visiting rustic pulau ubin on a weekday is a feel-good experience. you don't have to put up with the crowds at the jetty, while waiting for the 10-minute bumboat ride at $2.50 a trip; at the bicycle rental shop, you have time to choose a bike that suits your needs; at the visitor centre, the npark people can attend to your queries in a chit-chat manner; and at chek jawa, you can explore the place at leisure. you do not have to worry whether the tower will be able to take the weight of so many height seekers.
the bonus is that you may get to see things that will have normally been scared away by the throngs of visitors and the noise that they create on a weekend. today, we saw two wild boars, three oriental pied hornbills and an owl.
this is also the first time i managed to get close enough to take a picture of this shy creature. i would not say that this wild boar that we came across near chek jawa was friendly but it was definitely not bothered by the humans around it. earlier on , we had seen another one dashing across the track, just ahead of us. the first time i had seen wild boars was in desaru, after a golf game. on our own mainland, i have seen them at lim chu kang.
the hornbills were on some trees near the resort - which used to be known as marina resort but it now has a different name - and subsequently, they flew to the roof of one of the buildings. the owl caught us by surprise, so i did not manage to capture it on digital image. one of the hornhills appeared to be performing some dance/ritual on the roof-top.
i had wanted to explore the western part of the island after reading about the ketam mountain bike park in this blog. however, my friend, who have been to ubin several times but had not done the mangrove boardwalk at chek jawa was quite insistent on visiting that part of the island. i would have missed photographing the wild boar if we had stuck to my original plan. anyway, there is always time for another visit to the island.
at the mangrove reserve, there are quite a number of nipah palms. it is always the 'attap chee' that i would see but this time around, i saw some flowers on the palms. as it was high tide during our visit, we did not get to see all those creatures that are shown on colourful brochures of chek jawa. however, we did see two white bellied eagles, with one of them successfully snatching a fish while skimming over the surface of the water in the sea.
from the visitor centre, i walked to the jetty where i saw this formation of rocks - which together form what is called pulau sekudu. it reminded me of my younger days when, on some weekends, we would paddle the sampans from pasir ris to pulau ubin. on the way, we would make a rest-stop at this rock island to look for shells. i remember we referred to it as 'frog island'.
i do not know if it is my imagination. somehow, the disused quarries, of which there are five, at pulau ubin, especially the surface of the water, appear so much placid, cleaner and nicer than those on the mainland.
15 comments:
YG, did you also miss photographing the eagle snatching the fish as well (and not only the owl)? Tsk, tsk, tsk... I am sure this would not have happened in your younger days when your reactions were faster.
victor, i don't have the extendable (tele)lens that can capture subject far away. mine is a point-and-shoot type. even if reaction was fast, also not much use.
Sounds like a great day out. I visited Pulau Ubin in 1959 when we did an overnight bivouac camping expedition with the scouts. The island used to be under the approach to Paya Lebar airport and we were directly under the flight path. In those days the most popualr aircraft flying in to Paya Lebar was the Constellation although there were a few Brittanias and Comets flew over.
One of the nice things about not doing everything you had planned to do on a visit gives you an excuse to visit again!
was there a special reason to call it 'frog island'?
john, in 1959, was the ferry fare something like 20 cents?
ubin has not changed much over the years. yes, the next trip i must make it to the ketam mountain bike park.
stst, it comes from the malay name 'pulau sekudu'. according to a folklore, three animals - a pig, an elephant and a frog - challenged one anther to swim across the straits. because they failed, they were turned into rocks. the pig and elephant became p ubin and the small frog became p sekudu.
My son told me that wild boars are a common sight in the SAF trg areas like Marsiling.
chun see, which part of marsiling? there isn't much forested area anymore. wild boars usually appear after some heavy rain. today, when it was raining heavily, i was on a stakeout at lim chu kang for these foraging animals to appear but did not have any luck. no, i was not going to capture them for the $12/kg meat. i wanted to capture them for my album.
oh cool, thanks for posting this. i'll be in singapore mid august and must go for a midweek tour of this island along with my cousin (long time teacher in singapore !! now retired...) who loves nature hikes. thanks for the great idea !!
hi mel siebel, a fast and good way to move about is to rent a bicycle. however, be careful, control the bike speed, especially going downhill. check the tide time. you'll see more if you visit chek jawa at low tide. and, along the way, watch out for wild boars!
Lorong Asrama off Mandai Rd (where the durian trees could be found). I was surprised that they (SAF) refer to it as Marsiling area. In our time, Marsiling is around Hill 180 vicinity.
chun see, lor asrama is nearer to mandai than to marsiling. i won't be surprised to find wild boars in that area. i have been wanting to explore the area because, back in the 70s, i used to explore the nearby ulu sembawang farm area.
Hi Mr Ong, you also went Ubin last weekend. haha. You went on sat or sun? My group went there last sat.
Yah. we also wanted to visit the Ketam Mountain Bike Park but time not permitted to ride around the park.
Anyway, did you visit the sensory trail over at ubin where there is 1 secret garden over there?
http://kiatsans.blogspot.com/
guan kiat, i was there one day before you, on friday. i saw your photos in your facebook. yes, i have been to the sensory trail but during an earlier visit.
Oic. Friday not so many people. hehe That's good. Ü
If there are more thing to see in the Secret Garden at Sensory Trail, that will be more interesting. too bad...
By the way, congratulation to you for entering into the top 10 finalists of the "Best Lifestyle Blog" in sgblogawards. All the best to you. :)
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