Wanderlust Getaway: St John and Lazarus Islands

For the last day of 2014, I spent the day on St John, Lazarus and Kusu Islands!

And it's funny how I have been spending the eves of festive days on the islands around Singapore, but it has been very refreshing to get away from the city.

The last time I was on St John Island it was so long ago, I couldnt even remember what it is all about or how the island is like. So, when my guy suggested an outing away from buildings, we saw it as an opportunity to explore. And this time round, we were not alone! My brother joined us as well with his fishing gears. 

Upon arrival, you will see the usual stuff... jetty, "St John Island" signage, and buildings but we decided to head towards the quieter Lazarus Island for the first part of our exploration. It wasn't hard to explore, there are decent paths everywhere that links you to the places you need to go and the thing about the beach there... 

This is towards the right of the coast.

Yup, it's pretty much true. Super fine white sands with foamy warm turquoise waters that whisper "paradise", the only annoying thing were the flies around certain part of the beach. 

If you want to locate the the super fine white sands portion of the beach on Lazarus Island, head towards the left... the sands on the right are coarser and more ordinary.

We took a break by that beach to enjoy a few slices of our sandwich and the waves before heading back to St John Island to rejoin my brother in his fishing adventure.

Only to find out that he hasn't been very lucky with the fishes, so we ended up setting our mats among the trees for a picnic and a nice long nap :)

I woke up to white fluffy clouds and the rustling of pine leaves with the scent of sea breeze. Then, I joined my brother and tried to cast a few times.. caught nothing but seaweed :( before I got started on the picnic food of pressed sandwich, thai salad and infused water.

After lunch, we burnt off the calories by doing random stuff like "sword fighting" with branches, catching grasshoppers, drawing on the sand, tossing rocks and skipping stones. Basically, we were restless... hence~ the random activities that followed through naturally. Once we had enough, we packed up our stuff and continued with our exploration around St John Island.

And along the way, while my guy was busy photographing a cat among the mangroves (because it's interesting)... A dad stopped by the area that we were in and started digging the sand for tiny crabs to show his daughter. It was kind of heartwarming to see that, because, that was something my dad did with us. And the sweet thing was seeing how excited and curious his daughter was after her dad showed her the crab and how she wanted to dig one out herself. You've got to like a kid who isnt scared of getting down and dirty with nature~

Heck~ I got curious too and eavesdrop into their conversation to learn what to look out for and how to dig the crabs out. Heh. And tadaa~ here's the crab:

I'm guessing that my crab is a female while my guy dug up a male, judging their pincers' size. These crabs werent the only marine life we saw, there were also other species of crabs and even sea stars! It was awesome. But if you aren't into sea creatures, fret not, there are heaps of cats on the island.

Some of them have the most interesting eye colour and gorgeous coat with the sweetest temper. All cat lovers, forget about all the hype with cat cafes~ St John's the cat island! We spotted more than 10 cats during our time on the island but I believe that there are more.

It is kind of cute how Pulau Ubin is the island of dogs and St John is the island of cats.

Overall, the whole experience on the island was quite relaxing and interesting, especially when we were exploring around. Besides the creatures we encounter,  if you open your eyes and look around, you will find fragments of glass, bowls and pottery around. I'm talking about bowls and pottery that belongs to the older generation. It makes me wander about the history and I thought it was interesting when my guy made a comment that there is something very strange when a basketball court is fenced up with barbwire on the top and how the odd thing about the buildings or chalets are that they are all fenced up with barbwire etc. 

He isn't local, hence, the history of the island is unknown to him and I kept quiet about it. Because, it's good to have a little mystery.

I concluded that St John and Lazarus Islands was a nice getaway and one that was much needed.

To get to St John Island:

Take a ferry from Marina South Pier that is easily accessible via the MRT (Take Exit B).
At the Pier, head to the Singapore Island Cruise and Services counter to purchase your tickets, keep your tickets well.

The best days to visit the islands are weekends as there are more timeslots available (Ferry Schedule here)!
A round-trip ferry ticket to St. John’s Island then to Kusu Island and back to Marina South Pier (mainland) costs S$18 (adult) and S$12 (child).

I would also recommend that you bring food and drinks along for this adventure as there are no cafeteria on St John Island. That being said, you may purchase drinks from the temple on Kusu Island ($1.60 per can) or drinks and snacks at Marina South Pier.