Pulau Ubin

            On Sunday our friends took us out to Pulau Ubin, a rustic island that’s still part of Singapore but lies just east of the main island. It was only a 10-15 minute bumboat ride but it felt like a trip back in time. We rented bikes at Pulau Ubin village and rode around through dense forest and saw lots of wildlife, including wild boars, numerous birds, mudskippers (awesome video here!), and crabs. Afterwards, we had some seafood at a restaurant in Pulau Ubin village and rode back to Singapore proper amidst a downpour. All in all, a very fun day.

Some videos:

Our first wild boar sighting

Our second wild boar sighting

Mudskippers

Mudskippers fighting

Little crabs

fishermen near the ferry

aboard the bumboat

other bumboats at the ferry terminal

looking back towards Singapore's main island

arriving at Pulau Ubin

walking into Pulau Ubin village to rent bikes

our guides

durian tree

some buildings nestled in the forest

passion fruit

lots of other bikers out enjoying a Sunday morning

lots of enormous trees

coastal boardwalk

one of several kingfishers we saw

we spent a long time watching the midskippers

lots of crab action, too

boardwalk heading into a mangrove forest

mangroves

much of the walk went through fairly dense foliage

see the crab in the center?

fruit of the Nipa palm

giant nipa palm grove, these are used to make thatched roofs

view from the top of a lookout tower

some of the wild boars we saw

and returning back into town

Chinatown and more general Singapore things

          Last week I had a late afternoon meeting downtown with another graduate student writing about Filipino musicians. We had been introduced to each other by a professor at NUS last week and he suggested that we give a talk together to the Philippine Studies Group at the Asia Research Institute next week. I worked at the National Archives in the morning and enjoyed another lunch in Ft. Canning Park with some especially vocal Oriental Magpie Robins (video here). In the afternoon, I wandered a bit through downtown to get to my meeting. Some of this walk took me through Singapore’s Chinatown (also home to the oldest Hindu temple in town). 

Some of the public housing in big buildings that we see (still very, very expensive!) 

Vocal oriental magpie robin behind National Archives in Ft. Canning Park

Old Hill Police station in downtown Singapore

Singapore River

scaffolded Victoria Theatre tower, Marina Bay Sands

walking towards Chinatown

detail of a cool building

lots of colonial-era facades

even downtown has lots of open space

Sri Mariamman Temple, oldest Hindu temple in Singapore

nearby: Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

another public housing building near the temple

and yet another juxtaposition of old and new

          We’ve enjoyed settling in to our new neighborhood, even though our departure date is rapidly approaching. There’s a delicious Indian hawker stand a few blocks away where we’ve enjoyed roti prata sets and other great meals for a very reasonable price (dinner for two for under $4 USD is possible with some of the cheaper dishes).

          On Wednesday night we celebrated my friend Hui’s retirement since she’s taking on a new exciting job in D.C. They have a great oven so we cooked up two pizzas for the celebratory dinner. We’re really loving the great Indian food here but it was nice to have access to a full-working kitchen and eat some freshly baked pizzas. 

a pesto, chicken, red-pepper pizza for our friend (the other one had a tomato sauce with ground beef and mushrooms)