#pulaubukom

E X P L O R E   N E A R B Y   I S L A N D S

17.08.19. Et si on prenait un bateau aujourd'hui? Et qu’on allait sur une île pas très visitée?

Douce journée. De l’eau transparente, du sable fin, de la musique et des amis. 

Parenthèse paisible à l’ombre des cocotiers.

_Pulau Bukom Island

The Teos were the only Chinese family there, but felt totally at home. He says: "Neighbours dropped by to chit-chat even if they had nothing to buy.”

He and his brothers did not fish, but their fishermen neighbours often shared their catch.

During Malay weddings and Hari Raya, the brothers exchanged gifts - usually something from their provision shop or a hongbao - with their neighbours, who gave them kueh and nasi briyani.

Although the islanders mostly interacted among themselves, with some inter-marrying, they also caught up with those from other southern islands, where they had relatives.

There was an annual sports meet called the Pesta Five S, drawing participants from the five islands of Sudong, Semakau, Sakijang Bendera (now known as St John's Island), Seking and Seraya. Pesta is the Malay word for carnival.

The islands took turns to host the games, which took place over a few weekends. There were land games such as tug-of-war and soccer, as well as water games such as sampan races.

Mr Rosli Manan, 51, a constituency support executive who was born in Pulau Sudong, recalls turning up with other village children for these meets. "It was a very lively time for the islanders," he says. Life was austere then, as most of the islands lacked running water and sometimes, electricity.

Mr Teo of Pulau Seking remembers using kerosene lamps at night. To get fresh water for cooking and drinking, his brother took 15-minute motor boat rides to Pulau Bukom, returning with big covered pails of water.

Pulau Bukom was one of the more developed islands in the south because Singapore's first offshore oil refinery opened there in 1961. It also had a hospital where Mr Teo's brother was sent to when he got a sharkfish bone stuck in his foot while walking on the beach.

Living so near the coast also made them more vulnerable to the elements. A big storm once blew off the roofs of a few attap houses, including that of the Teos’.

Despite these challenges, Mr Teo has fond memories of his island life. He says: "The air was fresher and we had fresh fish to eat every few days.””

On Pulau Seking, where nearly 80 families still lived in 1983, even the dead could not rest in peace but had to be brought for burial to the main island because there were plans to develop Pulau Seking.

Nowhere is the work ethics more pervasive than in the southern islands, once largely uninhabited but for small fishing villages.

Pulau Bukom started work in 1892 and has yet to retire. As children, we call it Shell Island, a name which has little to do with the seashell which is its corporate symbol and everything to do with the international oil company which still runs one of the largest refineries in the world on Bukom, originally a storage centre for kerosene.”

“Before its determined transformation into a holiday and recreation spot, Sentosa, the Isle of Tranquility, bore the deliciously romantic if undeniably sinister label of Pulau Belakang Mati, which translates as the island where death lies behind.”

“Pulau Brani, Island of the brave, was once home to the Orang Laut, Singapore’s sea gypsies whose sampan armadas treated passing boats as a fair game.

The island became a coaling station for British naval vessels and a small repair dock was built there in the 1860s… Brani, which used to be a 10-minute boat ride from Jardine Steps when the current was right - 20 minutes if it wasn’t - is now home to the Republic of Singapore Navy.”