granite island

really, how many of us actually know that in malay, granite island translates to pulau ubin... well, visited the island today with my bee bee and was surprised by the amount of changes! ok, ok, to be fair, the last time i visited the place was in 1990 as part of my botany class to map out the vegetation of the island and changes are therefore to be expected. but oh my gawd!!! it's been 17 years! the ubin i knew and had visited on many of my younger year's weekends had active granite quarries, curfew timings due to explosions (in the quarries), kampongs teaming with activities, etc!

today, altho things are still rustic, i cannot help but feel that things in the island have changed tremendously! there are signs of modernity as shown in the nparks signboards, the hsbc conservation center, the many huts, sign-postings, etc etc... and the main trunk roads have actually been widen and tarred! and kid me not, i actually see bangla workers sweeping (ok, ok, using the air leave blowers) the roads clean! can you imagine that?! banglas cleaning leaves off nature trails! unique singaporely lor! but sadly, i do notice the demise of the kampong folks and the kampong lifestyle... those who remained are in their golden years and perhaps will leave the island (read - this world) in a couple of years. nonetheless, we were greeted by chinese wayang, altars for the seventh month celebration/ prayers, etc.

it was fun cycling around but to me, i would say our greatest takeaway was the sighting and hearing the cackling of the oriental pied hornbill, watching the pink crested pigeon pick berries from the tree, watching a monitor lizard run across our path and hearing crowing of the red jungle fowl (that is the nice term, i call it the jungle cock)!

not a bad trip after all :-)

image downloaded from http://www.answers.com/topic/pulau-ubin