Long time no post, but this is a very unproductive day in Malacca, Malaysia. I'll just let the day pass, will have to change hostels soon, leaving the bed bugs to someone else. This means I actually have time to write something again. I spent way too much time in Singapore and think I managed to cut costs a bit, so maybe some of my findings can help others.
Accommodation
This is the first big item everywhere and in Singapore it bites a little more than in other Asian countries, there are hostels which are not too expensive(apparently in the red light district), but they still were too expensive for me and I had no luck with CS.
In a crazy moment I remembered I carry a tent and found that it is possible to camp for free in some of the parks for a few days. All you need is a permit which as a foreigner you have to get manually by contacting nparks or going to the relevant park office. You should probably do that in advance which I didn't.. luckily I met a semi-homeless guy in the park who told me how to avoid problems with the police and that checks during weekends ( I arrived on a Saturday night and didn't know yet how the manual application process would work [and it'd] have been too late]) are rare, still I opted for not pitching the tent and go for the homeless way of sleeping (fine for illegal camping is 2000$ iirc).
This is the first big item everywhere and in Singapore it bites a little more than in other Asian countries, there are hostels which are not too expensive(apparently in the red light district), but they still were too expensive for me and I had no luck with CS.
In a crazy moment I remembered I carry a tent and found that it is possible to camp for free in some of the parks for a few days. All you need is a permit which as a foreigner you have to get manually by contacting nparks or going to the relevant park office. You should probably do that in advance which I didn't.. luckily I met a semi-homeless guy in the park who told me how to avoid problems with the police and that checks during weekends ( I arrived on a Saturday night and didn't know yet how the manual application process would work [and it'd] have been too late]) are rare, still I opted for not pitching the tent and go for the homeless way of sleeping (fine for illegal camping is 2000$ iirc).
Camping in the parks has some perks, like showers and drinking water for free (Singaporean tap water is drinkable, and I found a water dispenser in the park I stayed in)
Monday then I finally got the permit sorted out and could sleep in my tent unfortunately according to the permit I wasn't allowed to leave the tent unattended. So I spent some more time camping in the park and then found out about Pulau ubin a small island, where you can camp without permit. The ferry there costs S$ 2.5 one way. The ferry terminal is at changi beach and you have to go there by bus. Food there is expensive at the restaurants, but you can find coconuts and mangos(if in season). The cheapest rice with seafood meal I found was S$4 so not cheap but an option. Further a small supermarket sold overpriced instant noodles and they offer free hot water along with it, to let you get away even cheaper. ( I think it was S$1.8 for the Instant noodles)
The downsides are unlike the park you don't have showers and the tap water is not acceptable for drinking. It's probably advisable to bring cooking equipment (if you have it) and food, same for drinking water, the price for water in the small supermarket was S$ 1.8 as well.
Food
Food is a little more expensive than in other parts of Asia, but you can get pretty close to the prices in other countries. You can get "chicken rice" for $S2, or find one of those places where you can put together your own meal where you usually end up between S$2 and S$3 when getting rice, 2 choices of vegetable and meat. Or you can get free vegetarian meals at some temples.
(If you want to go for one big shopping trip where you spend more than $S100 you can check out the Mustafa center at Farrer park, you can get a tax refund if you spend more than S$100)
Transport
I haven't found a way around the steep transport costs in Singapore, even though I managed to get ahold of an ezlink card for free, which would only be viable for someone who stays longer term, as it costs S$ 15, with S$10 credit. You can't use sums smaller than S$ 3 on the card and the minimum top up is S$10. The tourist tickets are probably not worth it either, so I think the best strategy is to keep use of transport at a minimum.. which is difficult.
This is it for now, if anyone has some more tricks and hints on cheaper stays in SP, please comment and I'll update.
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