Singapore's rustic hideaway prepares for development
Singapore's rustic hideaway prepares for development
By Jacqueline Wong
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Pulau Ubin, an island off the northern coast of Singapore with just 600 inhabitants, is something of an alter ego to the modern, bustling city state.
A short ride on one of the low-riding, sputtering diesel boats that ply between the island and the mainland transports visitors to one of the few remaining oases of peace in Singapore.
Fruit orchards, Chinese clan and Malay kampong villages, are a siren call for those who yearn for a slower pace.
There are charming kelongs, or fishing traps, plantations and mangrove swamps, all vestiges of a bygone era.
People live simply here. They ride on rusty bicycles and in old cars, fish and grow their own vegetables and fruit.
It is a way of life that has survived on this boomerang-shaped island, about eight km long and 1.5 km wide, in spite of Singapore's relentless drive to modernize.
Nature lovers come here to bird-watch and hike, while sports enthusiasts thrash around in the bush on mountain bikes. Others simply come to relax and dine in one of Ubin's modest outdoor restaurants which serve a mix of local fare and seafood.
One attraction of Pulau Ubin for the city-weary Singaporean is the relatively wide variety of flora and fauna the island still supports.
Rumors of wild beasts on the loose in Ubin occasionally sweep Singapore, lending the island a wild edge that skyscrapers and sprawling public housing estates have long since robbed from the rest of the country.
A few months ago, police advised the public to keep away from Ubin after residents reporting spotting a tiger.
After extensive searches across the island, none was ever found, but Ubin's wilderness still provides shelter for wild boar and the Leopard Cat, larger than the domestic version.
In 1991, an elephant was reported to have swum across the Straits of Johor from Malaysia and landed on Pulau Ubin. It was later captured and returned.
Fringing the mudflats on the coast and along the rivers are mangroves, habitat for wildlife such as the Mangrove Pitta bird. "It's the only part of Singapore that resembles Singapore 40 to 50 years ago, rustic kampongs and traditional agriculture that have long disappeared," said Subaraj Rajathurai, one of Singapore's few licensed nature guides.
"There are not many places left in Singapore where one would believe a tiger could hide," Rajathurai said.
Many of the trees in the swamps have been cut for firewood or removed for prawn and fish farming by the villagers, he said.
Early settlers escaped the slums of Singapore to find land to farm on deserted and pristine Ubin. Others were brought to the island to work in commercial quarrying.
"There is only one percent of mangrove left in Singapore. The biggest patches are in Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong (a nearby island used by the military)," Rajathurai said.
The mangroves, second only to rainforests in bio-diversity, are necessary to the survival of the indigenous animals, he said. During the early part of the century, there were as many as five quarries on the island called Pulau Batu Ubin (Granite Stone Island). Today, two quarries remain active.
Ubin's original Malay settlers were mostly fishermen, living along the coast, while the Chinese were quarry workers and shopkeepers.
Inhabitants who have chosen to stay behind work in the town center near the jetty fitted out with a grocery store, bicycle rentals and several coffee shops. Others work on the mainland in regular jobs but return to the quiet of their island homes.
Retired policeman Ong Hean Teik is one enthusiast who journeys to Ubin on weekends to enjoy his waterfront beach hut built on a small plot of land leased from the government.
He windsurfs, swims and does a lot of fishing.
"My friends and I have been going there for years, to enjoy the outdoors. We sleep in the open," he said.
His beloved outdoor paradise, however, will soon be a thing of the past when it makes way for a spanking new beach resort.
Tourism
Changes are slowly but surely seeping into Pulau Ubin, an inevitable outcome in this cluttered country with scarce resources and a rapidly expanding population of three million.
Environmentalists and nature lovers fear its landscape will be razed to make way for roads, flats and the other trappings of Singapore's economic success story.
Ho Hua Chew of the Nature Society's conservation committee feels that redevelopment is only a matter of time.
"It's part of the government's plan to build public housing and transportation there when the population reaches four million. That year X, could be very soon," Ho said.
The beach resort equipped with marine facilities and other amenities will be a startling contrast to Ubin's pastoral face. Efforts not to dramatically alter the landscape have been initiated.
Project director Peyton Coffin said the restrictive nature of the tender for the S$50 million resort eliminated big investors.
"They (the Singapore authorities) have created a challenge to do as much as you can, in as eco-friendly a manner as possible within a scope of a very limited lease period," he said, referring to the relatively short 15-year lease.
The impact will be minimized by saving and relocating trees, using indigenous flora and creating gravel roads.
But many are still left wondering how the new and old will be reconciled as the pressure on Pulau Ubin to join the rat race mounts in the coming years.