Last week I had a chance to travel to Pulau Ubin, an small island off the east coast of Singapore with my colleagues from office.
The journey started by going to Changi Village Ferry Terminal located Changi Village. Before we actually boarded the boat across, we had the chance to explore the Changi Point Coastal Walk, which is a small park located just beside the ferry terminal. The park itself was neat and refreshing, and you can have a nice view of the shore as well as aircrafts flying low enough geared to land in Changi airport.
The ferry terminal consisted of just one small waiting room, and once you have 12 people you can ride the boat across. Fare is SGD 2.50 per person. It’s a very short journey, 10 minutes at most and you’ll arrive at Pulau Ubin jetty.
At the entrance of Pulau Ubin itself there were a lot of bike rental shops, adventure shops, as well as a few eating places, so basically you can find whatever you might need (or want) to explore the island here. Bike is the most conventional way, although some shops also offered kayaking, canoeing, and other water adventures. We chose our bikes, with the rent fee varied from SGD 4 to SGD 10 per bike for one day. Choose wisely, make sure your bikes’ brake and gears work properly! Make sure you choose bikes with gears otherwise you’ll be sorry later on!
So once we got our bikes we just cycled along the road that we see. First few minutes of cycling the road were mostly still paved and you will enjoy the natural scenery of the forest surrounding you, without getting your leg too exhausted. However going deeper inside, the paved road will disappear and left with only natural tracks. This is where low gear on your bikes getting handy (or footy)!
To be honest we didn’t choose any route whatsoever, and somehow we arrived at some shelter (checkpoint) with a map pointing towards a trail to Chek Jawa Wetlands, at the far east of the island. People say Chek Jawa is the main attraction in this island, so we just go ahead and cycled across the rough terrain of the trail.
At the entrance of Chek Jawa, we had to park the bike and continue down by foot. So we parked the bike in the designated area and to our amazement there were other guests there, which was a family of wild boars. They were leisurely walking around the bikes and the people, looking for something to eat. Of course we got something to photograph too. They were rather tame, I suppose, but no one was thoughtless enough to disturb them.
Exploring the wetlands was a breeze because the walking trail was properly built with flat boardwalk guiding your way inside. The boardwalk itself is a big loop started from the entrance and ended in the same point, and is divided into 2 regions, the Mangrove walk and the Coastal walk. We need to walk a few hundred meters before entering the Mangrove region, and you will not miss the viewing platform which is towering as high as the trees.
I climbed the tower until the very top (which was quite an amazing feat), and the view from top was beautiful. I think the tower is around 20-25 meters high, and this tower was swaying around whenever winds blew. I didn’t spend too much time here, just took the proof photo that I was there on top, and that’s it! 😛
The Mangrove walk was self-explanatory. Basically the walkway were going a little bit off the shore, and you will see the mainland on one side and the mangroves at the other side. We were there at high tide so you can’t really see the animals that lived there, and we can’t see the shore as well. However it was very refreshing and amazing view, seeing the weird-shaped mangrove roots weathering the waves of the sea. You can’t see this everyday in your urban lives.
Once you are off from the mangroves, the walkway just slices across the sea and you will be greeted with fresh sea air and the sound of sea waves crashing below your feet. If it was low tide you might be able to go down to the shore, however you have to be there in the morning. The coastal walk was quite long and again it was so cool, breathtaking, and peaceful.
We didn’t spend much time here because of the dark clouds that were lurking threateningly on top of our heads. And sure enough the heavy rain did come. I was not bringing any umbrella or poncho with me, so I had to run to the shelter near the entrance. (Tip: you can actually buy a poncho at the bike rental shops). Since the heavy rain didn’t seem to stop for around half an hour or so, and by that time we hadn’t had our lunch, and we didn’t want to cycle back in the storm, we asked the park ranger to call a Pulau Ubin taxi (which is a minivan) to transport us to the restaurants just beside the rental shops.
The meal was good, although I suspect because all of us were exhausted and hungry so anything would taste good! Depending on what and how much you eat, price will range between 10 to 30 SGD per person, I think. Once we had our lunch and the rain had stopped, we were already very tired to walk back to the entrance of Chek Jawa to retrieve our bikes, so we made arrangements with our rental shop owner to pick those bikes up. In the end he agreed to pick the bikes, and we were basically free to go home. Not exactly free, because you will still need to pay SGD 2.50 for the return ferry to Changi Village ferry terminal!
Overall Pulau Ubin was a great fun, although we only explore few areas. If you had time you might want to consider a full day exploration (go straight to coastal walk in early morning when it is low tide), explore some other parts of the island (there are lots of activities such as kayaking, canoeing, or even fish spa). Or if you really have time maybe spend a night or two there camping (or renting a chalet, they should have some kind of accomodation).
See you on my next trip!