Thursday, December 24, 2009
So on the actual day of departure, the public transport really never resumed and none of the taxi nor airport shuttle was willing to ferry passengers to the airport. Lucky Cha has one aussie buddy, Occa who was very nice to drive us to the airport at 7am in the morning. Very grateful to him as it was a really long and exhausting drive for him.
After a 22 hour flight with three stop-overs, we finally reached Fairbanks Alaska!! WEEE!!~~ We loved the lodge that we stayed at for the past 3 nights. It has a full kitchenette so we can prepare our own meals to save costs, and the windows which were facing north were HUGE, so that we can view the aurora from the comfort of our cozy sofa or bed. It was a really excellent location for viewing aurora as we are above the city lights and temperature at a higher elevation is surprisingly warmer. We were fortunate to be able to view quite a good display of the aurora on the first night, and managed to get a few good shots! So Happy!! The aurora came out only near 1 am in the morning and the most active segment lasted only about a few minutes. But it was long enuf for us to take good pics =D
We also managed to catch the aurora on the second and third nights, although it was not as strong as the first night. We really counted ourselves lucky as aurora appears only when solar activity is strong and when sky is clear. When it is not cloudy, the sky would be full of dazzling stars, and I even saw a few shooting stars as well!! This place is a haven for astronomers lor...Northern lights pairing with stars and shooting stars are a perfect match!
Today we "celebrated" Xmas at Downtown Fairbanks. Had dinner at a Thai restaurant as most other cafes were closed for the holidays. The town was macham a dead town, with no single soul in sight by 7:30pm.. Really no festive feeling at all leh, although ironically Santa Claus orginated from Fairbanks, hehe... But actually it was really quite special to celebrate a white Xmas lar, although a bit too quiet...It was virtually white everywhere with snow. One cons of visiting Alaska in winter is that our sightseeing itinery was quite limited by the short daytime here, sun rises at 10:30am and turns dark by 3:30pm, so every minute of sunlight is really precious to us. From another perspective, we get to rest early every night! hehe..Hmm tomorrow will be making our way to Denali for dog mushing!! Wee~~!!
More updates to be continued on this trip.
Another hour to Xmas, Merry Xmas to all of us!!=D
10:30 PM
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Another snow storm today, except that it was much serious than the previous one...Public transport were all suspended and it's not a good news for us!!!! LAAAA~~~!!! We are taking a flight tomorrow and there is no way we know when the public tpt will resume again. So how are we going to get to the airport tomorrow morning?? Now Cha and I are in a half-panic mode, and even resort to calling taxi companies that are notorious for their exorbitant fees...But not even taxis accept our reservations due to the snow storm lor! Cham lar, pray hard that the airport shuttle will start accepting reservations when we call tomorrow given that the storm should clear by tomorrow morning.
Again I was super excited abt the huge amount of snow piling up on the ground today, it even reached our knee levels! Read the news that today's snowfall was a record breaker in decades! Wow! Glad that we are able to experience such record snowfall during our stay here, but it would be better if it occurs another time.. lol..We had wanted to drive out today to do some last min shopping for our trip, but our car did not even manage to make out of the estate when it got stuck in the snow bank, unable to move at all...wah...sibei scary, I was fumbling for my camera in the bag when Cha collided onto the roadside curb, as the snow covered all roads and even the pavements completely such that drivers are unable to differentiate the roads from the curbs. So dangerous. Lucky the apartment receptionist helped us push the car out of the thick snow, and the car managed to run again. But after the scare, we decided that it was really dangerous to drive in such white-out conditions so we turned back. Even parking was tedious, cuz snow had already accumulated on all the parking lots and thus it was diff to maneuver the car into the lot. The car nearly died on us again.. Sian.. Bo bian, so Cha had to go to the supermarket alone by foot lor..
This snow storm was not a good start to our trip, haiz, but we are still full of anticipation and excitement.. A little bit worried abt the extreme cold weather in Alaska, but I guess it shd be fine if we are properly clad in warm clothing. Hope we have a safe and very enjoyable trip and pray for a spectacular aurora borealis!! =D
11:10 PM
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Finally we see the first snow today!!! WEEEE~~~!!! It has been snowing really hard the entire day, accumulating 2-4 inches of snow. Was so excited to see snow, maybe it's becuz the lack of winter season in Spore that make me so gian to experience snow here...haha...Of cuz it's photo-taking session again la!! We managed to take lots of pics even though it was freezing and the snow kept slapping our face due to the strong wind. Although we were outside for less than half hour, my fingers and nose were already quite numb, and the temperature was only slightly above freezing point!! Cham lar, how am I going to endure the much harsher winter condition in Alaska leh??!! Today's snow lasted right into the evening when we did our marketing, swallowed quite a bit of "ice-kachang" whenever we toked, wahahaha~~
Was so happy that I finally finished my last paper, woo-hoo~~!! Now it's Cha's turn to go full swing for his exams liao!! *Evil grin*
11:35 PM
