Fun in the Sun

After all the exam tension, my friends and I wanted to relax and have some fun coupled with adventure. There's no place better than Pulau Ubin for a adrenaline rush. It's a small island off Singapore. Just 20 min from the main land. Shaped like a boomerang, it is also known as the Granite Island. The abandoned granite quarries remain picturesque relics of Ubin. To reach the island, one has to take the Bumboat which can carry 12 people at a time, from Changi Point to Ferry Terminal. A one way trip costs only $2.5. We were allowed to carry our bicycles on the ferry. Let me tell you of some interesting things to do in Ubin. The major adventure sport there, is mountain biking. The wild life, small ponds, quarries, bicycle tracks, camping, fishing and beaches make for interesting photography. We just went there to ride our bicycles. We needed a stress buster.

We started our trip at 9 in the morning and reached the ferry point at about 10.30 am. We took the Bumboat to Ubin. Though it was short ride which lasted only 20 min, it was awesome! We took some videos of the landscape around. As soon we landed in Ubin, we got bicycles on rent. There are a lot of locals who rent out bicycles of which most are in really good condition. Then we went to the Information Kiosk to get a map. Since this place has very few hotels and more importantly, there is no vegetarian food available, we had to pack our lunch. We had a few sandwiches and some salad. First we visited the Chek Jawa wetlands. I have to mention, the place looked really close by in the map, but we had to ride really, really far to reach the place. By the time we reached our destination, I was almost exhausted. This place is supposed to have some rare species of sea creatures, but we couldn’t find much. We managed to spot only one fish which had wings. It looked as if it was flying with the wings, but it was disgusting to watch, it was in the muddy area near the shore. Guess I'm not much of a fish person.



Then we rested for a while, played some music, sang songs and had great fun. All of this was post lunch as we needed to re-energize. Then we went to the Balai Quarry. It was just a Quarry view from the top. Nothing much to talk about. Now here's the funny part, I wanted to perform the cycle stunts. They had set ups for it, like a few rocks with wooden logs to ride over. I was so close to riding on it, but I got super scared of two things; the height and the two narrow wooden logs. I tried twice, but couldn’t make it.

The day was extremely hot. Believe it or not, I was half toasted under burning sun. After 3 hrs we couldn’t go any further, so we turned back. The sun was burning, we were all exhausted, and to make it worse, we got lost! And we had all separated to meet at the ferry. After an hour of struggle, our gang, somehow, managed to reach the ferry. We just plonked ourselves down until the ferry came. The moment, the ferry arrived, we jumped into it and finally reached home sweet home. Oops, hostel sweet hostel.

The whole trip was too tiring, but the adventures were awesome! Ubin is different and beautiful, away from the city crowd, noise and tension. Ubin doesn’t have a mechanical life, it has nature's true beauty. A must see place for everyone and friends just make it better.