Pulau Ubin

When in Singapore, head to the islands - or one of the islands around this island nation.

 Last week, Morris and I went to Pulau Ubin, a small island between Singapore and Malaysia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Ubin

The island is fairly small.  We were told that it is about 8km, on the road, from end-to-end width-wise.  On three sides you can get to the coast, however, the west side of the island is not accessible by the public.  I think there is an Outward Bound program that takes up almost 1/2 of the island in the west.

Sean dropped us off at the ferry terminal.  Despite appearing to be 1st world in all aspects of life, Singapore can remind you of a developing country.  The ferry has no set schedule. According to signs at the terminal, a boat will leave when 12 paying customers are ready to board.  Morris and I were nos. 8 and 9.  After 15 minutes or so, nos. 10 and 11 arrived. 11 seemed to be enough for the captain of our boat.   After paying the $2.50 fare, we were underway on our 15+ minute boat ride.

Upon arrival, I had a great sense of deja-vu.  It reminded me of arriving on Ometepe island in Nicaragua.  The boat ride to Ometepe is where I ran into Morris and we (and 3 others) had a "great" bike ride.  The similarities were: the tropical trees and feel of the island, the dogs wandering the streets, and the white vans waiting to take tourists for a ride.

However, Pulau Ubin is no Ometepe.  You realize that quite quickly when you walk less than 300 meters and realize you just passed through an entire town.

The first thing you hit in town, after by-passing the white vans, is storefront after storefront of bicycles for rent - for only "$2"!!!!!  In this tiny town, there are 5 or so places to rent bikes.  each shop seemed to have more than 50 bikes on display.  it was incredible.  

And not at all like Ometepe where 5 of us rented bikes from a place that had 8 "bikes" from which we could choose.  It was not the best day in Nicaragua.

The bikes on Pulau Ubin ranged in quality and the $2 bikes seemed to be kids' bikes or old caked-in-mud bikes.  If you wanted a bike to ride and enjoy, you had to pay upwards of $15. We wanted to make the same mistake as was made in Ometepe, we went for some decent looking mountain bikes, which did not appear as if they'd fall apart half-way down the tail.  Our salesman wanted $8/each but we got him down to $6.  That $2 savings nearly paid for the boat ride.  

If you saved $2 each day, you'd have 2 times $365 at the end of the year.

(I wasn't told there'd be math in this blog.)

We, with 1/2 liter water each, headed out after renting the bikes.  The island is known for its, now unused, granite quarries.  The old quarries are filled with delicious-looking, yet unreachable, water.  the day was so hot and, early on, the island offered us very little shade and no breeze.

Note to self: bring more than a pint of water on bike rides of unknown length.

Morris trying to beat the heat.

Early into our ride, we hit a bike obstacle course, where I discovered that the fear of possible pain can make it difficult for me to try some things, e.g. bike teeter-totter. After a number of false starts, I did succeed in making it over.  After a number of successes, Morris succeeded in tumbling off.  He was not injured...too badly.

My one successful totter.  I had plenty of teeters.

Morris prepares to launch.

Along the road, we found a number of shrines, including the German Girl Shrine.  This shrine was in honor a little German girl who died near the spot during World War I.  Legend says someone broke into the house and killed her parents.  The girl escaped her house through a hole in the floor but died when she ran into the dark night and fell into a quarry.

After a delicious lunch at a Chinese restaurant (they're everywhere in Singapore) we headed to the east side of the island.  Unlike our time in the west, we had a fair bit of shade during this portion of the ride - plus we had each bought 1-1/2 liters of water.  On the west side, we saw birds and a few small fish.  On the east side, we saw a troupe of monkeys and a small herd(?) of wild boar.  I think it was more a family of wild bore - a mother and 4 juveniles.

On a boardwalk which goes along the water's edge we saw hundreds, probably 1,000's, of crabs. Most of the crabs were "fiddler" crabs, which have one very big claw and one normal-sized one.  It turns out that the big one is all show for the female.  The things we males will do.

All for now

bjm election day Tuesday in singapore