Charmed by the tranquilty and simpleness of Pulau Ubin

I departed for Pulau Ubin last Sunday morning with the weight of the world on my shoulders, but returned home with nothing more than the yearning to jump right back into the bumboats again.

Although that was my first trip to the island, I am no stranger to old fashioned "backpacks-on-back" camp trips like this, no thanks to the field camp that I experienced during my army days.

On arrival to shore, the first thing I experienced, even before the excursion had begun, was the sheer difficulty of having to alight the bumboat on choppy waves. Things only got worse when a lady in front of me decided to act all drama about it and flail her arms about. PURE ADRENALINE in it's rawest form, I must say.

Then came the long bicycle rides around the island, as we figured that travelling on foreign grounds with so much weight on our shoulders was definitely not feasible.

We soon realised that it was surprisingly taxing even to cycle around, giving the constant traffic flow of vans going against our paths, and the rubbish-condition of the roads we cycled on. My poor bum has never received this much abuse since my operation!


^Taking a well deserved break.


^Sadako-hiding well spotted!

Oh, did I mention also, that the island was really wet during the trip? I mean, gallons and gallons of impurities just literally fell from the sky, enough to flood Chinatown and wash away all it's festivity spirit.(As spooky as it may sound, it has started to rain outside at this very moment while blogging. Freaky huh.)

Almost half of our time at Ubin was spent scattering for shelters, and waiting for mother nature to stop watering her flora. However, we made full use of our time by secretly taking pictures of weird China people, and of the strays that wandered around.


^This has became such a common sight when we were there.


^China tourists having a picnic on the floor.


^Cute stray that I mistook for a bitch.

(Oh, it has turned into a downpour outside, complete with wailing winds and cracking thunder. =/)

When the rain finally subsided to a slight drizzle, we finally grabbed the chance to visit the more tourist-attractive Chek Jawa wetlands. We only caught glimpses of cockles, crabs, and truckloads of seaweed though.


^Enjoying the view of Chek Jawa from the costal boardwalk.


^Is that a horseshoe crab? Or just a shoe?


^Shellfood!


^The pure beauty that is Chek Jawa.


^Evening view. So peaceful.

On that note, I must highlight that I have NEVER seen SO much seaweed in my life. I think there are enough to strangle someone unlucky enough to fall into them.


^Seaweed!! Suddenly this dancing baby from WANG WANG pops right into my mind...

Haha.. I digress. When night fell upon the horizon, we pitched our tent for the first time by the sea at the new Jelutong campsite. The unusual bit was, no matter where I turned, I cannot find a single soul around other than us.

Dinner consisted of boiled potatoes with, oh so foul, canned beef. The rest of the evening we spent watching Bable on my IpodTouch, peeking at strays digging right outside our "front porch", and trying to hold our only shelter together, against the fierce gale of winds that appeared around 3 in the morning.


^Healthy canned food! Yum!


^Nightime by the beach.


^Scenic morning view that was ruined by all that junk by the shore.


^Groggy and grumpy during morning.

It was definitely a trip to remember. Not only because of how much "fun" I had scraping my ankle against the sharp bicycle gears, but also because of the weird drumming and music coming from the forest during the night.

Whew, that was certainly THE event that I pray to avoid hearing again.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the failure that was my "first" fishing experiment over at Ubin. In the midst of all my excitement and hype over fishing, I forgot to figure out the reel and its mechanic properties. In other words, I could not get it to work.

How dumb can I get? I wonder aloud sometimes...