Invitations
My cousin invited our relatives and some of her friends (I decided not to invite any of my friends cos my aunt was paying) for the celebration which was held on the yatch - Le Tara, for half a day. The plan was to meet at Marina at Keppel Bay at 1.30pm.
The boat:
We were asked to take off our shoes and put them in a container prior to boarding. There were around 20 of us so the boat felt quite small and crowded.
There were 2 small rooms in the basement with beds which we used to store our bags and a really tiny bathroom.
After settling in, we gathered for a safety briefing in the really small space.
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| Safety briefing by the crew |
The journey
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| I have no idea what island this is |
Most of us went out onto the deck or the upper deck to sit because it's just too squeezy indoors. Indoors, the adults (adults in this case refers to the older generation) started making popiah. The waves were quite choppy so the boat kept rocking around. It was really hard not to spill popiah ingredients and sauce! Could easily make that a challenge. 😂 The swaying also made it hard for the adults to walk around.
We were waiting to dock at Seringat island (linked to Lazarus island) which initially I thought was St John's island. St John's island and Lazarus island are linked by a man-made pathway.
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| Pic while waiting to dock |
As we were waiting for another private boat to leave so that we can dock, our ship crew, started preparing the water activities for us.
My uncles and aunts were 'betting' on who will be the first one to be in the water.
Uncle: I think CH will be the first.
CH walks by...
Uncle: CH, go down first!
CH *blur*: okok.
Us: EHHH that's cheating. hahaha
Manipulating the outcome 😂
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| Floating water mat |
It's a very expensive mat/toy.. Just googled around and seems to cost around $1k.
CH was trying to make the mat sink so that I would drop into the sea... It was near impossible so she resorted to pulling me off the mat. 😂 She targeted me because I'm the only one who probably wouldn't survive without the life jacket in water - i.e., scared of water.
The adults came to join us on the mat and one of my uncles decided that he wanted to get everybody into the water. So he pulled on the mat to get it to flip. The mat is really long, so it's hard to flip someone who is sitting really far away from him. His initial efforts were therefore not successful. It was only when everyone on the mat agreed that we wanted to be in the water and so voluntarily flip the mat was Operation-flip-the-mat successful. 😅
The flip side of the mat is yellow, which is so much nicer for pictures!
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| HH doing a jump shot! Amazing huh this mat. |
When our boat finally parked, I was the first to try out the jet ski. Apparently it requires a licensed person to operate it and since none of us has a license for it, we could only take turns with the crew member who has a license.
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| Jet skiing |
It was my first time on a jet ski. It is kind of like a water motorcycle. To avoid falling into the water, you must lean the same way as the person in front of you. There were times when I was unprepared for the sudden turn that I almost lost my balance. I found the jet ski ride thrilling when it was accelerating... but after a while, when I got used to the speed, it's just like meh. 😐 the crew tried to make the ride bumpy for fun but honestly it was more uncomfortable than fun. I think we only had 2 (or maybe 1) hours to use the jet ski so we each took a short spin of 3-4 mins on it.
Then there was kayaking.... KC and SK were in the kayak and I decided to join them so we had 3 people in the kayak with me sitting in the middle facing the opp direction. But because we only had two paddles, I didn't need to paddle. 😂 I was just there for the ride.
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| Someone spotted being lazy hahaha 😆 |
We also utilised the peacock float. It was very challenging to get onto the float as it was slippery. But CH and I managed to get onto it and stay on it. We then untied ourselves from the boat and took a kayak paddle, in the hopes of steering ourselves somewhere. It didn't work la... because the peacock float is round! We got smarter and tied ourselves to the kayak and had poor PT and QL (who were in the kayak) bring us around 😆
Here's a photo of KC who managed to get onto the peacock float but fell off it hahahhaa
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| The peacock must not like him |
The last water activity consists of a motor/propeller. I didn't try it as it seemed a bit slow for my liking. KC had packed his goggles and iirc, Felix borrowed it from him and went 'diving' with the propeller. However, the water was quite murky, so he couldn't really see much 😅
Speaking of the murky water, the sea water was TERRIBLY SALTY. I was lucky that I only had a very small sip of it when I was pulled into the water. Urggh.
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| She looks like she's having lots of fun with the propeller |
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| Us cousins who are 25 and above |
After several hours of playing in the water, the crew commenced the BBQ dinner.
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| BBQ pit on the boat |
My aunt pre-ordered BBQ food from them and so they did the BBQ-ing for us. We just needed to wait and eat.
KC, SK, CH, PT, Felix and I decided to explore Lazarus island while waiting for the food to be cooked.
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| View of our boat from the island |
We walked to the part of the island with a small beach in the shape of a crescent. There was nobody at the beach. It's fantastic! Such a different feeling from the over-crowded beach at Sentosa.
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| This part of the water isn't that deep. They are all standing |
Some interesting finds at the beach:
1. Coconut that was broken open. Still figuring out if it's the work of nature or man or animal.
2. Seaweed/seagrass. PT and SK went collecting and they brought them back to the BBQ to eat...!
Did they really consume them?
PT decided to throw the seaweed at her mum as sort of a surprise and didn't bother picking it up after to wash and eat. I have no idea if SK really ate hers 😅😅😅 |
| Our eating area. Chairs and table from our boat. |
There was nothing vegan from the BBQ other than mushrooms (which they saved 2 sticks for me) and corn so my aunt prepared salad (cabbage and carrots) for me too.
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| Mushrooms on stick |
While we were eating, a stray cat came up to us and started meowing.
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| "Meow..." |
We guessed that it was hungry so someone offered it some corn. The cat sniffed at the corn and turned its back on it. 😅
Me: Umm... you know that cats don't eat corn right? They eat fish
Person: Huh! So picky...
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| Cat eating the cooked salmon that we gave it |
Hmm... So how did stray cats end up on the island? Did people transport them there? Who feeds them? Do they catch fish? (I mean I've never seen cats go fishing.... so I don't know if that's possible) 😵
After the heavy BBQ dinner, we had the cake cutting ceremony! We were all joking that SH's bf, Yj, was earning serious brownie points with the family... because SH was in Mongolia yet he came to celebrate SH's sister's birthday and even paid for the cakes.
I was very touched that my aunt who organised the event thought of getting a separate vegan cake for me. Especially because I know that my aunt and uncle don't agree with me being vegan, but still they respect my decision to be. 😄 I also felt paiseh (meaning: having a sense of shame) because it's quite troublesome and expensive to get a vegan cake.
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| Happy 21st HH! 😄 |
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| Vegan vanilla matcha cake from bunny bakery |
It was getting late and our private hire time was almost up so it was time to return back to mainland Singapore. As we were rushing for time, we had to cut the cakes and eat them while on the boat. Thankfully the waves weren't as choppy as before so we didn't have a hard time cutting the cakes. As most preferred to eat the normal cake, I ate half the vegan cake by myself 😂
Along the route back to Keppel bay, the crew detoured such that we could catch the view of the marina/CBD area.
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| Skyline of our Central Business District |
Closing thoughts
I still can't believe that I'm already 25... because it doesn't feel like I've been on Earth for that long....Anyway, I'm really thankful to those who wished me well and celebrated my birthday with me (my family, relatives, old friends, friends at work). I try not to make my birthday a big deal, but I really do like and appreciate the celebrations! 😃
