::Sisters' Island Overnight Stargazing Camp::
Sunday, June 20, 2010 @ 12:39 AM
::19th June 10::
And right after our night cycling part 2 with the Woodlands YEC, they organized another event with the Woodlands INC and Admiral Garden Astronomy Club - the... "Sisters' Island Overnight Stargazing Camp".
Of course, not wanting to miss the chance of exploring another island of Singapore and yay, I had no plans for that day. I decided round up the usual Cosca members to participate for it. Unfortunately, after the tickets were booked and bought, Edmund couldn't make it at the very last minute... However, Joshua managed to get one of his friends to take over that vacant slot, her name is Genevieve.
Well,
before the meet up of this event, XueNi, Puikwan and I decided to make full use of the whole afternoon to make ShunAn's birthday present (from Epsilon) at my house. It's the only time we were free to meet up to do something like that! We have all the materials ready, except for the photos. Looking through my photo hub database, we have selected twelve photos to be printed out... from over hundreds of pictures. It was a long selection :(
With that, we made our way to Bukit Merah Central to get the photos printed out immediately. I have learnt that prices for printing photos that are smaller than the usual 4R size are much more expensive! We definitely had no choice but to go ahead and print out the smaller size of photos; due to the fact that our DIY board couldn't fit twelve 4R photos!
After returning back to my house, the battle starts now! We were competing against time; as we have to leave the house by 5pm and we only have 1 hour and 15 minutes till end of time! There's so many things to do; the decorations, the design of the DIY board - where to place the photos and messages. One of which is the burning of paper to create an interesting border; which in return dirtied my toilet sink D: Pasted one of Koko's molted tail feathers on the board as a birthday wishing from Koko as well :)
Twelve chosen pictures!~
Hardworking people :)
Of course, not wanting to miss the chance of exploring another island of Singapore and yay, I had no plans for that day. I decided round up the usual Cosca members to participate for it. Unfortunately, after the tickets were booked and bought, Edmund couldn't make it at the very last minute... However, Joshua managed to get one of his friends to take over that vacant slot, her name is Genevieve.
Well,
before the meet up of this event, XueNi, Puikwan and I decided to make full use of the whole afternoon to make ShunAn's birthday present (from Epsilon) at my house. It's the only time we were free to meet up to do something like that! We have all the materials ready, except for the photos. Looking through my photo hub database, we have selected twelve photos to be printed out... from over hundreds of pictures. It was a long selection :(
With that, we made our way to Bukit Merah Central to get the photos printed out immediately. I have learnt that prices for printing photos that are smaller than the usual 4R size are much more expensive! We definitely had no choice but to go ahead and print out the smaller size of photos; due to the fact that our DIY board couldn't fit twelve 4R photos!
After returning back to my house, the battle starts now! We were competing against time; as we have to leave the house by 5pm and we only have 1 hour and 15 minutes till end of time! There's so many things to do; the decorations, the design of the DIY board - where to place the photos and messages. One of which is the burning of paper to create an interesting border; which in return dirtied my toilet sink D: Pasted one of Koko's molted tail feathers on the board as a birthday wishing from Koko as well :)
Twelve chosen pictures!~
Hardworking people :)
Joshua came over to help out with the DIY board and also to contribute his message. By the way, we were so immersed in completing this DIY board that we have totally forgotten about the time! It was already 5pm and we still have a little more to complete. Quickly, we tried to finish up, I rushed off to bathe and change and we cleared up the mess within a time limit of thirty minutes!
It's done!
The only thing left to do was the individual birthday messages!
It's done!
The only thing left to do was the individual birthday messages!
Left the house at approximately 5.40pm, and we shared a cab down to Marina Bay and from there, take bus service 402 to Marina South Pier. Lucky for us, we managed to make it on time for the 6.16pm bus. This crazy bus service has a 30minutes interval! (@.@) We would be rather late if we have missed the 6.16pm service D:
On the taxi~
Well, look at the intervals! :\
On the taxi~
Well, look at the intervals! :\
Finally we have reached the Marina South Pier on time!~ We registered our attendance with the person-in-charge and decided explore the place :P
Didn't know there's places like this!
This printout is pasted on the telescope luggage!
I'm on it!~~ :X
We ordered Seafood Hor Fun @ $3.50
and I gave all my prawns to Puikwan :)
Moo helped take this picture of us :)
Incoming!! Helicopters with flags, practicing for this year's NDP!
Didn't know there's places like this!
This printout is pasted on the telescope luggage!
I'm on it!~~ :X
Since not everyone have arrived, we figured that we still might have time to take a quick dinner :) Yesss, we didn't eat anything at all; during the afternoon frenzy (O.Q) XueNi, Puikwan and I had our dinner at the South Pier Cafe; level 2, since it was the only place opened then. Moo found us and joined us for dinner as well. As for Joshua, he went to find Genevieve instead. 重色轻友 :X
We ordered Seafood Hor Fun @ $3.50
and I gave all my prawns to Puikwan :)
Moo helped take this picture of us :)
Incoming!! Helicopters with flags, practicing for this year's NDP!
After we were done eating, we went back the ground level/waiting area to find Joshua and Genevieve.
Now I know where's Sisters' Island is :P
Our destination!~
A group picture before we set off for Sisters' Island :)
Now I know where's Sisters' Island is :P
Our destination!~
A group picture before we set off for Sisters' Island :)
& at 7.05pm, it was time to board the boat/ferry! It was a 30minutes ride to the Sisters' Island. I don't really fancy boat rides but I didn't have a choice :( Anyway, the skies turned dark really fast when we were traveling there. Soon nightfall was upon us; and it's only 7.30pm! I have no idea why other places get dark so quickly than in Singapore. Probably all the night lights and life of Singapore might have caused such an effect.
Boarding our lovely orange transport.
Alpheus water bottles for all! :D
Look at all the telescope equipments!
Boarding our lovely orange transport.
Alpheus water bottles for all! :D
Look at all the telescope equipments!
And we REACHED...
Yay, the Sisters' Island!
Well, one of them :) The Bigger one :P
Yay, the Sisters' Island!
Well, one of them :) The Bigger one :P
And far off in the distance, we still can see the night lights of Singapore.
Once everyone and everything is off board, we proceeded to our campsite :) The path towards the campsite was in uttermost pitch black. It was really dark. I had to follow closely to the people in front of me, so that I wouldn't get strayed off the path.
Onwards!
Joshua looks like a deer caught in headlights xD
Onwards!
Joshua looks like a deer caught in headlights xD
Okay... our campsite turned out to be several shelter huts all line up against each other, facing the sea. So all of us started occupying all the 4-5 huts. Us, Cosca, the six of us conquered the last shelter hut. Yay! All to ourselves :D (Just to let you know, we weren't very close to the rest of the people there... except for Moo.) There were actually lots of others here camping further down. Most of them were from Boys' Brigade though.
Our shelter hut!
There's no need for tents or whatsoever.
But it could be a bit of a troubled, if it happens to rain :X
We settled down and started taking out all the light producing items; like torchlights and lightsticks (left over from the Ubin trip). After decorating the lightsticks on ourselves, we proceeded to decorate the hut as well :) It looked really nice after that.
Really pretty disco retro feel :3
Lightsticks hanging in midair? (O.O)
Nah, this is the truth xD
Seems like I'm in Indonesia :\
So I didn't use my handphone at all; in fear of extra overseas charges.
Silly stuffs :P
Six of us :D
& finally, group pictures of us :D
Our shelter hut!
There's no need for tents or whatsoever.
But it could be a bit of a troubled, if it happens to rain :X
We settled down and started taking out all the light producing items; like torchlights and lightsticks (left over from the Ubin trip). After decorating the lightsticks on ourselves, we proceeded to decorate the hut as well :) It looked really nice after that.
Really pretty disco retro feel :3
Lightsticks hanging in midair? (O.O)
Nah, this is the truth xD
Seems like I'm in Indonesia :\
So I didn't use my handphone at all; in fear of extra overseas charges.
Silly stuffs :P
Six of us :D
& finally, group pictures of us :D
With that, we decided to leave our bags there and explore the island! We found where's the toilet and also realized that the island is pretty small :( So we agreed on exploring the disturbing eerie staircase that we noticed earlier when we were walking towards the campsite. Forest bashing?
The staircase was made of wood with signs of little rotting. I didn't want to touch the railings at all; because some funny bugs might crawl up my hand :( We slowly made our way up, one by one and into the jungle/forest we went. The forest paths were undulating and sometimes, steep. Puikwan had a little difficulty walking in her slippers for such grounds. Moo led us deeper and deeper, exploring with only three torchlights and a some lightsticks. Everytime we met a dead end, we turned back and walked the other way. Finally, we concluded that this forest leads to nowhere at all and we searched for our way back.
Well, back at our campsite, someone from the Boys' Brigade camp came over and offered us some of their excess BBQ food. And JinPeng and others went with them to collect the food and brought over to our hut. Why our hut?! These will surely attract ants to our hut :( I didn't eat much at all. I only sampled a bit of this and that.
Free food!
Heh.
Next, we made our way to the toilet. The toilets there has no lights at all! Joshua went into the girls' toilet first to check before letting us in. To pee in the dark is scary (O.Q), so we took turns in holding the torchlight over the door to provide light.
Time for the main activity of this trip! Stargazing!♥ The stars were extremely awesome at Sisters' Island! Even though it was a little too cloudy, we still were able to see them twinkling so brightly! This is the result of low light pollution. Great! :D But but I still prefer the winter stars over the summer stars. The constellation for the summer stars were pretty hard for me to differentiate :( Till now, I only know how to spot Scorpio, Libra and Sagittarius (@.@) And of course, we used the telescopes to see certain stars/constellations close up! :)
Stargazing and star-pointing :3
Taking turns to look through the telescope!
We were amazed by the stars in the skies above... exaggeratedly!
Yay~ V(^_^)v
This scope here is attached with a hacker device!
All you need to do is to key in the co-ordinates or star name,
the scope will automatically move to where is the star/constellation is!
How hacker is that?! xD
with JinPeng, the organizer!
Awesome moon picture by Melcolm :)
Can see craters and all!
And a shot of Scorpio as well! Beautiful!!♥
The staircase was made of wood with signs of little rotting. I didn't want to touch the railings at all; because some funny bugs might crawl up my hand :( We slowly made our way up, one by one and into the jungle/forest we went. The forest paths were undulating and sometimes, steep. Puikwan had a little difficulty walking in her slippers for such grounds. Moo led us deeper and deeper, exploring with only three torchlights and a some lightsticks. Everytime we met a dead end, we turned back and walked the other way. Finally, we concluded that this forest leads to nowhere at all and we searched for our way back.
Well, back at our campsite, someone from the Boys' Brigade camp came over and offered us some of their excess BBQ food. And JinPeng and others went with them to collect the food and brought over to our hut. Why our hut?! These will surely attract ants to our hut :( I didn't eat much at all. I only sampled a bit of this and that.
Free food!
Heh.
Next, we made our way to the toilet. The toilets there has no lights at all! Joshua went into the girls' toilet first to check before letting us in. To pee in the dark is scary (O.Q), so we took turns in holding the torchlight over the door to provide light.
Time for the main activity of this trip! Stargazing!♥ The stars were extremely awesome at Sisters' Island! Even though it was a little too cloudy, we still were able to see them twinkling so brightly! This is the result of low light pollution. Great! :D But but I still prefer the winter stars over the summer stars. The constellation for the summer stars were pretty hard for me to differentiate :( Till now, I only know how to spot Scorpio, Libra and Sagittarius (@.@) And of course, we used the telescopes to see certain stars/constellations close up! :)
Stargazing and star-pointing :3
Taking turns to look through the telescope!
We were amazed by the stars in the skies above... exaggeratedly!
Yay~ V(^_^)v
This scope here is attached with a hacker device!
All you need to do is to key in the co-ordinates or star name,
the scope will automatically move to where is the star/constellation is!
How hacker is that?! xD
with JinPeng, the organizer!
Awesome moon picture by Melcolm :)
Can see craters and all!
And a shot of Scorpio as well! Beautiful!!♥
Afterward, when the tide of the sea was low, we made our way to the now exposed shores of the sea to see what we can see! to see what we can discover! to see what we can find! :D What deliciously looking creatures of the sea! :D
Most of the time we stared at the ground of shallow salt waters for any small quick movements (O.O)
Everyone staring~~
and staring~~
Hermit crab spotted! :D
And also some kind of long sea flatworm (@.@)
Beautiful scenery ♥
Our hut that we have spent the night in.
(you can still see me sleeping on the bench, while everyone is packing up)
The row of huts occupied by us (^_^)b
This view pretty much looks like a scene from East Coast Park!
JunHeng here, dismantling the telescope for keeps.
Most of the time we stared at the ground of shallow salt waters for any small quick movements (O.O)
Everyone staring~~
and staring~~
Hermit crab spotted! :D
And also some kind of long sea flatworm (@.@)
After that, as bored as we were, Puikwan and I started to dance the SHINE dance in the dark! With XueNi playing the music and the rest watching/video taking, we attached the lightsticks to our limbs and started grooving :P
It's a really poorly taking video. Lousy camera :(
Hope you guys can see the lightsticks moving in the dark :X
It's a really poorly taking video. Lousy camera :(
Hope you guys can see the lightsticks moving in the dark :X
Anyway, we were pretty much worn out from the dancing. Well, at least for Puikwan and me. There was lots of redo and retakes, because the lightsticks kept falling off! We went back to our hut and laid out the groundsheets to lie on. Moo asked me to take a walk with him and da da da... To cut a long story short, it wasn't very happy. I went back the the hut and laid down, trying to get some shut eye. But we got a serious case of ants attack! It was awful... All those ants crawling everywhere, even on our bodies... BITING US. The stupid food has actually attracted the ants! :(
None of us has any mood to sleep... so we went to one of the park table/benches and played UNO in the dark :X But I was the first to retire off to the hut to attempt another round of sleep. This time I didn't sleep on the ground anymore. I slept on the side benches of the hut and I didn't have any ants disturbing me anymore. Peace~ :)
Uno with the help of one torchlight!
None of us has any mood to sleep... so we went to one of the park table/benches and played UNO in the dark :X But I was the first to retire off to the hut to attempt another round of sleep. This time I didn't sleep on the ground anymore. I slept on the side benches of the hut and I didn't have any ants disturbing me anymore. Peace~ :)
Uno with the help of one torchlight!
And the next thing I know, it was dawn already! The sun has already risen above the horizons. Yes, I was the last one to wake up at 7.20am (@.@)
Sunrise.
Sunrise.
Beautiful scenery ♥
And so, with the sunlight, we could see our surroundings better!
Our hut that we have spent the night in.
(you can still see me sleeping on the bench, while everyone is packing up)
The row of huts occupied by us (^_^)b
This view pretty much looks like a scene from East Coast Park!
JunHeng here, dismantling the telescope for keeps.
All packed up and ready to go.
We went down the winding path...
passed the disturbing staircase we explored the previous night...
and made our way to the jetty to wait for our boat home.
Some sign that I have missed because it was too dark at night!
Is that a monitor lizard? (O.O)
Singapore in a distance...
I'm going back soon!!!! (^_^)
We went down the winding path...
passed the disturbing staircase we explored the previous night...
and made our way to the jetty to wait for our boat home.
Some sign that I have missed because it was too dark at night!
Is that a monitor lizard? (O.O)
Singapore in a distance...
I'm going back soon!!!! (^_^)
Boat arrived, all of us got on board and we reached the island of Singapore sure enough :D
Haha, definitely!
Good bye to you, Big Sister's Island :)
YAY! :3
HOME!
(showered and napped!)
Later,
I had a family reunion with my paternal side :)
My papa did the cooking and there was a birthday/fathers' day celebration afterward.
Jeremy!~
My cousin!
A feast that my papa has cooked up :)
Celebration cake :P
Happy people :D
Lastly, I ♥ goat's milk :P
Haha, definitely!
Good bye to you, Big Sister's Island :)
YAY! :3
HOME!
(showered and napped!)
::20th June 10::
Later,
I had a family reunion with my paternal side :)
My papa did the cooking and there was a birthday/fathers' day celebration afterward.
Jeremy!~
My cousin!
A feast that my papa has cooked up :)
Celebration cake :P
Happy people :D
Lastly, I ♥ goat's milk :P
Credits to XueNi and Melcolm for the pictures used
=[eNd]=
Labels: astronomy, cosca, excursion, family, overnight, overseas, sad, stargazing
--xoxo,
Akira Star
Akira Star
nette
