhaps not. There is a Balinese garden, a freshwater spring with Javanese elements and several places to eat. I’ll definitely go back.

Speaking of eating, after exiting below Raffles house, we took the MRT back to Dhoby Ghaut and the Plaza Singapura, one of dozens of large shopping malls in the Orchard Street area.

I had a hankering for Xiao Long Bao, the pork soup dumplings with 18 exact folds that made Din Tai Fung in Taiwan famous. (I once made my own less-than-perfect dumplings there.) Now it’s a chain with locations throughout Asia and on the U.S. west coast. There are 22 locations in Singapore alone, including one in Plaza Singapura.

We shared soup dumplings, steamed buns, noodle soup and xiao long bao filled with chocolate and mochi. Local Tiger beers finished off the meal.

Back to the art supplies. I wish I had realized that the Overjoyed art supply store wasn’t in the nearby Cathey building, or anywhere around us. A friendly barista there directed us instead to Art Friend, which was back in Plaza Singapura, just a few doors down from Din Tai Fung.

Elaine abandoned me to my search and went to spend a few hours in the Singapore National Gallery. I found the supplies I wanted at Art Friend and headed back to the ship.

Good friends had booked a suite at the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel for their anniversary and invited us to an open house that evening to watch the light show. Looking back, I wish I had gone – it would have been a great time – but we had that 4:45 am wakeup call the next morning. Stay turned.