On day two in Singapore, we decided to go to Pulau Ubin, an island off the main city that is reputed to be quite the way all of Singapore was just several decades ago: jungle.
To get to Pulau Ubin, we took the MRT to a bus to a bumboat. The walk from the bus to the bumboat brought us past a beach where several families were enjoying themselves in sun and shade. From the beach, Louise told us, you can see Malaysia + maybe even Indonesia!
The bumboats operate this way: once there are 10 people to make the trip, one will leave. We barely had to wait before enough people were ready to head to Pulau Ubin. We shared our boat with a group of Indian men + two adorable boys who excitedly took pics of each other the whole way, + a group of men from Mount Everest!
For every picture, the boys posed making the peace sign I think of as the re-pre-sent sign: peace sign with back of hand facing out, slightly sideways. Seeing that so far from home definitely put a smile on my face. Armed with fishing equipment, they were going to spend the day fishing. The Mount Everest fellas would rent bikes for some sightseeing.
Once we disembarked from the bumboat, we walked a little bit past bike rental shops + restaurants before getting to the jungle path.
One of the first things we passed once out of the town was a temple! So, up the steps we went to check it out.
After the temple, we walked for hours, birdwatching, butterfly watching + taking in the island’s beautiful vegetation.

this blue-spotted mudskipper reminded us of our dachshund, otto, back in the states/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013
The day was very hot, + we had to get back to Louise + Colman’s to rest before heading back into the Colonial District for a fabulous production of Sisters: The Untold Stories of the Sisters Islands by Singaporean playwright Jean Tay (stay tuned for my “singapore nights” post for details about the fantastic live performances we were able to catch during our visit!).
On the bumboat ride back, we saw several shrimp fisheries (like the one above), but what really caught my eye was this startling sign at the bumboat dock.
Despite the fact that we didn’t spot any monkeys, I think this The Jungle Book classic will be a fun way to end our little jungle excursion tale.
Like being there all over again! Thanks, Ludey, xxx
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