Kayak expedition to Pulau Hantu

Just over the weekend, I did an expedition to Pulau Hantu, one of Singapore's Southern Islands.


We started picked up the kayaks from Kayak Asia in the morning on Saturday and trucked them to Tanjong Beach in Sentosa. We launched our crafts from the beach at about 10:30am.

It was a cloudy and windy morning. Just after we move off the beach we were caught right in the middle of wash of 3 pasting motor motors, which means crazy crashing waves. But after that it was pretty straight forward rowing to the Sisters Island. We reach sisters at roughly 11am stopping briefly for a toilet break.

From the Sisters Island we head for the tiny hump of Jong, which is commonly know as the "hamburger island", because it looks like a round bun on top of a piece of patty. The water was pretty choppy. Sometimes my kayak would rise above the crest of the wave and the crash down and water start to get into the craft. It was a good thing we had water pumps to pump out the water.

In spite of the choppy water, we made pretty good time. From Sisters Island to Jong, we took slightly more than 1 hour. We kind of hang around the island and rested for a while, eating some snacks and took some pictures.

On the map, the distance from Sentosa to Sisters is about 2.6km and Sisters to Jong is about 5km. So we did 7.6 km in about 1.5 hours, which was a pretty decent pace. Since Jong marked more than half of our journey, I thought we reach Hantu in just another 1 hour at the most. Boy, was I wrong.

From Jong, we started to paddle towards Pulau Semakau. After a while, it became apparent that the progress was becoming very slow. Every time we stop paddling, we were quickly pushed back. It was starting to get tiring. Semakau has no beaches (at least on the side opposite Bukom). I spotted a ramp and suggested we stop at the ramp and take break for lunch. The distance from Jong to the ramp was only about 1.3 km. But it took us close to 1 hour!

After lunch and a good rest, we set off again. At this point we split into 2 groups. 2 of the guys paddle directly towards Pulau Hantu taking a course that brought them closer towards Pulau Bukum. Choe and I hugged close to Semakau as we wanted to check out the mangroves.

It was easy paddling as the water appeared to have become calmer. I thought the worse was over. But later I found out that it was because the water currents were weaker in the inner curve of the island. The other 2 guys were having a much harder time. Although we took a longer route, we reach the northern tip of Semakau before them.

Once we rounded the northern tip of Semakau, we hit the currents again. It took me a while to realize that I was hardly moving. I was definitely paddling a lot, but if I mark my progress against the landmarks on Bukom, I was hardly moving! It was like on a tread mill. You paddle and paddle and you are still at the same spot! Once I stop paddling, I drift backwards quickly.

The short stretch must not have been more than 1 km. But I think we must have taken close to an hour to break through that stretch. This was the first time I encountered such strong currents.

It was a great relief when we finally reached Pulau Hantu. It was almost 4pm when we finally reach there. This was more than 2 hours beyond my projected time of arrival. I had initially expected that we should have arrived on the island and frolicking in the lagoon by 2pm.

We were all exhausted. After we set up camp and had dinner, we just went to sleep about 8pm.

At about 12am, a thunderstorm hit the island. It was flashing lightning and crashing thunder. But luckily rain was not heavy and wind was not strong. We were able to get back to sleep without getting wet.

Day 2 saw us getting up at 6am. By 8am, we were all packed and launching our crafts. The tide was low, and the water was pretty calm. There was little wind. We spent some time exploring the shallow waters off the west coast of Pulau Hantu. There were lots of sea grass and fishes. And twice, I caught what I thought was a sea turtle peaking out of the water before diving back down again. My friend thought it might be a dugong, but I am quite sure it's a sea turtle because I saw its beaked head quite clearly.

We lingered for more than 1 hour, before heading back to Sentosa. The rest of the journey was pretty easy, except for the last part near Sentosa. The water got choppy and the current was uncertain. It became tiring keeping the kayak on a straight course, though we were still moving.

We reached Tanjong Beach at 12pm. We took some time to relax at the beach before the lorry came to pick up the kayaks at 2pm.

It was a rather tiring trip though quite an adventure. My advise for those of you who might want to plan a similar expedition is to prepare for a possibility of strong currents at the channels between Pulau Semakau and Pulau Bukom.

This is the distances of the trip (my friend checked it up using Google Maps)

Day 1
Sentosa - Sisters' 2.6 km (about 0.5 hr)
Sisters' - Jong (hamburger) 4.8 km (about 1 hr)
Jong - Semakau (factory) 1.3 km (about 1 hr)
Semakau - Hantu 3.4 km (about 2.5 hr)

Day 2
Hantu - Semakau (mangrove) 1.6 km (about 0.5 hr)
Semakau - Bukom (staff quarter jetty) 2.4 km (about 0.5 hr)
Bukom - Sentosa 5.2 km (about 1.5 hr)

My first sea expedition in a kayak

In the wee hours of National Day holiday, I meet the other fellow paddlers at the Labrador Park for my first kayak expedition to the Southern Islands. It took some time for us to pack our stuff into the kayaks and get ready to launch. It was about 8:30 am when we finally launched out to sea.

The sky was hazy, the sun rising in the sky looked like the bright orange yolk of a boiled salted egg. The weather was great, except for the haze.

There were 8 of us, 3 pairs of us on double kayaks and another 2 using singles. As we launched out, a cruise ship sailed in. We were out in the waters with cruise ships and containers ships and other water crafts.

We paddled round Pulau Bukom and Pulau Busing to Pulau Hantu. There water was quite calm, except for the wakes of the passing boats and ships. It was fun and exciting getting close to the islands and ships on little kayaks.

The journey to Pulau Hantu was about 10 KM. As we approached Pulau Hantu, I was surprised how shallow and clear the water was off the island. From the kayaks, we could look into the water and see the corals beneath. I never knew the waters around there can be so clear. I was in Pulau Hantu once, more than 10 years ago. I remembered the water being very murky and the visibility in the water was very poor. We beached at Pulau Hantu for a break and swam in the clean waters. It was hard to believe this is in Singapore. I was thought the waters in Singapore are all as dirty and murky as East Coast and Sentosa.

About 12pm, we left Pulau Hantu and started towards Sister Island, passing by Pulau Semakau (the landfill island) along the way. Sister Island is about 10km east of Pulau Hantu. The currents were stronger as the tide comes in. Occasionally, there were big waves and it was exciting to raise and fall with the crests of the waves.

Finally, we arrived at the small Sisters Island (there are 2 islands, big Sister Island and small Sister Island next to each other) about 2:30pm.

We had a meal of instant noodles and the rest of the after was a lazy relaxing afternoon. Most of the slept. Some wandered around the small little island. I swam in the waters of an ebbing tide and then nap a little on the clean sandy beach, enjoying the balmy weather.

There was a family that came to the island to fish and another family that came to picnic. After they left, we had the whole island to ourselves. As the sun started to set, it cast a beautiful glow on the island. I explored the island with my camera. The tide was very low and towards the evening, the waters retreated all the way to the break water. It was interesting exploring the part of beach the retreating water revealed. There were lots of junk and broken glass bottles (you should never walk barefoot on the beach). But there were lots of interesting things if you look carefully. Seaweeds, sea snails, hermit crabs, shells, corals...

Then, suddenly, I heard a helicopter approach the island. Looking up, I saw the helicopter carrying a huge flag of Singapore, flying over the island and then towards the Marina Bay, where the National Day celebrations are being held.

It was National Day, and we celebrated the national day too. At 8:22pm, we sang the Pledge just as the fireworks were seen bursting into the sky at Marina Bay. It was a beautiful sight.

The anchorage for ships was just off Sister Island. As night falls, the ships were all light up. You see an interesting line of brightly lit ships in the horizon.

We had a simple dinner of tortillas.

I was feeling really tired and shortly after dinner, I looked for an spot on the island to sleep.

It was windy and I was glad I brought along my sarongs which served well as blankets. The wind did keep away the mosquitoes. Some time in the night, the wind died and the mosquitoes came out to look for blood. I did not suffered too badly though a few were bitten quite badly.

I woke up about 5:30am. The air was still. There was activity in the sea as I heard ships and boats moving. I wanted to sleep some more, but then the wind suddenly whipped up in frenzy. The leaves swept across the ground and my sarong was being blown away. I looked towards Singapore, all seem calmed. But towards the south, I could see an approaching storm. The wind continued to blow and I ran back towards to camp site only to find everything being blown all over. Our clothes on the line was all over the floor. More worrisome, the PDF and spray skirts were blown of too. The others were already up and collecting the stuff.

It was lucky that we chose to camp near to the toilet. Quickly, we collected our stuff and bring them into the toilet. We manage to get empty into the toilet before the rain started to poor.

I must say that I was very impressed that the toilet was actually very clean and well maintained. As we wait out the storm, we made coffee and cooked breakfast in the toilet.

The rain blew over in an hour.

As the rain stopped, we brought out our stuff and started packing. Luckily, we did not loose too many things and we managed to stay dry.

The tide was very low in the morning and I was afraid that we scrapped some corals as we paddled out to the sea.

The weather was beautiful. The rain had washed off the haze and the air was refreshing. The sky was overcast, with some broken parts where the sun peeked through. The water was light and it was very easy to paddle. Kusu Island was about 4 to 5km away and we got there rather quickly. We had a brief stop before paddling back to Labrador park by tracing the Southern coast of Sentosa.

It was a fun and exciting trip, full of interesting sights and new experience. I am looking forward to another expedition!