First Step to Ubin

This morning, I woke up quite early to meet my Navy guys. This is another outing which is not planned by me. We finally get together to Ubin for our another round of cycling expedition. This time the number of cycling gang members is still the same, 5 people. However, one of the members has changed from Alvin to Potato.

Meng yong reached the meeting point one hour early. He wanted to have breakfast at the Tim Sum shop that is located beside the hotel in Changi. I reached there 25 minutes later, and had our breakfast first. Kai Yan came later at around 8.45am, Potato arrived a few minutes before the meeting time. The organiser, however, was late, and he is none other than Ming Jie, the guy who has been late for all outings so far ... Haha.

It was a $2.50 trip to the island. It was my first time there. And once you land there, you will have a lot of people asked you whether you are looking for bicycle rental. In fact, there is a whole row of bicycle rental shops! All having big "$2 whole day" signboards hanging all over the shops. But if you take a closer look, you will see the word "onwards" written in a very small font...

We rent our bikes and off the road to our first stop, Chek Jawa. There are slopes everywhere, so you need to pedal extra hard... But the good thing is, there will be a downslope right after every upslope. So is like a "Whee....!" after each upslope. The weather was quite bad. The rain started to pour as soon as we started pedalling. We were all drenched for the whole morning. Another bad thing was the tides change when we reached Chek Jawa. It was a high tide at that time... So we didn't get to see most of the mangrove creatures... After strolling through the broadway and the sight seing on the viewing tower, we went for lunch at a place called Ubin First Stop Restaurant. You cannot expect to dine in a classy restaurant like those you see in shopping malls in Ubin. All are those you see roadside stalls in Malaysia. However, in the place where we had our lunch, we could actually use Mastercard to pay our bill when we spent more than $40! The food was great.

The rain became drizzle but continued to fall, and we embarked to another place, but we ended up in a Bikers' Trail. The cycling paths are rocky and steeper. You can get to see a quarry use you cycle through that path. The quarry was fenced up, but someone had already made a hole so that we could slip through and went further in. It was very dangerous if you went in further, so I think that is why the authority closed up the place. There is also a place where bikers can practise their stunts there. We are so fascinated and ended up making fools out for ourselves. Luckily, no one passed by us to look how silly we were.

It was 3pm plus, and all decided to go back home. I think the weather was just nice back then, not too scorching hot. I quite enjoy cycling in a drizzle, but not the rain in the morning. If we are to cycle without the rain, we will all be sticky and very uncomfortable. But without the rain, the road will not be so muddy and got ourselves dirty. But then again, it will better to cycle on dry roads, but we will still be sticky... Sigh, why this world must be full of contradictions? Haha. Overall, it was a nice experience! But be sure to prepare lots of insect repellents!