Truth to tell, I wasn’t eager for the Pulau Ubin trip that Ling had planned on Day 2 of Matt’s stay with us. She’d been thinking of bringing us to this favorite school spot of hers over the years e.g. at one point, she came to Ubin 7 times over 6 months, each time with students.
Matt was all game, but me, mosquitoes terrify me. Yeah yeah, Ling is the best insect repellent I have, because whenever she’s in The Party, all the mosquitoes go for her instead of me. But I’d been thinking; the mosquitoes in Ubin are likely to be more vicious suckers than those on the mainland. So what if they were less choosy about how tender is the soft flesh they suck on?
As it went, I relented, if nothing else to make my purchase of the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 lens and a B+W circular polarizer filter worthwhile. Moreover, it was a public holiday today – Vesak Day – so we headed out early in the morning, Matt armed with his new Nikon D40, and myself with the D300, the new Sigma lens and the usual 18-55mm.
We cycled the length and breadth of the island, stopped by quarries, stopped by leaves and plants of all types for Ling to give us the brief on each, climbed up the observation tower, walked on the Chek Jawa boardwalk, drank coconut juice, and collectively took hundreds of pictures, a selection of which are about here. No, they aren’t that great in quality as the weather was awfully humid, sun was right up, and we were still learning how to use the lenses optimally. The polarizer at least was a mixed bag on the ultra wide-angle lens, and that was no surprise.
By the time we left at about 12:30 pm-ish, the island was swamped with families, student groups and couples all making the best of the public holiday. We were glad we’d woken up early for the trip, judging from the long snaking queue waiting for the bumboats at the jetty.
And best of all, none of us got bitten by mosquitoes. Must had been a great mosquito to human ratio, and for once, I’m glad that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few.:)
Oh yeah; Matt’s photo album in Singapore is at this link. Check out his hilarious comments.:)
After this biking trip, my right thigh was aching real bad. Must be all those uphill attempts. Old liao. Thank God that the ache went away in the middle of last night after I massaged it. :)
It was a good outdoor trip nonetheless! :D