12 Mar 2026 - Morning Hike at Pulau Ubin (Chek Jawa)

We took a day off today to visit Pulau Ubin. We parked our car at Changi Point and took a bumboat to the island ($4 per person). There’s no fixed schedule here and the boats depart whenever they have 12 passengers.

After a ten minutes boat ride, we stepped onto the wooden planks of the Ubin Jetty, greeted by the iconic "Pulau Ubin" sign.

While most people rent bicycles at the jetty, we decided to go on foot to soak in the "Kampung" (village) vibes.

The walk to Chek Jawa is roughly 3.5km to 4km (about 45–60 minutes). The trail is mostly paved but shaded by a thick canopy of trees.

Along the way, we passed old wooden houses with fruit trees all around.

We then came to a towering giant, the Common Pulai Heritage Tree.  It stood over 40 metres tall, which is roughly the height of a 14-storey building, making it visible even from the bumboat as we approached Pulau Ubin from Changi Point.

It has a distinctive pagoda-shaped crown and a deeply fluted, buttressed trunk.

Upon reaching the gate at Chek Jawa, the scenery shifted. Chek Jawa is famous for having six distinct ecosystems in one tiny area.

Firstly, we arrived at the Coastal Boardwalk. Walking over the water during low tide was surreal. We looked down and saw Mudskippers hopping across the mud and Fiddler Crabs waving their giant claws. Glancing at the water’s surface near the Viewing Jetty, we saw silver flashes. These were Needlefish (often mistaken for baby swordfish!), their long, sharp beaks cutting through the ripples.

We also saw a Kingfisher flying around the mangroves.

We then took another boardwalk towards Jejawi Tower but due to some ongoing maintenance works, the path to the tower was blocked.

The key heritage landmark on Pulau Ubin is House No. 1, a beautifully restored Tudor-style cottage that now serves as the Chek Jawa Visitor Centre.

Built in the 1930s as a holiday retreat for the British Chief Surveyor, Langdon Williams, it is believed to be the last remaining authentic Tudor-style building in Singapore with an original, albeit now non-functioning, fireplace.

The building’s "quoins" (corner stones) were constructed using granite sourced directly from Pulau Ubin. The interior contains rare honeycomb-shaped terracotta floor tiles.

The building features classic Tudor elements like black timber framing and a steeply pitched roof but adapted for the tropics with netting on the windows to keep insects out.

The walk back to the jetty felt shorter, perhaps because the Ubin air was so much fresher. We crossed path with a monitor lizard along the way.

It took a while to gather 12 passengers at the jetty before we were able to get onto a bumboat.

We had our lunch at Changi Village Hawker Centre, which is widely considered the "Mecca" for nasi lemak in Singapore.