My Uncle Has Returned Home After 32 Years!
Hi All!
On September 23rd, 2018, there were two major events that took place in My Ubin Journey which included the reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall as well as the return of my uncle who had never stepped back on the island since 1986! This post will cover on the latter as I document the day where history was rewritten for my eldest uncle. Tune in for the next post where I will share on what might be a momentous part of Ubin's restoration history.
I was excited as this day would have marked something significant. Not in my life, nor my mom's but that of Pak Ngah, my current eldest uncle. My mom always mentioned to me, that amongst all her siblings, Pak Ngah was the only one who had never returned home ever since he moved out of the island back in 1986 - a full decade before I was born! Just when I thought that my mom's return was long-awaited, my uncle's was really one of a kind.
A week before, I asked my cousin, Kak Diana, if she was keen in going out to Ubin for some getaway as she had previously asked to invite her along one day when I have recovered from my accident back in August. We managed to lock down September 23rd onto our calendars and we agreed to bring my mom and her dad along with us. I was pretty excited when I heard of the probability of Pak Ngah heading back home and I quickly told my mom about it. She almost dismissed it entirely at first, as she was sceptical that he would return back to the island, but eventually got herself excited at the thought of joining her brother back to where their parents raised them.
The night before, I checked with Kak Diana if our plans were in the green light, and she even replied saying that her brother, Abang Sahar, would also be joining along and my heart screamed with excitement as I could only imagine how fun it was going to be to go out on a cousin's outing - which in my nearly 22 years of living, have never actually been in one! (other than Hari Raya of course)
The day finally came and we all reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal at around 9.15 a.m. My mom and I waited by the seats at the top floor and that was when we saw Pak Ngah, Kak Diana and Abang Sahar strolling down to the terminal. It was pretty heartwarming to see my mom smile widely as her brother reached closer to her and I too was elated to meet my cousins on a non-Hari Raya day, too. It was time for my first ever cousins outing! We went down to the basement and waited for the bumboats for maybe about five minutes. When we were heading to our boat, one of the boat operators, whom I believed was called Rahman, stopped in front of Pak Ngah and stared at him intently. Suddenly, he shouted my uncle's name aloud to which Pak Ngah greeted him back after recognising him in return. The amount of surprise on Rahman's face was amazing as it must have been forever since they have last met. But something told me that Rahman was not going to be the only person who would be surprised knowing of Pak Ngah's return to Pulau Ubin.
We finally docked and as I followed behind my mom, uncle and cousins up the steps of the jetty, in my heart I echoed the reality that after 32 long years, Pak Ngah was back on the soils of his home.
We headed down to our usual bicycle rental store and after frequenting his store for so long, I guessed the uncle finally knew me enough to know my requests. He even brought out the other bicycles for my cousins, uncle and mom to try out and my mom got the pretty newer bicycle that really suited her well. Abang Sahar and Kak Diana joked around saying that I was going to be the tour guide of the day, but I was more than happy to bring them around as well. Abang Sahar last stepped foot on the island when he was still a teenager and as for Kak Diana, it was the very first time she went to Pulau Ubin, so that made the trip a little extra special as well.
We all headed down to our grandparents' kampong house first. Along the way, Abang Sahar stopped by a shop and bought some drinks and that was when another Malay villager stepped out and squinted intensely at my uncle's face. Again, Pak Ngah was greeted with someone shouting out his name and they shook hands vigorously. I could only imagine that they might have been close friends as when I asked my mom, she said she couldn't recognise who he was but judging from the probability that he is of the same age of Pak Ngah, they might have been schoolmates.
We cycled our way past Kelichap Hut and pushed our bikes uphill to Aseah's house. My mom still insisted that we brought our bikes to an off-road location as she feared that passersby might just take our bicycles away when left unattended. We parked our bikes by the old chicken coop and stepped down the seashell slope carefully. I was still nervous if we would be caught in a dangerous situation once we stepped foot into the forests, but I prayed that all will be well, for the safety of my mom, uncle and cousins.
It had also been more than a month since I have stepped into the site, and a lot of twines have grown drastically around most of the trees. The path leading down to my grandparents' house was a little more challenging than previous times given those twines and vines, but it was not a major issue for all of us. As soon as we reached the site, my cousins got very excited. Perhaps, they might have gotten that sense of connection back to their roots just like how I first felt when I found the remnants of 818K as well back in April. It was a special and moving moment for the three of us youngsters, but that is nothing compared to Pak Ngah. Pak Ngah stepped slowly around the site, observing everything that remained. It was clear that he was deep in memory lane and was reliving all sorts of nostalgic memories of his past; the same would describe how my mom felt when she first reconnected to her home as well.
Kak Diana and Abang Sahar too walked around the outskirts of the house, searching for antiques such as the tempayan, cups, slippers, bowls and plates that were once part and parcel of my grandparents' house. Pak Ngah then also joined them and walked a bit further down the back to what was probably the site of my grandparents' huge sireh tree plantation. My mom and I decided to rest on a branch that had fallen off a big tree by the well as the three of them ventured around to reconnect with the past from stories recalled by Pak Ngah.
After about fifteen minutes immersing in the area, I teamed up with Kak Diana in an attempt to recreate to the best of our abilities some of the shots that were taken of Pak Ngah and my mom back in the 1980s. My mom was no longer as hip as she was back then so we made do with what we had and these were the results!
After our quick kampong photoshoot, we made our way out and headed down to the old site of the Malay schools and the surau. I was still traumatised having to cycle closer and closer to the site where I had my accident at but one thing that I realised was that my cycling speed had gotten considerably slower than normal. Perhaps it was just myself really wanting to keep myself safe throughout the day for my relatives.
After touring around the empty Kampong Surau, we headed east to the Chek Jawa Wetlands. It was filled with such an intense set of slopes and we spent nearly half the time pushing our bikes up instead of cycling most of the time as preferred. At one part of the stretch of road, we were all caught in awe by a sight that we have never seen before. The entire soil was a bright pink colour and I honestly thought someone might have painted the soil with pink powder - perhaps for their adventures leading to Chek Jawa. But as we got closer, it didn't look like powder or paint for that matter at all. My mom and uncle pointed out that these were the flowers of the pokok jambu bol or the Malay Apple. It was aesthetic and something definitely Instagrammable!
We finally reached the entrance of Chek Jawa and we saw Azman just waiting patiently at the sign for his passengers. We went on to park our bicycles in the lots first, in the presence of monkeys and a family of wild boars, but they were most likely more frightened of us as there was quite a crowd of people gathered at the entrance to the wetlands. Azman became the third person to squint his eyes with extreme force at Pak Ngah's direction. It was at that moment that I knew my uncle had become the VIP of all VIPs on the island. I was just amazed and touched to see that even after three whole decades, close friend could still remember each other's faces especially as age gets the better of them.
We went in and made our way up the Jejawi Tower - and when I meant we, I meant the youngsters hehe. The climb was tiring; and the cycling earlier on to reach here did not spare us any mercy as well, but the view was totally worth it. When the wind blew this time round, we could feel the metal tower swaying ever so slightly but that was still a nerve-wrecking experience for the three of us. Several overexposed wefies later, we headed back down to join our parents as we continued along the mangrove boardwalk.
We then reached the coastal walk and reached the only shelter available on that stretch of walk at roughly around lunch time at 12 noon. It was generally packed but we were happy enough to sit down on the floor under the shade for us to indulge in our food and snacks. My mom and I had bought the huge epok-epok from Changi Village and distributed amongst all of us. Kak Diana and Abang Sahar also brought out some curry chicken that their mom had prepared and invited all of us to dig in as well. It was a very simple meal but it was such a special bonding time for all of us.
After our lunch, we continued our journey to the No. 1 house. Apart from its aesthetic architecture and appearance, the building also contained historical archives and artefacts preserved and handed over to the visitor centre, something almost similar to that of Teck Seng's Place. After nearly an hour and a half in total in the Chek Jawa wetlands, it was time for us to head down to our next location.
We were slightly pressed for time and I initially wanted to bring the group down to Ah Ma Drink Stall which would be celebrating its reopening at 2 p.m. Seeing that we only had an hour left before the event, we could only make it down to one more location. We had Sungei Mamam Beach and Pak Ahmad's house as the two choices, but we decided to head down to the latter instead as going to the beach in the hot afternoon sun wasn't really something that we were quite fond of.
After about 20 minutes of cycling, all of us had finally arrived at Pak Ahmad's house. We were greeted by Kelana and a new face that I had yet got the chance to come across, Melati who was one of the twin daughters of Pak Ahmad and Nenek Piah. All of them were very delighted to see some new faces there especially that of Pak Ngah's. They had a lot of catching up to do - three decade's worth for that matter! It was also heartening to see that there was quite a crowd of customers in his stall and I reckoned the strong afternoon heat played a part in getting passersby to get themselves some nice refreshing drinks and coconuts.
Pak Ahmad continued to tease Pak Ngah a lot, given their childish and funny history growing up as neighbours and close friends. Some of the jokes brought out was when Pak Ngah asked about Pak Ahmad's age, to which he replied that he was twice or thrice his age and another one was when Pak Ahmad joked around saying that even after all these years, Pak Ngah still looked like a nerd to him. It was all done in good humour and it was a very happy sight to see the former Ubin residents laughing and reconnecting with their close friends back on Ubin grounds. We stuck around till 2 p.m. before we had to bid our farewells; of course not until a very special group photo was taken.
We then cycled to our last destination for the day, Ah Ma Drink Stall. Ivy had previously invited me to come along with friends and family so I took this golden opportunity to bring Pak Ngah, Kak Diana, Abang Sahar and my mom over to celebrate her happy occasion. The journey westwards from Jalan Ubin to Jalan Jelutong was pretty far and tedious but we were thankful that there were not as many hills there as compared to the east.
When we arrived, Ah Ma Drink Stall was lively! It was filled with so many happy smiling faces and a lot of familiar faces such as Ethan from NUS Architecture and Ria from Wild Singapore were there to greet us in. Of course, Ivy herself even got out of her seat and waved up high to me when she saw me dismounting from my bike. You could never get to see such an outburst of good vibes like that on the island so often. Mohd Juhari, the photographer whom I have had the pleasure of meeting back on Pesta Ubin was also the main photographer covering the reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall that day and I could see that he too was very delighted to see me back once again on Ubin. In conclusion, everyone there was pretty excited to see all of us be a part of Ah Ma's momentous day.
We were treated with some halal mooncakes and even got ourselves some nice refreshing coconuts and drinks. As Ivy and her siblings continued speaking with my uncle and mom on some Ubin memories, I took the time to walk around and join the tours held by the Restore Ubin Mangrove (RUM) and the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) at the newest addition to the store - the Heritage Wall (which I would cover more on my second part of this post!)
Unfortunately, after being around for quite some time - in fact we had been on Ubin for nearly six long, tiring and exhausting hours - my mom, Pak Ngah, Kak Diana and Abang Sahar decided to call it a day. They insisted that I remained to watch through the entirety of the celebrations and helped to share in the joy with Ivy and her family on their behalf. I took the time to express my gratitude to my uncle and cousins for having spent their Sunday together with my mom and I back on Ubin and I hoped that one day we would plan another such outing together with more of our cousins.
As they cycled back to the jetty, I resumed my interaction and engagement with the womderful people back in the stall as we awaited for the arrival of our Guest-of-Honour, Second Minister for National Development, Mr Desmond Lee.
Read my previous chapter in "My Ubin Journey" series!
"Eh Guys, There's Cold Drinks Sold Here!"
On September 23rd, 2018, there were two major events that took place in My Ubin Journey which included the reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall as well as the return of my uncle who had never stepped back on the island since 1986! This post will cover on the latter as I document the day where history was rewritten for my eldest uncle. Tune in for the next post where I will share on what might be a momentous part of Ubin's restoration history.
I was excited as this day would have marked something significant. Not in my life, nor my mom's but that of Pak Ngah, my current eldest uncle. My mom always mentioned to me, that amongst all her siblings, Pak Ngah was the only one who had never returned home ever since he moved out of the island back in 1986 - a full decade before I was born! Just when I thought that my mom's return was long-awaited, my uncle's was really one of a kind.
A week before, I asked my cousin, Kak Diana, if she was keen in going out to Ubin for some getaway as she had previously asked to invite her along one day when I have recovered from my accident back in August. We managed to lock down September 23rd onto our calendars and we agreed to bring my mom and her dad along with us. I was pretty excited when I heard of the probability of Pak Ngah heading back home and I quickly told my mom about it. She almost dismissed it entirely at first, as she was sceptical that he would return back to the island, but eventually got herself excited at the thought of joining her brother back to where their parents raised them.
The night before, I checked with Kak Diana if our plans were in the green light, and she even replied saying that her brother, Abang Sahar, would also be joining along and my heart screamed with excitement as I could only imagine how fun it was going to be to go out on a cousin's outing - which in my nearly 22 years of living, have never actually been in one! (other than Hari Raya of course)
The day finally came and we all reached Changi Point Ferry Terminal at around 9.15 a.m. My mom and I waited by the seats at the top floor and that was when we saw Pak Ngah, Kak Diana and Abang Sahar strolling down to the terminal. It was pretty heartwarming to see my mom smile widely as her brother reached closer to her and I too was elated to meet my cousins on a non-Hari Raya day, too. It was time for my first ever cousins outing! We went down to the basement and waited for the bumboats for maybe about five minutes. When we were heading to our boat, one of the boat operators, whom I believed was called Rahman, stopped in front of Pak Ngah and stared at him intently. Suddenly, he shouted my uncle's name aloud to which Pak Ngah greeted him back after recognising him in return. The amount of surprise on Rahman's face was amazing as it must have been forever since they have last met. But something told me that Rahman was not going to be the only person who would be surprised knowing of Pak Ngah's return to Pulau Ubin.
Abang Sahar and Kak Diana getting ready for the bumboat ride
We finally docked and as I followed behind my mom, uncle and cousins up the steps of the jetty, in my heart I echoed the reality that after 32 long years, Pak Ngah was back on the soils of his home.
After 32 years, Pak Ngah has returned back to the island he once proudly called home
We headed down to our usual bicycle rental store and after frequenting his store for so long, I guessed the uncle finally knew me enough to know my requests. He even brought out the other bicycles for my cousins, uncle and mom to try out and my mom got the pretty newer bicycle that really suited her well. Abang Sahar and Kak Diana joked around saying that I was going to be the tour guide of the day, but I was more than happy to bring them around as well. Abang Sahar last stepped foot on the island when he was still a teenager and as for Kak Diana, it was the very first time she went to Pulau Ubin, so that made the trip a little extra special as well.
We all headed down to our grandparents' kampong house first. Along the way, Abang Sahar stopped by a shop and bought some drinks and that was when another Malay villager stepped out and squinted intensely at my uncle's face. Again, Pak Ngah was greeted with someone shouting out his name and they shook hands vigorously. I could only imagine that they might have been close friends as when I asked my mom, she said she couldn't recognise who he was but judging from the probability that he is of the same age of Pak Ngah, they might have been schoolmates.
Please dismount and push. Sincerely, every hill on Pulau Ubin.
We cycled our way past Kelichap Hut and pushed our bikes uphill to Aseah's house. My mom still insisted that we brought our bikes to an off-road location as she feared that passersby might just take our bicycles away when left unattended. We parked our bikes by the old chicken coop and stepped down the seashell slope carefully. I was still nervous if we would be caught in a dangerous situation once we stepped foot into the forests, but I prayed that all will be well, for the safety of my mom, uncle and cousins.
It had also been more than a month since I have stepped into the site, and a lot of twines have grown drastically around most of the trees. The path leading down to my grandparents' house was a little more challenging than previous times given those twines and vines, but it was not a major issue for all of us. As soon as we reached the site, my cousins got very excited. Perhaps, they might have gotten that sense of connection back to their roots just like how I first felt when I found the remnants of 818K as well back in April. It was a special and moving moment for the three of us youngsters, but that is nothing compared to Pak Ngah. Pak Ngah stepped slowly around the site, observing everything that remained. It was clear that he was deep in memory lane and was reliving all sorts of nostalgic memories of his past; the same would describe how my mom felt when she first reconnected to her home as well.
Reconnected after 32 years
Kak Diana and Abang Sahar too walked around the outskirts of the house, searching for antiques such as the tempayan, cups, slippers, bowls and plates that were once part and parcel of my grandparents' house. Pak Ngah then also joined them and walked a bit further down the back to what was probably the site of my grandparents' huge sireh tree plantation. My mom and I decided to rest on a branch that had fallen off a big tree by the well as the three of them ventured around to reconnect with the past from stories recalled by Pak Ngah.
After about fifteen minutes immersing in the area, I teamed up with Kak Diana in an attempt to recreate to the best of our abilities some of the shots that were taken of Pak Ngah and my mom back in the 1980s. My mom was no longer as hip as she was back then so we made do with what we had and these were the results!
1980s
2018
1980s
2018
After our quick kampong photoshoot, we made our way out and headed down to the old site of the Malay schools and the surau. I was still traumatised having to cycle closer and closer to the site where I had my accident at but one thing that I realised was that my cycling speed had gotten considerably slower than normal. Perhaps it was just myself really wanting to keep myself safe throughout the day for my relatives.
Taken right on the grounds of 818K, Kampong Surau
After touring around the empty Kampong Surau, we headed east to the Chek Jawa Wetlands. It was filled with such an intense set of slopes and we spent nearly half the time pushing our bikes up instead of cycling most of the time as preferred. At one part of the stretch of road, we were all caught in awe by a sight that we have never seen before. The entire soil was a bright pink colour and I honestly thought someone might have painted the soil with pink powder - perhaps for their adventures leading to Chek Jawa. But as we got closer, it didn't look like powder or paint for that matter at all. My mom and uncle pointed out that these were the flowers of the pokok jambu bol or the Malay Apple. It was aesthetic and something definitely Instagrammable!
It was such a beautiful shade of pink too!
We finally reached the entrance of Chek Jawa and we saw Azman just waiting patiently at the sign for his passengers. We went on to park our bicycles in the lots first, in the presence of monkeys and a family of wild boars, but they were most likely more frightened of us as there was quite a crowd of people gathered at the entrance to the wetlands. Azman became the third person to squint his eyes with extreme force at Pak Ngah's direction. It was at that moment that I knew my uncle had become the VIP of all VIPs on the island. I was just amazed and touched to see that even after three whole decades, close friend could still remember each other's faces especially as age gets the better of them.
Azman, Pak Ngah and my mom
We went in and made our way up the Jejawi Tower - and when I meant we, I meant the youngsters hehe. The climb was tiring; and the cycling earlier on to reach here did not spare us any mercy as well, but the view was totally worth it. When the wind blew this time round, we could feel the metal tower swaying ever so slightly but that was still a nerve-wrecking experience for the three of us. Several overexposed wefies later, we headed back down to join our parents as we continued along the mangrove boardwalk.
Sun brighter than our future on top of that tower. Photo courtesy of Kak Diana
We then reached the coastal walk and reached the only shelter available on that stretch of walk at roughly around lunch time at 12 noon. It was generally packed but we were happy enough to sit down on the floor under the shade for us to indulge in our food and snacks. My mom and I had bought the huge epok-epok from Changi Village and distributed amongst all of us. Kak Diana and Abang Sahar also brought out some curry chicken that their mom had prepared and invited all of us to dig in as well. It was a very simple meal but it was such a special bonding time for all of us.
Picnic time! Photo courtesy of Kak Diana
One does not simply pass by Balai Quarry without snapping a picture, right Abang Sahar and Kak Diana?
We were slightly pressed for time and I initially wanted to bring the group down to Ah Ma Drink Stall which would be celebrating its reopening at 2 p.m. Seeing that we only had an hour left before the event, we could only make it down to one more location. We had Sungei Mamam Beach and Pak Ahmad's house as the two choices, but we decided to head down to the latter instead as going to the beach in the hot afternoon sun wasn't really something that we were quite fond of.
After about 20 minutes of cycling, all of us had finally arrived at Pak Ahmad's house. We were greeted by Kelana and a new face that I had yet got the chance to come across, Melati who was one of the twin daughters of Pak Ahmad and Nenek Piah. All of them were very delighted to see some new faces there especially that of Pak Ngah's. They had a lot of catching up to do - three decade's worth for that matter! It was also heartening to see that there was quite a crowd of customers in his stall and I reckoned the strong afternoon heat played a part in getting passersby to get themselves some nice refreshing drinks and coconuts.
Everyone in this picture have seen how Ubin have changed, but remained optimistic that Ubin would not disappear.
Everyone in this photo has got their Ubin blood in them! Including Kelana who helped us snap this picture.
We then cycled to our last destination for the day, Ah Ma Drink Stall. Ivy had previously invited me to come along with friends and family so I took this golden opportunity to bring Pak Ngah, Kak Diana, Abang Sahar and my mom over to celebrate her happy occasion. The journey westwards from Jalan Ubin to Jalan Jelutong was pretty far and tedious but we were thankful that there were not as many hills there as compared to the east.
When we arrived, Ah Ma Drink Stall was lively! It was filled with so many happy smiling faces and a lot of familiar faces such as Ethan from NUS Architecture and Ria from Wild Singapore were there to greet us in. Of course, Ivy herself even got out of her seat and waved up high to me when she saw me dismounting from my bike. You could never get to see such an outburst of good vibes like that on the island so often. Mohd Juhari, the photographer whom I have had the pleasure of meeting back on Pesta Ubin was also the main photographer covering the reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall that day and I could see that he too was very delighted to see me back once again on Ubin. In conclusion, everyone there was pretty excited to see all of us be a part of Ah Ma's momentous day.
All here to celebrate together with Ivy and family for the reopening of Ah Ma Drink Stall! Photo courtesy of MJ Photography
We were treated with some halal mooncakes and even got ourselves some nice refreshing coconuts and drinks. As Ivy and her siblings continued speaking with my uncle and mom on some Ubin memories, I took the time to walk around and join the tours held by the Restore Ubin Mangrove (RUM) and the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) at the newest addition to the store - the Heritage Wall (which I would cover more on my second part of this post!)
Unfortunately, after being around for quite some time - in fact we had been on Ubin for nearly six long, tiring and exhausting hours - my mom, Pak Ngah, Kak Diana and Abang Sahar decided to call it a day. They insisted that I remained to watch through the entirety of the celebrations and helped to share in the joy with Ivy and her family on their behalf. I took the time to express my gratitude to my uncle and cousins for having spent their Sunday together with my mom and I back on Ubin and I hoped that one day we would plan another such outing together with more of our cousins.
As they cycled back to the jetty, I resumed my interaction and engagement with the womderful people back in the stall as we awaited for the arrival of our Guest-of-Honour, Second Minister for National Development, Mr Desmond Lee.
Read my previous chapter in "My Ubin Journey" series!
"Eh Guys, There's Cold Drinks Sold Here!"
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