Day 4 – Ubin

I don’t think I could get any itchier..

So far I’ve done really well in Singapore and not got bitten at all, until today that is.

Today I decided to visit the island of Pulau Ubin.

It was here I got attacked by bugs. I didn’t see any, but the lumps sure tell me otherwise! Tonight I am going to cake myself in tiger balm for sure!

Today was kind of fun but exhausting. I attempted to get up early but had such a broken sleep. Awoke to 10 missed calls on my phone from various numbers including Singapore ones, not so sure what that was about.

We planned to leave the hostel at 10am and whilst I was ready at that time we didn’t quite leave then, we recruited some troops and now besides me and Andrew there was now Craig from London and another friend from Frankfurt, Germany although I forget his name now, oops!

We set off to catch the MRT as far as Tampines as we needed to hit a few shops on the way there. It was from there that we then caught the bus all the way to the ferry port. Quick stop for lunch where I just couldn’t bring myself to eat anymore Asian food so I ate nothing. I don’t know how people do it! I thought I’d be able to handle noodles and rice everyday as I love it back home but it’s just too much. If anything I’m getting food homesickness!

So the rest of the guys ate whilst I drank my first sugar cane juice. This stuff is amazing. It tastes kind of like coconut juice but it’s cool how you watch them squeeze the liquid out of the bark type thing, hard to explain but pretty impressive how it works!

We had to take a boat to the island which cost just a meer $3 only and was quite a relaxing boat ride. The place looked beautiful from the boat too I was quite excited.

When we reached the island I felt like I was really back in Asia finally. Singapore is very different to the rest of Asia in the sense it is much more developed. This island is meant to show how Singapore used to be and having been to other Asian countries I can see the similarities between the lot.

I enjoyed it here but there really wasn’t that much to do here. We walked one of the trails first where we ended up going off track a little, it was cool until we got to a dead end and I presume this is the main cause of all my bites!

Afterwards I was ready to hire a bike for my favourite part of every trip normally.

Unfortunately the bike was really uncomfortable. And I don’t mean just ahh it’s not so comfy, I mean it was literally unbearable to cycle on. I cycle nearly every city I visit around the world and yes there can be some bad bikes but this takes the trophy for the worst. I’m still feeling it now for sure.

It’s a shame really because it did ruin it, I could barely cycle. Not only was the seat uncomfortable but the handles were so far forward that my arms ached like crazy. I had already exchanged the bike once so I just put up with it after that but only for an hour or so before turning in. I managed to cycle a measly 9km with a small walk up the large hill on the island to see the views. This really took it out of me and now I’m exhausted!

The island is cool but again not really much to see, may be best spending more time on the island and cycling all around the place.. If you can get a comfortable bike that is!