Like mainland Singapore, November is unusually rainy, although not as severe as experienced in other countries. At least the haze from Indonesia is cleared, with plenty of photo opportunities in bright daylight with beautiful clouds.
But just as sudden, storms appeared and anyone caught out soon got soaked.
The rains soon stopped with soft back-lit scenes and romance in the air.
Photography notes: Pictures 1,2,4,5,6 is taken with Nikon’s new V1 camera. Pictures 3,7 with Sigma DP1.
Pulau Ubin Tua Pek Kong festival will be held on 16 May 2011 over the next few days. Vesak day falls on 17 May so it will be a good time to visit Pulau Ubin.
Pulau Ubin island festivals are held in honor of Tua Pek Kong, considered by residents as the guardian of the island. Although Pulau Ubin was invaded by the Japanese Imperial Army in WWII, the populations were spared the massacres and atrocities during the occupation.
Colorful lanterns and bright colored flags adorn the jetty.
The Chinese wayang or opera stage has been around since the early sixties when it was built for community use by a rich timber merchant. Empty most of the time, the stage is lighted up 2 times a year during religious festivals.
Elaborate Chinese street operas are held to honor Chinese dieties housed in the temple opposite the stage. According to local elders, this is a ‘reflection’ temple built for convenient access. The 150 years old original temple is further up on a hill side a few hundred metres away and its dieties carried down ceremoniously to be entertained during festival periods.
Tiger Diety 虎爺
Different forms of tiger dieties
Backstage
Showtime
Its heartwarming to see young volunteers with blind visitors. KP Tan, who is a pioneer Pulau Ubin regular, remembers the first time when students from Singapore American School took the initiative by organizing the first field trip for the blind. Such trips have been popular since.
Organizing such trips can be a challenge however. Dates should be planned during months where fair weather is expected as the sea can be choppy especially during monsoon season. The visit should also coincide with high tides to make it easier to get on or off the bumboats. Height difference between high and low tides in Singapore can be as much as 3 meters so avoid low tides. Unlike Changi Point Ferry Terminal jetty with its free floating pontoon, Ubin jetty is the traditional concrete steps type with the bottommost steps slippery and barnacled from being half submerged. Exercise extreme caution as it is easy to trip over mooring ropes. As bumboats come in different shapes and sizes, choose single level decks bumboats with broad stern platform and high freeboard like this bumboat shown below.
High tide makes embarking easier
For visitors on wheelchairs, assistance of at least 4 persons is needed. Even then the jetty construction at Ubin side makes it near impossible for safe transfers. The best option is to charter the boat and use the the pontoon jetty at Celestial resort which is about 2 km further away, the same route taken by visiting VIPs to Ubin island.
Celestial Resort can be contacted at +65 6542 6681 or reservations@celestialresort.com to assist in bookings for boats and vans.
August happens to be 7th month in Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is believed that hell gates opened up and hungry ghosts are everywhere. Visitor levels to Pulau Ubin would drop during this period as people prefer safety by staying indoors. For us, August is as good time as any to tour Ubin by night.
Ubin’s hell guards (黑白无常). Their job is to catch ghosts and send them back to hell. Link warning. Scary pictures.
We hoped to make a spirit themed walk to Bukit Puaka area, a place considered by Ubin islanders as being haunted. Residents tell stories of being lost even in broad daylight in places they were familiar since childhood.
Despite being skeptics, we are hoping to be caught up in the same paranormal phenomenon. But this time with high tech tools to help us. My GPS is logging the location of every step we made. Its recording will show if we have been walking in circles or taken to Mars by alien probes.
We are also armed with the latest flashlights. This time with RA clicky high CRI LED lights fitted with longer lasting 17670 batteries. The lights also enable us to take better colored photographs. I also brought a Thrunite 300 lumen P60 style XP-G R5 3 mode drop-in. This drop in allows me to use Surefire 6P heads with forward clicky, fitted on Solarforce 18650 tube. They would be our high tech amulets against ghosts.
The walk was leisurely while taking nature photographs along the way.
Located 100 meters away from Malay Kampong, this bamboo clump was inhabited with interesting creatures including including a scorpion, slugs and insects that crowd and move together.
Spooky stories about banana trees have been passed from kids to another for generations. When I was little, I was told that the the banana flower is where the banana ghost hides during the day. If you tie it with string the ghost will grant you any wishes to free herself.
The village provision shop was still open late into the night. We soon found ourselves engaging in swapping ghosts stories. The one told about Noordin famous white ghost with a baby on her arms is most frightening. Another is sightings of a blue colored giant mountain spirit walking the hills of Bukit Puaka. And that was way before the movie Avatar came out.
Time passed, we decided to postpone our ghost trail after allowing ourselves to be spooked, discretion being the better part of valor.
We went to Ubin jetty. Fish were biting and this angler landed a snapper.
On the way back we heard mewling high up the trees. It turns out to be a rarely seen spotted wood-owl. It’s a juvenile bird calling for its parent. Adult wood owls emits a loud and eerie frightening sound which is commonly heard at Malay kampong area.
Pictures above are all taken illuminated with RA high CRI clicky flashlights by photographer Andy Ho using a high iso Nikon D3s camera.
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The distance by road from Ubin Jetty to Chek Jawa takes about 3.6 km. The ferry trip from Changi to Pulau Ubin takes about 15 to 20 minutes covering a distaznce of about 2.4km.
Here is a travel distance table to other parts of Ubin for your convenience.
Update: 21 Mar 2011
Direction signposts with distance are now erected at major junctions which makes easier to get around Pulau Ubin. You may print out a detailed map of Pulau Ubin as free maps are no longer given out.
Sunset at equatorial Singapore is around 7pm so give yourself plenty of daylight time to walk back to Ubin jetty before it gets too dark or to catch the last ferry. Bring a flashlight just in case and jot down emergency numbers from here. Go back the same way from the path you took. Ignore Nparks traffic directions as they are meant for vehicles plus you have to walk up and down 3 slopes.
The first natural formation visitors would see in Pulau Ubin would be the “Rhino rock”. This nondescript rock owes its name to its resemblance to the shape of a rhinoceros. But a keen geologist would tell you more. The vertical furrows you see are shaped by rainwater, an ongoing process over thousands of years.
Joseph Lai in his beautiful post “The Lion of Tor” liken it to a mane of a lion, shaped by Mother nature’s tears. I am inclined to agree with Joseph’s interpretation. It certainly look like a stone lion, something Sang Nila Utama could have seen and gave the name “Singapura”.
A deeply furrowed rock being explored by kayakers.
Pulau Batu Ubin is Malay word for granite stone island. Granite rocks from Pulau Ubin were used in the construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island of Pedra Branca in 1850.
For those searching for info on Horsburgh Lighthouse. It is built on a tiny rock island and public is not allowed on shore although fishing is allowed around the island. The trip there by boat takes about 4 hrs and only intrepid anglers go there. Currents there is treacherous as ships have sunk there.
Large granite outcrops can be seen especially at low tides when visitors step on the jetty on arrival.
Further down at the Jetty’s entrance, next to Ali’s coffee shop, one can still see drill marks on a huge chunk of granite.
A gnarled tamarind tree grew on top of the granite. It still fruits twice a year. As a little boy during the Japanese occupation, Ali would climb the tamarind tree for its tarty tasting fruit, helping to stave hunger when food were scarce then.
Despite its history, Nparks is unwilling to designate it as a heritage tree and afford it with lightning protection due to its weak foundations.
Further evidence of early granite quarrying where steam drilling were used can be seen as one walks east from the jetty to Nparks secret garden. The ‘cliffs’ there are not natural cliffs formation but hewn granite with drill marks still showing.
Before that, an old Japanese guard post stood, entombed by a shady banyan tree.
On top of the ‘cliffs’ one can hear wild jungle fowls and lively bird singing and they fight for their mates attention. I wondered what is the view like up there, will it yield a panaromic view of the village. I hope to be able to find out.
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