Pulau Ubin

Pulau means island in Malay, and Ubin means stones. 

Pulau Ubin means the island of stones, and it is one of the larger satellite islands  northeast to the main island Singapore. We went there on October 9th via ferries at Changi Point Ferry terminal.

The white dash line in the map is the route for the small ferries, which are operated by private operators; each carry 12 persons. The ferry has no schedule, a boat will launch when there are 12 passengers waiting in the line. It takes 10 minutes to get to the jetty on Pulau Ubin.

This stretch of Johor Strait is very beautiful, clean green water with the densely wooded rocky shore of Pulau Ubin on the other side of the Strait from Singapore. We only visited a small portion of the island on foot, Sensory trail, Pekan Quarry, Bukit Puaka and Butterfly Hill. 

Sensory Trail

When we got off the small ferry, we took the right side sensory trail to start our visit to the island. It is a less travelled path, quiet, with access to a beautiful beach, and a tranquil pond. The down side of the trail, is that there are many bugs and few people, we became of victims of bugs!

rocky shore at Pulau Ubin

jetty at Pulau Ubin

A beach on the island from Sensory trail

The sensory trail pond

Sensory trail pond  - another view

Pekan Quarry

After the sensory trail, we went to the exquisite Pecan Quarry lake. It is also a lake favored by herons and egrets. The lake is fenced off except the look point. The most beautiful views and pictures we took were from behind the fence!

Pekan Quarry

Bukit Puaka and Sam Adventure Lake

Bukit Puaka is a 75 meter hill overseeing Sam Adventure Lake. The trail to the hilltop, carved from dense woods, is of intermediate difficulty, rocky, uneven and pretty steep. The view from the top is amazing - blue lake surrounded by bright green densely populated trees. We found out from map that there was an access to the water level, and went to the access point. Unfortunately the lake is closed, not sure if it is due to covid or it is permanently closed.

 

Lookout point on Bukit Puaka

View of Sam Adventure lake at water level

Butterfly Hill

It is actually a garden, and does not standout from the surroundings at its entrance. But we decided to go in and took a look on the return trip to the jetty. It was a great decision - the garden was unexpectedly beautiful with many butterflies. I only caught a handful of them on camera. In the garden, a gallery of butterflies at the butterfly hill is posted on a board. It definitely would take a full day and some luck to see all of them. 

Notes

1. The island is too large for hiking. We should have rent bikes like most people visited there. Of course one might miss some bird watching or animal encounter  on bikes.

2. Pulau Ubin should be a good place for kayaking and camping. For us how to transport our kayak to the island is a logistic challenge. We saw people kayaking to Pulau Ubin from main island, 

3. We went to a hwaker center by the Changi Point Ferry Terminal on the main island. We will try restaurants on Pulau Ubin.