My Journey: December 2007

07:00

We were awaken with a hot lingonberries juice by the ice hotel staff, exactly the time we ask them to give us a morning call. An early start for today for we had to checked out at 8:45 to join a tour to the lapps' place, where the sammi lives (the local ethnic group there). In order to reach to the lapps' place, we have to either choose to drive an ice mobile or ride a dog sled. I tried both and seriously, dog sled is much more fun, but it take some 'weight' to control the husky dog, as the only way to control the dogs is only a brake and to stop them, we have to apply weight on the brake. Hard to imagine such small dog can act have that much power to transfer us to such far places. Every 8 to 10 minutes, we will have to stop for a few minutes in order to let the dogs to cool down, the dogs will start eating ice and turning around the ice in order to cool themself down during their break time

Preparing for take off, i have to be on the brake to avoid the dog goes off without us....

Small but strong

Smart dog that knows their route, notice the guy infront, he felt after momment, ended up chasing the sled, luckily he is a good runner, manage to get back on the sled....

All excited with the snow

Time out after a snow ball fight....

1:21

We found our self at the river bank and the lapps' hut is just across the river up the small hill. The view is really magic, snow, partially frozen river, snowy mountain, and the moon (hanging up high even it is in the evening). Natural can be this nice, how can human stupid enough to let money and global warming to destroy this scene, but parodoxically, only money can get me here.. Can't there be a balance?

Man , this is owesome....!

Crossing the river with 16 of us in the wee boat, and that tour guide really "qian bian" ask us to pull him up the shore while he sits in the boat....

Tour guide explaing the place and we found out that he tell the same lame joke to every batch of visitor he brought.... Lame...!

Modern lappish hut that we stays in, all furnish with wood, making it warm and cosy.

Wood sawing and choppind area forthe BBQ and Sauna

Kitchen

Reindeer meat with pasta

BBQ Dinner

our source of water is this river that we cross over, the moon is shinning instead of the sun that evening

Collecting water from the hole at the frozen part of the river.

Kiruna - a place i'll never forget, a place i'd never imagine i'll have the chance to visit, the coolest place ever.... A group of six, suz jian, qristine, pei fong, yi shan, wei meng and me start our journey right after our DDS exam, though juz slept for 1 and a half hour last night, the adrenaline rush cause by excitement keep me going. We took a night plane from glasgow to stockholm (which is the capital of sweden), planning to spend our night at the citycentre bus station due to the tight budget, but found ourself wandering outsite the bus station because the station doesn't operate 24 hours. Can't bare with the cold weathere which is -4 celcius, we went to a kebab restaurant for shelter and had some food while waitng for our bus to Arlanda airport where we spend our night there.....

Stockholm Arlanda airport

Found a nice spot to sleep, with christmas tree beside

SAS plane to kiruna . . .

14:00

After 1 and a half hour of flight, we reached Kiruna airport, which gives a strong christmas atmosphere for the airport is painted in red and there is snow everywhere. Due to 1st time encountering snow, i'm all excited and nearly slip when walk towards the airport from the plane.

Kiruna airport

Cool welcome sign in ice

Escort by the ice hotel staff who looks like"cystal maiden" in warcraft and were send there by this bus

16:00

What lies infront of my eye is astonishing, it's just so unbelievable "COOL".... So this is how the ice hotel looks like. After checking in, we spend some time touring around the place and were given some tips of staying in the cold room, have some idea of how the ice is transfer from the river Torne nearby . Though the ice hotel is smaller and more simpler than i immagine (different form what we seen in one of the episonde of James Bond), i'm really amaze on how they build a hotel with ice. In the design suit, every room had it's own theme and were design with ice sculpture. The bed is also made of ice with a reindeer skin lying on top of it. We are provided with a blue sleeping beg where we can stay warm sleeping in it.

What can i say, COOL ....! Ice Hotel

A photo taken form inside, note that there is chrismas tree outsite.

Gateway into the ice room

Design suit

Thanks for the tips, i know that pillow is definitely for sleeping

Ice bowl

Ice Chair

18:00

After satisfying with taking pictures around ice hotel, we prepare ourself for the Northern light trip organised by Camp Alta, where we are suppose to drive the snow mobile through fozen lake and forest to a hill call Aptasvaara, where we have a high chance of having a clear view of the Northern light. Ironically, we didn't get to see it up the hill but on the way to the hill. It looks like a green smoke which change it's pattern ramdomly and slowly dissapear in sight after some time. The way towards Aptasvaara is adventurous and challenging one as the tourguide told us the bad weathere yesterday has cause the path to become uneven and bumpy. We drove to a camp site after reaching Aptasvaara where we sit around the fire and had a wee chat with coffee and some snacks....

Snow Mobile

Northern Light ... !

Camp fire

Exhausted after the ride with suz jian and qritine

Sweden gang with the tour guide, Life

11.46

Get back to the ice hotel and took a hot bath not following the advice of keeping our body natural oil as an insulator. After that, it's time for a drink, we went in to the absolute ice bar in the ice hotel, where our drink is serve in ice not with ice, the container itself is ice instead of glass. Ordered a blue drink, it's defenitely chilled, but the portion is too little. That's the last place we spend before we get our sleeping bag from the reception and headed to our own ice room.

Craving for a drink