Saturday, November 17, 2007
Pulau Ubin

the church peeps had organised a trip to Pulau Ubin to have their fellowship there.. Their mission was to unravel the lost time capsule dated 3 years ago, and at the same time cook outdoors, catching fish and insects.. not to mention the expeditions, the cycling.. I, on the other hand, had guard duty the day before this event, but if there is anything that can stop this super pioneer, its definitely not sleep.

After making sure that I had 7 hours of sleep (5 during guard duty and 2 in the afternoon), I booked out with eagerness and all set for Pulau Ubin. Coincidently, it was my brother's birthday. So after I dropped my mum and bro off at the cinema to catch their Stardust (haha~! slow~) movie, I headed down to the jetty, being only 1 hour late.

Packed my bags and head out to the jetty, i was amazed that the jetty had a facelift from its former self, with stone walls and covered walkways, there was even a police security checkpoint, probably to scan any illegal items etc. Sitting on the $2 jetty, its that kinda nostalgic feelings you feel when you first sit on the same boat 12 years ago.

The island remained the way it used to be; a chaotic bicycle hub with shopkeepers offering dirt-cheap bicycle deals. Well, i soon found out why my bicycle costed me $6 for the whole day, as the chain kept slipping out of the gear teeth. Ubin seemed to be the no 1 hotspot for schools to have their cycling expedition, leadership camps and uniformed group haunts. It was also the number one place for lost tourists who have no idea why Pulau Ubin is a favourite hangout area whereby most of the place looks pretty much plain, if not dull and boring. To me, Ubin is THE place to hone my skill of cycling. Proving to be a "challenging" terrain, I blasted my way down muddy tracks, Class X roads and bitumen roads.

It was shortly after 20 mins of cycling before I bumped into the church people. Apparently, they had split themselves up into 2 groups. I was in Jeff's group, who were busy trying to catch some fishes in one of the mangrove swamp. I must applaud the younger kids in our group who had the patience to try to catch some stuff, but it was before long that we decided to make our way to our final checkpoint at Noordin Beach, Northwest of Ubin.

Noordin Beach. Brings back memories of the days when I was a Venture Recruit in my scouts unit. How we had a turn-out near the OBS campsite and had to walk to this forsaken beach. How we had to pitch our tents and huddle together in the blasting rains of August. How we had to pick whatever dry twigs we could find on the next day to cook our breakfast. I was happy to find another scout unit sharing our cooking grounds with us when we got to the beach. It seemed pretty professional for them to pitch their tents and erect a flagpole.

Until they took out their bunsen burners to cook their lunch.

WAD?!? BUNSEN BURNERS? Of all the luxury items of camping outdoor, a scout NEVER carries with him a bunsen burner. I mean, bunsen burners are for the rest of the wussy CCAs. Scouts were mend to start a fire with whatever nature provides him. The bare minimal would have been solid fuel. It was pretty ironic for us to do it the true blue Scouts ways of starting a fire and watch the real scouts cook their food with science apparatuses.

After lunch, which consisted of instant noodles, chicken franks and marshmallows, our evacuation team had located the MGR of the time capsule, with the help of a huge clue of 2 metal coils tied to the branch of the tree. In the time capsule were some written tiles done by the EPOCH youths 4 years ago. Sadly, due to the poor state of preservation, many of the historic data retrieved were incomprehensible due to the fade of the ink. We made our own time capsule, this time wrapping our materials in a ziploc bag and securing it further with 2 messtins. Burying it at the same location, I hope to return here in a few year's time.

It rained on the way back to the jetty, but I thanked God for washing the mud away from the tyres of my bicycle. It was an engaging experience with the Church youths. Though it was pity I did not have the time to check up on Chek Jawa, I felt that the 3 hours spent on the island were meaningful ones. With whatever remaining time left for the day, I spent it with the planning community and with my family to celebrate my brother's birthday with a dinner.