A Trip to the Wild Side

For my birthday I was really crazing to be around trees. They say green is good for the heart and it was the perfect fix to travel to Ubin! Ubin is a small island off the coast of mainland Singapore, but is still a part of Singapore. I didn't need my passport or anything to take the short ferry ride to Ubin.

As you can see from the photos when I say wild, I really mean I felt pretty close to being in the wild. It was the first time I saw monkeys in the trees next to me and I wasn't actually in the zoo :). You can see a photo of Scooter (the monkey I named) that I saw crossing the path. When I walked closer to Scooter I saw his entire family climbing in the trees looking at me as a friendly stranger. I saw a baby monkey as well that was the size of my hand! He was so cute, but he was so shy he got away before I could take a photo :)

It was such a blessing to get away from the city life and be nestled in by the trees surrounding me. I do admit I would have traveled further down the "path less traveled" as shown in the photo above, but I remembered reading about wild boar on the island.

I had a long talk with my conscious whether I was going to "step out in faith" and keep going or if I should walk safely back to Scooter and friends closer to the main road. I am pretty adventurous and I really wanted to see where the path took me, but I couldn't help, but wonder..."What do you do if you see a wild boar charging at you." I didn't have much signal to ask Google what to do. So, I traveled back towards Scooter's family and found the main road with all the other families walking and traveling on bikes. I kept wondering though if I should have actually been more adventurous and maybe the whole wild boar thing was in my head ???? Until....

At work the next day, I told one of my friends who is a Singaporean that I went to Ubin and had a great time! She said, "Ubin? Really? Last time me and my family when there the Wild Boar almost attacked us and ran over our bikes and stole our picnic food!" ....Ahhh...so they are real on the Island! My intuition was protecting me!

In these next photos above you can see some of the scenes of Ubin! You can also see the "live" and Steamed crabs that were part of my lunch! I got the Singaporean Black Pepper Crab. It was good. It was really. BUT...for anyone that knows me and knows I am from the blue crab capital of the USA, it did not beat the Old Bay laden crabs from Maryland. I still and will always love my Old Bay.

For anyone wondering what Old Bay is and what it looks like on crabs, I got you! For a brief history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bay_Seasoning

This trip was one of the first times I felt so free in such a long time. Maybe it was because of my birthday and I am also excited for new beginning and what the rest of the year may bring. When I think back to that feeling I realized I should wake up everyday like that! Just as free! Why not? God has been so good to us to bless us with His raw beauty. Take it in, enjoy!