Palau Ubin - Riding Bikes in the Wild

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I woke up at 11 after the late night out. I decided to eat at a place near china town called Lau Pa Sat market. It had all types of food like most of the markets here. I later learned that Singapore enforces variety in ethnicity of shops in markets to promote diversity.

Unfortunately the food I ate gave me a serious case of food poisoning! It hit me hard around 4pm with chills and a seriously upset stomach. I couldn't keep any food down after that. As you can imagine I didn't get much done on Saturday night 😞

Sunday started early. I didn't sleep well at all, but felt a bit better after lots of water and H-Two-0 (their version of Gatorade). I woke up to go bike riding in Palau Ubin, the coolest place I've seen in Singapore yet.

With my coworkers as tour guides we embarked by boat for the island off the East coast. I could immediately smell the difference in the quality of the air on this island only a small distance away from the city. We rented bikes for $10/day. It felt like untouched Singapore. We were surrounded by lush vegetation, vocal fauna, and shacks that looked very old.

It didn't take long to find wild pigs wandering around. It was very cool to see them acting naturally as I've never seen pigs in the wild. Then we climbed a tower to get a full view of Palau Ubin and the surrounding area.

The view up here is beautiful. There was even a rainbow in a circle around the sun! Callista informed me that she has never seen the rainbow or the pigs so I must be lucky. I certainly felt lucky at this moment. We took in this site for quite a while.

We kept riding our bikes up hills until we approaced a cliff over a lake. They closed it down to the public 15 years ago, but the sight of it alone is fantastic. It was difficult not to ignore the signs and go dive in anyway, but i restrained myself.

I couldn't eat yet and was just drinking water to get by. I was surprisingly ok with all the excitement to distract me from my stomach. We ended up back at town to enjoy fresh coconut drinks! Nigel told me that the coconut was probably imported from Thailand because it was so sweet. I'm sure no tourist would have guessed that. We took the boat back to town soon after.

Callista and I took a trip to the zoo after I bought some banana bread to get some sustenance. The taxi ride was only $25 to go a very long distance. The same cab ride in LA would be about $100.

The zoo in Singapore is located in the center of the country. It's surrounded by a very large lake which makes it feel less like a zoo and more like a natural habitat.

The coolest parts of the zoo were the Elephant show, crocodile feeding, and fragile forest. I definitely recommend it to tourists. Check out my picasa for pictures. This is definitely a case of pictures being worth a thousand words.

After the zoo I went home and passed out early to get ready for the work week.

I woke up to find spider bites on my body and a heat rash on my hands from riding the bike. Adjusting to Singapore is more difficult than I thought, but not that bad. Everyone calls it Asia light for a reason.

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Photos

Dangerous Sugar Cane Juice
I'm told it can be unsanitary when prepared incorrectly. I fully believe it after the pain on Saturday!

Rainbow around the sun
It's so humid that a rainbow formed in a circle around the sun.

What a View
Top of the tower at Palau Ubin

Good Friends and Coconut Drinks
My coworkers were excellent tour guides. Here we are finishing off with some fresh coconut drinks.

Comments

[anonymous]

Life's lessons...who knew???

[Tyler]

Awesome!
Except for the food poisoning bit. Looks like you're having a blast and enjoying the natural side of the island. Watch out for Pontianak!