My Personal Top Truths/Myths about Singapore 5

Myth: Singapore is a tropical island, therefore it must have nice beaches.

Truth: The sun is mostly shining in Singapore and the country is very clean and tidy, it is a tropical island, the water is very warm, nevertheless, the sad fact remains that Singapore neither has beautiful beaches nor clear blue waters. One look around the coast line (or even better, down from the viewing platform at the Marina Bay Sands) will show you why that is so: hundreds and hundreds of ships always anchor a short distance off the coast waiting to be (un)loaded at the port. According to this site, "Singapore is the world's busiest port in terms of total shipping tonnage and tranships a fifth of the world's shipping containers and half of the world's annual supply of crude oil." You can imagine what this kind of shipping traffic does to the water quality (if you can't imagine, just think of how nice it would be to have a picnic right next to one of Germany's busiest Autobahns to enjoy the quiet and fresh air).

Unfortunately the same holds true for the surrounding islands of Sentosa, Pulau Ubin, St. John's etc., where the water and beach quality is sometimes even worse than in Singapore itself. Also, don't trust the nice advertisements about a beautiful weekend getaway to Batam, a small Indonesian city across from Singapore. The water and beaches there are in even worse condition and the whole place in general is rather unclean and rundown outside of the malls and hotels they put up, definitely not worth the trip.

If you want nice beaches and clear blue water, you will have to leave the immediate vicinity of Singapore and go to Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand, just to name the closest. Thanks to the well connected Changi Airport, a quick beach-weekend in the region for a reasonably cheap price is always doable.