The bum-boat trip

Saturday night we decided after racking our brains for an hour, to go to Pulau Ubin, an island flanked off the coast of Singapore. I wouldn't say it was easiest of decisions to convince a bunch of unwilling lazy ass morons to have fun on a Sunday. So it was agreed upon, 6 a.m. we leave, have breakfast at "The Coffee Bean" which offered free coffee refills till 8 in the morning, and from there on continue on to our destination. Sure we didn't take an oath or anything, but the fact that whoever was late in the morning would have his ass fried on a pan was reason enough to tuck into bed at 12 in the night, and switch the goddamn TV off !

The alarm rang, with all its vigour and ear-wrenching pain. And like always, I sub-consciously woke up, scratched my butt, sleep-walked to the loo, pee'd, switched the shrill shriek off, cozied under the blanky and dozed off again. Only to wake up with a head-rush at 9:00 and go "Oh shit!!" :P Went through the morning chores, got ready, and after another round of convincing, got one of the nincompoops to tag along for Pulau Ubin. After a tiring half-hour train journey, we reached the Changi Village jetty terminal. On board a bumboat that swayed from side to side as if about to capsize, we both went out onto the board, to have the splashing water in our face, and dabble our hands in the icy water, only to be yelled at by the boat driver, in what I can only imagine was some local Malay dialect :P Finally getting off on the Pulau Ubin jetty, we scouted for someone looking intelligent enough to operate a Nikon D80 and click a snap of the two of us, but to no avail, before a sweet lil Chinese lady offered to help and clicked, to do her justice, a pretty good snap :)

With the next bumboat arriving behind us, fully loaded with yapping bunch of girls, we decided to hurry up to the bike rentals. Now this is the point in the story where my popping vein starts throbbing on and off. Browsing through the neat bikes, we came across a shop offering a range from SGD 2 till SGD 15. A conflict of interest arose here. I took the side of the SGD 10 brand new Shimano-geared mountain bikes, while the prick with me wanted the run-down, gear-less SGD 2 run-of-the-mill trash. For those aware of my tongue, it would come as no surprise that I rode out on a sparkling red brand new bike while he was on a new blue mountain bike :P The first stopover was for drinks, we'd started dehydrating already in the scorching heat - I went in for 100 Plus, and he savoured his usual coconut water. Time to set out, we pedalled our way through twists and turns, up slopes, down the hill, as we drew near the first quarry.

I could go on to describe the entire day to you, minute by minute, but I guess you do not have the dedication to enjoy the whole trip nor do I have the inclination to keep writing beyond the last sip of my Stella Artois I'm sipping on right now. Yup, its chilled, little drops of dew condensing on the coaster (aww I know you're jealous). There on, we continued on our bikes, to every nook and cranny of the island we could possibly get our wheels on. At this juncture, I'd like to bring to your attention just one fact - learn how to fix the chain of a bike, my friend learnt it the hard way as I pained his happiness because he couldn't fix his, after derailing it TWICE ! :P If you ever, per chance, happen to travel with me and act an ignorant fool, trust me I won't hesitate for even a second to barbecue your tinsy winsy heiny and have it with sumptuous salsa ;)

Earthen trails were the most endearing feats of Pulau Ubin as we tried our first track on wheels, taking sharp turns, difficult up-slope hikes, feet itching with the grass not caressing but rather giving launching platforms to insects to latch onto the freakishly hairy legs, we Indian blokes have been endowed with! :) Sweat dripping off every exposed body part, the scorching heat drilling into our head, feet all red with insect bites, we toiled through the trails, to discover at the end of it, a serene lake, lined with pebbles, and afloat in the middle, seemed like a small branch broken off the overlying canopy. Time for D80 to show some magic, I zoomed in to click what I hoped would be one of my most inspiring clicks, but alas, an open Evian bottle is what it turned out to be :( Stupid idiotic jerk who threw it in, may that water burn when he pee's it out !

We continued onward, but at this point, the last drop of Stella Artois fizzles down my throat and as promised, I draw this post to a close. Wait for the second part of this endearing journey. If you think the whackiest is already over, you're in for a surprise ! ;)

Till we meet next .. Au revoir ;)