March 21, 2002
Pulua Ubin
Man is it hot. Singapore is a friggin sauna. Breathing and drinking are the same thing here. I'm just dripping as I finish up my seafood rice and yet another Tiger.
Today's adventure is swimming through the humidity on the island of Pulua Ubin off the Northeast coast of Singapore. Maybe I'm not swimming, but it feels like it... Did I mention how hot it is? After an uneventful ride on the subway and a transfer to bus 29, I caught a "bumboat" heading out to the island. That might sound exotic, but it really isn't. The island of Pulua Ubin is the last refuge for village life in Singapore. I'll admit, it is a bit rustic out here, but I bet it's government subsidized or something. Someone or something has to be preventing the rows of apartment buildings from hopping across the narrow channel and displacing the pseudo-kampung out here on Ubin (a kampung is a native Malay village, and you see the use of my favorite word "pseudo"... I used to use the term "icon" to excess, now it's "pseudo").
If it's any conciliation, the new plan here in Singapore is to do a little land reclamation and build a nice bridge and suddenly the bumboats and the kampungs will be gone daddy gone. I think this pseudo-kampung is a bit much anyway. Cell phones and TVs haven't stopped at the causeway, so why shouldn't they whip a bridge out here?
Minus the heat, the bike ride around the island was nice. The shanties and "some" views were worth the trip. I say "some" because this, like so many of the world's beach areas, is littered with garbage, plastic, etc... Even in antiseptic Singapore the litter piles upon the shores. The Americans have one thing to be proud of, the beaches in the US, especially Hawaii, are second to none. Everywhere else I've been has not measured up... A few hotels here and there have masked the problem, but it's almost always substandard.
Pulua Ubin supports an interesting rain forest of sorts, lots of palm trees and mangroves. I saw some wildlife here and there: a few wild boars cutting through the jungle and a monitor lizard that scared the fuck out of me. After I saw that four foot long lizard I was much more careful where I ventured. Well, I'm not complaining. Pulua Ubin was a good experience. Hot, but good. I think tonight I'll check out the "Night Safari" here in Singapore. I'm told it's fascinating.
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