Ubin Island 2015 – A Journal

Today is one of those miraculous days whereby I was able to have a decent sleep. Our Filipino neighbors upstairs still banging doors early in the morning, like every morning. Except perhaps when the Pope was in Philippines. They must have flown back for a religious pilgrimage. I was briefly awoken this morning and promptly went back to sleep.

By nine plus, my wife was bored of being my bolster and has started playing with her phone, on our bed. Shortly after she got out of the bed, I followed suit.

We woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning. It was sunny, yet the breeze was gentle to the skin. I had an idea. Why don’t we have dim sum in the east and then take a ferry to Ubin island? It was so impromptu, so spontaneous. Cynthia did not see it coming. Just like that, I have successfully postponed our housecleaning chore to tomorrow.

We were lucky. We didn’t take too long to find a parking space, didn’t have to wait long for a ferry to Ubin island, in fact, didn’t need to wait for a ferry back. It was as though all our stars are aligned, on this very day.

The boat ride to Ubin island was short, S$2.50 per person. We passed by an oil rig, or what appears as one. I had no idea that Singapore is sitting on top of an oil field. Back in our Tasmania holiday 2013, I vowed to teach Cynthia how to ride a bicycle with gear. Today was the day.

The rental bikes in Ubin island are not great. We paid S$15 for two, which retrospectively speaking, it was a rip off. As someone who was capable in taking the bike apart and assemble the parts back, as someone who once cycled from Oxford to Edinburgh in UK many years ago, I would say: these bikes are crap. The alignment is off. The gear component is badly maintained. Having said that, throw Arthur a butcher’s knife and I reckon he can still slay a dragon (Merlin!). I rode the life out of my crappy rental bike. And I got to see a wild boar, as my reward.

Cycling in Ubin could be challenging, especially for the untrained or in my case, the unfit. But I have always enjoyed overcoming an up-slope. It is all about rhythm, breathing, and will power. A lot of will power in fact when my bike refused to switch gear at that crucial moment.

I have no idea if my wife enjoyed the experience because it is kind of physically demanding. She seems to cope pretty well. I am so proud of her.

We cycled all the way to the east until we have reached wetland, where we met the wild boars and large monkeys. These monkeys are much bigger than the ones we have in the mainland. We then cycled back to town and rested near a sandy shoreline, by a police post. We could go west. Or we could go north. I picked north because I wanted to see how close we are to Malaysia.

Unfortunately, the shoreline was out of bound due to erosion. I took a picture in the area nonetheless.

I thought of cycling to the west. But we could save that for another day. By the time we reached the mainland, it was dinner time. We picked a Thai restaurant nearby. The food was sort of salty and spicy. But we were too hungry to be of concern.