Take a bumboat to Singapore's last island village
Ten minutes and forty years away
Pulau Ubin lies off Singapore's northeast coast, ten minutes by boat from Changi Point. Around 100 hectares of secondary forest, abandoned granite quarries, and a village of wooden houses on stilts.
Why it's unique
Singapore cleared its kampongs — traditional villages — through the 1970s and 80s and rehoused everyone in public flats. Two survive. Kampong Lorong Buangkok is the last on the mainland; this is the last on an island, and the only one you reach by boat.
Getting there is half of it. The bumboat from Changi Point has no timetable and leaves when about twelve passengers have gathered, which is itself a piece of the older Singapore. On the island you rent a bicycle at the jetty and ride dirt tracks past shrines, fruit trees and flooded granite quarries. At the eastern end, Chek Jawa is an intertidal flat where six ecosystems meet — mangrove, seagrass, coral rubble, sand bar — visible on foot at low tide.
Before you go
Check the tide tables before you go if Chek Jawa is the plan; at high tide there is nothing to see and the boardwalk is the whole visit.
Bring water and cash — there are a few shops and no reliable card payment. Rent the bicycle at the jetty rather than walking; the island is bigger than it looks. Last boat back is around 7pm and you do not want to test it.