Sensory Trail @ Ubin

Today (24th June 2007) there was a group of employee from Tech Semi-Conductor visiting Pulau UBin and part of the program is to attend the Sensory Trail. As such, I decided to hop on for my yet another OJT. This time round I'm attached to Ron's group.


(The folks arriving at the Jetty)


(Ron explaining the myth/legend on the formation of Ubin using the map)

As we walk to the trail starting point, saw this little nice red letterbox. It is near the fig tree near the information booth.



(The entrance to the trail)

The 1st plant that awaits us is the banana plant. Many ppl has the misconception that banana is a tree. Do take note of this.


Some of us might be wondering why is this trail named "Sensory Trail". While its pretty obvious, this is a trail design and created to enable us to make full use of our senses (See/Hear/Taste/Touch/Smell). The trail was design to allow our visually-disabled friends to be able to use their other 4 sense to the max.

Soon entering the trail, you'll be able to smell a nice and familiar fragrance in the air, that will be the nice fragrant from the Pandan Leaves.


Pandan leave do look alot like the Citronella which also has a very strong scent. In fact, its so strong that it can be used to deter insects like mosquito.


(Ron rubbing some of the leaf on his arm)

There are a couple (I think 3 of them) of ScareCrow in the trail. Below is the one that receive us near the start of the trail.


Since there are nice fragant plants, how can we not have something that doesn't smell as gd? No worries. We have the Fishy Plant. Yup. U guess it right. The plant does smell fishy (no joke).


So we have used our "Smell" sense, next up is the "Moses in THe Cradle" plant (also known as boat lily) that will test your sight (See sense). This plant has some interesting shade of red and green. This plant is commonly available in the ornamental trade due to its nice colors.


Among the Boat Lily, there are 2 Gelam tree. From one of them we can see clearly its paper trunk that is peeling off. The paper trunk is been used for caulking, the water-proofing process that pack and pressed the trunk between the planks in the manufacturing of boats. Btw, anyone been to Kampong Glam? Apparently, Kampong Glam got its name due to this tree which is commonly available there years back.


Here, Ron is trying to point out to the group on the leaf of the Henna tree that is used for Henna drawing.


I guess this is the most easiest plant to introduce to young kid. Believe most kids will have eaten peanuts of sort. Thus groundnut plant should interest them.


Before proceeding to the next section, Ubin's best kept secret, the "Secret Garden", juz by the side there is a huge bamboo tree.



(Secret Garden Walkthrough)

Just one on the left of the Secret Garden, there is a plant that has a very interesting name, "Toothache Plant". This plant can actually numb our mouth if we chew on its fruits. Thus it can be use to relieve toothache which explains its naming.


Honeysuckle is a type of vines that are easy to grow, vigorous, heat-tolerant, and nearly indestructible. The flashy and fragrant flowers also birds and butterflies thus many like to grow its on their fence and other framework.


The Midnight Horror only flower late at night and thus it attracts lots of insects and bats. The branches of the tree look alot like bones and hence it is also known as the Broken Bone Plant.


There are still quite a number of other plants that I did not mention and I'll like to show some pix of the various fruits that are available along the trail.

We have the coffee, Great Morinda and even durian.








One of the member has the priviledge of testing the fruit but unfortuately its not the sweet lovely durian but the sour fruit, belimbing (Thks Ron for the ID).


Beside juz plants/flora, there are also lots of fauna in along the trail and of course Ubin. We came aross a huge Terminte Nest, Mud Lobster, Spider, etc.


(Ron showing the termite nest)


(A golden orb web spider)

Sadly, we did not encounter any wild boar which many of them was hoping to see. However, we saw the used tire villagers use to place around their fences to stop wild boar from bashing into their garden.


Quite a far bit of Ubin is mangroove and many public like to fish around the area. We actually witness them catching a catfish.

(Notice the mangroove's roots)


(Catfish)

Wow. This is has been a long post. Guess, I shall stop here and with that I shall end with a nice pix of a lovely leave. Anyone guess what is this?