Pulau Ubin

I took photographed this old lady at the jetty. Below her picture is the old malay coffee shop that has had a new roof
put on. And below that is the view of the island from the jetty.



The two pictures below are of a small jetty and building within the main village








I woke up today and went to Pulau Ubin, grey skies,(pic below is a typical st in the village) non stop drizzle did not make for a good morning of photography but i was in the mood to do something and as Mischa was going out i decided to carry on with my little jaunt. I wasnt in the best of moods as well but i figured a nice pleasent morning would set things right.
I have a long history with Ubin, i first went there in 1985 i was 12yrs onld and my brother who was in the army had booked an SAF chalet in changi.(left-was the clinic now seafood rest) It was a friday and everyone was out and i was supposed to have gone to school but i decided not to go, taking my fathers field glasses and with $1 in my pocket of i went.(Right-Typical village buildings) Of course it was the old jetty which has been replaced twice already since then, the boat fare was 50cents one way.(Left-Stage at the main "square") I remember being pretty darn scared, firstly i didnt know anything about the place or what to expect but i decided to act like i knew what i was doing and no one would bother me.(Right-Old ladies shop, new door,roof and well pump) The boat docked at the ubin jetty which itself has been replaced twice over since then as well and off i went. The first (Left-Mum, Alison, Megan,Baba and i took shleter 3 years ago lol)that that you will notice on ubin these days is the number of bicycle rental stores but back then all you saw were motorcycles literally hundreds of them and kids that looked like they were 10yrs old we riding around on them, natives i guess. (Right-We used to call this the Kongsi house, this guy had a pet monkey)You also had an assortment of cars and pickups that acted as an unofficial taxi service, they would drive these things around until the machines died and they would just chuck them in the bush. You would be walking along some small isolated track and come up vehicles in various states of decomposition.
Anyway back to my first trip, aside from the motorcycles they were dogs, lots and lots of dogs that were roaming the streets big ones little ones all over the place. (Left-Typical house inland, approx 10yrs old)To me it seemed that when i stepped off the jetty and into the village everyone stopped and stared, of course this was prob not true but hey i was a kid.
That first time i didnt walk very far, just around the village and a short distance along the road. I spent maybe two hours there, mainly because i was scared stiff..thought i was going to be attacked by a pack of dogs or hacked to death by some weirdo.(Below Right-House on stilts as seen from village) Two hours, that was all it took for me to get bitten by the ubin bug, over the next 10 to 15 years i was to return as many times as possible, camping, cycling or just to walk around. (Below Left-Typical road, used to 50% dirt 50% gravel)I became familiar with some of the old buildings and even a few of the people, i watched the island change from a rustic, quiet, clean place to a busy, some times dirty place where bike rental and sea food seem to be the mainstays of life. Lots of buildings have disappeared, the old school is gone now, the clinic which was open only a couple of days a week and even then only for a few hours is now a seafood center. Alot of the old small houses rotted away and returned to the ground. Sad? in away when things like that are lost they cannot be remade, not the same way. The old man(sold fish on tuesdays fresh from the sea) that ran the malay coffee shop in the village is gone as well, his wife is still there though i doubt she would have any recollection of me.
Many happy memories, of the guys of our adventures our long talks and long walks of campfires and maggi mee, of swimming, night walks, laughing always laughing. They say an average child under laughs 160 times a day while an adult laughs only 16 times, whats missing in our lives or as the song goes "maybe they have a better understanding"
(The asian-pied-hornbil, was too good to miss, pity i only had a 50mm lense would have been good shots)





All pics have been resized. some have been edited for the heck of it. i took some of the pics in black and white.If you notice any typos please email to darshansingh@changiprison.com