Saturday, August 1, 2015

1 Aug 15 - Pulau Seringat, Lazarus Island, St. John's Island, Kusu Island

Read an article on island hopping back on 3 July 2015 and posted a FB status asking for interest. Didn’t really expect any response but my friends ML and KF came back with responses showing interest. Got really excited and started planning for the trip to be held on 1 August 2015. It only took me a few hours to complete my itinerary and research and I quickly sent the information to my friends. We then discussed the possibility of having a picnic and what food to bring. In the end, we decided that KF will bring fruits; ML will bring hotdogs, hotdog buns and chicken wings while I will bring potato chips and a big bottle of isotonic drink.

Got up early today around 7am and the sky looked cloudy. Messaged the other two ladies asking if they were already out of the house and ML replied saying she was half way to Marina South Pier on a bus while KF replied that she is still at home because she would be taking a cab. No one said anything about change of plan even though KF said it was drizzling and ML even said that it was raining. So I left the house around 7:30am and only managed to get to Marina South Pier (MSP) station at 8:30am because I didn’t know that the train that I got on to at Raffles Place ends at Marina Bay (MB) station instead of MSP station. So had to wait for another train at MB station at Platform B and found out that only alternate train that arrives at that platform goes to MSP station. Since I had missed one, I had to wait 12 minutes for the next.

Messaged the ladies and KF said that they will walk around to check-out the shops and also to see if they were able to get the ferry tickets first. By the time I got there, the ladies were in the midst of purchasing the tickets. We boarded the ferry at around 8:45am and waited for the ferry to leave at 9am. The sea was a little bit choppy and KF didn’t take her motion sickness pill. We got to St. John’s Island in 30 minutes time and a cat greeted us when we landed. We headed for the toilet first which was a 5 minutes’ walk towards the right from the jetty and we saw more cats. After that we walked back to the jetty and continued on the left of the jetty to get to Lazarus Island. Along the way, we joked, laughed and took photos. The sky cleared up a little and the weather was just right for outing.





We passed by the beach that was between Pulau Seringat and Lazarus Island but KF suggested that we continued to explore Pulau Seringat before returning to the beach for picnic. We saw a few private yachts and some people seem to be staying at a very private chalet of sort. We walked right to the tip of Pulau Seringat before U-turning back to the beach. There was a group of people doing canoeing at the beach, a group of youngsters taking wefie and blowing bubbles and a couple swimming in the sea. The beach wasn’t fantastic because of all the rubbish left behind by the beachgoers. The article I read said that there is no dustbin on the island but there was just one over at the beach. We could not find a good spot to sit down for picnic and ML suggested going to one of the few pavilions over at St. John’s Island for picnic.


Walked back and along the way, we thought we could settle down at one of the pavilions that were near the link between Lazarus Island and St. John’s Island but the place was full of ants. So we continued to walk and we were back to the area near the jetty. It was already about 11:15am then. Decided to settle down on one of the many picnic tables there and we started to lay out our food. I happened to have a copy of newspaper and so used that the lined the table and placed our food on top. Two black cats were walking around us and we had to be mindful in case they tried to jump up the table. One of the cats simply lay on the ground behind the bench that KF and I were sitting while the other was walking around ML which made her very afraid. It was then that I found out that ML is afraid of cats. We took photos of the food before starting to eat. ML was very well prepared; she brought three disposable gloves for eating chicken wings while KF brought disposable forks for eating the fruits.


We ate and talked and joked while the two cats surrounded us. Then another group of people came along to settle at a picnic table not far from us and the cat that was lying on the ground decided to walk to them while the other cat stayed put. This cat that stayed got bolder and jumped onto the bench that KF and I were sitting and KF nudged the cat back to the ground. ML was really scared and so KF had to lure the cat away with a chicken wing bones. The cat moved away to chew on the bones but was back after some minutes. There was once it even jumped up the bench beside ML and it made her gave out a small scream. Think we threw quite a number of bones for the cat while we were there. We were done around 12 noon and we packed up before visiting the toilet again. After that, we headed back to the jetty to wait for the 12:45pm ferry to Kusu Island.

The ferry took around 15 minutes to reach Kusu Island and we walked around the temple before taking the stairs to see the Kusu Kramats. Climbed back down and we went to the beach where we had some fun on the sand. Then KF and I got bolder and climbed up a breakwater to have our photos taken by ML. After the exploring, it was still early for the 2:30pm ferry back to the mainland so we rested under one of the pavilions and started to take wefies using the application called Cam Me which is only available in Apple Store. So using ML’s phone, we took quite a number of wefies before finally boarding the ferry back to mainland.



Then we decided to check-out the Singapore Maritime Gallery (SMG) which was on level 2 of the Cruise Centre. The SMG was having the Jubilee celebration and visitors who check-in on FB will get some freebies. So the three of us quickly whipped out our phones and started checking-in. We got the freebies and then went on to see the exhibits in SMG. It didn’t take us very long to finish and by then it was about 3:45pm. After some discussions, we decided to head over to Orchard area, Somerset station to see what to eat over there. At first, ML suggested Korean buffet but later changed her mind to Japanese buffet. She brought us to the place and I realised that it was actually Kiseki, the Japanese buffet place and my nephew frequent. Tried to make reservation but was told the place was fully booked. However, they do entertain walk-in customer but will have to be the first few in the queue starting at 5:30pm.


Walked around the building and spent some time at Tokyu Hand before taking the lift up to the restaurant. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there was already a long queue in front of the restaurant. So in the end, we decided to settle dinner over at Shabu Sai which was two shops away. Dinner was good and we ended the day around 7+pm and we headed separate ways to go home.


Thoughts: The beach between Pulau Seringat and Lazarus Island was not fantastic. We didn’t explore Lazarus Island properly; perhaps the lagoon at the other end of Lazarus Island may be better. Kusu Island was very windy amongst all the islands. Despite the fact that we didn’t really see a lot of sights, we enjoyed ourselves very much because of each other’s company. Hope we get to do this (get together) often. =)