Journeys of the Fabulist is one of my favourite travel blogs, many practical tips shared with good sense of humor. The author, B, currently lives with her family in Singapore, and she put together this post to fit the theme of this blog as well. So if you want to know what I will be exploring next time I am in Singapore, take a look here. Sounds like fun!
Inspired by B’s post, I realised that what I remember best from my holiday in Singapore 4 years ago is not the most typical things to the city (I think), it is not the skyline, the great selection of restaurants and tasty food nor all the activities and history on Sentosa Island (Sentosa is everything but free though ;)). What I remember best after the modernity of the city was a small island called Pulau Ubin. I think I remember it because the contrast was so huge: Singapore to me was a very tidy, organised and urban metropoly. And then just a short bus, boat and bike ride away we came to a place that still had old style buildings and jetties and green nature everywhere. I think they said that island was the window to the past Singapore? I have no recollection of prices, but I can’t imagine hiring bikes and taking a boat for such a short distance would have been expensive.
We will be back in Singapore again, it is (so far) our favourite place for stop overs when travelling between the hemispheres: Changi airport works well and the connections are good from Finland, it is easy to get around in Singapore and distances are relatively short (appreciated when you only stop for a rest), people are helpful and pretty happy to converse in English (which you really appreciate when you feel dead after a long flight), things work well, and oh, the food… I love quite a few Asian cuisines, and the great thing with Singapore is, that you can pretty much get them all. And next time we will definitively plan for time to check out some Bonsai and Gangnam Style! Thanks for the post B!
Anyone else who wants to share some free but fun things to do about a destination they know well? I would reblog but when I tried it something weird happen to the text… so I will be happy to link to your blog! Alternatively you can send me a guest post to freebutfun@hotmail.co.nz
Free But Fun 
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Hey! It’s wonderful to read a post about my beloved Singapore! Pulau Ubin is a nice and laid back place, which is totally different from the busy Singapore city. Many students do go there for leadership training where they experience a tough training on “solo walk”, a walk by yourself among the darkness with only the moonlight guiding your way, and survivor skills like cooking your meal over a bunsen burner. With families, it will be a great place to explore the natural landscape and simple “kampong” life of the inhabitants staying there. Singapore is a beautiful city, definitely worth a visit to.
You know, I’ve been living in Singapore for 7 years but I’ve never been to Pulau Ubin! I’m definitely going to visit it some time soon….
Isn’t it funny how often we just don’t get around to do the lovely things close to home? I only started to get around at home too when my hubby first came to Finland with me, and I realised how much I had missed out on. This summer has also been one where we’ve set our minds on finally doing a number of things in Helsinki that we’ve been meaning to do for the last 5 years…
Great, please book mark it when you do, I am sure you have more details anyway than my hazy memories 🙂
Oh, and thanks for the shout out!
It’s not that expensive to go to Pulau Ubin. I can’t remember exactly, though, either! Let me check into it because it’s on my list of things to post about, too! I’ll have to bookmark your post to link to when it finally gets written.