Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Singapore, Pulau Ubin ride

i am currently at changi airport terminal 3, flying back to Shanghai, China in a short while. While waiting for the departure, i still have 2 hrs, thus update an entry on the ride that i went with 2 other friends in singapore.

On May 1st, it was a public holiday, so we head pulau ubin (an island at the east part of singapore) for a cycling trip. my friend HS pick me up at 8am from bedok and proceeded to Changi point ferry terminal where we took a bum boat at the cost of S$2.50 per trip per person. We waited another friend Wee to arrive. When reaching the island after a 15mins boat ride, we reached Pulau ubin. It had change a lot. The last time i visited this island was probably 5 years ago. the town is now very vibrant with at least 5 bicycle rental shops and each bike rent about from S$5 to S$15 depending on the condition as well as the class of the bike.

We approached a shop and tested out the bike to be used. As the terrain in pulau ubin is rather undulating as well as offtrack, a well maintain bike with proper gear shifting is important for a leisure and easy ride.

After which, we proceed to explore the island with our rented bicycle.

bum boat that we took, max 12 persons per boat and the boatman will not start the trip till he get 12 persons or if you are in a hurry, pay for 12 persons cost.

sign welcoming visitor to Pulau Ubin.

bike rental shop

nice typical tropical country with coconut trees. a nice leisure ride on the metal on road

we headed into the forest single track. no difficulty but just off road.

another nice single track

that day was CK Wee's day. he met different groups of friends, philipine as well as malay friends. a group picture with his friends when we met them in the forest.

pulau ubin is a place where people get away from the busy city life. even foreigners are enjoying it with their family with kids.

roungh terrain that Wee had to carry the bike
me and wee

at certain point, we got ourselves lost. we were trying to locate a path out of the swam area.

finally, we get out and reached a paradise where cold drink were sold. that day was a hot sunny day.

most of the visitors to the island would ended up taking a lunch or dinner meal at the local restaurant. they serves seafood as well as typical local food such as friend rice, fried noodle.

we chose to get back to the main island and headed to the hawker centre for our lunch. here is cold mango ice kechang with a plate of hot friend hokkien prawn noodle. i always love singapore food.

for those who visit singapore and love cycling, a trip to pulau ubin is a must. you get to see the last village in singapore and the it is very convinience to rent bike, if not, on the island, there are taxi with meter and they charge reasonably.

that was it for now and i will need to catch my flight back to Shanghai... have fun reading and let ride if you can...

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