Pulau Ubin

Day: 24-07-2011
Place: Pulau Ubin Island

"Once you step into the soil of Singapore, its overwhelming modernity somehow makes you forget about its beginnings. Coupled with its high energy density conveniences, shiny skyscrapers, green environment, very cool air conditioners placed in between hot and humid weather, Singapore does exceed best in many categories, drowning you with all the good things in an ideal city, providing easy access to anything and anywhere, presenting you with possibilities of the future (if you know what I mean). Surprisingly, to the delight of probing heads and adventurers at heart, Singapore does have remains of the past and what I’m talking about is its living past, somehow untouched literally, that pulls you closer to a better-sounding laid back setting as opposed to its fast-paced lifestyle. That there is still an area in the city-state that is stuck in the past."

So let us travel a few short miles from the central to one of its islands called, Pulau Ubin – Singapore’s last frontier, appropriately far removed from its common definition - ultra-modern.

Pulau Ubin is an island located in the north east of Singapore.This is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore with lots of flora and flauna.

The name means "granite island" in Malay. There are many abandoned granite quarries, which were used to make floor tiles long time ago.

We reached Changi Village by SMRT bus. We found the map at that place.

Ferry was waiting for us at the Changi village jetty point. Ferries (so called "Bumboats") are available from 8.30AM to 5.30PM. They charge $2.50 per person and extra $2 if carrying bicycle. We boarded and it took around 20 mins to reach the pulau ubin island. On the way, we found few photos for desktop background.

Bumboat

Since, the Changi airport is nearby, we could find flights every 2-3 mins.

As we entered the island, we could smell the greenery. It was like a typical tropical village with lots of trees. Good thing about this village is that it is preserved from urban development. People stay in wooden houses and preserve rich wildlife and plantation.

Welcome to Pulau-Ubin

As one enters the island, there are huge number of cycle shops asking for the tourists to rent their cycle. Though some websites claim that cycle is available from 3SGD to 20SGD, minimum rent for cycle-able one starts from 5SGD. For 3SGD, one gets only kid's cycle. We took cycles for 5SGD each and started our adventurous journey. (Please note that all the available cycles are geared) Since we had read about the requirement of cycle locks, we took it at the cycle shop with few dollars as refundable deposit.

Floating houses

One could see floating houses on the sea. Few locals stay for many years like this.

 We caught a westerner water skiing. Most of the westerners found here are the ones looking for adventures activities like cycling, trekking, fishing, water skiing, overnight camping, sailing, star gazing and more importantly photography.

water skiing

 In a corner of the island, there is one Chinese temple looks very well maintained though.

Chinese temple

Cycling trails in the heart of greenery

Abandoned Granite Quarry

Can anyone identify the nests?

One of the "musafirs" told me these nests belong to Humming birds. But when I checked on internet, i could not find similar nests.

Nature is the greatest architect...!

Another view of the pulau ubin lake

At Chek Jawa

 Finally at around one o'clock, we reached Chek Jawa.

What's so special about Chek Jawa?
The beauty of Chek Jawa is that several different ecosystems can be seen in one small area. These ecosystems and the plants and animals found there are no longer common in Singapore. They are also fast disappearing elsewhere in the world.

We had taken fruits and snacks with us while going to PU. Cycling for around 4 hours had made everyone to finish whatever we had in a fraction of time. Had a short nap on the rock near Chek Jawa.
At around 2.30, we started walking on the Coastal Boardwalk, which takes into the Mangrove plantation.

Changi Airport

Changi Airport from PU

Give me a nice caption...

Coastal boardwalk in Chek Jawa

Mangrove along the coast

Nipah or Nypa palm trees

Nipah palm is found in south Asia and north Australia. Used to make vinegar in Philippines and can also be distilled to make arrack, locally known as lambanog in Filipino and arak in Indonesian.

From highest point of the island

From Jejawi tower, which is the peak of the island, one could see whole island. This gives nice view of the sea also.

Jejawi Tower

From Chek Jawa, the jetty point is 4.2kms. We started a biking race from here and the biggest challenge was to reach the entrance at optimal speed such that your bicycle chain wont come (for the cheapest of 5SGD, one can't expect better conditioned cycle). Finally everyone managed to reach safely.
This one day outing ended as we took a jetty to Changi village and bus from there..:(


Many more travel experiences to be uploaded very soon...:) Keep looking..:)
Coming soon..
Visit to Johor Bahru, Sentosa (special photos), Kota Tinggi, Kota Kinabalu..etc.