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
