When I was 15, I ever realised that the calendar year will be swiftly coming to an end when Julyhits. It's true, more than half the year has passed. Soon it will be the National Day of Patriotism, exams, more exams, cold weather, that annual intense rainstorm day in November, and Christmas trees all over Orchard Road. A new year begins.
Suddenly I feel like I don't have control over much time at all.
Suddenly I feel like I don't have control over much time at all.
Perhaps, now that I have finally blown off the dust that is on my Blogger dashboard, I will try my best to make a mega update of sorts, with my thoughts on post A levels, working, uni applications, travelling, and what-not. Now I'm hit by pangs of sadness again, every time I realise I have a checklist of things I want to blog about, I regret not writing about them when events are still fresh in my head! Sigh. Sometimes I think I have a avenues for people I'm close to like my instagram and blog but I somehow never get down to posting my bigger milestones on them.
So shall I begin picking up the scraps of my life by writing about a latest adventure? :)
Recently I went on a impromptu cycling trip to Pulau Ubin with Gwyneth! I have always wanted to make a return trip to Ubin ever since OBS days there. In other words, I waited 4 years for this?
In these few months, I am really glad to get to know Gwyneth (or Gwen) better as a person. It is a great privilege to get to know schoolmates after school, because we hardly come across schoolmates unless one makes an effort to do so (which, technically, also meant that the relationship was more than an acquaintanceship to start with) Thank you Gwen, for not ending up as a face I merely passed by in school. There is nobody else I rather have winged this trip with.
Ubin is a beautiful place. During OBS, we start and end our trip at their designated ports, and there is an allocated space on the island for the campus. This time, we experienced it from a public point of view - boarding at the Changi Ferry Terminal and visiting the main village on the island. Making my way to the ferry point was easy as we have been to the vincinity many times for choir chalet. Brings back really fond memories of those days when we played cards or cycled into the night and played lots of station games and had BBQs which may or may not have failed sometimes. Now that most of our social activities have evolved to become merrymaking around a beer, or clubbing with booze, I realised that our concept of fun is indeed more simple in the past, where our innocence enables us to find ways to occupy our time anyway. Adulthood complicates things. So don't rush into growing up, don't ever feel that things are cooler on the other side. Take your time to come here because once you're here you won't be able to want out.
The main village is a tranquil place, as it is not that bustling during a weekday. I really like the kampung vibes that was present in the place. Shopkeepers are sitting around, bicycle vendors trying hard to earn the business of the only two girls who look like they came on a cycling mission. After getting our bikes, we were ready to go!
Ubin was actually not as big as any of us remembered/imagined. Honestly, you reach places after barely 10 minutes of cycling. I told Gwen that the place I really set out for was this quarry that my OBS watch went during our land expedition. I remember that we were all sorts of shag from carrying those heavy ass bags, that when we saw some groups had the chance to jump into the crisp clear waters of the quarry, we were so envious. Nonetheless, we had the chance to trek up the hill and reach the highest point of ubin where we were greeted with great views (if you scrolled to my long-ago post about OBS, I wrote about what we did at the peak.... Hahaha... my God!)
Until I realised there are like a hundred over quarries on Ubin itself. OK, it's an exaggeration, but I really no idea which elusive quarry it is that remained on its pedestal in my memories??? THAT WAS UPSETTING.
We first cycled to the west part of the island. We eventually reached some Mountain Biking Trail space, which bore some really pretentious marking points like "Diamond Trail", "Double Black Platinum sounds-difficult Trail" or whatever, and we thought ok, why not give it a shot.
Then we realised that it is literally just one barren path in the middle of a grass patch (which I am really inclined to describe it as a vast field), and the path was literally the width of a bicycle wheel. Clearly, as we struggled to even ride in a straight line on a slight incline, this path was not meant for biking noobs like us.
To add fuel to the fire, we were attacked by ants the moment we got off our bikes to push it instead. Somehow despite the fact that people wore shoes, these pesky things can find their way in and be sandwiched between the socks and the shoes or they go straight for the kill at the ankles.
We had lots of fun at this area of Ubin - we walked around this bike stunting park and visited the German Girl Shrine. We also walked past many OBS groups and they look so tired and sad :( I hoped they will have a long sleep come the last day of their camp and carry away the fonder memories like we did. As we left the quarry, there was a downward slope and a left turn at the end of the slope. And let's just say I fucked up my biking real bad. My bike sped down that slope and I mean I tried to turn and maybe I was kinda a pussy at the same time and also already realised I am going to lose control and die and somewhat accepted my imminent death.........? as I crashed into the bushes in front of me and got flung into the muddy swamps.
Surprisingly, I was really calm during the whole speeding and crashing thing, partly because I reached a state of nirvana, but also because that was way too similar a moment previously where I got flung from my bike but fell on concrete floor instead (and then attended law camp with a very colourful left eye, guess that is another story for another time.) I recalled all those times when my mother would nag that my motor skills suck balls as she applied copious amounts of Zam Bak onto my aforementioned left eye. So I am pretty sure that circa noon time on a cloudy wednesday, my mother felt a drop in her heart which could very well be the disappointment of a very uncoordinated daughter right there. Gwyneth's first reaction was to laugh as she shouted "OMG XY??" and rushed to get me out of the mud. Ok, I admit that I felt ashamed to have crashed into a bush. But on the bright side, falling into mud meant that I was hardly injured, just utterly messy. Thank God I had water and wet tissues to clean myself... and the mud makes your skin feel smoother, can confirm.
On our way back we passed by Puaka Hill and decided to give it a climb upwards. And if you happen to look for a certain memory of a summit where you get to view SG, Malaysia and a Ubin quarry from the same viewpoint, then yes, this is the very hill which you may have climbed years ago as a jaded camper. I was a happy girl :) we stayed at the top for a while and just admired the blue of the quarry and crawled over the fence (mostly we just chickened out and climbed back really quickly).
We next proceeded along to Chek Jawa wetlands which is on the east side of the island. On our way there we stopped at the orchard and caught a wild boar lurking in the distance, which was really cute. While we were there, we mused how barely anytime ago, the entire Singapore was just the forested landscape we saw before us. It was a sharp contrast from the planned roads, colourful HDBs and urban environments we see today. I had a wave of newfound appreciation for our remarkable standards of development.
The next leg of our route was though a canopy and Gwen cycled ahead of me (I wonder why lol) when out of a sudden a small cutie boar ran across the path in front of her. We were far from hitting it, but it was still a surprise that made us both slow down. As we did, I noticed that there was a huge boar that was lurking beside a tree about ten meters ahead of us. Believe me, it was HUGE. Like it-can-eat-both-of-us-alive kind of huge.
And then it turned its head, slowly, to look at us.
You know how if you meet a near-death experience once, it puts things into perspective on whether you can expect yourself to live through another situation? Well whatever, because what the hell?? A boar?? We didn't dare to move at all because the fear is real. And I told Gwen that in the grand scheme of things, giving Chek Jawa a miss is worth it if it means we make it out of Ubin alive. She said we should just cycle quickly across, I replied that it might just trigger the boar to charge after us and then we die for sure lmao. Tension hung thick in the air as we stared the large boar who only stood rooted, while still looking at us. Perhaps, I somewhat believed in the goodwill of the boar and thought it should likely be harmless, as I started to wheel the bike towards it. We eventually pushed our bike slowly past the boar, as it began to walk away. It... didn't even give us a second glance. I'm so sorry for the false impression, ubin wild boar :"( I am obviously not a child of nature.
Chek Jawa was so amazing. We sat down on these rocks by the shore and looked at the tekong in the distance, and admired the views on the broadwalk. We peered at the fishes which climbed up the mangrove roots, and tried to spot crabs poking in and out of its small tunnels. Even though we didn't catch a low tide, we didn't meet anyone else at all during the weekday evening. Having the place to ourselves was a serene experience. My favourite was climbing up the wooden tower structure to oversee the entire shoreline, and catch an occasional plane or two landing in the distance.
We made our way back and we were so friggin tired we just said screw it and just disembarked and pushed our bicycles up the slopes. Since we haven't had lunch, we had an early dinner at Changi V and I also caved into temptation and bought an Oreo Shake which reminded me so much! of! primary! school! bubbletea! shop!! At night, Gwen followed me one round around Daiso as I picked out some things I needed for my impending move into my dorm as she took note of what she wanted to buy. It was a fulfilling day and my heart is full. Ubin, I hope you remain a place untouched by modernity. There is beauty and there is purpose to preserve such a place alongside the city that is our country.
