Wednesday, May 10, 2006
pula ubin - the last piece of "old"
I don’t even know HOW I found out about Pulau Ubin – but it wasn’t from a flashy tourist marketing campaign.And if you "Google" the island, you won’t find very much about it. It’s just one of those word-of-mouth kind of places.Pulau Ubin (Granite Island) is a small Singaporean island just a 10-minute bumboat ride from the "mainland".It's the modern, first world city-state’s last piece of old ... and a real-time glimpse into what things must have been like before Singapore’s independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Situated northeast of Singapore in the Johor Straits, with a population of about 200, Pulau Ubin gives one the distinct feeling that mainland Singapore doesn’t really want to admit the place is still there. Akin to a decrepit old family pet ... You love it because you have a history together, but you don’t really have much to do with it anymore. I have been there six or seven times during the past year, and love it more with each visit.
Stepping off the bumboat onto the Pulau Ubin pier is like stepping into a 1950s kampung (although I was nowhere near being born yet then). Kampung is Malay and Indonesian for “village”.
Singaporeans lived in a collection of kampungs prior to its modernisation and the subsequent construction of high rise residential apartment blocks.
Here, though, there are no shopping malls, no flashy towers, no slickly-dressed women in pointy-toed court shoes (except maybe the odd mainland visitor), no sports cars and certainly no ATMs. Residents rely on wells for water and noisy diesel generators for electricity.The island is largely undeveloped bush and forest land - and there are cycling tracks with lead through it. A cycling trip takes you to the quarries, under the cool trees and past the waving locals in quaint old wooden shacks. (who sell you cold drinks at inflated prices).
Until recently, some of the island's inhabitants earned their living by keeping chickens.
This came to a swift end, however, during the bird flu scare and there are no more chickens on the island - except maybe the odd one which escaped.The only vehicles which use the narrow tarred roads are mostly bombed out cars and minivans, bombed out motorbikes and bombed out bicycles (which are hired out to the visitors for $5 a pop). A favourite rest stop of mine is the Buddhist temple.
You have to negotiate a very steep hill just before you arrive there, so I generally bowl into the place panting and sweaty.
The temple has paint peeling off the walls and concrete floors covered by worn woven carpets. The monks are extremely serene and the whole place smells deliciously of incense.Not far away, is a strange little house which looks like it might have belonged to a British settler from the 18oos. It would be perfect if you lived in a place which snowed ... the roof is pitched to allow snow to slide off it during winter!
If you are lucky you will find the smiling old man who lives in a ramshackle shack and is the proud owner of a very large, fat, black pig. She smells horrendous, is bad tempered and plain mean but the kids love her.
You will also be very lucky if you stumble upon the “Secret Garden” which is tucked away near a collection of vegetable patches guarded by scarecrows.
It really is secret, denoted as such by a large wooden sign proclaiming so at its entrance. I discovered it on my fourth trip to Pulau Ubin. It is a magical place straight out of something in a children’s story book, complete with its own stone well and a collection of gloriously aromatic flowers and herbs.
Pulau Ubin one of the few places one can go in Singapore which doesn’t involve taking on crammed shopping malls and spending lots of money.
I go to there whenever I can spare at least half a day to get out to the east of Singapore to Changi village where you catch the bumboat.If you are not up to cycling, there are mini-busses which go around the island but essentially cycling is the way to go to get the most out of the day.
I prefer it to the glamour of five-star Sentosa and recommend it be visited at least once before it’s suddenly "discovered and revamped" ... and a much loved piece of old is lost forever.
Situated northeast of Singapore in the Johor Straits, with a population of about 200, Pulau Ubin gives one the distinct feeling that mainland Singapore doesn’t really want to admit the place is still there. Akin to a decrepit old family pet ... You love it because you have a history together, but you don’t really have much to do with it anymore. I have been there six or seven times during the past year, and love it more with each visit.
Stepping off the bumboat onto the Pulau Ubin pier is like stepping into a 1950s kampung (although I was nowhere near being born yet then). Kampung is Malay and Indonesian for “village”.
Singaporeans lived in a collection of kampungs prior to its modernisation and the subsequent construction of high rise residential apartment blocks.
Here, though, there are no shopping malls, no flashy towers, no slickly-dressed women in pointy-toed court shoes (except maybe the odd mainland visitor), no sports cars and certainly no ATMs. Residents rely on wells for water and noisy diesel generators for electricity.The island is largely undeveloped bush and forest land - and there are cycling tracks with lead through it. A cycling trip takes you to the quarries, under the cool trees and past the waving locals in quaint old wooden shacks. (who sell you cold drinks at inflated prices).
Until recently, some of the island's inhabitants earned their living by keeping chickens.
This came to a swift end, however, during the bird flu scare and there are no more chickens on the island - except maybe the odd one which escaped.The only vehicles which use the narrow tarred roads are mostly bombed out cars and minivans, bombed out motorbikes and bombed out bicycles (which are hired out to the visitors for $5 a pop). A favourite rest stop of mine is the Buddhist temple.
You have to negotiate a very steep hill just before you arrive there, so I generally bowl into the place panting and sweaty.
The temple has paint peeling off the walls and concrete floors covered by worn woven carpets. The monks are extremely serene and the whole place smells deliciously of incense.Not far away, is a strange little house which looks like it might have belonged to a British settler from the 18oos. It would be perfect if you lived in a place which snowed ... the roof is pitched to allow snow to slide off it during winter!
If you are lucky you will find the smiling old man who lives in a ramshackle shack and is the proud owner of a very large, fat, black pig. She smells horrendous, is bad tempered and plain mean but the kids love her.
You will also be very lucky if you stumble upon the “Secret Garden” which is tucked away near a collection of vegetable patches guarded by scarecrows.
It really is secret, denoted as such by a large wooden sign proclaiming so at its entrance. I discovered it on my fourth trip to Pulau Ubin. It is a magical place straight out of something in a children’s story book, complete with its own stone well and a collection of gloriously aromatic flowers and herbs.
Pulau Ubin one of the few places one can go in Singapore which doesn’t involve taking on crammed shopping malls and spending lots of money.
I go to there whenever I can spare at least half a day to get out to the east of Singapore to Changi village where you catch the bumboat.If you are not up to cycling, there are mini-busses which go around the island but essentially cycling is the way to go to get the most out of the day.
I prefer it to the glamour of five-star Sentosa and recommend it be visited at least once before it’s suddenly "discovered and revamped" ... and a much loved piece of old is lost forever.
# posted by Karen @ 11:48 PM 
