Speaker: Paula Barnes

1. Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, and I'm your host, Paula.
2. And this is season two. I'm so excited to welcome you back to a very different season two. This season, I will be talking to expats about the place that they live in, you know, and find out insider tips and hacks that you might not know if you were just visiting there once or twice a year, or even once, or just a year only, you know. So it's going to be an exciting season, actually. Today's episode though is just me.
3. It's just me. And I'm going to talk to you about, strangely enough, Singapore, because that's exactly where I am right now. I'm in Singapore. I just want to bring you to Singapore. My goal about Singapore is that I really want people to make it a destination rather than just a stopover, because people go, my God, it's such a small little country. Yeah, it is. It's a city-state or city-country, which not many people, not many countries have. There's not many of those countries around the world. That's what I meant to mean.
4. But what I want to kind of go through is tell you that there is so much to do more than just a two-day stopover. And I've got some questions here that I'm going to ask myself to prompt, which I'll be asking all my guests this season. I've got some really exciting destinations, some that are, know, yep, you know, there's a lot of expats there, and some aren't, some are really exciting destinations that you go, okay, I need to Google, where is that? So yeah.
5. Anyway, let's start with Singapore because everyone knows where Singapore is. And my first question is, let's start with the expat journey. What brought me to Singapore, and how long have I been living here? Well, I have lived here almost eight years. I cannot believe it. March will make it eight years. So it's been one of those places that so, you know, most people know that I have been living in Asia for 19 years.
6. And normally, well, it's always been my husband's job that takes us from place to place. And I have a type of business that I can live anywhere because it's online. So, but living in Singapore, I now have a destination website solely about Singapore. So if you're coming to Singapore, I do lots of reviews or places to go or things to see. And I have a team here which makes it even more special. So when I am not here.
7. I've got a whole group of beautiful women who are expats, and they are travelling around, you know, going to events and, you know, things that are on reviewing places for me now. So it's, so for those who want to know, it's called Singapore Truly, and it basically has everything there is to know about Singapore. So that's how long I've been here. I've been here, did I just say? Yeah, eight years. My brain's not with it, but yeah.
8. I've almost been here eight years, and I love it. Singapore is a great destination. It's one of those very easy destinations for someone who speaks English because it is a, they have four languages here but English is the main language. So it's an easy place. So every place I've lived before, besides Hong Kong, even though Hong Kong is, English isn't their first language, but you can get a buy a lot easier than other places that I've lived.
9. What would you say Singapore is famous for, and what are some of the best-known attractions or areas of interest that visitors should know about? Well, let's start with the fact that Singapore is known for not only being a little red dot, but it's also famous for Marina Bay Sands. It's famous for, you know, Singapore, I don't know, I don't know if anyone knows this, what I think is famous for is the Singapore Chilli Crab.
10. So if you haven't tried it or if you've been here before and you've tried it, you'll understand why it's amazing. I love seafood. And it's not too spicy. So it's just the perfect kind of, what's the word, I'm looking balance of hot and delicious. That's my opinion. It's also famous for the F1 at the moment. I think we've got another few years before it goes.
11. it leaves here. But at the moment, F1 is huge. The amount of people that come here each year just for the F1 in September, October, no, it's October, is amazing. It's also famous for being quite a clean country. Then, know, because you can't have chewing gum here, you can't smoke e-cigarettes. It's...
12. also a city of fines. So all those things that people tell you about, yeah, it is. It's low crime because of that. The fines are big, you know, and so people have to understand that that's why we have such a clean, safe country. It's one of those places where I can walk home from dinner at three o'clock in the morning on my own, and I do not have to worry at all.
13. You know, it's one of those very safe countries. So if you're a female, you really want to travel or dip your toe into Asia as a solo traveller, start with Singapore. It is so safe. It really is. So it's also well known for Sentosa Island. it has Sentosa Island is just full of activities, from bungee jumping to
14. Universal Studios too, it's got a casino on there, it's on the water so there's a few beach clubs. It's a really good place to go for people or families with kids. So if you are travelling with kids, I would say break it up. I would say do like five days in Sentosa and then five days on the Main island because they're so different and there's so much to do on both. When's the best time to visit?
15. and what's one essential thing visitors should pack that might not think of. Okay, the best time to travel here, I am completely opposite to what other people are gonna tell you. I think the rainy season is so much better because it cools the place down. For those who have travelled through Asia, especially Southeast Asia, the humidity is insane. You it really is. You don't realise...
16. And you cannot understand how hot and humid it gets here unless you have experienced it, you know, because it is, it really is hot. And so if you are walking around the street, because it is a walkable city and I walk everywhere, but if you are hot and sweaty and you want to go from A to B, it's tough. So public transport is your best friend, and it's super cheap. There's a lot of air conditioning. So
17. I would suggest coming in the rainy season, and I would bring an umbrella. That would be the one tip that I give everyone, and I'll tell you why. One is because it's in this, when you're here in the sun, when it's in the middle of summer, well, it's always summer, but say it's here in July or June or whatever, it blocks you from the sun. It makes a huge difference with an umbrella. I have become Singaporean because I work with an umbrella everywhere.
18. And it also doubles as if the weather turns bad because you can get a rainfall like just out of blue out of nowhere and it can just be, and it's heavy. When it's monsoon, it's heavy rain. So you can be drenched in five minutes and then it's sunshine again. So would say bring an umbrella and bring like, if you're gonna go to, like for dinner inside a restaurant, bring something that might cover your shoulders if you're.
19. if you're female, just because it gets cold. The air conditioning is like so cold so it gets really really cold. The other thing, okay, so number five is souvenirs. So forget the touristy stuff, what's the perfect souvenir that actually captures the spirit of the place, and where should you buy it? Go and buy it. Okay, I tell everyone this, there is a place called Binary Styles and it is beautiful, what they have so
20. There's two sisters, they're twins, and they used to be architects. And what it is, is it's a boutique that has these beautiful prints like scarves and umbrellas. They've got a whole lot of different things that you can purchase there. Like I think they're called.