Mou Tuck Deng 无得顶: May 2013

My 1st visit to Pulau Ubin 乌民岛 was in 1960. I was in secondary one. My senior Mr Wong Ah Heng 王亚兴 who was the River Valley Secondary School 立化中学 scout 童子军 group leader invited a few of the scout members to his house. He lived in Pulau Ubin. I remember there was a primary school with a basket ball court near his house. The school and the basket ball court were no longer there now. I re-visited Pulau Ubin 54 years later on 1st May 2013 with my daughter. The big improvement I noticed was the Changi Point jetty terminal and the Pulau Ubin jetty terminal. The old jetties were constructed in timber and were less stable. The new terminals and the jetties were constructed in reinforced concrete. There are police officers and x ray security screening at the Changi Point jetty terminal to take care of the main land security matter.
We checked the web site gothere.sg to find out the train and bus ride to Changi Point. We left home around 10.30 am and took the MRT from Kovan station to Seng Kang station. We bought bread and mosquito repellent spray at Compass Point shopping mall as back up and took the bus 109 at Seng Kang East Road to Changi Point. On the return trip, we took bus 109 from Changi Point bus terminal and transferred to bus service 81 at Pasir Ris Avenue 1.
We had lunch at Changi Point hawker centre around 12 noon before we queue for the ferry. The fare is $2.50 per person. The skillful boat captain is a one man show. The uncle will collect the ferry fare and operate the boat single handed. There were many visitors. Business was good on week ends and public holidays. The boat is licensed to carry 12 passengers.
There are sea food restaurants, coffee shops, bicycle rental shops near the jetty of Pulau Ubin. For those who wanted to relax, they can hire a van to bring them around. Some people preferred to cycle. We decided to take a walk to Chek Jawa Wetlands (3.3km from the jetty). By walking, we can have time to look at the scenery and take more photos along the way. Pulau Ubin perspective view is different from the Singapore main land. There is no modern sky scrapers in Pulau Ubin. Its rustic look resembled Singapore 55 years ago. Such Kampong (village) look can only been found in Main land Neo Tiew Road. There were only a few wooden houses with zinc roofing left. I read the recent news and understood that these houses were sitting on state land. The Land Office is going to levy TOL (Temporary Occupation License ) fee to the house owner. The fee charge will be in accordance with the land size they occupied.
The Chek Jawa Wetlands visitor centre was official launched by Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development on 7 July 2007. The architecture is Tudor style. The cottage was built in 1930 as a holiday retreat by the then Chief Surveyor Mr Landon Williams. It was restored by URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) in 2003 as the visitor centre. The Mangrove and the board walk is near the Chek Jawa Wetland visitor centre. We spent time to explore the area. We had a good view on top of a viewing tower before back tracking to the jetty. The weather was bad. We were caught in the heavy rain and were drenched. We stopped for coffee break at Changi Point before heading home.