Pulau Ubin

07.02.2015

My time in Singapore was drawing to a close and this little island was the only place left that I really wanted to visit badly. I was rewarded for my efforts, because I saw a wild boar. I have never seen a wild boar before in its own habitat.

You have to catch a short ferry ride from Changi beach, which only costs $2.50. There's no schedule, the boat just leaves whenever it's full of 12 people. On a weekend, this is easy, that's why I went on a Sunday.

The island itself is pretty small and walkable, but people still rent crappy bikes that can't get up the tiny hills. They go squeaking around and then jump off as soon as they come to any sort of incline and walk up. I thought it was nice to just walk everywhere instead of bothering with a bunch of stupid crappy bikes.

The main draw of this place is the Chek Jawa wetlands. There is a really impressive boardwalk going through, yep another mangrove, and along the coastal forest. I really enjoyed my day there, it was worth the effort it takes to get there for sure. Islands usually are, I find.

One thing that pissed me off however, were the random wrong way signs everywhere. They said wrong way, but they actually weren't! They were fine to walk down, but the thing was, they wanted all the bikes to go the same way. All their brakes are so rusty and squeaky, that they can't really stop themselves from crashing into people around corners and things. I don't know why they just didn't say "one way", but there it is… lies.… A lot of times, I'd have to walk way out of my way because I'd think that I was walking the wrong way, when I was really just walking against bike traffic. Ugh. Lame.

Coastal forest boardwalk