3/52

Before I begin with the week 3 post I have to admit to posting twice in the first week...sheesh...I knew I'd need help by having a theme but didn't think I wouldn't be able to count properly.  So this post is for week 3...

3/52
Pulau Ubin
Island northeast of Singapore

To get to Pulau Ubin you have to take a bumboat from the Changi Village jetty.  It costs a whopping $2.50 per passenger (additional if you bring your own bike) and the bumboats only carry 12 passengers per trip.  It takes about 10-15 minutes to cross the Serangoon Harbor and arrive at Pulau Ubin.

When you arrive at Pulau Ubin you negotiate with one of the local vendors to rent a bike for the day and set off to tour around the island.  There are vehicles permitted on the island but not many and the roads aren't really meant for cars.  They remind me of the single lane country roads you'd find up north in Michigan.

A bit of history...back in the '60s a handful of granite quarries allowed for about 1000 local residents on the island.  Now there are only about 100 locals on the island but they have kept the island in a pretty natural state and it is one of the few truly rural parts of Singers.

We didn't really have an idea of where we were going so just set off on our way.  And...it was raining the entire time we were there so got a little bit wet. 

I was with my friend Sonya and her parents.  We rode up to Chek Jawa which is a intertidal flat on the north east side of the island...doesn't it sound more like a Star Wars character?  Once you reach it you have to park your bike and walk around the area. 

One of the fun things about being out on the island is that you are in one of the main flight paths from Changi Airport.  We saw 2-3 different A380s take off while we were walking around which was fun...

After we left the Chek Jawa area we road past one of the old granite quarries.  It was amazing to see the difference in the color of the water...

I really wish I could have seen it in the sunshine because I'm guessing the colors would have been really, really blue.  And I must admit that while city living is pretty cool for a lot of reasons I do miss seeing all of the greenery and just natural environments instead of so much concrete and shiny buildings.

We rode around for a couple of hours and then parked ourselves at a table right by the water for some delicious seafood.  A couple of my other friends were just arriving on the island as we sat down for lunch so they joined us.  We ate fresh fish, fresh crab, prawns, noodles, rice, and lots of yummy other things.  When we left we gave them two of our bikes and headed back on the bumboat back to Singers.

I'll leave you with a few pics of the ride back...