'Sweat dripping into my eyeballs': Tourists walk 12 hours from Woodlands to MBS in the heat 'to see more of the country'

While Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world, some of us might complain about having to travel from one end of the island to the other. 

But then we have tourists like Kara and Nate who didn't seem to find much of a problem with that. 

In fact, in a YouTube uploaded on July 1, these American travel vloggers challenged themselves by walking from Woodlands to Marina Bay Sands on foot. 

Talk about going the extra mile. 

While the couple were aware that this would be an arduous journey, they prepared a reward for themselves — a stay at the luxurious Marina Bay Sands. 

"[It] is something that I wanted to do ever since we first visited Singapore as broke backpackers back in 2016," Nate revealed. 

He also shared that during their previous trips to Singapore, they mainly explored Orchard Road and Marina Bay Sands. 

"This [walk] is forcing us to see more of the country." 

Hot springs, hawker centres and more 

The couple kick-started their journey at Woodlands Park at 9.21am.  

According to Google Maps, their journey, which is around 29.3km long, would take a whopping six hours and nine minutes. 

"I have a feeling it's going to take a lot longer than that because we have a lot of stops planned," said Nate, adding that their goal was to experience as much of Singapore culture and food along the way. 

But early into their journey, they realised they had something else to worry about — the blistering heat. 

"Literally [have] sweat dripping into my eyeballs," Nate said as he wiped his face. 

In fact, the heat was so bad that they deliberately walked into an unnamed school to enjoy some air-con. 

At 10.24am, they were about two miles (3.22km) in, and as they were worried about not being able to make it to their destination in time, they jaywalked. 

"I don't know how much the fine is for jaywalking but we're never going to finish if we don't do something like this today," said Nate. 

Out of curiosity, they googled other things people can be fined for too, such as walking around the house naked, feeding birds and, of course, selling chewing gum. 

At 4.72 miles in at 11.26am, they made a pit stop at Sembawang Hot Springs to give their aching feet a dip. 

They also bought some eggs to cook in the spring water but ended up not eating them because these came out raw. 

Finally, at 12.48pm, they managed to grab some proper food at a coffee shop in Chong Pang City. 

"I need a little pick-me-up," said a relieved Kara. 

Nate had a few "unique" dishes he wanted to try while a hungry Kara got some "extra" dishes like dim sum to satisfy her cravings. 

These "unique" dishes, which the couple had never tried before, turned out to be century egg and rojak. 

"I haven't really been pushed out of my culinary comfort zone recently, so I'm kind of looking forward to a new experience," quipped an eager Nate. 

The first bite of the century egg left the couple feeling divided, and Nate liked it while Kara didn't. 

"It kind of reminds me of a gummy bear on the outside," described Nate. 

 And the rojak? They simply found that too spicy. 

After their food break, they carried on with their journey but were concerned because they were a little behind schedule. 

"If you zoom out on the map, it looks like we've barely gone anywhere," Nate pointed out. 

One-and-a-half hours later at 3pm, they realised that they had already clocked 9.67 miles. 

Unfortunately, they were barely halfway through their journey. 

Still, they managed to take a break at a park and even got some freshly squeezed orange juice from a vending machine at Yio Chu Kang bus interchange. 

By the 12.5-mile mark, the couple were hurting everywhere and Kara even had a blister on one of her toes. 

And at 5.38pm around 16 miles in, they decided to take another break at a hawker centre where they feasted on carrot cake. 

They missed the sunset at Marina Bay

Nate had originally intended to catch the sunset at MBS' infinity pool after their walk, but to his dismay, they couldn't make it in time. 

So, instead, he decided that they should make it back by 10pm instead so they can catch the last light show display. 

And they definitely couldn't do so because, at 7.16pm, they were only at Toa Payoh. 

By the time they had reached Little India, the sky was pitch black. 

But while they were quite behind schedule, they couldn't resist getting some garlic naan as fuel. 

While they munched on their naan, they reminisced about their previous trips to Singapore. 

"Fun fact, Singapore is the first place we ever ate Indian food," shared Kara. 

Soon, they found themselves at Haji Lane. 

"I do love the diversity of Singapore. We were just in a Hindu temple and now we're walking past a huge, beautiful mosque," Nate pointed out. 

"There are just different pockets of the world represented in every part of the city."  

Final destination 

Towards the end of their walk, the couple realised that they had clocked more distance than they had anticipated.

"We only thought that we were going [to walk] 18 miles today and we've already [walked] almost 22 miles. But we're on the final mile!" shouted Nate in joy. 

And finally, MBS Hotel's iconic boat-shaped structure was in sight. 

"She's like a horse to water. This is the fastest I've seen her walk all day," Nate said as he pointed the camera to Kara, who was speed walking her way to the hotel. 

After reaching the destination, they quickly got ready to head to the pool. 

As they were changing, Nate shared that they had taken a grand total of 11 hours and 41 minutes to walk all the way from Woodlands Park to MBS, at an average pace of 30 minutes 51 seconds. 

And in total, they clocked a distance of 22.71 miles. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com