Kayaking trip at Pulau Hantu!

This time we have planned for a meet up trip which is a kayaking and camping trip at the isolated island Pulau Hantu.

Pulau Hantu: It is located to the south of the main island of Singapore, off the Straits of Singapore. Pulau Hantu is actually made up of two islets: Pulau Hantu Besar (Big Ghost Island) and Pulau Hantu Kechil (Little Ghost Island), with a total area of 12.6 hectares. At low tide, it is possible to wade across the shallow lagoon between the two islands, but not at high tide. (Source: Wiki)

It is interested fact that every small island around Singapore has some story. Pulau Ubin had the German girl story and now Pulau Hantu has another one.

The Legend:

Pulau Hantu was where Malay warriors once dueled to the death and their ghosts are said to wander the island.

There were once two great warriors locked in a fierce battle at sea. Many people died and the blue seas slowly became polluted with human blood, upsetting the Jinns at the bottom of the ocean. In anger, one powerful Jinn created a whirlpool and sucked the two warriors into the deep sea to drown them. Not deterred, they continued their battle. Suddenly, the Jinn sprayed water on one of them. The other warrior, seeing his opponent blinded, thrust his sword into his abdomen. At the same time, the wounded warrior plunged his sword into the other man. Both collapsed and died.

The gods felt it was wrong for the sea spirits to interfere in human affairs. Thus, the Jinn transformed the two warriors into islets so that their spirits can continue to live on them. As one of the warriors was smaller than the other, his islet was known as Pulau Hantu Kechil while the bigger one was called Pulau Hantu Besar.

Our trip: 

Now coming back to our trip, we started off at 8.30 AM from Singapore to Pulau Hantu by chartered ferries. It was just a half an hour journey. Pleasant for first half and disturbed with a heavy rain for last 10 mins. Lucky that the rain stopped as we reached the island jetty.

Ferry at the West Coast Jetty

Our group's 2nd ferry.. 

Once we reached, we had light refreshments and started setting up the kayaks. Our organizers guided us and gave the instructions about everything.

Our Kayaks.. 

Then we had a trial session of how PFD is used. It was real fun. You don't do anything but just float in the sea.

After that, we had short kayaking trip in the back waters around the island, so as to get coordination and comfort ability.

Fellow kayakers, enjoying the sea.. 

The beautiful view of Mangroves while we Kayak amid sea..

After that, we had our lunch and back to the original kayak route. From Pulau Hantu to the Pulau Semakau across the mangroves. It was an awesome feeling when you are on your own in the middle of the ocean and just sea and sky with you. Such a wonderful feeling it is!!

Sky, Sea and us.. But we are not visible here :P

We rested for an hour at the Semakau (just waste island), where we wandered around, got some good snaps and found some real different aqua culture.

Pecan alike.. waiting for it's food.. 

I just got a feeling of old treasure hunt movies where in we have to come across some spider webs, dead wood etc etc :P

We found that this is the home of the mudfish, which we mistook for flying fish :P

A fishermen's boat

We were back to Hantu for the night stay. We set up our tents, refreshed our selves, went to the other side of the island to enjoy the Sunset views. As we were told, the views were spectacular.

That's a awesome sunset :)

Lucky to find a couple strolling across, and got this awesome view :)

An industrial plant seen from the island

We had our barbecue dinner and had chit chat for long time, under the moon light (No electricity on the island!!!).

The only light we had.. The Moon!

At around 11 PM, we went to rest in the tents.

Our tents..

We had a very bad experience with the tents. It was our first time setting up a tent and our tents were not checked by anyone once we set them up. It rained like cats and dogs in the night and water got into all out tents. No one could sleep properly.

In the morning, we got to know that it is not the case only with us but with many others too.

I came out at the dawn and the climate was beautiful. Captured few pictures before others are awake. After having breakfast, we just explored the no man island.

At the dawn..

The purple shade was so natural..

Moored boat lit up with completely, offering an excellent picture..

The other side of Hantu Island.. It was damn beautiful at that time. The weather was lovely.. It was drizzling and what else you want to enjoy a scenery :)

I was always fascinated by the pictures of water drops.. and here goes my first attempt..

We were totally into the nature and forgot to check our clocks.. When we were back, were informed to unpack the tents. We did it in a haste before the ferry arrived and reached Singapore in no time.

Time Traveled: 27/04/13 to 28/04/13