Blogs from Pulau Ubin, Singapore, Asia
March 1st 2012
Thursday 1 Marach 2012. Today we took the hour bus drive to Changi Village which had been recommended to us by our good friends Richard and Patsy who we had met on an Amazon River Cruise a few years ago. From Changi village we took the local Bum-Ferry over to Palau Ubin. The island is largely made up granite and, it is believed that the island derived its name from "Jubin" the Malay name for a type of floor tile made from granite. This island is maintained by the Singapore National Parks Association. There were up to 6 granite quarries on the island, the last of which ceased production in 1999. These quarries are now filled with water. The tidal flats are mangrove swamps and managed ecologically as are the beaches. We had to wait at ... read more
November 3rd 2010
After weeks of planning (and very little time spent packing), we headed off to Naha airport and South East Asia. One thing that really sucks about living in Okinawa is that we're basically in the middle of nowhere and there are very few international flights through our little airport. That means we had to fly 1000 miles north to Tokyo, just to turn around and fly right back down again to Singapore. We arrived at Changi airport at 6:30am after no sleep on our long overnight flight. We started our honeymoon in Singapore because the round trip tickets to get there were cheaper than anywhere else in the region. Turns out the tickets were pretty much the only thing cheap about Singapore. We wanted to check into our hotel early (since we got there just after ... read more
September 21st 2010
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 ... read more
September 20th 2010
Today started at 7 am for me. I'm wondering if I'll be a morning person after this trip... Probably not ;) I went to lunch at a local Malaysian spot named Bedok. I hardly recognized any of the cuisine at this place. I ordered ayam penyet which is smashed fried chicken and spice. I also ordered a fruit milk drink that tasted like milk that's been left in fruity pebbles too long. I quickly changed drinks to a more familiar cherry soda. Dessert was a bowl of exotic fruits in sugar water. I also found Thailand's Red Bull which is supposed to be MUCH more potent than the American version. Overall though it seems that Asia likes milder sweets compared to the sugar laden palette of America. After work I walked around Raffle's Place and tried ... read more
August 23rd 2009
Hey all! So yesterday I went to Puala Ubin, an island of Singapore off the east coast of the country. My school is on the West Coast of Singapore, so it took about an hour to get across to the other end of the country (which is a mere 18 miles long). Then about half an hour on a small "bumboat" to get to the Island. The Island represents what Singapore once was, as it was not colonized by Britain like the main Island of Singapore. Singapore is noticeably very wealthy with clean streets, fancy buildings, expensive shopping centres, and very advanced technology used on everything from the Public Transit stations, to the toilets and elevators. Puala Ubin on the other hand is entirely different. It is obviously very impoverished, and has a very raw appearance. ... read more
July 2nd 2009
I woke up at 7:30 today! Today I went to Kampong Glam (the muslim area), Sim Lim Square (electronics store), and Pulau Ubin (undeveloped island). It was a short, yet intense day. Mag got me a special breakfast today. She got me some Kaya toast (toast with a butter/coconut spread), along with a cup of soft-boiled (almost raw actually) eggs. The toast was so good! The eggs were a little strange, but certain edible. To round out my breakfast, I got some more ice cream from the carts. Kampong Glam is fun to walk around, but I must have missed the heart of it because it didn't feel that unique. I saw the tip of a mosque, but the streets themselves seem to be some sort of mix of Little India and chinatown. There were the ... read more
November 8th 2008
To tell you the truth, we didn't know that much about the island beforehand. Just that Pulau Ubin is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore. Going there was exiting, because Pulau Ubin is an island off the northeastern coast of Singapore we needed to take a ferry boat from Changi Village jetty terminal. And which kind of boat it was! Far away was luxurious and glory, but still so comfortable and easy. There was no tight schedules in the terminal. Every boat was waiting as long as there was 12 passengers on the boat, but practically ferry was going almost every five minutes and the prize was 2,5 SGD. What about the island then? Immediately when arriving there the friendly and hot (yup, I burned my back) atmosphere surrounded us. No ... read more
August 23rd 2007
As of 11.32am on Thursday, 23rd August 07, the writer has welcomed a total of 19,957 visitors on his web blog. He is keeping his fingers crossed to welcome the 20,000th visitor by early next week. 1 year 9 mths have passed since the 1st entry was born on 6th November 2005. This is one blog that he couldn't update regularly because "he don't get to travel all the time". Having said that, he is proud to present a total of 73 entries in the collection. The birth of the 74th entry is likely to happen on Saturday, 25th August 2007. The 73rd Entry ~ Notes from a small island Saturday, 18th August 2007 The group of us from K** were visiting Chek Jawa in P. Ubin this morning. It was a perfect excuse to exercise ... read more
