Hello stressful friends/people! In light of completing almost half our projects (they are by no means done and dusted), my friend and I decided we could squeeze in a bit of time to go cycling, let off some steam, and de-stress! My friend also wanted to get a tan (obviously she did not think of me..)
ANYHOO what better place in our sunny island, to cycle your legs off, than at Pulau Ubin?! (: For those of you who haven't already been there, I've got to say it's awesome. It's every cycling enthusiast's dream! Besides the usual granite roads, you have mud paths, upslopes, downslopes, rocky terrains, swamps, boardwalks, mangroves and more! Yes Pulau Ubin is worth the short 5 min bumboat ride and ooh boy, I'm not even getting started on the food that awaits you when you return to Changi Jetty!
BUT I digress. Let me recap my story.
THE BUMBOAT:
For a low, low $2.50, this rickety old scary boat will take you to Pulau Ubin in 5 minutes. For someone like me who doesn't know how to swim, that 5 minutres felt the longest ever in my entire life. And the whining and wheezing creaks of the boat traversing the choppy waters didn't help me to relax at all! But it was worth it. The boat captains, or uncles, are friendly:
See what awaited us at the island! My favourite fruit!
Okay but in all seriousness, I couldn't wait to rent my bike and pedal the stress away! We got the new-r and more expensive bicycles at 8 bucks for the whole day (we were probably hustled) and after my friend put on loads of sun tan lotion (sun block for me), off we went!
Now if you don't already know, these are the kind of paths that you can look forward to cycling on, which are nowhere to be found on our mainland.
And there's a constant change of paths so you can decide if you're up for the more challenging ones, but you can stick to the simpler roads, which is still really cool. (: Sidenote: please wear covered shoes, and check your bike brakes before you take off! Okay i sound like a prude, so back to Ubin!
Our first destination was Chek Jawa, which is this really cool marshland and probably the last ecosystem we know of but what I'm sure I got right is that it is BEAUTIFUL. This is the watch tower that you can climb:
And this is the view from the top after climbing seven very grueling flights of steps ):
Totally worth it! (:
Anyway the breeze was awesome as you can see, I was sweating like a donkey.)
And the boardwalk saw us sighting many interesting creatures such as mudskippers, and even baby crabs (with not-so-baby pincers!). The walk at Chek Jawa wetlands led out into the open sea, and it was perfect.
Now the weather as you can probably tell, was scorching, but that didn't stop me from really enjoying myself. After the boardwalk, it was back to our bicycles for us, (didnt take any pictures whilst cycling for fear of losing my camera). Seemingly endless uphill paths that we pushed and panted and pedled like our lives depended on it, only for the reward of endless downhill paths that we glided upon (:
Now Ubin, for an avid cyclist who doesn't mind the sweating, would take you roughly 3-4 hours to complete, but there's lots of great viewing sights and sounds, (even smells, at times) for you to enjoy, so it doesn't hurt for you to dismount and enjoy the scenery every now and then, for example, this quarry:
It was so beautiful! like out of some hollywood set. If you've watched The Beach, this looks exactly like it!
So we cycled from 2pm till about 5pm, with a stop in between for some cold and very delicious coconuts, in some dingy random kampong. But it was totally worth it! There're lots of kampongs in Ubin and with a population of 200 people. You've gotta admire the kids who take the bumboat to and from the mainland to attend school in Singapore. So after 4 hours of non-stop cycling in the heat, meet my friend:
Yup she just about died =D Hahaha no, but in all seriousness, we were two very tired people on the bumboat back.
We had only one thing on our mind : DELICIOUS NASI LEMAK FROM CHANGI VILLAGE!
Okay, so I couldn't resist taking a bite of my egg before taking this shot, but I was famished! But here's to a day of sun, lots of fun, and great food to end it off! So if it's your holiday, or you want a break from studying on a random weekend with nothing much to do, then take a break from those air conditioned arcades and cinemas, (no offence, i love them, too!) and get yourselves on a bumboat from Changi Village to pulau ubin with a couple of friends! What do you have to lose? (;