Sunday, January 10, 2010
Here's a review of my recent winter trip. Alaska is a really "exotic" place to go if one is very into nature and wilderness...Let me summarize all the bad parts of this trip. First and most importantly, it was too cold for our comfort. My hands and feet were literally numb and painful all the way when I was outdoor in Fairbanks. Heat packs were a life saver man! Without them, think some of my fingers and toes kana frostbite liao... Average temperature there was ard -20C, which was considered lucky for us as Fairbanks had its share of -30+C just one week before we arrived. Heng ah! Or else we won't be able to fully enjoy those outdoor trips we had planned liao...
Second, the towns in Alaska seemed dead. Due to the very short daylight, the streets were almost deserted by 7pm, leaving us to wonder whether we got the time wrong and it was midnite instead. And this happened to Xmas day too!! Sian ah! The streets were dark and lonely, cannot be compared to the crowded and ultra festive Xmas mood in Spore, however it was uniquely captivating with its snowy landscape which compensated the lack of Xmas feel. Think all the local people were at home roasting turkey and having reunion dinner bah! And seriously, I have never seen so much snow on the streets before, covering the pedestrian walkways, roads and everywhere else.
The most deadly part of Alaska in winter is their damn slippery icy roads. Had a fall on the bum when crossing the road lor! Lucky no cars ard... But my bum was painful for the next few days lor.. And our car actually skidded at least 3 times in Fairbank, but Cha still managed to control the car in the end, as we were driving an all-wheel drive. The last straw came when we were driving along the famous Seward Highway, and skidded for dunno what reason, esp when we were not speeding lor...think the road had a layer of ice which made our car spinned TWO FULL ROUNDS aka 720 degrees!! My gosh! It was so damn dangerous. Tot we will definitely get injured, if not worse. Lucky the snow bank helped to buffer the impact and we escaped unharmed. The jeep on the opposite lane even stopped to ask us if we were ok... And we were in a total state of shock. We were also lucky that there was no car behind us or the car did not spin into the opposite lane. Or else...LAAAA~~!!! But the repair cost a bomb lor, cuz we did not buy insurance, WAIL~~~ may hit USD one thousand plus... Damn broke now..
BUTTT...We had the best fun moments in Alaska as well. Aurora borealis was spectacular on the first night. We were fortunate that all three nights at the lodge were clear and starry, so the northern lights can be visible. Hope that I can have a chance to view the aurora again when there is better solar activity, heh! Even the second night had some pretty aurora, but the third night was a bit faint. That's y I viewed from the sofa inside the room that nite.
Another highlight of Fairbanks was the famous Chena Hot Springs. This hot springs cost us USD 10 bucks each but the comforting hot springs in the midst of Alaskan weather made it so shiok and worth it! Throughout the soak, I could not stop wondering why on earth these waters won't freeze in the artic temperature of Alaska. But mother nature made it in such a way so that locals can have the luxury to access hot waters easily in such freezing temperature bah. To relieve their stress and cold. It was such a pain to walk the pavement in my bikini to the hot pool in -20C lor...but it was so shiok once we were inside the hot waters...SHHHIIOOKK~~ And it was really an amazing scene to soak in the waters while seeing the snowy landscape just outside the circumference of the spring pool. Even the rocks which surrounded the pool were covered with snow! Loved, loved, loved Chena Hot Springs~~ My hair even froze up with frost, such a funny sight...hehe
And dog mushing rocks!!! So fun!!! Cha had enjoyed the stay in Healy, Denali the most, cuz the accommodation was really good with a very warm host, and the dog sledding part was really adventurous with an uniquely Alaskan experience. The dome house we stayed at was HUGE, and really hope that I could have a retirement house like that and operate a B&B like them man...All the dogs were so affectionate and incredibly intelligent in obeying directions during dog sledding. Because of these 2 dog teams, we travelled a total of 24 miles which is ard 38 km in one daylight. It was really a feat! We got to see a lot of stunning scenery which we would not get to see due to the rough terrain covered with snow. I LOVE DOG SLEDDING, even though I got thrown off by the dogs three times... If got chance to go back again, we would want to take the 3-night dog sledding expedition! I want to see the "magic bus" featured in the movie "Into The Wild" lor.. But cuz the expedition and training over expensive liao, so, this time we gave it a miss bah..
Oh yah, the Santa Claus House we visited in North Pole was really fun as well! It was where Santa Claus originated !! Woo hoo~~ It was the only part where the Xmas festive feel was really strong man...We had a pic with the "actual" Santa Claus and had him mailed a postcard to our house with his personal handwritten Xmas greetings, WEE!!! We are now also the proud owners of the land in front of the Santa house, one inch square!! wahaha..cost us 14 bucks though...
Anchorage was nice too...again too quiet at night. However the mountain and sea view along the Seward Highway was beautiful but the high cost of the car "accident" made us wonder if we shd make the trip to Seward town. But no regret lar, since what's done cannot be undone liao... We had some nice memories and pictures taken there too...
Next we flew down to Seattle for our New Year countdown. Seattle was indeed one of the rainiest state in US man...It rained 270 days a year...Sian...So we did our countdown in light drizzle lor... But our new year mood was not dampened at all! The countdown was followed by impressive fireworks at the Space Needle...It was awesome! And the Needle was only a short walk from our hotel..shiok de! Of cuz we cannot miss the world famous Pike Market Place le, esp the Pike Fish Market which was a major landmark in Seattle, seeing them throw fish ard and jostling ard with their customers made me wonder whether they really really enjoy playing hard at work? Or they are paid highly to throw fish ard? hehe...but nvm, have watched so many documentations of them, so must go experience their "fish-throwing
" at least once le! Not to forget we also took some pics with Rachel, the golden "pig"gy bank, think it's the largest in the world lor! hehe...FK, no offense wor!
We also visited the very first Starbucks shop which originated from the Pike Place Market.. Of cuz must get some drinks from this landmark shop le! Think it was almost 100 years old and they still used the original wooden floorings lor... Sad thing is, they have no seats for customers, so we could only order our drinks to-go. But the very small shop was really packed with people lor, all lining up for an original taste of their coffee, have never seen starbucks with so many patrons bfore...hehe.. Many of our meals were also settled at Chinatown, food was really good, and we really really missed such authentic Chinese food le... Cheaper also, so we dined there quite often de...Overall Seattle was nice, but too rainy and gloomy at times, and unfortunately for Cha, he broke his beloved camera here too =(
Last destination was Mount Rainer National Park. It was shocking to see the peak, called the "Paradise", snowing heavily when it was rather warm at the bottom lor! (ard 3-10C). Because of our prior incident with the icy road in Anchorage, we were very very slow and ultra cautious with driving this time round. Little did we expect that the Paradise was actually a skiing haven for the locals!!! Weeee!! We signed up for a snowshoe tour with the park rangers and did a two-hr walk on snowshoes on one of the snow trail. Wow, the scenery was really breathtaking, it was snow everywhere, and was lined with snow-covered spruce trees. This place was also said to be one of the snowiest place on earth! The snow was an average of 7 foot deep, fancy that lor... And walking with snowshoes were quite tiring cuz need more strength to maneuver the heavy and bulky shoes, but I thoroughly enjoyed the walk lor, scenery was so beautiful and air was so refreshing...
Overall, I enjoyed this Alaskan trip very much, a totally different feel from the sunny and hot Hawaii trip we went just a few months ago... If got chance again, really hope to see the aurora in a different form and take up a more challenging dog sledding expedition in the future. Or an Alaskan trip in the summer sounds good too, hehe =D
Also posted a lot a lot of my fav pics here, hehe..
4:50 PM
