Printing, Paperwork, Pulau Ubin Outing

Hi All!

This is the second post in the "My Ubin Journey" series, if you have yet to read the first one, you can do so by clicking here to read the previous one!

The sunrise of Saturday, March 17th 2018 at Sungei Changi, which turns out to be the day where my quest to find my late grandparents' house began.

A quick backstory for this post so that you might understand this post better! I am currently serving my National Service (NS) at the time of this outing, and also at the time this post was written, the only difference is that I am much closer to clenching that pink NRIC of mine, hehe. Anyway, I am an Administrative Support Assistant (ASA) in HQ 9 DIV/INF, or in layman's term, just an office clerk. So leading to this event, my colleagues and I were thinking of a quick getaway from the busy office life, and it all came down to a cohesion to Pulau Ubin, and this post will keep you in the loop of that trip down to the island with my friends.

It had definitely been years since I've went back to Pulau Ubin. Before serving my NS and even before being in poly, I could never have had the opportunity, neither the time to head back to the island, and unfortunately as well, for quite a few of those years while I was pursuing my education, Pulau Ubin had never been in my heart or mind. After serving in HQ 9 DIV/INF for more than a year, it was probably time to wind down and de-stress ourselves from the hectic office schedules and so my colleagues, Darien and Mr Syafiq decided to plan out an outing over the weekend. We threw in lots of suggestions such as a trip to the city area or other hipster places, but I was hoping for a place that had more nature in it. Suddenly out of nowhere, Pulau Ubin flashed in my mind, and I suggested it. Without hesitation, Darien and Mr Syafiq were very open to the idea, especially more so for Mr Syafiq as he had never been on Pulau Ubin before in his 27 years living in Singapore.

We settled the date and time for us to meet up at Changi Point Ferry Terminal the following Saturday, on March 17th, 2018 at 7.30 a.m., and so I was eagerly waiting for every last parade on that week, as it meant that we were a day closer to stepping foot on the island.

The day came and I have already left my house early on that day, a complete contrast from when I was a kid as mentioned in my previous post. It could really have been due to my excitement to finally head back to the island. Mr Syafiq had some problems with the traffic conditions in his area, eventually needing to take a cab down all the way from where he lived in the north. The last time I've been to Ubin, the bumboat fares were $2.50 but it had now increased to $3.00. It was pretty much expected, considering how much more expensive Singapore had become over the years, but i was actually mildly surprised that the fare did not jump, much to my relief too.

Bumboats all ready to ferry the first few visitors of the day to Pulau Ubin.

Being the hipster that Mr Syafiq was, he was bound to document everything on his phone and that was exactly what he did as we made our way down to Pulau Ubin. As much as it was indeed Mr Syafiq's historic virgin trip to the island, it was pretty clear that the most excited person among the three of us or in fact on that boat was me! The familiar smell of diesel, and slight mist of saltwater splashing on your face from the crashing waves brought back many memories. After ten minutes of smooth sailing on a sunny day, Darien, Mr Syafiq and I stepped foot on the island.

We headed down to the bicycle rental shops and realised that they no longer had the 'per-hour' rental charges anymore, but instead a fixed price throughout the day. I figured it could have been due to easier calculation or perhaps due to many previous customers cheating them of the proper payment. Nonetheless, we eventually rented our bikes from Blk 25 for just $6.00, inclusive of a basket so that was pretty affordable - and yeah, it was the budget type but it still worked quite fine so that was just fine for all of us.

Travelling around Ubin with just six dollars? Can! Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

Darien and Mr Syafiq appointed me to be their tour guide and so I just happily obliged, though to be dead honest my recollection of the directions within the island had gone faint after several years not venturing around, but thankfully enough some traces remained pretty fresh. Our first stop was to Tanjung Chek Jawa. The terrain was just as tough as I remembered, with lots of slopes and turns but after about fifteen minutes, we reached the wetlands. Outside the place, there was a bicycle parking lot but when we cycled to it, there were no other bikes. I was quite puzzled, but I then later realised that the gates to Tanjung Chek Jawa had just been opened for about five minutes, so we were the first people to step into the wetlands for the day.

Rays of lights passing through the canopy of the forests on our way to Chek Jawa, it was awesome! 

Luck had never been on my side as I never had the opportunity to venture around Chek Jawa during low tide, the main purpose Chek Jawa was transformed to be an inter-tidal mangrove nature reserve. So we walked down the coastal walk, and Mr Syafiq was clenching extremely tightly onto his handphone, reason being the entire walk had gaps underneath just nice for a phone to fall right in. Darien and I laughed it off looking at Mr Syafiq's paranoia and urgency to reach the end of the coastal walk. Next, we headed down the mangrove walk and climbed up to the Jejawi Tower. I was never brave enough to climb the steps, as the steps would create an illusion that you were just standing off an edge, so I told myself that the tip to remaining cool was to just look upwards - not sure how effective it really were but I managed to get to the top pretty alright, minus a few cobwebs that I had to pass through for some reason; it just went to show nobody had travelled upwards for quite some time. The view was pretty cool as we got to see Tekong, Changi and the rest of Pulau Ubin behind us. We also went down to the No.1 House in the end for Mr Syafiq to take some shots, and one of those shots is still his Whatsapp and Facebook profile picture till today!

The coastal walk at Tanjung Chek Jawa. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

Wefie with Darien and Mr Syafiq on top of Jejawi Tower. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

Our next location was Sungei Mamam, and the slopes and terrain on our way there brought back memories from my past trips to Pulau Ubin with my parents. The climb was treacherous, but the ride down was such a huge reward. After a series of ups and downs, we passed by the Balai Quarry and it was such a photogenic area; which meant that Mr Syafiq was out there snapping away his next big Instagram hits. I mean who wouldn't? The quarry was a beautiful greenish-blue shade and calm as well.

The amount of time paddling and pushing our bicycles could pretty much amount to be the same!

The tranquillity the scene of the quarry gives is just so serene, minus the heat of the mid-morning sun. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

After a few more hills, we reached the Sungei Mamam campsite, situated at the northern end of the island, but just before we reached the beach, we came across a rooster and two hens just waddling away on the beach and on the path. They got spooked by us, causing the rooster and one of the hens to make a run for it into the woods, while one hen - and I kid you not - flew to the top of a tree on the beach. I had never seen a chicken fly, what more to be on a branch of a tree. Only on Ubin do you see these amazing things! Mr Syafiq and Darien went on to take a few snaps but the lack of a human being on the beach made me feel a little unsettled. The sand on the beach was pretty funny feeling too, and it could be due to a presence of sandflies, but I could not confirm it. By the, the clock had struck 11, and as much as there was so many other places in Ubin left undiscovered for Mr Syafiq and Darien, we decided to just end it off there and reserve the rest of the island for another time.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To climb the tree on the beach in fear of incoming humans!

Sungei Mamam Beach is currently the only beach in the northern coast of Pulau Ubin that is opened, as Noordin Beach is closed off due to the soil erosion. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

On our way back, we cycled past 363C, Teck Seng's Place, a former Chinese kampong house which had been converted into a real-life demonstration house, reliving what it was like for a typical Chinese family living on Pulau Ubin. We decided to give this place a visit to end off our Ubin escapade for the day. We came across a man outside by the name of Uncle Lim, who introduced himself as the guardian and custodian of the museum and he was there to conduct a tour for a group of students from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, consisting of several international students from around the world. So, it was definitely pretty cool watching them learn about Singapore's history. 

 Teck Seng's Place. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

 Samples of newspapers dated back in the 1960s, the only way for residents to be kept in the loop on the happenings back in mainland Singapore. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

Artefacts donated by other former residents of Pulau Ubin were displayed in the house, including many pictures of the late-Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong when he was just 15, when they were on Pulau Ubin back in the 1960s. Photo courtesy of Mr Syafiq

Though I still found it a little off that they would prepare a fictitious family for the demonstration house, instead of telling the stories of the real original owners of the house who have lived there for more than 50 years before moving back to the mainland. I would have enjoyed finding out more about Chew Teck Seng and his family and how their lives were like on Ubin, but other than that, I didn't have many other issues with the place, it was pretty cool to see a restored kampong house on the island - and that was when I wondered on the possibility of my grandparents' house being restored. But of course at that moment, I didn't know if the house was still standing strong deep down in the forests of Pulau Ubin.

We ended the day by lunch time and took a ride back to Changi before heading down to Andes by Astons at Changi Village to have our meal. We called it a day and went our separate ways back to our homes and we would see each other again back in the office on Monday, a little more refreshed from our nature bathing on Pulau Ubin that day.

On my way back home on the bus, I just couldn't help but ponder about the kampong houses that I've passed by - seeing their state in utter disrepair and comparing it to Teck Seng's Place, being a totally restored kampong house. It really sparked a sense of loss in me to see the way the kampong houses were and I wanted to know if there was any way I could get help in finding my grandparents' house, just out of curiosity to see if it was still there. So I Google'd; and that's where I saw a news article that sparked my quest.

"NParks to restore old kampong houses on Pulau Ubin"

I no longer wanted to find my grandparents' house. I needed to.

Read the previous post in "My Ubin Journey"!
The Day My Mom Stopped At The Rotten Jackfruit Tree