Exploring the Small but Beautiful... Punggol Beach

Tucked in the North-east 'tip' of Singapore is the Punggol Beach, with the mini jetty. Before there is Punggol town, to me, Punggol equates to seafood. There used to have a rather famous seafood restaurant there. Not that I've tried it before, but nevertheless, it's so famous that though it has moved, it's still stuck in my head.

Hence, when I visited the beach for the first time, I was rather surprised that, there's such a serene place tucked beyond the new town, beyond the dense vegetation.



The best part of the beach? It's small. You can see the entire strip, and watch how the red rocks grow in size from the right side of the beach to the left.


Medium-sized reddish rocks


Huge rocks, which you can sit on.

Interestingly, if you visit during evenings, you may come across some unconventional fishermen (well, at least to me). Instead of fishing at the jetty like the rest, they are looking for other sea creatures.


Like... this sea creature!


And you'll be surprised that you can catch a bagful of them here!

Later that day, after I posted the pictures on facebook, my colleague shared with me that these sea creatures are called 午夜初吻. Mmm... the auntie who caught a bagful, taught me how to prepare them as well. First, cut off the sharp end. Next, fry them with chilli padi. Simple. (But I've not tried that out, perhaps, you can give it a try? And do let me how they taste. :P)

And that's how Punggol Beach looks like when the day is still bright...


Fishing from the jetty



So how does Punggol Beach look like during sunrise?

Recently, together with my photo khakis, we camped overnight to wait for the sunrise. We covered a number of places: Mt Faber, Henderson Waves, etc, and the last stop was Punggol Beach.

Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy, so we did not manage to get the classic shot of the egg yolk sun rising from the sea horizon. Nevertheless, I managed to capture some nice hues of the sunrise:


Watching the nice horizon dotted with brightly-lit ships at 5am+. (before sunrise)


The moon with the first rays of sunlight.


Sunrise!

The jetty was surprisingly crowded! It was even more crowded than the evening which I visited. Guess there are a lot of Singaporeans who enjoy spending the early morning fishing by the jetty.


Fishing? Watching sunrise? Take your pick.

Eager to start exploring Punggol Beach too?

P.S: While blogging this entry and researching a bit on Punggol Beach, I came across why Punggol Beach is designated as a heritage site. During the Sook Ching massacre, hundreds of Chinese were killed on this beach during the Japanese Occupation.