I know, two consecutive days, two posts? My productivity amazes even me :) So, a short update on the boring stuff, then the gripping tale of Pulau Ubin, isle of mysteries!
1. I had to get my visa to go to Vietnam today. It cost SGD$160. Boo, is what I have to say to that. Virtually every other SE Asian country has a visa-on-arrival program, where, upon arriving, you present your passport, pay $20 or so, and they hand you a visa. Not Vietnam. It has to be done in advance, at the embassy, and it's $160. One gets the sense that Vietnam could do fine without American tourists thankyouverymuch. It makes me even more determined to go there, be American, and behave myself. When I was a teenager and I went abroad, I always said I was Canadian and did everything I could to conceal my American-ness. Now, I understand how important it is to tell people who you really are, and then be a good example. Yes, they will roll their eyes at you at first. Be bold. Prove them wrong with your good manners and appreciation of their culture. It will be worth it. You might even get a "high five, Miss US Lady. Obama!"
2. I am still making Chinese New Year plans. It is a huge deal here, lasting about two weeks. The first two days are a national holiday, with banks/schools/etc closed, so I have two days off of school. Predictably, all flights have shot up astronomically, which is super lame. Undaunted, Lisa and I are considering a bus tour of neighboring Malaysia. Or not. Hard to say. (this, along with so it goes and for now, is another of my new favorite expressions.)
3. I am hard at work on a long-percolating creative writing project (I hesitate to call it a new novel because A. it sounds pretentious, and B. that would imply I have more than two pages, which I don't) and I have crafted an essential part of it-the epic moodwriting playlist. No big deal...
4. TOM IS COMING TO VISIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He booked his ticket today. I just can't keep it together I'm so excited. I feel so lucky and grateful and happy. I have missed him SO MUCH and I can't WAIT til he gets here March 4! Hooray!!!! Wahoo!!! Yeehaw!!!
So, Pulau Ubin is a small island (Pulau is the Malay word for island) off the coast of Singapore that beongs to Singapore. It's interesting because it is what Singapore looked like before it was developed/gentrified. People have very mixed feelings about Singapore's development, I think because it is so fresh to them. Whereas we'd have to go back to the Industrial Revolution to find virgin American forests, people are still alive here who remember life as it used to be (the development started in earnest during the 1960s). One the one hand, there has been a spike in prosperity to match the towering skyscrapers, but on the other hand, native customs and the old way of life (and arguably Singapore's Eastern identity) has been lost. Not so in Ubin. Because it is so small, there has not been any development over there. About 100 villagers live in the kampong, or rural neighborhood. They fish and rent bikes to tourists mostly. There's not a ton of electricity and water is pumped from wells. It's very, very cool.
Another awesome thing is that many species of wildlife that were once abundant on the mainland have been relegated exclusively to Ubin. Rare birds, monkeys, lizards, and other creatures abound. It was the promise of said creatures, as well as a desire to use our rollerblades, that drew Lisa and I out to the island. It's about a ten minute boat ride. Not a fancy ferry boat, mind you, a good old-fashioned bumboat.
I could tell this was going to be a great day.
Once we got there, we had to ask approximately five hundred people for a map. They had them at the bicycle stand, but since we were not renting bicycles (see above re: rollerblades) the bike people were showing us no love. Finally, there was a national parks stand a little bit out of town, where Lisa managed to wrangle a map out of someone napping in his office. It was immediately clear that Ubin was not the mainland. Less English speaking, less solicitousness, less flush toilets...it was raw Singapore, and not for the first time since I got here did I wish I was a little bit braver.
All fears were allayed as soon as we got on the path. There were only about three roads on Ubin (and about as many cars), so we had a fairly easy go of it looking for the way to Chek Jawa, the wetlands preserve. Dork that I am, I giggled when I read "jawa". I was like, but they live in the desert! No way will you find them in the wetlands, the sandcrawler's treads would so not make it...luckily I did not share this with Lisa. I had not been on rollerblades in several years (I bought them secondhand the day before for $15) and I was a bit worried about how it would go. I was fine! I think my time skiing has improved my balance, and I was off like a shot.
Rollerblades are very cool because you're still close to the land. We were not making a lot of noise, so we could see wildlife that other, louder tourists missed. For example, MONKEYS! We saw monkeys right in front of us. There were 5-6 of them, just walking across the path, playing with each other, and hopping into the trees. We felt like we'd been transported to some mystical jungle, which I guess in essence we had been.
Our day became a blur as we saw more animals, plants, birds, and lizards. There's a five story observation deck which overlooks the marshland. It's really quite breathtaking. I refuse to even post a picture because it just plain cannot do it justice. But it was gorgeous. We could see the mainland, airplanes, trees, wetland, birds...there were these two white birds, maybe cranes, that were chasing each other across the marsh. At intervals, the light would catch their wings just right and you could see both the birds and their white reflections on the glassy sea. It was stunning.
After the monkeys, all creature sightings were a bit of a letdown, but we did see the rare bird, the pied oriental hornbill. It is a very weird looking bird. It's on the brochure as "if you're lucky you'll see it" so Lisa and I felt quite fortunate after the monkeys to see the bird, too.
Finally, on our way out I spied a KOMODO DRAGON! It was hell to photograph, since it stays under the cover of the trees. With flash, it was all very dark. Without flash, it was too out of focus. I took about sixty pics and this is the best one. See if you can pick it out. At first, I thought it was a crocodile! It is certainly very reptillian, and it moves like a snake. Its skin was very smooth looking. Lisa said it looked like a dinosaur and I think she was right. It made me sad to think that some people keep these primeval creatures as pets. They ought to be roaming the forests! Anyway, monkeys felt less exotic for some reason than the komodo dragon. Seeing it was like peeking back in time. (it was so long-I couldn't get the whole thing in the frame!)
We reached the dock, exhausted from all our hiking and rollerblading (there are parts where you can only walk), and were privileged to witness the beautiful sunset. We came home, had a hearty dinner, and slept way later than we should on sunday morning :) All in all, one of the cooler things I've done since I've been here. How does each experience keep getting better?
Until next time, this is Singapore Sue saying, Sionara, suckers!
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