Pesta Ubin 2017 was on 15 and 16 July and I wanted to go to it at least once since I kept putting it off for the previous years.
This year would be the year I woke up and actually headed there for the festival.
To head to Pulau Ubin, I went to Changi Point Ferry Terminal nearby Changi Village and pretty much got my money ready. It’s $3 per trip (from the time of my post) to get there so please have exact change.
If you guys are wanting to have an Ubin adventure, don’t forget to keep some cash since there’s no ATMs on the island (that I know of). And no, you don’t need a passport to get to Ubin. You just need 12 people to fill up the boat or if you’re impatient, pay the captain $36 all by yourself.
Once I reached there, I finally got to try the famous Ubin lontong. It’s just to the left of the boardwalk after you’ve reached Ubin.
I call this a success since I reached there around 10am and yes, it is so rich (lemak) and the sambal was hot (pedas) but not overwhelming. Paired with just teh, this was a good start of my Ubin adventure.
I wanted to geocache but realized I totally needed gloves for some of the places and there were too many people around so I hecked that and went on with the festivities for the day instead.
Balik Kamponnnng.
There’s dogs and I managed to find a cat just lazying about. They’re all just flopping on the floor because it was a sunny day.
Taxi service is pretty much a mini van you can ride to get to another part of the island if you choose not to cycle. This would be useful if you’re in a group and going to Chek Jawa which is tiring.
You can bring your own bike on the boat trip but you’d have to pay an extra $2, IÂ think. I didn’t have a bike so I rented one for a whole day for $14.
There are a lot of bike rentals in there, don’t just try renting from the first shop you see, you can look around.
If you want newer/fancier bikes, the shops near the front would have them but if you’re cool with just a serviceable bike, you can get some cheaper further in but it really depends on which type of bike you wanted.
I chose one with gears (which I had no idea how to use), suspension wheels and a basket.
I paid the auntie for the whole day and off I went about following the random crowd to the festival part of the Ubin Fest! Â There are many booths from the various nature and conservation people there.
I even got a goodie bag from the police booth where they were telling people to keep safe from thieves and whatnot. They had an alarm in the bag which is useful if you’re on you’re on on an island like this and needed help?
Anyway, this is Restore Ubin Mangroves. You can help the mangroves too by helping clean it up with them.
Save Our Singapore Dogs (SOSD) was there with a little infogram about the Ubin Dogs. Basically, just keep calm and don’t be mean to the dogs.
The dogs on the island are pretty used to people anyway. If you’re interested, you could help sponsor for the dogs on Ubin too, on their website.
The Singapore Kindness Movement volunteers were there teaching people how to play chapteh, the rubber band skipping ropes and other traditional games.
Obviously NParks would be there but did you know a lot of the programmes are run by volunteers? You can be one or join in some of the walks.
ARCHAEOLOGY! ARCHAEOLOGYYYYYYyyy. Remember the last time I went in 2010? The results finally came out in a report this year, 2017. This time they’re potentially having it on Pulau Ubin. I’ll be looking forward to when ISEAS will be having their archaeological dig on Pulau Ubin to see where they’d do it and if I could check it out.
Also they’re trying to make Ubin more accessible for people with Accessible Ubin.
I hope it will be in the future, though it’s already difficult from the jetty side to get to the ‘town’ area.
Ok besides the booths featured here there were others too but yeah, come to the next Pesta Ubin and you’ll learn more of them.
On I shoved my free goodie bag and flyers onto my bike’s basket and rode towards Pekan Quarry because that day, they were having a bird watching session of sorts.
That’s a grey heron, I learned it from Ivan from Nature Adventures SG because hey, I’ve been on an adventure with him before and yay, someone I knew on freaking Pulau Ubin that morning.
If you ever want to go on nature walks with a group or for your own school if you’re a teacher, you could check out his company.
And then off I cycled away because I wanted to go to the No. 1 house at Chek Jawa.
Oh this is a white-rumped Shama. It hopped around and I got to take a pic of it so closely. It was near a tree where some vending machines were at the NParks shelter.
AUGH. Ivan already warned me it was going to be a long journey even on bike but ok, just AUGH.
The cycle to Chek Jawa is long but more importantly it was UPHILL and of course, I don’t care much about downhills since yay, just coast along it and make sure your brake works.
So yes, uphill.
I parked my bike outside the gate, you’ll know which gate it is once you ever reach there because bicycles aren’t allowed. Basically everyone parks their bikes there and hopes for the best. I don’t think anyone steals a bike since everyone is on the island and just why would you??
From the gate, it is a short trek (comparatively short anyway) to this!
The number 1 house aka no.1 house which is now Chek Jawa Visitor Centre.
Back when I was in secondary school, I went to Ubin and my school mates were exploring this house all over, there wasn’t much then but now it’s a historical site with memorabilia inside with info about the place?
The second floor’s out of bounds now anyway but I remembered being able to at least get upstairs last time. I read it’s out of bounds because a colony or rare bats are living there? Best not to go anywhere out of bounds to be safe.
What we’re here for besides the house is to go to the back to see this!
Yes, a jetty! Back then whoever lived in that house would have such a clear view of it and wow, imagine the storms and stuff.
People were trying to do jump shots and getting sunburned during that hour. The breeze was cooling though.
And off I went away after getting my photos.
As I headed out to the road, there are monkeys all over. Please do not feed them or disturb them.
I saw some tourists and foreigners trying to get attention of the monkeys and that is a freaking no-no.
They are wild animals and aren’t freaking cats.
I sort of went in a circle trying to find my way to the main ‘road’ and I did find it.
Thankfully I packed for my adventure so I did have a bottle of water with me as I cycled back.
I returned my bike which was basically just showing the uncle that I came to return it and parking it in front of his shop without any other ‘registration’ and oh! Next to it was a place I could buy drinks.
Coconut water from the coconut. Wooooh. It was so cooling, okay?
After that refreshing drink I walked around some more and found that there’s a mail box just NEXT to the jetty and went back to buy some postcards.
I always have some stamps in my wallet so yay. It takes around 3-4 days for it to reach mainland Singapore since I mailed it on a Sunday and no post staff works on a Sunday here.
Bye Ubiiin, oh hey, you can see the Malay shop next to it where I bought my lontong in this picture.
I’ll come back, I still need to get my geocaches.
