singapore days: pt. 2

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!

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

beach en route to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

boat with a whole lot of sand cargo/singapore/march 2013

bum boats to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

bumboats to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

hard at work near pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

hard at work near pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

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.

jesus loves us on the bum boat to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

jesus loves us on the bumboat to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

i spy on the bumboat to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

i spy…/singapore/march 2013

ma on the bum boat to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

ma on the bumboat to pulau ubin/singapore/march 2013

Once we disembarked from the bumboat, we walked a little bit past bike rental shops + restaurants before getting to the jungle path.

mom + louise setting out/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

mom + louise setting out/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

loved this sign/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

loved this sign/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

we chose to walk instead of renting bikes. maybe next time!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

we chose to walk instead of renting bikes. maybe next time!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

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.

jungle temple/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

jungle temple/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

temple sign/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

temple sign/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

temple shrine/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

temple shrine/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

offering table/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

offering table/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

dragon'n'incense/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

dragon’n’incense/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

love this statue/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

love this statue/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

After the temple, we walked for hours, birdwatching, butterfly watching + taking in the island’s beautiful vegetation.

the ladies checking out the lake view/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

the ladies checking out the lake view/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

o, hey!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

o, hey!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

bananas!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

bananas!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

jungle home/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

jungle home/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

we saw these big mamas (golden orb web spiders) all over the place/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

we saw these big mamas (golden orb web spiders) all over the place/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

blue-spotted mudskipper!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

this blue-spotted mudskipper reminded us of our dachshund, otto, back in the states/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

the ladies continuing the hike/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

the ladies continuing the hike/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

butterflies everywhere!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

butterflies everywhere!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

birdwatching lens/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

birdwatching lens/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

i love lizards/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

i love lizards/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

the landscaping work is never done in the jungle/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

the landscaping work is never done in the jungle/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!).

shrimp fisheries!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

shrimp fisheries!/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

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.

don't mess/pulau ubin, singapore/march 2013

don’t mess with singapore. srsly./march 2013

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.

2 responses to “singapore days: pt. 2

  1. Pingback: mama in taipei! pt. 1 | apples and azaleas·

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s