Pulau Ubin Off The Beaten Path

Pulau Sekudu (Frog Island) is situated off Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin. This little islet appears close to Ubin's shore, but can only be reached by boat at low tides. It is rich in marine life.

The islet's strange name has a part in the legend about how Ubin formed. There is also a large boulder on the islet in the shape of a frog. Someone had added eyes to the boulder just to help imagination along;p

After a trip to Pulau Ubin with a group of friends, we found that Pulau Ubin is an excellent place for everyone to enjoy nature. Pulau Ubin is the only place untouched by urbanisation in Singapore. Till now it is still relying on well water and a home generator for electricity supply. The air is always fresh as there is practically no vehicles except for the few ‘’taxis’’ which drive the tourist to their destination. Pulau Ubin being the last "Kampong" in Singapore , will definitely attract many nature lovers there.

During a school project, we chose Pulau Ubin as our project and thus continued our research and came out with a website and created a brochure. Our brochure includes an itinerary for visitors who do not have time to plan for their trip there. Our website has pictures of all the places of interest in Pulau Ubin. We have also included a guide on how to move around there and a short description for all the places of interest.

Enjoy your trip in Pulau Ubin!

Our website link is : http://pulauubin.webs.com/

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When you are at Pulau Ubin, you are actually very near to the border between Singapore and the neigbouring Johor state of Malaysia. For example when you are at Nordin or Manam beaches, right across the other side is Johor state.

During the boat journey to the island, you will notice a few hills at a distance away. These belongs to Johor state of Malaysia. I think one of them is Pengerang Hill.

When you are at the main village of Pulau Ubin and look across the sea, you will see several traditional fish farms (known as Kelongs in Malay).

There used to be more of such fish farms in this area, but they have decreased with time due to difficulties in maintaining such a lifelihood and there are more job opportunities in Singapoew.

Now, other than the colonial house, there is colourful sea-life on Chek Jawa Beach. You'll see anything ranging from delicate sea anemone like these to shy hermit crabs. A rare find in urban Singapore! Click on my travelogue for some really cool macro shots of these creatures.

Note: It's better to go to Chek Jawa Beach with a guide. So do sign up for the free guide service under Nparks. You'll really need to book way in advance since it's very popular.

Now other than Opera, there was a rowdy auction going on at Pulau Ubin. It's not as sophisticated as the one at Sotheby's as there's no rostrum, hammer or chi-chi patrons. Instead, the auctioneer will simply leap onto the stage and yell out unintelligible numerals in Hokkien( a Chinese dialect). Odd things like roasted suckling pigs, altar gods, liquor, etc are sold to the highest bidder and the money raised will determine the grandeur of next year's celebrations.

After I showed the ghostly orb pictures on this Pulau Ubin page, an extremely curious robertgaz did an infra-red scan on the picture. Haha, guess what he saw? Does anybody have Dan Akroyd's number over here?

Of course, other than the orbs, we saw other conventional live creatures in the night walk at Pulau Ubin. Other than mud lobsters, we saw a gigantic golden point spider, lots of fireflies, etc. The Golden Point was a lovely creature with a golden body and long black legs.

*This picture was taken by my friend Gloria on her Panasonic Lumix.

I caught something unusual . Of course, I didn't notice it until much later. I pondered over what could have been and verified my image with the rest of the nature group members. To my surprise I found out that they captured the same thing too. It was definitely not the owls we meant to see...

This is not something I would recommend for the faint-hearted. But if you're keen on paranormal sightings, walk along the durian trail in Pulau Ubin in the dead of the night*. I did so, during the Hungry Ghost Festival ( seventh lunar month) period, no less. Boy did I regret it. Not only didn't I fulfill my initial quest to spot the local owls, I caught something strange....

*Safety is paramount. Don't do this alone! Go in a group and bring walkie talkies, handphones with you.