A Trip Back in Time: Pulau Ubin

This Sunday we took a trip to one of Singapore's 63 islands, Pulau Ubin (or Granite Island, for those who don't speak Malay) to escape the stress and hectic lifestyle on the main island.

Like something out of an old picture book, Pulau Ubin is a far cry from today's industrialized Singapore. No McDonalds, no skyscrapers, not even many people!

To get access to the island we took a bumboat for $2.50 SGD, about a 15 minute boat ride from the Singapore coast. Luckily when we arrived the boat was just full enough, so we didn't have to waste any time waiting around. The first few minutes off the boat see plenty of people. There are a few small eateries and tons of bike shops (as low as $2 for a bike rental per day! If only it were so cheap at East Coast Park!), so there were a good number of tourists hanging around.

From there we decided to hike to Chek Jawa, about a 45 minute hike through the tiny island to the east coast, where there is a vast ecosystem and plenty of cool things to see. Unfortunately, this area has been claimed by Singapore for land reclamation and may not be around as early as next year unless something changes.

Imagine our surprise at seeing no one else making the trip! I think this was the first actual quiet I've had in the last 8 months since arriving in Singapore.

We picked the perfect day. Since we're in the middle of monsoon season it has been raining just about every day for weeks, but the skies cleared just long enough for our day out. We even had a nice breeze and good cloud cover the majority of the time!

After being eaten by dozens of mosquitoes, we finally made it! Like the rest of the island, there weren't many people around so we took the opportunity to relax in the sun and enjoy the nice breeze a while before moving on down the board walk.

Chek Jawa is definitely worth the trouble to get out! Absolutely beautiful and very interesting. We saw mud skippers and a few different types of crab along the coast as the tide went out, although the elusive horseshoe crab never made an appearance. If nothing else I'd recommend it for the ability to get away from the crowds of people for a while.

Around the boardwalk we eventually came to a tall observation tower in the mangrove. Climbing up was kind of scary and we could feel it swaying in the breeze from the top but the views were gorgeous. Around that area we came across one last thing:

Real wild monkeys! It was my first time ever seeing wild monkeys so I was pretty pumped. One of them stole another visitor's orange and was munching away.

Overall we've agreed we'll definitely give Pulau Ubin another few visits at least. The peace and quiet was relaxing, the views were spectacular, and overall the day was amazing. Definitely worth a look at to anyone coming to the little red dot!