Thursday, March 31, 2016

Arriving at Muotka

First time travelling with Finnair. Our flight from Changi Intl Terminal 1 at 2335hrs to HELSINKI
Terminal 2, reached at 0635hrs and it cost us SGD 1294.6. We had to take internal flight from HELSINKI Terminal 2 at 1035hrs to Ivalo, reached 1305hrs and it cost us SGD 654.27. This trip was the most expensive trip that I had travelled so far.
 
We booked a 5 days package with https://www.theaurorazone.com/
Total cost was 3,963.64 Euro for 3 of us excluding charges paid by credit card. It was around SGD 2120 per pax.
We were fetched from airport to Muotkan Maja Wilderness Lodge. Journey from airport to the lodge was about 30 mins. According to our itinerary, day one did not include lunch but we were told that we could have our lunch at the lodge before they showed us to our room.



 
Main purpose of trip was Aurora. It was not food trip, thus no nice photos of food. Lol. Ok, blame it on my skills..


 
The main building was really nice. Nice country style where we must take a photo!

 
After we were being briefed....on our programme, given a phone that would notify us if there was Aurora above our accommodation...we were brought to our room.
 
We had funny experience in our room. 1st, we had difficulty opening the door to our room! We almost shouted from our window calling for help for someone to open our door. We thought of climbing out of window but window could not be opened. Lucky enough, we managed to open the door and we told the person we had problem with it. There was actually some technique! To open it, we had to push it in hard then opened it. We saw the person hit her hip towards the door and opened it. OK...we tried.....many many times after the person left.
 
Another experience was the tap in the bathroom for showering dropped. We were shown to another room for just showering purpose.


 
Ever wonder how we push our luggage on the snowy floor? We used this plastic sled. We put our luggage in the sled and we push it on the snow floor. It was easy to push.




 
Snow mobile. We would ride it on one of the days. Must have license to drive it, however, nobody actually checked for our license.



 
Went out to explore the place. There was really not much houses seen. Totally wild. Beware of the snow too. Some were soft and might get ourselves stuck in the snow. A knee deep. We walked on the path after experiencing our leg sank in to the snow. It was difficult to get out of it.


















 
We waited for the Aurora to appear but it didn't. We waited for the phone given to us to notify us on the Aurora but none. We slept...occasionally woke up to toilet and looked outside our window for Aurora.....
  
Above photos taken from Compact camera, Sony RX100III

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Tsubohachi Izakaya Hokkaido

Before flying off, had dinner at Tsubohachi Izakaya Hokkaido located at Changi Airport Terminal 2.
The food here reminds me of the Japanese food I love in Bangkok.
Ok, but the price is of course more expensive.
Forgot to take photo of the restaurant.
Tried it if you going to depart from T2.
Anyway, I made a mistake, looking at the Helsinki Airport T2 and thought I going to depart from T2 in Singapore. After dinner, he accompanied me, taking sky train to T1. 




Sunday, March 27, 2016

Nikon 7200

Birthday today.
I was still working on 26 Mar 2016 night.
Lucky nothing happened after 12 midnight.
Went out for dinner and to try out my new camera! Nikon 7200. It may not be new model anymore but I bought it. It was better function than my old Nikon 5000 which I bought many years ago.
Why I bought new camera. Going to finland soon and hoping to take some nice photos and Northern light!
 
Tried out..seriously, I did not know how to use the new camera. Function was different from Nikon 5000. It was heavier as well. I am wondering hot to carry the heavy camera, the heavy tripod for the trip. Haiz......torture..Maybe I should just enjoy myself with the view...
 
Below setting:
ISO: 100, Aperture: 14, shutter speed: Not sure. Using Long exposure mode as well.
 

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Coney Island

Revisit Coney island.
Rented bicycle to round the small small island.
 Not sure why it is called Coney island. Not big. 5km can complete?Not sure.
Took photos using my GoPro 4 black again.
Seriously don't like. Repeat...It was troublesome as I need to use my hp to activate the shoot button.
I need to view it on my hp...then press the button.
This time round, I hide behind so the photo won't see me using my hp.
The resolution of the photos...I don't like.
Handphone would be better than gopro in turn of the quality of the photo and more easy to use.
Below photos all edited.