Ubin Day turns Pesta Ubin!

Last year we wrote about the revival of Ubin Day in 2014, more than a decade after its inception in 2002. Since then, Ubin Day just kept growing! In 2015, it became Ubin Day Weekend where the non-stop activities were held over both Saturday and Sunday. But all of us Ubin lovers just couldn't get enough of it and so this year 2016, Ubin Day has become a five-week long Ubin open house known as Pesta Ubin, from the month of May to June!

Pesta, pronounced ‘Pays-ta’, is Malay for festival or party. Pesta often describes festivities that bring a community together, such as a wedding; or a cultural celebration and there is no better word to describe how this wonderful event is bringing the community together!

This is not just a specialised niche event reaching out to nature lovers, or an outdoors adventure event, or yet another heritage event. It has something for everyone who loves something about this wonderful granite island or has something to do with this last wild frontier and rural kampong - from delicious seafood to farm tours to heritage and temple celebrations to world premiere of new movies! From the kayakers to the stargazers, there is just something for everyone. And nothing brings together people from all walks and all interests together in the same place like Pulau Ubin.

For the past 2 ubin days, I was only able to help out behind the scenes as the social media manager, updating and coordinating updates to facebook and the blog from home, away from the action in Ubin as I was pregnant one year, and juggling an infant the next. This year, the Ubin Stories team is one toddler stronger and we will be guiding at the Balik Chek Jawa event on Sunday 5 June! This will be the son's first sojourn to ubin with ubin grandma and mummy! I am looking forward to being reunited with the fibre glass dugongs from the 2008 May Day Dugong Ambassadors Outreach at Chek Jawa as well as friends involved in Chek Jawa since pre-reclamation deferment till today! From old friends such as the pedal ubin guides who will be helping to bring you on bicycles to Chek Jawa and the Naked Hermit Crabs who will be wandering as guides throughout the boardwalks, to new friends such as the Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative which was started in 2014.

With my mom with me at Balik Chek Jawa, we hope to share stories about Ubin, maybe meet old classmates, neighbors (or relatives I never knew I had!) and hope to collect stories you have on Ubin! If you have or had family and relatives from Ubin, bring them and we hope to meet you at Balik Chek Jawa to hear your stories. See you there!

2011 Tua Pek Kong Celebration Dates

Tua Pek Kong is a Chinese Taoist deity popularly worshipped by the Chinese community on our island city. In fact, the temple located in the centre of the Pulau Ubin town is precisely dedicated to the Tua Pek Kong.

Annually, devotees would celebrate the birthday of each deity and Tua Pek Kong is no exception. The Tua Pek Kong temple would organise week long celebrations including traditional teochew opera (affectionately known in Malay as wayang by the locals, referring to performance) and modern getai (meaning song stage in mandarin) performances with bright lights and flamboyant singers in colourful costumes!

This year, the Pulau Ubin Tua Pek Kong Temple will be celebrating Tua Pek Kong Birthday from 16 May to 21 May 2011. There will be nightly wayang show (16-20 May) and finale geitai show (21 May).

Alan Tan, the NParks officer on Ubin, writes that there are usually free boat rides to Ubin from Changi Point Ferry Terminal on these dates from 6.30pm to 10pm. More details will be posted once he receives them.

Do check out the festivities if you have the opportunity as it's a rare island celebration that is hard to come by today.

"Native Trees of Pulau Ubin"

If you are interested to know more about the native flora of Ubin, the best person to hear from would be Mr Ali Ibrahim, a NParks Pulau Ubin Conservation Officer. Ali has had over 25 years of experience with plants, and many of those years were spent with Ubin flora.

I had the privilege of going on a plant survey on Ubin with Ali once [photo on right] and can attest to his wealth of experience and knowledge. Not to mention, he also has some amazing tales about Ubin itself but that's another story for another day.



Talk Synopsis
Pulau Ubin is greener today than in the 1960s. The native trees that have survived the ravages of the past, can still be found on the island. Many of these have grown into majestic, landmark trees and serve as signposts of Ubin's natural history. Come for this interesting talk by Ali Ibrahim, Pulau Ubin Conservation Officer, with over 25 years of experiences with plants.

Time: 10-11.30am
Venue: Pulau Ubin, Ubin-HSBC Volunteer Hub. More on how to get to Pulau Ubin.
Website: http://www.nparks.gov.sg/

Related Reads:
10 Apr (Sat): Talk on "Native Trees of Pulau Ubin" on Wild Shores of Singapore

Greater Mousedeer Populations on Pulau Ubin

A picture of the lesser mousedeer taken in Singapore at the central catchment by the Annotated Budak. Not exactly the greater mousedeer and not on Ubin but it was in the wilderness of Singapore!

Previously we mentioned mousedeers being sighted on Ubin. NUS biology honors student, Marcus Chua, who has been surveying these mammals for a while now for his honors research thesis, will now be presenting his findings at this upcoming talk on the Greater Mousedeer Populations on Ubin.

Greater Mousedeer Populations on Pulau Ubin.
Talk by Marcus Chua, NUS, Honours Student

The greater mouse deer was recently rediscovered in Pulau Ubin, an island which is one of Singapore's last rural places and a popular recreation area. What led to their rediscovery and comeback? What other mammals can be found on Pulau Ubin? Why are they threatened? Can this little hoofed creature and other medium-sized mammals live alongside man on Pulau Ubin?

The title of his thesis is "Can Medium-sized Mammals Co-exist with Man on Pulau Ubin". And it was his honours research project.

Date : 24 Jul 2009 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Venue : Singapore Botanic Gardens,
Botany Centre, Function Hall

Please register at this website
(Click on "Mousedeer Talk" tab)

Editor's Note:
I will not be able to attend this event as I will be giving a talk on the same day. Is anybody interested or willing to write a blog report of this talk for Pulau Ubin Stories? Volunteers would be most appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment. Thank you!

Pulau Ubin Stories Workshop, 3 Jul 2009, 7pm

I will be conducting a workshop suitable for nature guides and those of us who frequent Ubin and would like to share more of the island's history and geography with friends and family. This is not a talk but a workshop with activities that would help to enhance public communication. I am still hoping to invite some special guest speakers who are veterans on the island who would hopefully be able to share stories that even I don't know about!

Vacancies are limited. Only 10 spots left! Do register early to avoid being disappointed.

Date: 3 July 2009, Friday
Time: 7.00pm - 9.30pm
Venue: Civil Service College
31 North Buona Vista Road Singapore 275983

PLEASE REGISTER AT
http://is.gd/16XCb

SPEAKER
November Tan
November is a graduate student in the Department of Geography at NUS as well as an active nature guide on Pulau Ubin amongst others. 3 generations of her family traces their roots back to Pulau Ubin and she traces hers on Pulau Ubin Stories, a blog which archives the stories old and new on Pulau Ubin. She did her undergraduate honors thesis on "Saving Chek Jawa: Social Capital and Networks in Nature Conservation". She has also authored several heritage trails publications for the National Heritage Board. She currently coordinate workshops for nature guides at The Leafmonkey Workshop and writes at the Midnight Monkey Monitor.

Hungry Ghost Festival Wayang 2008

My deepest and most sincerest apologies. This announcement is definitely too late but none the less, for record's sake, here it is.

This year's Ubin Hungry Ghost Festival Wayang will be held on 15 and 16 August 2008. That is yesterday and today. I forgot all about it until the annotated budak asked me today.

I received the email on Thursday from Alan Tan via the Ubin Volunteers mailing list but was swamped with work and forgot to update. Apologies again.


Ubin Wayang. Taken on August 27, 2007.

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

Hungry Ghost Festival 2007

Sign for free bumboat ride this festival! Taken on 25 Aug 2007

Every year during the 7th lunar month, the Chinese community celebrates the "Hungry Ghost Festival" where it is believed that the gates of hell are opened for spirits to visit Earth for a limited one month period.

This time is also when the denizens on Earth will put up shows to entertain the ghostly "good brothers" (好兄弟). Traditionally, we have Chinese Opera performances like the ones on Pulau Ubin but increasingly these have been replaced by modern variety stage shows called "getai" with loud costumes and techno music.

Pulau Ubin remains one of the rare places which still maintain a permanent free standing wayang stage structure. Wayang is malay meaning "show" but in Singapore it is used to mean "play or opera" as well.


A wayang notice for Pulau Ubin from 2006.

In order to find out when there are Teochew opera performances on Ubin, look out for these handwritten calligraphy notices on red paper, usually on display at the Ubin Jetty. Sometime, similar notices will be stuck on the side of the stage to announce when the next events will be held. Performances are made not only during the Hungry Ghost Festival but also during the birthday of Tua Pek Kong (a deity worshipped at the temple in the town center). Unfortunately they are always in Chinese so ask a resident of Ubin and they will be able to tell you what you need to know.

Somebody asked if the performances on Pulau Ubin were Teochew or Hokkien opera and I just realized that the answer was already given in my post about the performances from 2006! I must have bombarded my mom for the answer last year but she made no complaints when I waylaid her for an answer yesterday. She explained that a large majority of the population on Ubin were Teochew and that explained why the wayang was staged in Teochew.

This year, to entice more people to go for the wayang performances which will be held on the 15th and 16th day of the 7th lunar month, the hungry ghost festival committee of Ubin have kindly arranged for free boat ride to and fro Ubin! That explained the sign in the photo at the top of this post which was found at the Changi Point Ferry Terminal! Roughly translated it reads:

"Free Bumboat Ride
The [Ubin] Hungry Ghost Festival Committee, during the 2 days celebration period of 15th and 16th day of the 7th Lunar Month (27th and 28th August 2007), will be providing free boat rides to and fro Changi Ferry Terminal and Pulau Ubin during these times:
From Changi to Ubin: 6.30pm - 10.00pm
From Ubin to Changi: 7.30pm - 11.30pm"

The committee is usually made up of residents, businesses and even past residents who return yearly to organize and fund raise for the performance and celebration of the Hungry Ghost Festival. As such, this year, I've managed to persuade my mom to return with me to watch and join in the Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations on Ubin. Hopefully we will be there on Monday to bring back more photos and stories to tell.

Related articles

Sons of Ubin keep tradition alive, by Kor Kian Beng, The New Paper, 3 Sept 2004

Account of wayang performances on other occasions on Ubin, by Victor Yue, Focus Ubin Website 2005

Pulau Ubin Zhong Yuan Hui by Victor Yue, Focus Ubin Website 2005

Hungry Ghost Festival Celebrations, Pulau Ubin Stories, 9 Aug 2006

Where have all the wayang stages gone?, Good Morning Yesterday, July 2007