4
S OOT
C
(
i s l and hopp i ng
)
2
n Pulau Ubin you’ll find Chinese temples,
a mountain bike park with an obstacle
course, and open-air seafood restaurants
in a small, ramshackle village near the
pier, but the verdant great outdoors is the
main attraction. To that end, every visit should include
a stop at Chek Jawa Wetlands, a protected area on the
east coast that features coastal and mangrove walkways,
panoramas from the top of 120-step Jejawi Tower, and
sundry flora and fauna; there’s also
a Tudor-style cottage built in the
1930
s as a colonial holiday chalet.
On my first visit, I’d explored
this sleepy island for less than
two hours by bicycle, and already
pedalled through lush primary
rainforest, traipsed down a wooden
boardwalk snaking through
mangrove swamp, spotted a wild
boar and troop of long-tailed
macaques, and watched a Malayan water monitor stalk
a red junglefowl. My next encounter was meeting one
of the few remaining human residents of this nature-
lover’s utopia.
It was like the
mise en scène
of a schlock-horror
film: abandoned campsite on a beach pocked with ashy
firepits; a homemade sign, nailed to a tree, scrawled with
an arrow pointing towards an orchid farm not on any
map; and me, alone, following the arrow down a narrow
dirt path, past an empty chicken coop, sheds of rotting
wood and a shack collapsed into corrugated metal
rubble. There were no signs of life, just the shrill screech
of cicadas as I walked my bicycle towards a lonely cabin
in the woods, near Mamam Beach.
I eyeballed a skiff docked in the cove – every horror-
film survivor needs a getaway vehicle – and peered into
the house. Suddenly a smiling old man in a lime-green
T-shirt and grey cotton shorts, white hair cropped and
scraggly, shuffled out of the house,
pointed at a string of empty cans
and bottles strung together on a
cord, and asked which one I wanted.
He fetched a bottle of water, and I
asked him how long he’d lived there:
“
Lived here my whole life!” he said.
I asked him what he did out here: “I
do nothing!”
The island is best seen by bicycle,
available for rent in the village for
between $5 and $10, and though it’s a short 10-minute
boat ride from Changi Point Ferry Terminal, Pulau Ubin
feels worlds away from modern Singapore. This is a
place to slow way, way down – or, perhaps, like the old
orchid garden attendant, to do very little at all.
GETTING
THERE
Twelve-seater
bumboats
depart from
Changi Ferry
Point Terminal
at 51 Lorong
Bekukong (+65
6542 7944)
COST
$2.50 for
a one-way ride,
payable directly
to the boat
operator
TRIP
TIME
10
minutes
SLEEP
Celestial
Resort offers
humble rooms on
the water, as well
as a restaurant,
bar and kayak
rental. Rates
start at $168 per
night.
i
I spotted a
wild boar
and troop of
long-tailed
macaques
,
and watched a
Malayan
water monitor
stalk a red junglefowl
Pedalling through Pulau Ubin
Scoot off to Singapore.
Book your flights at
PHOTO
STB, INMAGINE, LESTER LEDESMA, CORBIS IMAGES
