Vesak day celebrations at Ubin

Received an email from Adelle of NParks via the ubin volunteers mailing list today:

"If you have been to Ubin these few days you would have seen the many colourful flags and lanterns that line the jetty, the Ubin town and nearby temples.

In celebration of Vesak Day, there would be a 6 days Wayang performance organised by villagers on Ubin from tmw 18th May. There are a few bumboats chartering visitors to and fro Ubin in the evening 6.30pm / 7.30pm till 11pm for free. (more details see the below poster in chinese)

But do note that there is a non-traditional performance - "GE TAI" on the 23rd May. So if u want to see Wayang, come on other days"

There you have it. If you have never been to the wayang performances on Ubin, now is your chance. Unfortunately this monkey will be overseas on fieldwork. If you get a chance to attend the performances, do share your photos in the comments section of this post. Thanks!


Click to enlarge full size

According to the poster, there are FREE boat rides during the stipulated times. However, there are only 6 boats (license plate number listed) which will be providing this free service. I remember taking one of these free boats to Ubin during the last hungry ghost festival wayang. There will be signs on the boat indicating that they are free. Usually they will usher you directly on these boats unless all 6 are unavailable.

Related Reads:
Ubin Wayang after dark, Midnight Monkey Monitor, 29 Aug 07
Hungry Ghost Festival 2007, Pulau Ubin Stories, 26 Aug 07
Hungry Ghost Festival Wayang, Pulau Ubin Stories, 06 Aug 06

May Day Dugong Ambassadors Outreach at Chek Jawa

On Labour Day (1 May 2008), I joined the homeschooling community and a group of staff from Intel at Chek Jawa. The event was the brainchild of Joseph Lai and held in conjunction with the International Year of the Reef 2008.

The event was a full day of activities from a guided walk by us volunteers (from NSS and Naked Hermit Crabs), followed by mural painting, beach cleanup and an outreach exercise from the dugong ambassadors!


Children painting mural! You can see the mural at the Chek Jawa Visitor Center at House Number 1.

After guiding in the morning, I helped out with the seagrass station by the dugong ambassador from Team Seagrass, Siti! The Dugong Ambassadors are made up from the Intel group, the homeschooling group and some of us volunteer guides. We are supposed to share with the public who visit Chek Jawa about Dugongs. At my station, We were joined by a young friend from the homeschooling community who was more enthusiastic than us! I am full of admiration for him as he did not know anything before joining us and after we went off to check out some cool GPS gadget, Tin took over the whole station by himself! *Bravo!* I wish all youths of today are like him :)


Our industrious and enthusiastic young dugong ambassador, Tin at work.

I had a whole lot of fun on that day. It was not my first time working with this group of children and I enjoy every single experience with them. While we were at the seagrass station, a reporter from Lianhe Zaobao (LHZB) approached us and asked me and Siti a few questions. Yesterday (11 May 2008), my mom called me up and informed me that my photo and quote appeared in LHZB! The article was the center-spread of the LHZB equivalent of the ST Life! Section. You can see the article below. Unfortunately it is in Mandarin Chinese. Perhaps some kind soul with some time on their hands can help to translate this.


Excerpt on Naked Hermit Crab and me.


The full article. Click for full size.

More photos from the event can be seen here.

Related Articles:
"Shore extravaganza: Dugong Ambassadors at Chek Jawa", Wildfilms, 1 May 2008