Biking in the Rain @ Pulau Ubin

Carly, a colleague from Canada, is in Singapore for the month, so we played tour guide and brought her to an island called Pulau Ubin, which is one of the few non-modern spots in Singapore. We decided to go biking there one Sunday afternoon.

It looked like it was going to rain that day, and I wasn’t sure if we should push through, but everyone was still up for it despite the ominous clouds in the sky. “Let’s try going anyway. What’s the worst that could happen?” she said. This Carly is cool.

So Mike drove us to the Changi Point Ferry Terminal where we rode a bumboat for about S$2.50 each. The ride took only 15 or so minutes. When we reached the island, we saw a storm brewing from a distance, there was a cyclone-like thing in the sky. It hadn’t reached us yet.

We walked around and found a bicycle rental shop which also offered rain ponchos for sale at 2 bucks. The bike rental was 6 bucks. The rain wasn’t too bad yet, so we put the ponchos in my backpack and pushed off.

Now the last time I had gone biking here, I flew off my bike and ended up with bloody knees. I was so scared of that happening again, so I was extra careful on the rain-slicked roads. I had told my companions about that, and Gui, an avid biker, said that it was probably because I had used the brakes wrongly. “When you brake, you should use both the front and back, otherwise your bike will go – ” at this point he demonstrated a bike flipping over with his hands.

See, I didn’t even know that bikes had two brakes. So I bore this info in mind and gripped my hand brakes so hard, my hands hurt a lot more than my legs at the end of the day. Paranoid much. LOL.

After a while, the rain caught up with us, so we got off our bikes to put on our ponchos before pedalling on.

The picture below is not us, but other people. We weren’t the only crazy storm chasers biking around the island in ponchos. We were glad we bought them, because they actually kept us a bit warm.

But the rain grew a lot worse, so when we reached a shelter, we decided to sit it out for a bit. We had not brought any plan b stuff, so the guys walked into a nearby store and bought some snacks and a pack of cards. We sat down on the ground and Guohao and Mike taught us how to play a chinese game called big 2, which seems similar to a game called pusoy dos in the Philippines.

After 2 rounds, the rain started to let up, so we got on our bikes again. We ended up at this place overlooking a gorgeous view of a lake and a quarry. The last time I had been there, the sky was blue, so it looked more beautiful. This time around the lake could only mirror the dark clouds above. But it was still a beauty. See for yourself.

We cycled away from the place and found a strip of beach just in time for a glorious sunset.

Here is a group shot of everyone, thanks to Guohao’s amazing talent at taking group selfies.

We decided to head back before the sun disappeared completely. We returned our bikes, but still kept on seeing one picturesque scene after another.

Then we road the bumboat back to the main land.

Upon landing, we walked to the nearby Changi Village Food Centre and had the tourists (okay, so Gui isn’t really a tourist, but is new here) try their famous nasi lemak and a few other dishes.

They loved the nasi lemak, but were not too happy about the desserts, which were mostly weird stuff on shaved ice. Carly was especially not happy with the durian flavour, which she had talked about wanting to try because she kept on hearing about it. Haha.

As if that wasn’t tiring enough, we took a walk to explore the nearby beach, where we found a wandering child who ran towards the main road. I told Guohao to tackle him before he got hit by a vehicle. We eventually found his parents whom we wanted to give such a scolding for not paying attention to their kid, what the hell.

After that Mike drove us to Tampines mall, and while he went on home, the rest of us walked around the mall. Then we finally had enough and called it a day.