Pulau Ubin
Encyclopedia
Pulau Ubin is a small island
(10.19 km²) situated in the north east of Singapore
, to the west of Pulau Tekong
. Granite
quarry
ing supported a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about a hundred villagers live there today. It is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore, with an abundance of natural flora and fauna.
, which explains the many abandoned granite quarries there. The word ubin is said to be a Javanese
term for "squared stone". To the Malays
, the island is also known as Pulau Batu Ubin, or "Granite Stone Island". The rocks on the island were used to make floor tile
s in the past and were called Jubin, which was then shortened to Ubin.
The island is known as chioh sua in Hokkien
, which means "stone hill".
, a pig
and an elephant
) challenged each other to a race to reach the shores of Johor
. The animals that failed would turn to stone. All three came across many difficulties and were unable to reach the shores of Johor. Therefore, the elephant and pig together turned into Pulau Ubin whilst the frog became Pulau Sekudu
or Frog Island.
's map as Po. Ubin.
founding of Singapore, the island has been known for its granite. The numerous granite quarries on the island supply the local construction industry. The granite outcrop
s are particularly spectacular from the sea because their grooves and fluted sides create furrows and ridge
s on each granite rock slab. These features are captured in John Turnbull Thomson
's 1850 painting — Grooved stones on Pulo Ubin near Singapore.
The granite from Pulau Ubin was used in the construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse
. Tongkangs ferried the huge rock blocks (30 by 20 feet) from the island to Pedra Branca, the site of the lighthouse, in 1850 and 1851.
Later, the granite was also used to build the Singapore-Johor Causeway
. Most of the quarries are not in operation today and are being slowly recolonised by vegetation
or filled with water. Apart from quarrying, farming and fishing
were the principal occupations of the inhabitants of the island in the past. It is also called Selat Tebrau (tebrau is a kind of large fish
).
In the 1970s as the granite quarries closed down and jobs dwindled, residents began leaving.
were said to have moved to the island that began the thriving Malay community on the island.
Many of the former kampongs on Pulau Ubin were either named after the first person who settled in the kampong or by some feature in the area. Kampong Leman was named by Leman; Kampong Cik Jawa by a Singaporean named Jawa; and Kampong Jelutong from people from Changi and from its jelutong trees.
Bin Kiang School was established in 1952 for the increasing number of children, from money donated by the resident Chinese. Lessons prior to this were conducted on the village wayang stage. With a student population that once numbered 400, enrolment fell as the Singapore mainland developed. The school closed in 1985, and was demolished on 2 April 2000. There was also a private Malay school around 1956 at Kampung Melayu, which closed in the late 1970s.
Pulau Ubin was found to be suitable for the construction of several campsites. Outward Bound Singapore
(OBS) was established in 1967 at Pulau Ubin, by Dr Goh Keng Swee, while the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) opened its 30-hectare site located between Kamupung Bahru and Kampung Noordin.
On June 3, 2005, the Singapore Government ordered that all the farmers rearing poultry
on the island were to ship them to mainland Singapore
and rear them in government-approved farms by June 17, 2005, in the wake of the avian influenza. In exchange, the local inhabitants were offered HDB government housing packages, although they could choose to live on the island.
Pulau Ubin is one of the last areas in Singapore that has been preserved from urban
development, concrete
buildings and tarmac
roads.
Pulau Ubin's wooden house villages and wooden jetties, relaxed inhabitants, rich and preserved wildlife, abandoned quarries and plantations, and untouched nature make it the last witness of the old "kampong" Singapore that existed before modern industrial
times and large-scale urban development.
The Singapore Government's development projects on the island in the last few years has been controversial and debate has been able to find its way through government-controlled media. So far ideas to build public housing on the island connected to Singapore island via undersea tunnels carrying MRT
lines have remained on the urban planners' drawing boards. Although the government has highlighted the area for future development, the island is unlikely to be urbanised because many foreign tourists visit Ubin and it has become a tourist attraction.
Though recent government action has been limited to widening the paths for bicycle
s, building shelters for trekkers and other facilities for the growing number of visitors, it is already discreetly changing the face and nature of Pulau Ubin from untouched to planned, and paving the way for further developments.
In 2007, the Singapore Government decided to reuse the Granite Quarry in Pulau Ubin because Indonesia might restrict exports of granite to Singapore.
The future of the island is in the hands of Singapore Government, which may postpone its development in order to concentrate on re-developing existing space on Singapore island and nearby Pulau Tekong. For now, Pulau Ubin is a haven as a former rural way of life will most likely disappear with its last "kampong" generation passing.
There are a few tarmac roads on Pulau Ubin but most roads are gravel. There are a number of minibuses, jeeps and motorbikes on the island, all bearing PU (for Pulau Ubin) numbered plates.
Schools visit Pulau Ubin for overnight school trips. Although the locals try to keep the island un-urbanized, they need some small boosts of money to support them.
The National Biodiversity Centre, in partnership with Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Nanyang Technological University
, and researchers Marc Cremades and Ng Soon Chye, implemented the Hornbill Conservation Project to aid in the breeding and recovery of the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) which had previously went extinct in Singapore but has since started to re-establish itself in places like Pulau Ubin and Changi.
Hornbills require tree cavities to nest in. However, tree cavities of sufficient size to accommodate the female hornbill and her young are not common in Singapore. The implementation of artificial nest boxes at Pulau Ubin and Changi have been successful and video cameras are even installed within the nest boxes to provide a better understanding of the behavioural and feeding patterns of these birds.
and nature groups such as Wild Singapore and TeamSeaGrass, intiated a project to monitor identified populations of Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda
) and Pipefish (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) in several locations including Pulau Ubin for conservation management purposes. The data gathered will help to estimate the population size, growth rate of individuals and track their movements in their natural habitats.
s and outdoor activities for many years.
With growing attention and interest in nature
, the flow of visitors to Pulau Ubin has increased over the years.
One of the current popular tourist attractions on the island is Chek Jawa
. A previous coral reef
5,000 years ago, Chek Jawa can be said to be virtually unspoilt, with a variety of marine wildlife comparable to other islands, such as sea hare
s, sea squirts, octopus
es, starfishes, sand dollar
s, fishes, sponge
s, cuttlefish
es and nudibranch
es.
Visitors may travel to Pulau Ubin from the main island of Singapore via a 10-minute bumboat
ride from the Changi Village
jetty. In 2008 the one way ticket price was increased from S$2.00 to S$2.50 per passenger. Every bumboat can carry 12 passengers and the captain will wait till his boat has reached the maximum capacity. People who do not want to wait can pay S$30.00 for the whole bumboat and leave without waiting.
The rental price for bicycles range anywhere from S$2.00 to S$20.00 (for the entire day) depending on the condition of the bike, number of gears etc.
Pulau Ubin is a time tunnel into the 1960s, when electricity is from stand-alone diesel-operated generators and drinking water is drawn from wells. This is a scene familiar to the post-WWII baby boomers. Those born after them get to observe life during the kampung era of their parents and grandparents.
which was built in 2007. The trail is approximately 8 kilometers long and features a wide range of terrain ranging from open meadows to thick jungle. There are numerous steep but short climbs and descents. The trail is well-marked with signs indicating the difficulty level of each section.
The vast majority of the mountain bikers that ride this trail bring their own bike, although the rental bikes on the island can also be used.
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
(10.19 km²) situated in the north east of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, to the west of Pulau Tekong
Pulau Tekong
Pulau Tekong is the second largest of Singapore's outlying islands with an area of 24.43 km², and the island is still expanding due to land reclamation works on its southern and northwestern coasts which will eventually subsume many of its surrounding small islets, including Pulau Tekong...
. Granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
ing supported a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about a hundred villagers live there today. It is one of the last rural areas to be found in Singapore, with an abundance of natural flora and fauna.
Etymology
The name Pulau Ubin literally means "Granite Island" in MalayMalay language
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
, which explains the many abandoned granite quarries there. The word ubin is said to be a Javanese
Javanese language
Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
term for "squared stone". To the Malays
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...
, the island is also known as Pulau Batu Ubin, or "Granite Stone Island". The rocks on the island were used to make floor tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
s in the past and were called Jubin, which was then shortened to Ubin.
The island is known as chioh sua in Hokkien
Min Nan
The Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
, which means "stone hill".
Legend
Legend has it that Pulau Ubin was formed when three animals from Singapore (a frogFrog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
, a pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
and an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
) challenged each other to a race to reach the shores of Johor
Johor
Johor is a Malaysian state, located in the southern portion of Peninsular Malaysia. It is one of the most developed states in Malaysia. The state capital city and royal city of Johor is Johor Bahru, formerly known as Tanjung Puteri...
. The animals that failed would turn to stone. All three came across many difficulties and were unable to reach the shores of Johor. Therefore, the elephant and pig together turned into Pulau Ubin whilst the frog became Pulau Sekudu
Pulau Sekudu
Pulau Sekudu , or Frog Island, is an islet located just off Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin, Singapore. It lies in the Serangoon Harbour opposite Changi...
or Frog Island.
History
Pulau Ubin first appeared on map in an 1828 sketch of the Island of Singapore as Pulo Obin and in Franklin and JacksonPhilip Jackson (surveyor)
Philip Jackson was a British Royal Navy lieutenant, who laid out the city plan for Singapore in 1822. He was a key person in Raffles plans for the settlement. The Elgin Bridge in Singapore was once named in his honour.-References:...
's map as Po. Ubin.
Quarries
Since the BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
founding of Singapore, the island has been known for its granite. The numerous granite quarries on the island supply the local construction industry. The granite outcrop
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
s are particularly spectacular from the sea because their grooves and fluted sides create furrows and ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
s on each granite rock slab. These features are captured in John Turnbull Thomson
John Turnbull Thomson
John Turnbull Thomson was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth century Singapore and New Zealand. -Biography:...
's 1850 painting — Grooved stones on Pulo Ubin near Singapore.
The granite from Pulau Ubin was used in the construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse
Horsburgh lighthouse
The Horsburgh Lighthouse is a lighthouse which marks the eastern entrance to the Straits of Singapore. It is situated on Pedra Branca island...
. Tongkangs ferried the huge rock blocks (30 by 20 feet) from the island to Pedra Branca, the site of the lighthouse, in 1850 and 1851.
Later, the granite was also used to build the Singapore-Johor Causeway
Johor-Singapore Causeway
The Johor–Singapore Causeway is a 1,056-metre causeway that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the town of Woodlands in Singapore. It serves as a road, rail, and pedestrian link, as well as water piping into Singapore.The causeway is connected to the...
. Most of the quarries are not in operation today and are being slowly recolonised by vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
or filled with water. Apart from quarrying, farming and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
were the principal occupations of the inhabitants of the island in the past. It is also called Selat Tebrau (tebrau is a kind of large fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
).
In the 1970s as the granite quarries closed down and jobs dwindled, residents began leaving.
Human settlement
In the 1880s, a number of Malays led by Endut Senin, from the Kallang RiverKallang River
The Kallang River flows for 10 kilometres from the Lower Peirce Reservoir to the coast at Nicoll Highway, making it the longest river in Singapore...
were said to have moved to the island that began the thriving Malay community on the island.
Many of the former kampongs on Pulau Ubin were either named after the first person who settled in the kampong or by some feature in the area. Kampong Leman was named by Leman; Kampong Cik Jawa by a Singaporean named Jawa; and Kampong Jelutong from people from Changi and from its jelutong trees.
Bin Kiang School was established in 1952 for the increasing number of children, from money donated by the resident Chinese. Lessons prior to this were conducted on the village wayang stage. With a student population that once numbered 400, enrolment fell as the Singapore mainland developed. The school closed in 1985, and was demolished on 2 April 2000. There was also a private Malay school around 1956 at Kampung Melayu, which closed in the late 1970s.
Pulau Ubin was found to be suitable for the construction of several campsites. Outward Bound Singapore
Outward Bound Singapore
Outward Bound Singapore is part of the network of Outward Bound centres worldwide. While Outward Bound is well-established in many other countries, the Outward Bound centre in Singapore has the distinction of having an 'Excellent' rating for expertise, facilities and safety...
(OBS) was established in 1967 at Pulau Ubin, by Dr Goh Keng Swee, while the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) opened its 30-hectare site located between Kamupung Bahru and Kampung Noordin.
On June 3, 2005, the Singapore Government ordered that all the farmers rearing poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
on the island were to ship them to mainland Singapore
Pulau Ujong
Pulau Ujong or Singapore Island is the main island of the island country of Singapore. It forms the majority of the island country in terms of area and population...
and rear them in government-approved farms by June 17, 2005, in the wake of the avian influenza. In exchange, the local inhabitants were offered HDB government housing packages, although they could choose to live on the island.
Current situation
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
development, concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
buildings and tarmac
Tarmac
Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
roads.
Pulau Ubin's wooden house villages and wooden jetties, relaxed inhabitants, rich and preserved wildlife, abandoned quarries and plantations, and untouched nature make it the last witness of the old "kampong" Singapore that existed before modern industrial
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
times and large-scale urban development.
The Singapore Government's development projects on the island in the last few years has been controversial and debate has been able to find its way through government-controlled media. So far ideas to build public housing on the island connected to Singapore island via undersea tunnels carrying MRT
Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)
The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore, spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang Station and Toa Payoh Station, opened in 1987 establishing itself as the second-oldest metro...
lines have remained on the urban planners' drawing boards. Although the government has highlighted the area for future development, the island is unlikely to be urbanised because many foreign tourists visit Ubin and it has become a tourist attraction.
Though recent government action has been limited to widening the paths for bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
s, building shelters for trekkers and other facilities for the growing number of visitors, it is already discreetly changing the face and nature of Pulau Ubin from untouched to planned, and paving the way for further developments.
In 2007, the Singapore Government decided to reuse the Granite Quarry in Pulau Ubin because Indonesia might restrict exports of granite to Singapore.
The future of the island is in the hands of Singapore Government, which may postpone its development in order to concentrate on re-developing existing space on Singapore island and nearby Pulau Tekong. For now, Pulau Ubin is a haven as a former rural way of life will most likely disappear with its last "kampong" generation passing.
There are a few tarmac roads on Pulau Ubin but most roads are gravel. There are a number of minibuses, jeeps and motorbikes on the island, all bearing PU (for Pulau Ubin) numbered plates.
Schools visit Pulau Ubin for overnight school trips. Although the locals try to keep the island un-urbanized, they need some small boosts of money to support them.
Hornbill Conservation Project
Nanyang Technological University
Nanyang Technological University is one of the two largest public universities in Singapore with the biggest campus in Singapore and the world's largest engineering college. Its lush 200-hectare Yunnan Garden campus was the Youth Olympic Village of the world's first 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in...
, and researchers Marc Cremades and Ng Soon Chye, implemented the Hornbill Conservation Project to aid in the breeding and recovery of the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) which had previously went extinct in Singapore but has since started to re-establish itself in places like Pulau Ubin and Changi.
Hornbills require tree cavities to nest in. However, tree cavities of sufficient size to accommodate the female hornbill and her young are not common in Singapore. The implementation of artificial nest boxes at Pulau Ubin and Changi have been successful and video cameras are even installed within the nest boxes to provide a better understanding of the behavioural and feeding patterns of these birds.
Seahorse Monitoring Project
Since May 2009, the National Biodiversity Centre, together with volunteers from National Parks BoardNational Parks Board
The National Parks Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government.The National Parks Board is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore. NParks manages around 300 parks, the park connector network and the roadside greenery in Singapore...
and nature groups such as Wild Singapore and TeamSeaGrass, intiated a project to monitor identified populations of Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda
Hippocampus kuda
Hippocampus kuda, also known as the common seahorse, is a member of the family Syngnathidae of the order Syngnathiformes. The common sea horse is a small, equine-like fish, with extraordinary breeding methods. Greeks and Romans believed the seahorse was an attribute of the sea god Poseidon/Neptune,...
) and Pipefish (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) in several locations including Pulau Ubin for conservation management purposes. The data gathered will help to estimate the population size, growth rate of individuals and track their movements in their natural habitats.
Local tourism
Though the island attracted attention for development and planning only in recent years, Singaporean visitors have been visiting Pulau Ubin for summer campSummer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
s and outdoor activities for many years.
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, the flow of visitors to Pulau Ubin has increased over the years.
One of the current popular tourist attractions on the island is Chek Jawa
Chek Jawa
Tanjong Chek Jawa is a cape and the name of its 100-hectare wetlands located on the south-eastern tip of Pulau Ubin, an island off the north-eastern coast of the main island of Singapore...
. A previous coral reef
Coral reef
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
5,000 years ago, Chek Jawa can be said to be virtually unspoilt, with a variety of marine wildlife comparable to other islands, such as sea hare
Sea hare
The clade Aplysiomorpha, commonly known as Sea hares or Sea Bags , are medium-sized to very large Opisthobranchia with a soft internal shell made of protein...
s, sea squirts, octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
es, starfishes, sand dollar
Sand dollar
The term Sand dollar refers to species of extremely flattened, burrowing echinoids belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are known as sea biscuits...
s, fishes, sponge
Sea sponge
Sponges are animals of the phylum Porifera . Their bodies consist of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. While all animals have unspecialized cells that can transform into specialized cells, sponges are unique in having some specialized cells, but can also have...
s, cuttlefish
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....
es and nudibranch
Nudibranch
A nudibranch is a member of what is now a taxonomic clade, and what was previously a suborder, of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shell after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms...
es.
Visitors may travel to Pulau Ubin from the main island of Singapore via a 10-minute bumboat
Bumboat
A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore. Originally referring to a scavenger's boat, the name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe - "boomschuit" , and "boat"....
ride from the Changi Village
Changi Village
Changi Village is a modern village at the north-eastern end of Singapore. The Government of Singapore has pledged in 2005 that they would try to revive the "ghost town".-Hotel:...
jetty. In 2008 the one way ticket price was increased from S$2.00 to S$2.50 per passenger. Every bumboat can carry 12 passengers and the captain will wait till his boat has reached the maximum capacity. People who do not want to wait can pay S$30.00 for the whole bumboat and leave without waiting.
The rental price for bicycles range anywhere from S$2.00 to S$20.00 (for the entire day) depending on the condition of the bike, number of gears etc.
Pulau Ubin is a time tunnel into the 1960s, when electricity is from stand-alone diesel-operated generators and drinking water is drawn from wells. This is a scene familiar to the post-WWII baby boomers. Those born after them get to observe life during the kampung era of their parents and grandparents.
Mountain biking
Pulau Ubin is home to one of Singapore's best mountain bike trails, Ketam Mountain Bike ParkKetam Mountain Bike Park
Ketam Mountain Bike Park is the latest addition to Singapore's mountain bike trails. It was recently opened to public in May 2008. Entry to the bike park is free of charge....
which was built in 2007. The trail is approximately 8 kilometers long and features a wide range of terrain ranging from open meadows to thick jungle. There are numerous steep but short climbs and descents. The trail is well-marked with signs indicating the difficulty level of each section.
The vast majority of the mountain bikers that ride this trail bring their own bike, although the rental bikes on the island can also be used.
In Popular Culture
- MediaCorpMediaCorpMedia Corporation of Singapore, better known as MediaCorp, is a group of commercial media companies in Singapore, with business interests in television and radio broadcasting, interactive media, and, to a lesser extent, print publishing and film-making....
filmed a Channel 8 television drama called My Teacher, My Friend in 1999 about the lives of students in the primary school that used to exist on Pulau Ubin.
- Mediacorp filmed a Kids Central (now OktoOktoMediaCorp okto is a television channel in Bestway Building, Singapore, managed by MediaCorp TV12, which was officially launched on 20 October 2008 hence replacing the SPH MediaWorks Channel i, Kids Central and Arts Central brands as oktoDAY and oktoNITE respectively...
) television drama series titled Ubin Boy in 2007. The plot revolves two main characters, Steven (a mainland citizen) and his cousin Ah Boy living in Pulau Ubin.
Further reading
- A Guide to Pulau Ubin, Singapore Environmental Heritage Series, Mobil Oil Singapore Pte Ltd & The Nature Society (Singapore)
External links
- National Parks Board - Pulau Ubin
- Pulau Ubin: Rustic Side of Singapore
- Pulau Ubin on wildsingapore latest happenings, how to get there, what to see and do, tips for visitors, galleries.
- Pulau Ubin,A Nature Paradise Check out a project by Hwa Chong Institution students on Pulau Ubin, must-go places highlighted, must-knows included, interactive pamphlet available for download, photo gallery!
- Ecology Asia feature on the island's wildlife - "Pulau Ubin - the last rural corner of Singapore".
- Habitatnews blog about the island - Pulau Ubin Stories.
- Peter Chou's Photos at PBase - Changi Point and Pulau Ubin.