marina south pier

If there is one type of activity that Jah and Bella really enjoy, it would involve lots of sand play and splashing around in the water. However we haven’t exactly been able to find an activity that allowed them to do both at the same time (save for the Port of Lost Wonder). So needless to say, I was really excited to learn that they could possibly be able to enjoy some sand play and be able to swim in a nice little lagoon at Lazarus Island and all we needed to do was take a 30 minute ferry ride over.

Ok well sort of, this ‘expedition’ was going to take abit more effort than just a 30 minute ferry ride.

We chose to head over on a Public Holiday as there were more ferry timings offered. We had to wake up bright and early to ensure that we could catch the 9am ferry from Marina South Pier. I guess you can say that we were quite fortunate that there was quite a demand for the ferry that day so the ferry company decided to launch more than 1 ferry during that 9am slot. This meant that we were still able to purchase our tickets when we got there at 845am.

While there was a “Provision/ Convenience” shop at the Ferry Terminal, we came prepared with our Nasi Lemak, Snacks and Cooler bag of drinks. This is absolutely necessary because there are no shops on the island and we had planned to stay on till 150pm. (The ferry departs every 2 hourly on the weekends and Public Holiday).

Bella enjoying the view from the ferry

The ferry ride was fairly comfortable and quick and we were at St John’s Island before we knew it. Yes you read correctly, we disembarked the ferry at St John’s Island even though we were headed to Lazarus Island. The only way to get to Lazarus Island is either by a link bridge (20 mins walk) from St John Island’s jetty or by hiring a private boat/ yacht to take you there.

Upon reaching St John’s Island, it was tempting to just stop at the nearest beach/ lagoon. After all, it was just next to the jetty, had abundant benches and a wide canopy of shelter. However we decided to go the whole 9 yards and persevere. We headed left from the jetty and commenced our 20 minute morning stroll towards Lazarus Island.

Turn left upon reaching the jetty and you will see a long sheltered path leading to a breakwater/ ‘bridge’

The long unsheltered ‘bridge that links St John’s Island to Lazarus Island

An early morning stroll is pretty easy and fun

Safe enough for Jah to venture ahead of us and also tons of people fishing along the side of the ‘bridge’

Keep walking and you will eventually come to a clearing on the right that looks like this…

The beach was pretty empty when we got there at about 10am except for 2-3 families and we managed to score a spot under 1 of the 2 only trees they had on that beach. Watch out for the big red ants though! Honestly apart from needing that spot to set up shop and have a quick bite, you will be spending most of your time in the water. I know we did!

The kids loved the clear green water and while it might not be ‘international’ standards, it was by far the best I have seen in a long long time! The adults were reminiscing about how we used to swim in the East Coast waters 20 to 25 years ago and even this was cleaner that what we had back then. The kids alternated between playing with the sand and just soaking in the nice little lagoon until all of us were all wrinkly.

Shallow clear waters

Time to relax…

Even Miss Scaredy Cat eventually succumb to the cool clear water

Sand!!!

Sand play before the private yachts started to pepper the waters

The crowd started coming in on the 2^nd ferry (11am) and the private yachts started turning up 300m away from the shoreline as well. It was honestly a little annoying when they started whipping out the jet skis and what not, but well we tried to ignore all that and just enjoy the moment.

The slight downer to our trip was the fact that the rain clouds turned up and brought the storm in from the sea about 30 minutes before we were ready to pack up for our ferry. 😦 Thank goodness for the fact that I had packed in our raincoats (I know! Who brings raincoats to the beach right? Haha). And the fact that Jah and Bella had such a sporty Uncle and Aunty who just rolled with the punches and used the picnic mat as a makeshift ‘umbrella’.

It really started to pour as we headed back on the ‘bridge’ or maybe because we were kind of in the middle of ‘nowhere’

Honestly the rain wasn’t that much of a downer in my opinion because we got to enjoy a really awesome sunny morning and it was kind of fun for the kids to walk in the rain in their raincoats. Joel and I were also extremely impressed by the little troopers especially Jah who clearly was feeling really cold and tired but never whined and never gave up. He only requested to stop once when he spotted shelter because he was hungry and wanted a cookie. We stopped and he immediately shouted “ok lets go!” after he finished his last bite. Love the boy to bits!

Jah stopping for a quick cookie to warm up

The little trooper frog

Before embarking on this trip, Joel was alittle concerned about the lack of toilets or changing facilities but honestly it is do-able with abit of planning. Kids are easy enough to change in full sight of everyone and while we adults figured a way to change, I reckon it would have easily been ok even if we didn’t. The 20 minutes walk back in the sun would have dried all of us up, that is of course unless you faced a rainy end to the day like us.

Probably would have dried up by this point if not for the rain (almost at the jetty)

Keeping warm in the ferry with blankets that JahBella’s uncle brought…yes who brings blankets to a picnic right?

We would head back there in a heart beat and this time we would be even better prepared than the last. Definitely a place to bring the whole ‘kampong’ to spend a nice morning out. Oh and if your kids still have the energy after the beach, you can even stop over at Kusu Island which is the ferry stop before the ferry takes you back to Singapore. 🙂