Bucket List: Turtle Island

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Singapore, Turtle Island

Off the southern coast of Singapore lies many small and beautiful islands that one do not normally associate with a high-tech driven city. But herein, havens of tranquility, nature, beautiful beaches, turquoise-coloured waters and wide-opened spaces offer unique escapades from the busy city-life of mainland Singapore. That all these islands can be reached within half an hour by ferry makes traveling there even more appealing.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites these islands are not. But they definitely do qualify as personal Bucket List items.

In this blog post, I am featuring one of these island. Kusu Island is where one can find several shrines, nice beaches and yes, many turtles (mostly red-eared sliders, Trachemys scripta elegans).

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Kusu Island, a.k.a. Turtle Island in the local dialect, is also known as Pulau Tembakul in Malay. Lying less than 6 km from mainland Singapore, Kusu Island is easy reached by regular ferry services from Singapore's Marina South Pier. Kusu Island lies just next to Lazarus Island and St John's Island. A single ferry ticket purchased at the Marina South Pier allows the ticket holder to visit both Kusu and Lazarus islands.

Besides beautiful beaches and peaceful lagoons, the main structures on the island are several shrines. These include two keramats (a.k.a. sacred shrines) located on top of a small hill that is reachable via a 152-steps staircase. 

Directly in front of the ferry pier is a Chinese temple dedicated to the deity Tua Pek Kong (大伯公). Here is where one can find lots of turtles swimming in the ponds.

The Tua Pek Kong (大伯公) shrine, Kusu Island, Singapore (2022)

Sculpture of Turtles at the Tua Pek Kong (大伯公) shrine, Kusu Island, Singapore (2022)

Turtles, Kusu Island, Singapore (2022)

My most recent trip to Kusu Island was in February 2022. Prior to this, my last visit was when I just started school! From what I can recalled, nothing much has changed on the island between my visits despite the passage of time. Logistics though has improved tremendously, including the modern ferry service .

A selfie of myself onboard the spacious, clean and modern ferry that service the southern islands, Singapore (2022)

This short video showed my climb up the steps to reach the Shrine of Datok Kong and Datok Nenek. 

Staircase to the Keramat of Datok Kong, Kusu Island, Singapore (2022)

Video of Climb Up the Steps to the Keramats of Datok Kong and Datok Nenek, Kusu Island, Singapore (2022)


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