Camping at Pulau Ubin
This was the latest situation where I waited most anxiously for sun rise. (Previous one is at Adams Peak)
Why
It's long weekend. My housemates and I wanted do something different. We had few plans for travel(Singapore is opening up after covid travel restrictions) Including Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia. But unfortunate cross country travel is still hard(due to covid restrictions) So we decided to go camping in the most rural island in Singapore, Pulau-Ubin.
Preparation
Charged the Camera. Packed few clothes, foods and off we go.
Journey to Pulau-Ubin.
We get into the bus around 4pm(plan was to start at 2pm). Reached Changi Beach Point at 5pm. Had food, did shopping(mainly drinking water and more food). Got into to ferry close to 7pm. It charged 48 SGD for the ride. Us 5 were the only passengers. After some 20 minutes we landed at Pulau-Ubin.
Finding a camp site.
We rented bikes(6 SGD each) and went to the closest camp site. It was almost full. Then proceed to the next closest one.(about 2.5km away) Plan was to get there by nightfall. Which we failed to. As it was already dark after 10 minutes we started riding. Eventually we got to the campsite, After only witnessing a wild boar crossing the road. (We also passed some closed down old houses too)
But alas, The camp site is closed. No option but to return to the 1st camp site(in dark) We didn't see any more wild boars. (Guess it was impossible to see the boars given we hardly saw the road we were riding). Or anything else interesting. We reached to the 1st campsite, and choose the hut at the farther end of the campsite. And noticed everybody else have bought tents!!!
Camping.
We unpacked our stuff at the hut and observe what fellow campers are doing. Which was hard due to darkness. Time was around 9pm I guess. Some people were trying fix camps and hammocks. Some were cooking in camp fires. We tried to find some dry wood(which turns out to be impossible) to make a fire. We later found out there are designated fire pits, with a supply dry wood. Then we tried to fix our hammock, After some struggle we managed to. But getting into the hammock and relaxing wasn't possible. Because the ropes which held the hammock to poles tend to slip along the poles. So we put the bags into hammock, And try to sit/lie on the short walls of the hut. Time was around 10pm now. With 8 more hours until the sunrise, we noticed some kind of insect started having us for the dinner. Couldn't be mosquitoes because those didn't has that annoying noise. (By now we were regretting the decision to camp)
Camp fire.
After 10.30 fellow campers (like good Singaporeans) stopped what they were doing and got into tents to sleep. Which was not an option for us since we didn't have a tent. After some more minutes(felt like hours) we gathered around a recently vacated fire pit and relit it. Fire made the atmosphere more lighter and discouraged the insects. But there were 7 more hours until the first boat out.
Until 7am
We discovered it's just impossible to sit around a fire for 7 hours, so we thought about checking out if the shops in jetty area is still open. They were closed. But we met a drunk woman who said we were cute and asked to join us. Unfortunately which we didn't understand. So we said no. Which made her quite unhappy(And us after we figured what's the question was). We went to the jetty and watch people fishing.
Russian Musician
Came back to the out camp fire to find 2 guys singing and playing guitar there. Who turned out to be one guitarist + singer and his friend. Guitarist is a Russian student and he could play German and English songs as well as Russian songs. His friend was from US. Singer would give out a explanation after every song he sang. We sat and listened for a while. Then we started talking, about politics Russian started blaming Putin(for attacking Ukraine), US, Biden(for supporting Ukraine) and we(not to be outdone), our president. This went for a while and they went to sleep around 4am, After bidding us good night.
Morning
We tried to catch some sleep. And around 5.30am packed out stuff and came to jetty. And tried to nap there. First boat was due at 7am. Soon another camper joined us at the jetty. As there is still some time left for the boat, I with a friend, went to see if the shops are opened. Which they were and we had a hot tea there, It started raining by the time we finished the tea. Around 6.45am friends stayed at jetty called us saying a boat is coming. So we went back to jetty in the rain and got in to the boat. There were 6 passengers in the boat. Passage back to mainland was uneventful though the sea was rough.
Getting home
Once got off, Booked a taxi. Got home. Showered. Had food. Slept.