My colleagues and I were at Sutera Harbour Resort's Earth Hour event and we captured some shots but due to the limitations of our handphones our photos didn't turn out even close to brilliant. But still, they are my keepsakes for my first Earth Hour participation.Enjoy the read!
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| The start of a beautiful day. Catch the early moon. |
It's now 11 minutes past midnight. I've just had a smashing time celebrating Earth Hour at Sutera Harbour Resort in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (East Malaysia). The boardwalk and the area just at the bottom of the Resort's prominent landmark; the Bird of Paradise was the selected venue for hosting this year's celebration.
Earth Hour 2013 was not opened to the public. Invitations were extended only to special guests that include long-staying hotel guests of the Resort’s two 5-star hotels, The Magellan Sutera Resort and The Pacific Sutera Hotel.
It was drizzling at past 4pm and most of us were so afraid the sky would open up and spoil the night. But it didn’t. In fact there was little wind compared to other evenings. The sunset though was glorious, much better than the previous day.
Although the Resort’s Earth Hour celebration was a closed door event, it did enjoy the presence of the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah YB Datuk Masidi Manjun officiating. Also present were the Resort’s President, YBhg Datuk Edward Ong and YBhg Datin Enung Njoman and several other prominent figures.
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| Glorious earthly beauty - the majestic sunset! |
It seemed this year’s celebration was taken a notch higher by tying up the 1-hour darkness campaign with a marine conservation effort. This year, the Resort embarked on a coral planting project in the Marina as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program.
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| Preparations for the evening. |
It was no easy task to plant corals in the dark but with the help of University Malaysia Sabah’s team from its Borneo Marine Research Institute headed by its Director, Professor Saleem Mustafa everything went smoothly as planned.
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| The in-house emcee, Ms Imelda doing last checks before the kick off. |
The night’s event was fairly simple. There was the screening of the official Earth Hour video on a giant screen, the bell ringing ceremony to signal the 1-hour darkness that started universally at 8.30pm, the lighting of the Tiki torches and followed with the planting of the corals by the Marina’s pontoon.
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| As the sun sets, the boardwalk lit up with minimal lights. |
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| Universal countdown with the help of Earth Hour's official video. |
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| The UMS team preparing the corals for planting under minimal light. |
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| The VIPs at the pontoon with the divers assisting in planting the corals. |
The rest of the night was spent enjoying good food by candlelight and soft music provided by The Magellan’s strollers.
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| Romantic setting combined with good food. |
