In 2016, armed with umbrella strollers, baby carriers, and two massive backpacks, Andrew and I took our then two-year-old son and four-year-old daughter on a backpacking trip through 15 European cities with a couple of stopovers in Singapore. This is but one of our many memories from that trip.
I first heard about Pulau Ubin on a CNN ad in 2016 while unpacking our bags in an air-conditioned Singapore hotel room. “Surely if we leave early enough, we will miss the heat,” I explained to Andrew as I organised our belongings to make the hotel room feel like home, something I would do 16 more times in the coming months. Eager to explore Singapore beyond its city limits, Andrew agreed. Miss 4’s pleas to go back to the Jacob Ballas children’s playground we visited earlier in the morning were replaced with questions like “Will there be sharks?” and “Will the boat sink?” after I explained to her that we get to go on a bumboat to get to the island.
