We would like to sincerely thank Tommy for making the Pulau Ubin trip a reality. Terima kasih also for giving us the opportunity to visit your friends' houses & their natural surroundings which brought back reminiscence of our good old times during the 60's. The group of 8 comprising Betty, Mok Wah, Peggy, Polly, Edward, Jimmy, Lionel & Tommy met up at Changi Village Food Court at 9.00 am for breakfast, after which we took a short walk to the jetty to board the boat for Ubin at S$2.50 per one way trip. The boat ride was rather smooth & took us only ten minutes. Upon arrival, we headed for the Information Kiosk but unfortunately, it was closed for renovation from 18 Oct 2010, we just missed by a couple of days. Fortunately, we managed to study the details from the island map at the counter & also with our topo king, Tommy leading the whole expedition, we did not encounter any problem at all. A big applause & three cheers to Tommy!
Our 1st visit was the Sensory Trail, it was very educational, we came across wide varieties of vegetables, vines & plants with medicinal values.
The walk was fun & real great, we've seen an abandoned granite quarry over the time, being transformed into a picturesque mirror like lake. As we walked along the coastal boardwalk during the low tide, we saw mangroves with their unique looking roots , baby mud skippers, tiny red claw crabs, barnacles & oysters embedded on boulders & pillars of the boardwalk. We were rather amused with the stick insect which was so still & motionless until we touched & it started to move & jump. We also came across nipah palm with very funny brown looking fruits which look like bola sepak takraw near the bases & were trying to guess them, until Edward confirmed them as attap seed fruits.
Our 1st break was at Tommy's friend's house, a typical wooden zinc roofed house which is no longer a sight on our main island. Some of us were quite surprised to see cocoa trees with the cocoa pods growing on the branches & trunks. Tommy then led us on a tour of the vegetable plot, we came across cucumber, see kart tow(four angled beans), spring onions & many more varieties.
Our 2nd break was also another wooden zinc roofed house of Tommy's friend who is actually the younger brother of the owner of the 1st house which we visited earlier. Lunch was Old Chang Kee curry puffs purchased by Tommy from Tampines & mun chunk kuehs, compliments of Peggy. We bought cold canned drinks from Tommy's friend at S$1 per can & he offered us a kind of fruit from his garden which looked & smelled a little bit like mango. It was rather sweet & the texture tasted & looked like a persimmon. Some of us even sampled passion fruit(buah susu), mulberries, bitter leaves & also took home cuttings of orchid, yellow & red hibiscus & seeds of the bitter leaves plants.
Our dinner was at Season Live Seafood Restaurant, menu was Sambal Tua Tows, Steamed Flower Crabs, Wild Boar Meat fried with Spring Onions, Steamed Sway Thiam(Like Pek Toh/New Year Fish) & Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves. We had a great fill & the dishes were fantastic too!
Tommy commented that this was the best outing as we managed to complete the whole expedition on foot without relying on any vehicle.
We fully agreed with him, even though rather exhausted after walking for almost 5 over hours, we were very satisfied with the whole trip. It was a great & an enjoyable outing.
Don't you think these aunties & uncles deserve a pat on their shoulders? Of course they do, for they made it on foot for 5 over hours without any complaint!
Looking forward to the next expedition whereby we'll cover the western part of Ubin.
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