Pulau Ubin: Back in time on this off-grid island! (Singapore)

Pulau Ubin: Back in time on this off-grid island! (Singapore)

Look at what we stumbled across. Welcome back to another beautiful day in Singapore. We are exploring another one of Singapore’s islands that is not Sentosa today. And our question is, how far away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore can you get in only a

15-minute boat ride? We think the answer is here in Pulau Ubin. We have a loose plan for today. We’re going to start by exploring the main village, eating some lunch while we’re still here. Then we’re going to pick up a bicycle and bike along the

Sensory trail before we head to the tip that’s sort of closest to Changi Airport. I’m really excited to see what the village is like. I heard that it’s a very traditional way of life and I’m excited to see it. I had read online that the main village was small.

That’s no joke. You can walk around it in about five minutes. And if you need to get beyond that, it seems like bicycles are the primary mode of transportation. There are cars here, just not very many. Most people seem to be biking by. That’s why we’re renting them later. Yeah.

Well, we have found a cafe that’s opened and when we were here a year ago, everybody said to us, “You have to try the chili crab.” So that’s happening today. One of us is more excited about it than the other one because I don’t do well with

Spice, but we’re going to try it. Spicy food is amazing. I don’t know what her problem is. And we have an amazing setting overlooking the water. I’m really excited about this and super excited to try the crab even though I think it’s going to

Knock my socks off. I hope it does. I ordered something at the Singapore Zoo of all places. It’s this amazing noodle dish with this delicious egg gravy. I was told that it was common, but I’ve been looking for it all over Singapore. I

Found it on the menu here, I think. This was such a satisfying dish. I am delighted to be having it again. I’ve been talking about it for a year. I’ve tried finding it in Minnesota back in the United States and I have not been able to find

Anybody that has anything like this. I might have to resort to cooking it myself. I absolutely love this dish. I think it’s delicious. I love it. The chicken is a ground chicken. There’s some spring onions. It looks like there’s some spinach in here, some onions, something flat that I have no idea

What it is. It could be a potato. I’m not really sure. It has egg in it as the base of the gravy. And that’s not very common, at least where we’re from. I think it’s just fantastic. Now we need to try the main event, the chili

Crab. The arms and the pincer. Then the bodies, normally for me, I just squeeze it. And then you suck it. There’s the meat inside. You can see that here. Okay, thank you very much. I don’t know whether it will do that because there’s a couple of spines there.

There you go. I’m gonna crack it up and down on the leg. You’re cracking. I don’t know if I’m making any progress. Unfortunately, the audio failed during the chili crab main event. What we can tell you is that even Bill said, “The sauce is really spicy,” which

Meant I once again tried to react to spice like a normal person, which I totally succeeded at. The crab meat itself was absolutely delicious and slightly sweet. And we’ll just have to try it again next time. That was really great. Got to try chili crab and Heather got that dish that she’s

Been looking all over for (Hor Fun). What was really amazing, what was what happened after we were done eating, our neighbors were eating some fresh, very local durian. We’re just gonna show you how that went. Our kind neighbors have given us some

Durian to try. So, first time trying durian. I’m sure this will go well. All right. This is a good one, right? Yes. You see we finished everything. Try a little bit of a flash. Is the flesh the outside? Yes. It’s a little sweet. It’s an onion custard. Go for it. Mmmm. Onion custard.

I think she doesn’t really like it. That is actually not bad. Aren’t you surprised? I am shocked. I mean, the aftertaste is lingering, but it tastes better than I thought it would. Really? It is kind of an acquired taste. Yeah, we had stinky tofu in Taiwan a few months ago. [ugly face]

It was not great, but durian now doesn’t smell bad because stinky tofu. It’s much, much, much worse. Yeah, but this is not as bad as I expected it to be. Isn’t it his turn now? I can taste the fruitiness of it. I’m shocked. It’s your turn now. I’m shocked.

You have to try. I’m not getting out of this. No. It smells like durian. So just a little bit of the outside? Ok. That was a good bite. Mmmm. Ah, but it gets better. Mmm. There’s hope. It’s not as bad. Okay. Don’t speak too soon. So the initial flavor was about like it

Smells, which is not great, but then a nice flavor takes over. It’s, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s just a nice- It tastes like juicy fruit gum to me. A little bit. Yeah. Except mixed with sticky socks. That’s the smell to us. Yeah. A little bit like jackfruit, which is like

That. A little bit. Yeah. It’s good. I’m going to finish it off. Heather doesn’t want it. She’s already taken her glove off. I’m going to finish it off. Fluffy. It’s good. Oh my gosh. I’m shocked. This is so shocking. Shocking development. Oh, thank you very much. Oh my gosh. That was

Actually really great. I wasn’t expecting that to be good. And what is it with Singaporeans? They just keep giving us food. That’s so nice. That has been the strangest week that has been happening to us all week. And we do not remember that happening when we were here a year ago.

It’s just been incredible hospitality by everybody that we run into. Absolutely incredible. Everybody’s so nice. Now we are off to find a bike to rent. We’re hoping to find a tandem because I don’t want to pedal today. This is the fourth bicycle shop that we’ve seen already, that’s open today.

There is no shortage of bicycles on this island. There’s a bit of construction noise where we are renting our bike from, but we found a tandem. So this is happening. We have rented bikes pretty much all over Europe and in parts of Asia. We’ve never rented a tandem bike together. Am

I able to be a backseat driver on a bicycle? What’s the etiquette for this? [almost hits the wall] We have to pedal at the same time. Based on our initial little circle that we just made, this is going to be an interesting afternoon. [screaming, laughter]

And we are on our way. We got a tandem bike so that we can film while we’re biking. When you each have your own bike, it’s really difficult. Bump. Stop pedaling. But this is difficult too. We have to pedal at the same time.

And our legs. I have no idea when he’s stopping or starting. Where am I going? Ah, to the right. Go to the right. We might have chosen poorly today. Also, I can’t really see anything. Down in front. So far, this is a very interesting and slightly difficult experience.

As the person in back, because we’re pedaling at the same time, all of a sudden I’ll be pedaling along, pedaling on, pedaling along, and all of a sudden he just stops pedaling. Weeee! And I have no warning. It’s a little difficult. But the bicycle lane is beautiful. We’re surrounded by trees and

Plants. And well, these might be lotus flowers, but it looks like it’s after they’re all done blooming, which is a bummer because look at how many there are. There are tons. The setting here is beautiful surrounded by palm trees that are swaying in the wind today, which is a nice

Wind. And we are not complaining. It feels amazing. This pond is the final stop on the sensory trail before we join one of the roads. And the road is really narrow. So we have to keep an eye out for trucks. Here’s our fine piece of machinery for

Today. Note the front person has all of the power. The back person has a handlebar that wiggles and no power except what she uses with her legs. Note how when his seat moves, so do my handlebars. No, too short. Too short. Way too short. Probably about right there. Ok.

This fine specimen of a bike cost us 20 Singapore dollars for the day. We did rent it after lunch, so in fairness, it’s like a half a day price probably. So don’t forget, we’re sharing this with trucks. We just passed the Ubin Fruit Orchard, which is possibly the source of our super

Fresh Singaporean durian that we tried after lunch. Also, the lowest gear on this bike is not enough for the hill that we just went up. I was told no hills. Lies, lies. Cold drinks sold here. A Singaporean told us at lunch that some of these roads are believed to be haunted because there

Are bicyclists who while biking mysteriously fall even when there’s no obstacles around. So he warned us to be very careful. I don’t know whether we went the right way. Okay. We are in the middle of the forest on our path and randomly came across this sign

With an identical one about 20 feet that way. Stay on track. Stay on track toward Main Village. Bicycles that way. And then there’s a sign facing the opposite way of where we came from to the Czech Java, Czech Jawa wetlands, which is where we’re headed. It’s not facing the way we

Came from. So signs here are a little bit confusing, but I think we’re going to go this way since it doesn’t have a no bicycling sign. I know that was a double negative, but it seems like you can cycle there. While we were cycling along and a

Sad bunch of people stopped at the side of the road and I thought it was because of this super cool tree. Look how tall it is. But no, there are a bunch of monkeys in the road. We have no idea what’s going on. The three or so monkeys that were

On the road have decided that they want in on whatever that is that’s going on. I’ve never heard anything like that, but then again, we didn’t have monkeys at home. They sort of all ran away when we got here. So we’re here looking at the cool

Tree. Just for a bit of scale, it’s Heather standing over there a little bit behind the tree, but this tree is absolutely massive. We actually can’t even see the top. This is the first time we’ve seen a sign for what to do when you encounter wild boars.

Well, this was our bicycling goal. Not sure how to say it. Chek Jawa wetlands. Chek Jawa wetlands. Was that thunder? It’s blue skies. Singapore’s weather is so weird. The really nice bicycle parking area, which is where we abruptly breaked when we first got here. Not a graceful stop. We’ve had a

Little challenge coordinating on these kinds of things. Oops. We can have a ton of bicycles or space for maybe 50 bicycles. Busy times must be really busy. Today there’s only maybe 10 bikes here. She always looks great before and after she fluffs. I don’t know why she fluffs all the time.

I fluffed off camera. So down at this wetland reserve, similar to what we’ve seen in other wetland reserves, there is a boardwalk that goes over the water and there’s also one through the mangroves here. I think we have time for both of them, but we’ll see. We’re heading down to the coast now.

At the start the video. We asked the question, how far away from the hustle and bustle of Singapore can you get in 15 minutes on a boat? You can get into nature, that’s for sure. But we are within sight of Changi’s airport and we’re just enjoying watching a couple airplanes land.

So the answer is both; far away and not so far. And while Bill is staring at airplanes, I’m looking at this tree that’s behind me, which is a nutmeg tree. It’s a specific kind of nutmeg that’s actually endangered in Singapore but grows all over Pulau Ubin. So this is a

Perfect place to see it and there’s berries all over the place for the nutmeg. Is that what they’re called? Nutmeg berries? Nutmeg pods? Nutmeg fruits? Anyhow, they’re all over. It’s really cool. Some are red, green, yellow. They’re beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, this boardwalk is really spectacular. Well, we spotted another eagle circling high

Above us. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see them when they’re close to us and then get the camera up there and they’re like so far away. You can hardly see those little dots circling in the background. But we saw an eagle. This is,

I think, the third place that we spotted an eagle in Singapore, which is just unexpected. I love it. We actually have quite a few eagles back in Minnesota and it just sort of is this little nod or taste from home. Every time we see one, it

Makes me think of Minnesota, which is really cool. It is the middle of the afternoon. It is high tide right now. So if seeing things in the mud when you come here. If being able to see a lot of the, I don’t know, the things that are in the mud.

If that’s important to you, you might want to check the tides before you visit Pulau Ubin because right now it’s just us and the water, which is very pleasant. But if you’re expecting to see crabs and other creepy crawly things. Creepy crawly things like I have for lunch?

Yes, like that. If you want to see those, don’t come during high tide. I’d rather see them on my lunch plate, I think. Well, yeah, wouldn’t we all? Yeah. I finally got close enough that I could capture it better. It’s not an eagle. It’s a seagull.

Spectacular seagull landing on the top of a sign. That’s what I caught. On that great disappointment, I return you to the boardwalk. All right, we are going to go through the mangrove section and we are not going to talk the entire time because we’re hoping that we can film

Some birds. So this next section is going to be a little bit quieter than we normally are. I mean, you’re welcome. I don’t know if wildlife is elusive or if we’re just really bad at spotting things. We certainly heard birds calling to each other in the distance. We heard the sound of

Mangrove fronds, leaves hitting each other. And we are hearing a lot of cicadas now at the end. So it was definitely an audio delight, but we just weren’t able to find any of the birds. I think the closest we got was a butterfly that Bill got. We were just walking to see a

Jetty before we leave this area and bike back to the main village. And look at what we stumbled across. We went looking for a jetty and ended up in England. We took a wrong turn somewhere. I knew I should have been the one driving the

Bicycle. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. I have heard it said that this is the last fireplace in all of Singapore. I have no idea if there’s any truth to that, but it is no longer used. This house is absolutely stunning.

It has been carefully restored. It is not quite 100 years old and it is just beautiful. The stonework on the outside, the woodwork on the inside, the tiles, just beautiful. It’s gorgeous. To the jetty. Look at this house. It’s beautiful. This has been a fantastic stop. I’m glad that this is the place

We decided to bike to on Pulau Ubin. Also, I just want to note, unlike stinky tofu, durian has a pleasant flavor when you burp it hours later. Stinky tofu can’t say the same. This is an outhouse within an outhouse. This is the original outhouse for the building that we were

Just in and it’s been modernized and covered to protect it from the elements. I love that they retained that. Super cool. We are headed back into town. It is said that this island is reminiscent of Singapore in the 1960s. So much so that the houses are not connected to Singapore’s electrical

Grid. Instead, they’re all run on generators, which is kind of mind blowing. Another old-timey thing about Pulau Ubin that you need to know, especially if you’re coming here, is that the ferries do not run on a schedule. The ferry operators, also called bumboat operators or bumboats, wait until their bumboat is full.

12 people is what it takes and four Singapore dollars per person. Once the boat is full, then they’ll take off and you’re on your way either back to mainland Singapore or over here to Pulau Ubin. The bad news about this is that they wait

Until the boat is full. So if you wait too long at the end of the day, then you have to pay for the entire boat yourself. So we’re trying to give ourselves plenty of time to catch a boat that has multiple people in it. Otherwise, we’ll have to

Pay for the entire thing ourselves. That’s why we’re headed back. And those are also things you need to know if you want to visit Pulau Ubin. A little bump up a hill. On really big hills, I get off and walk and Bill bikes up it. Want to ride?

We successfully made it by the monkeys and decided that just keeping moving and not filming them was probably the right thing to do today. Back in town now, I think going out had more uphill and coming back had more downhill. Well, as we were going through town, we kind of were paying

Attention to whether shops were closing or staying open. And it looked like a number of them were closing and we’ve seen some workers head to the ferries. So we’re guessing that means that most of the tourists have left. This is a banner promoting Taiwan tourism. It’s from 2014.

We just went in 2023 and it was amazing. We don’t know if we’re persons number one and two to wait for a boat if we’re lucky numbers 11 and 12. Remember, the boats won’t leave until there’s 12 people or until everybody’s paid enough for 12 people. Really unlucky would be number

12 and 13. Because the boats only hold 12 people. By Singapore law, they actually hold more people, but the bumboat operators are only able to have 12. It seems that bumboats are the official name. I didn’t really expect that. We only waited about 10 minutes. We have 12 people. Time to head back.

Well, we are back on terra firma. Pulau Ubin was a completely different experience than the islands that we went to on the last video. And I bet that where we’re going tomorrow is going to be even different than these islands. Bet you can’t guess which island we’re going to. [Thank you for watching!]

We’re visiting somewhere highly recommended by tons of people! We’re at Pulau Ubin. This is a super unique island in Singapore – it isn’t connected to the electrical grid! We decided to rent our first ever tandem bicycle (it went sort of well?). Our favorite part is how we came to try durian for the first time (finally!).

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In case you like skipping around:
00:00 Pulau Ubin, Singapore
01:06 Small harbor town
01:56 Hor Fun & Chili crab
04:25 Finally!!
08:11 Tandem bicycles are hard
11:53 Ghosts??
13:13 Really big tree
14:10 Chek Jawa Wetlands
15:30 Boardwalk
17:45 Whoops 🙂
18:11 Auditory Mangrove
19:39 England in Singapore?
20:53 To the jetty!
21:46 Taking a bumboat

#travel #singapore #pulauubin
#singaporefood #singaporeisland
#singaporevlog #singaporetravel
#singapura #durian #新加坡

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