It was raining for the past few days
Luckily it was a sunny day on this fateful Saturday
We woke up early trying to catch an early bus
Had breakfast at Changi Village before taking the boat
2 Changi Village Road
#01-57, Changi Village Block 2 Food Centre
Singapore 500002
The spectacular Japanese style design at the dock
First of all, let me take a touristy selfie first (:
Changi Point Ferry Terminal caters mainly to Ubin visitors and each person will cost $2.50 for a one way trip to Pulau Ubin while the same for coming back to Singapore Mainland. You may consider paying $30 or topping up the difference for the vessel to leave immediately. Additional charges of $2 applies if you bring your own bicycle. The operating hours for the ferry will be between 6:00am till 8:00pm.
After having our fill, we walked across the road toward the Changi Village Ferry Terminal. There were not many people waiting for the Ferry and over at this place, the operator will wait for a while for enough headcounts (About 12 pax) to board the ferry.
Roughly ten minutes is all it takes to reach the main jetty in ubin. Drifting on the sea in an non-air conditioned boat was amazing. For those who are afraid of sea-sick, don't worry. The boat is tortoise slow and less wave along the way.
First thing in Ubin - rent a bicycle at Ubin Town! There were plenty of bicycle shops to choose from and their rental charges (from $8 to $12 daily; $3 per hour) which were way below those on mainland Singapore!
We had to forego the renting of bicycle as our tour guide, Alyce Ang will be taking us for a Sensory Trail walk. Along the way, we'd seen numerous of hornbills, caterpillar, dung bees, spiders, snakes and fishes. More details
here.
The Sensory Trail was designed for the visually handicapped but just as exciting for the rest, this trail allows you to use all your senses to experience nature. Touch, smell and taste of the fruit trees, spices and herbs found on the trail, from common ones to some seldom encountered plants.
Finally we reached the Vegetables, Herbs and Spices Garden. Oh below is a picture of a male papaya tree.
While the groups were patiently focusing on the trail, boy and I busy taking photos of the surroundings.
Asked him to pose with the Touch Ginger
And we came across lots of plants which is common to us but it's a big woo-haa for some young Singaporeans as they had ever seen the original "interface" of the shape of vegetables they eat daily.
Somehow, accidentally saw this cute spiky head bud amongst the flowers. Some water droplets on the bud indicating that it had just rained before we came.
Spotted this cute little flower among the greeneries. Felt special and took its photograph.
Nothing fantastic on this sensory trail maybe because we were more eager on the sceneries in Pulau Ubin rather than knowing plants. All the while I am not fascinated in plants section and I scored badly in my Biodiversity Course.
Before the trip ends, we encounter this Lotus Pond. Heard from the guide, this pond will change its water almost every year by its owner to preserve the lilies and lotus in it. If you are thinking that there might be a lot larvae in those water, fred not, I was told that the water is super salty and unclean. Therefore, the mosquitoes mummy wouldn't want to lay eggs in it.
We had a simple lunch at one of the restaurant. We were charged $120 per table. The menu is as follows:
1) Stir fried chicken with ginger and spring onion
2) Omelette
3) Sambal kangkong
4) Stir fried tofu and vegetables
5) Fried sotong
6) Free flow of rice
7) 2 bottles of Cola-cola
I didn't manage to snap the food as I was busy in-charged of money. Therefore, by the time I sat down, my hungry tummy can no longer stand it and I finished my portion in just a blink of an eye. Thankfully boy was there to take care of my belongings (: Thanks babe.
After the lunch, we bid goodbye as it was free and easy time for families. My boy and I proceeded to rent bicycles and planned to roam around the island. We rented bikes from the shop nearer to the jetty. The thought was when we came back from our adventure, we can walk lesser to the jetty (: We are pretty lazy people.
Not knowing how far is Chek Jawa, we continued cycling and refering to the board. It was about 3-4km from the jetty itself and the road are partially tarred and rocky hills. We took about 20minutes to reach. At some point, we had to dismount and push our bicycles all the way up hill as we couldn't carry ourselves up. I felt so guilty having so many rounds of buffet lately.
Upon reaching Punai Hut, we got down and quickly ran over to catch a closer look on the woldboars. Boy commented that there were 2 sow together with their offsprings ran across the track to look for food. Knowing that there wasn't any food on the bicycles, they return back to jungle.
Tadaaaa~ this is the Chek Jawa Boardwalk...
Too bad high tide and we cannot see hermit crab at all. Although we passedby a lot of mangrove area, we were only able to see the mud crabs in its mud hole. The view itself was priceless.
We strolled along the boardwalk as if like we first date each other (:
I saw that tower from far but heck I am so afraid of height, I can never make it up that 20m observation tower. Boy he had me to climb up with him. Uncounciously my legs started to wobble badly and the tower itself can vibrate a little. Oh ya, forgot to mention, we actually saw a lot of majestic white bellied eagles but I couldn't get it on my camera because it will appear as a black dot.
Nevertheless, I'd made it up Jejawi Tower.
This tower has a maximum load for twenty people. However, I wouldn't know how many people on top as there is no one to keep track of the numbers. I'm a bit concerned bout the safety of being on top so I hurried my boy to decend early.
Next, we stopped at House No. 1 at Chek Jawa aka the English Bungalow/Cottage. It now serves as the Chek Jawa Visitor Centre. While the House was meticulously restored, the jetty in front of it was rebuilt; stretched out approximately 150-200 meters into the sea. . The restrooms were originally the housing for the servants.
Took a few selfie at this Tudor-style architecture building. It seemed that I was at England at that point of time.
After 5minutes of cycling on a different route, we met the Pekan Quarry. It looked like a lake to me. I bet there are lots of fishes to fish (:
Frantically we parked our bike and enjoy few minutes of calmness and peace here before anyone come and disturb us.
Heading back to Ubin Town was easier than I thought as we were on tarred road almost all the time. We took only about 10minutes to reach and the skies already shown its warning.
We got ourselves going and board the boat back Changi Jetty.
Last but not least, not to forget the group photo (: Cheers...
(P/S: will come back for more cycling especially to Maman Beach and also to Noordin Beach and Sungai Puaka)
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