Pulau Ubin

19 January 2018

The head of the math department let me know yesterday that he had not been able to arrange with me to meet with any students or teachers or observe any classes today, so I took the day off.  Bren and I decided to head out to Pulau Ubin.  The blue dot is where we live in Ang Mo Kio, and to get to Pulau Ubin we took two trains, a bus and a "ferry" or bumboat.

The island of Pulau Ubin supported a few thousand settlers in the 1960s, but less that a hundred villagers live there today.  It is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore and one of only two remaining kampongs (villages).  The island has a tons of nature--flowers, birds, trees, wetlands, monkeys and wild boar!  Needless to say, I was pretty excited to visit this place.  I love living in cities, but I also appreciate when quite, natural places are easily accessible.  Pulau Ubin did not disappoint.  We took the north/south line to the east/west line and then got some snacks and water before catching the bus out to Changi Point Ferry Terminal where we waited for the bumboat.  It was a quick 15 minute ride out to the island in a tiny bumboat that fit 12 people.  It was only $3 per person and we had to wait until there were 12 people to in order to leave.  We sat on the outside of the bumboat, but there was also sitting inside.

             

Getting off the boat and onto the island really did feel like we were stepping back in time and was such a contrast from the towering skyscrapers around the city.  We rented two bikes for $12 for the day and rode off towards the back of the island where the coastal boardwalk and Chek Jawa wetlands are located.  The coolest thing happened though on our ride out to the wetlands....we encountered about 15 monkeys!  They were on either side of the trail and appeared to have found some trash.  We took so many pictures and it was so neat to be so close to them!

It was such a neat experience.  Also, while we were taking picture one of the monkeys (that you see on the gravel above) climbed up Bren's bike and knocked it over and grabbed his cell phone out of the basket.  When the bike fell over it startled him though and he probably realized the phone was not food so he dropped it.  It was pretty funny though, and Bren almost had his phone stolen by a monkey!  We continued riding and reached the backside of the island. We parked our bikes next to the Chek Jawa Wetlands and ran into a wild boar.  I think it's funny that they are called "wild" boar because other animals that live in the wild don't have the label "wild."  And I'd say that monkey that tried to steal Bren's phone was a wild monkey, more so than this boar.

Near the water was a huge house that is now used as a visitor centre.  The  building served as a holiday resort home for the British Chief Surveyor Langdon Williams.  It was built in the 1930s and modeled after the traditional Tudor-style homes of England during the first half of the 16th century. There was a long jetty behind the home that we walked out onto and noticed the dark clouds.

It started pouring rain, but fortunately Bren packed in a water proof bag so we threw our phones and the camera in there and headed for shelter in the house/visitor centre.  It rained for about 20 minutes so we sat and ate some snacks we'd brought.  Once the sun came out again we went to explore the Chek Jawa Wetlands.

The boardwalk through the wetlands was pretty neat because it gave you direct access to areas we wouldn't have been able to walk otherwise (due to the mud and tides) and able to see wildlife in a rather natural state.  Along the boardwalk trail through the wetlands was Jejawi Tower which was 20 meters high and provided a birds-eye, above the tree-top view of the island and surrounding water.

The wetlands trail circled back to the visitor center house and jetty.  Since we were rained on initially, and now that it was even closer to low tide, we decided to walk back out there.

At the end of the jetty was a bumboat full of people throwing live crabs into the water from styrofoam cooler.  The crabs looked like they were marked so they must have been studying them.  The people on the boat were all so friendly and yelled hello and waved at us.

They probably also saw these brooding clouds behind us...and maybe were actually yelling at us to take shelter.

We got back to the area that we'd parked our bikes.  Mine was gone, and Bren's was currently being taken by a Chinese woman and her husband who were trying to lower the seat.  We approach them and mentioned that the bike they had was Bren's.  The apologized and said theirs had been taken as well and so they figured they'd take Bren's.  They gave Bren's back though and took the only two other bikes that were left of the 20 something that were parked there earlier in the afternoon.  We were sort of worried about whether we were going to have to explain/pay for the missing bike, but also confused about why they didn't provide locks at the rental place if bike "theft" is common.  The clouds were quickly moving in though and we'd probably rode the bike 4 or 5 miles from where the ferry docks.  We walked the bike on the gravel trails, and in the process the heaven's opened up and it started raining sooo hard.  We both had bathing suits on so we took our shirts off and stuffed them into Bren's water proof bag.  We were drenched, and still had miles to go.  Once we got to the pavement (it's still raining), Bren suggested I ride on the back rack (this kind of thing):

I hopped on and off we went--in a quite wobbly manner at some points on the ride.  It was sort of out of desperation in the moment, but also pretty fun.  I'll always have fond memories of getting caught in the rain and having to ride on the back while Bren peddled on the last rustic place in Singapore :)  Fortunately when we arrived back at the bike rental shop (soaking wet, and it's still raining), they sort of laughed and said "oh, bikes get taken all the time, don't worry about it, it'll turn up." This was a relief to hear since I didn't want to pay for the bike, but also made me wonder why they don't provide locks if this bike "theft" (or "borrowing") is so common.  It made for a great memory though and a reminder of how go-with-the-flow Bren and I are--which makes traveling internationally relatively stress free.  We rode on the bumboat with a group of Malaysian workers from Ubin who were laughing at us for being soaking wet, but also complimenting Bren for his waterproof bag (a must in Singapore--glad he was prepared).  We were still wet 45 minutes later, but we managed to get some tasty, hot soup at the hawker stand before making the trek home.

Pulau Ubin, seeing playful monkeys, and getting caught in the rain have been one of my favorite experiences in Singapore thus far.