Singapore Pulau Ubin -

— The ferry ride takes less than ten minutes, but it feels like a journey back half a century. As the sleek skyline of Marina Bay shrinks into a hazy mirage behind you, the air changes. The diesel fumes of the bumboats mix with the scent of salt and damp earth. Ahead, a green hulk rises from the strait: Pulau Ubin, Singapore’s forgotten island.

Ah Huat points to a wild boar snuffling under a durian tree. "That's my neighbour," he laughs. While the elderly residents provide the soul, it is the volunteers and eco-tourists who provide the island’s modern purpose. Ubin is now Singapore’s most important biodiversity hotspot. The Chek Jawa Wetlands at the island’s eastern tip is the crown jewel. For decades, the government planned to reclaim Chek Jawa for military housing. But when a survey in 2001 revealed an astonishing diversity of marine life—carpets of sea squirts, rare seahorses, and the elusive dugong—a public outcry froze the plans. singapore pulau ubin

The last bumboat back to Changi Point departs at 7:00 PM. As the boat pulls away, you look back. The island is already dissolving into shadow, a green memory on the edge of the world’s most successful city-state. — The ferry ride takes less than ten

Today, at low tide, visitors walk on a wooden boardwalk over a living carpet of starfish, fiddler crabs waving their single giant claw, and mudskippers that look like fish attempting to evolve into amphibians. It is one of the few places on the planet where you can see a coastal ecosystem that has remained virtually untouched for a millennium. Ahead, a green hulk rises from the strait: