It’s a bright sun-shiney morning, A friend and I decided to visit Pulau Ubin.
Yes, 2 “city” urbanites yearning to get back into the embrace of mother nature and “rough it out” abit decided that Pulau Ubin is the “wildest” they can get from Singapore.
We took a bum boat from Changi Point Ferry Terminal which is just across the road from Changi Village Hotel. The bum boat ride was short and enjoyable and there’s a nominal fee of $2. As it was a weekend, there was not much of a crowd. Thankfully, none of us got sea sick from this ride. It would be quite malu (embarrassing) to get sea sick for a 10-minute boat ride! After all, it won’t be a good start to have someone vomitting into the sea on the bum boat ride to Pulau Ubin even before the “real” adventure begins.
Once we set foot on the island. We started reminiscing of the good old school days when we ventured to this island for some school camping trips or sorts . I thought of my stay at the Outward Bound School on Pulau Ubin when I was in Secondary Three. Geez!
Excitedly, we head straight to rent our bicycles. Bicycle rental is rather affordable at a rate of $6 and above for a full-day rental. Cheaper than those at East Coast!!!
Without any idea on where we would be heading to, we decided to take the ” cycle first, panic later” approach, thinking that this way, our cycling trip would be MORE exciting. But on hind sight, there’s nothing exciting about getting lost on the island, just mildly irritating. hahahaha… we asked for it and rightly deserved it I guess.
Thankfully, the friendly locals are always ready to help with directions and being 2 helpless little girls, we scored extra sympathy points! *winks*
Apart from getting lost, the cycling was quite enjoyable. The soil ground is surprisingly quite even and not too difficult to cycle on. With the trees along the bicycle trail form a shady foilage, it felt quite different from cycling around crowded East Coast Park. Occasionally, a scooter or a small car/van will pass us by. We both felt entirely immerse in nature’s embrace and yesteryear charm.
Here’s a nice photo. Caption can be something like ” Human and Nature Harmonised” ahahhaha…Oh, that’s me by the way.
After cycling around, you can choose to eat at one of the seafood eateries around the town area of Pulau Ubin to complete the trip. However, we did not have enough money to do so and highly doubted the existence of an ATM machine on the island. Thus, we headed back to the main island.
Pulau Ubin is really quite nice, but it’s hard to imagine having to stay there and taking the bum boat to Singapore main island every day when for work. That would be quite tiring and that is also what some of the residents of Pulau Ubin does. RESPECT! I wouldn’t want to deal with those viscious mosquitoes! Both of us have like at least 5 bites on our bodies. Lesson learnt, next time we go to Pulau Ubin, spray tons of mosquito repellent on our bodies!
