Few have asked me ‘how much have I spent for the trip?’. Many expect the trip to be expensive and luxury as it includes the dog sledge, ice hotel visit and the icy experience. Have a look at the breakdowns

Taxi to airport £36 + flight London-Stockholm £178 + train Stockholm-Kiruna £203 + Kiruna hostel £32 + ice hotel entrance and coach £40 + Dog Sledge and Overnight cabin £160 + Stockholm airport transfer £32 = (approximately) £681.

It comes out to be £1000 inclusive of meal and expenses for 2 pax. It’s not expensive considering the sort of experience you are getting. Of course, if it wasn’t because of Noreen’s accomodation in Stockholm, it would have been more expensive (Thanks, Noreen).

So if you are coming from Malaysia or Singapore just add another £500  per person for return flight. This should give you a ballpark figure.

If any of you interested to know info regarding hostel/train/url/tourbooking and stuffs, let me know and i will post further.

11^th March 2006 Saturday We visited Skansen, the open museum in the morning and the rest of the day was dedicated for food shopping. We bought some caviar, biscuits, Smörgåssill (pickled herring), pickled cucumber and a Kosta Boda bowl .

taken in swedish gourmet market, good choice noreen!

we did have a couple of good cooking sessions

 
12^th March 2006 Sunday We bid Hej då to Sweden and board SK531 at 1110 back to London. We have a collection of 800 masterpieces from the trip (embarrassing!). Much appreciation to my colleagues for the Nikon “lah” and not forgetting our IPOD shuffle did help a lot too. It was one of our best holidays that we had even been – survived from the ice and frost bites, inspiring, abundance of exposure to the nature, culture and knowledge. Definitely raises our expectations for our future breaks.

9^th March 2006 Thursday I was awaken by the sudden chill, looked over my shoulder and noticed that there were no woods left burning in the fireplace. I contemplated to burn more woods due to the fact that I felt so sluggish at 0030. However, the iciness won over me and I strained myself to add more woods to trigger the fire. By the time the fire started, Eng was already wide-awake by the noise. He was caring and gentlemen enough to let me sleep in his sleeping bag at his corner, which was supposedly warmer. I had to wear thermal, wool, jumper, the clothing provided by Henrik, winter jacket, thermal socks and tucked into 2 sleeping bags in order to keep myself warm and subsequently able to sleep soundly (Not very proud of it) Comparatively, Eng just wore a yellow jumper and trousers to sleep. He had the urge to visit the P area (designated outdoor spot as men’s toilet) but resolute to hold as long as he can due to the coldness and darkness outdoor. 

fire place

Eng’s desire to fulfil a good sleep just couldn’t ensue due to the increased coldness and urge to visit the P area. His feet were freezing although he was also tucked into 2 sleeping bags. The time was 0300 and he decided to answer natures call. While watering the local plant life overlooking Torne River under the clear sky, he witnessed some strange poignant shadows and sounds of cracking ice as well as animals’ foot steps echoed in the dusk with little light from the reflection of snow. It was definitely not an experience by choice. He then returned to the hut to lit more fire before retiring for the third time that night. He managed to slumber an hour later by burying his head in the sleeping bag as it was just too cold and wondered how the guests in the Ice Hotel could sleep comfortably in sub zero.

lower than freezer’s temp?

The next time the fire was gone, it was 0630, sun had risen and the bright ray was penetrating through the window in our hut. Eng couldn’t consider a better reason to sleep and thus decided to get out of bed and wear more clothing. At the same time, I woke up and we both freshened up and prepared some hot coffee to drink with cinnamon ginger biscuits, Pringles and German rice biscuits. It was minus 25 but we still took a stroll by the frozen lake. We could hear the resonance of cracking ice. Our growling tummies alerted us that it should be breakfast time. Bread, cheese, salami, muesli, yogurt, apple jam, marmalade and hot chocolate which both happened to be my favourites were readily served for us in the main cabin. 

After breakfast @ 0900, we walked leisurely down the river bank. The day scenery was breathtaking; large pieces of frozen ice were floating and spectacular forms of pebble liked ice at the edge of a multilayered snow; we enjoyed the tranquillity of the surroundings; just like heaven. We decided to turn back after the long adventurous wander and as Eng was stretching his neck, he caught sight of 5 wild animals – reindeers (this time with horns) and some white reindeers about 800 metres away.

Approximately 1100, Eng was very eager to experience ice-fishing but prior to that, the ice needs to be checked. Alexander, Henrik’s son, drove his Yamaha snowmobile to the middle of the frozen lake to corroborate that it was suitable to fish but encountered some problems with his vehicle later on. Unfortunately, there was too much water on the surface of the ice, which could be unpleasant for the activity. Apparently, the previous night was too cold which caused more ice to be frozen and subsequently increased the water pressure to overflow to the surface of the adjoining ice (a metre in thickness). Eng was no doubt disappointed but that created an excuse to return to do some ice fishing in the future. Since we had some free time before our departure, we treated ourselves to one last round of “snow gliding” on mattresses. Eng resurfaced some patches so that we wouldn’t bump into trees during the slide.

a snowflake on my glove

By 1230, we had to pack our belongings, as we need to clear the room for the next group of French and Chinese tourists. We ate one last luscious meal of smoked reindeer with macaroni. It was so mouth watering that we couldn’t resist from finishing the entire dish of meat. I was sitting beside Henrik at the dining table and he didn’t have the same food as us but he drank reindeer blood + vodka instead…..eeeuuuuuuu. I lied as after lunch, we had the final round of “snow gliding” but did it at the wrong slope and Henrik couldn’t drive his snowmobile up since he had to brake for us. All of us had to help him push the motor and he was obviously not too happy about it. Anyway, Eng paid him 2900 SKR and £40 tips to buy good food for the huskies.

click the picture for panorama, its 90kb

We waited till 1500 before walking round the lake for 15 minutes to reach the huskies’ waiting area. 13 huskies were competing for attention when they saw us. Henrik arrived and selected 3 huskies to be seconded to their cages while the rest were equally divided and assigned to 2 sledges. The ones allocated to a Hungarian couple in the other sled had 2 leaders.
As usual, the huskies were eager to run. The Hungarian’s huskies were a bit slow and Henrik had to console the leaders by chanting some dog language and they immediately became alert again. I took over the driver’s position from Eng at half journey. I was thrilled but nervous. During the run, the leader slowed down to answer nature call (they do this all the time) and I couldn’t step the brake on time and caused the sled to jolt the huskies to the side of the path. The second husky’s harness was tangled and Eng spent 2 minutes trying to readjust the harness while Henrik appeared calm and patient. I released the position to Eng 10 minutes later as I was emotionally tensed by driving the sled and the thought that I might unintentionally hurt any husky.

driver had to stand throughout and be prepared to step on the brake pedal

The remaining ride on narrow trails was bumpy and we were impressed with the huskies familiarity with the route that they could lead us back to the destined spot without Henrik in sight. We then helped Henrik unleashed each husky and direct them back into their cages. There was an ill husky with us in the car as he accidentally swallowed a harness belt that had caused stomach discomfort. Henrik shared some information with Eng and mentioned that over aggressive huskies will be exterminated whilst the respectable ones could be sold for 20000 SKR. Not exactly what he wanted to hear. He ultimately dropped us off at ICA for some food shopping before we adversely leave the paradise to board the train back to Stockholm. We will definitely miss the encounter and the huskies but as the same time vow not to dog sledge again as we felt pity for the huskies. Mixed feelings. Dog lover, you tell us!

to all the huskies in Kiruna, we will remember you!

2 sides back to back with 10 kennels on each side, dogs are kept overnight here! That’s Henrik

they were watching Henrik’s movements closely, and hoped to be selected for sledging for the day!

like F1, u need to check properly before the race

set.. ready.. wait for the boss

8^th March 2006 Wednesday Woke up several times as I was excited about the imminent activity. Henrik from Taube company picked us up at 0900 but there were no huskies in the truck. We waited patiently until we arrived at Kurravaara. We put on extra clothings provided by Henrik. There were snowmobiles and sleds but still no huskies. Suddenly, we caught sight of a moving object poking out of an enclosed kennel. Those were the huskies! We do feel sorry for them as they were locked up in individual kennel. They were 20 in total and we had to escort them out of the kennel and leashed them outdoor. Then, we were taught how to harness and handle the huskies and sled. The huskies’ enthusiasm to run was simply astonishing. They started barking, jerking and howling when Henrik the alpha dog (pack leader) illustrated signs of departure. Once we set off the brakes, they started running in full swing for 10 km. It was a splendid and priceless experience. Absolutely worth the quest especially for someone who has been living in a constant tropical climate and willing to chill out in a difference of 60 degrees celcius. We went through the forest and on the ice of Torne and Rautas River. There were no roads in that region and we essentially arrived at the camp and lived in the last wilderness in Europe for 2 days. We had the Lappish specialities – reindeer meat, bread and aromatic hot coffee. They fed us well but it was a trap! We accumulated energy and we had to chop our own firewood for our own hut and it’s not that difficult to guess who did most of the work  Once that was through, we enjoyed the rest of the peaceful evening by partaking in cross country skiing, feeding the reindeers, saunter by the river, BBQ and wooden heated sauna. In essence, we had the best of everything – huskies, river, forest, skiing, sauna…I could not ask for more. Finally, the emphasis of the evening was glimpse of Aurora Borealis or Northern Light. It was like fireworks across the sky; mainly green. An amazing celestial phenomenon generated by the Sun that our Nikon couldn’t capture.

fast and furious, so u know why hp(horsepower) isn’t applicable in this part of the world	they’ll ’scoop’ ice from side path with their mouth from time to time, their natural ice-blended sky juice

eng - obviously, she thought the cabin had ensuite bathroom with unlimited flow of hot water	i am standing on a frozen river! the surface of ice was at least 1m thick

eng - i can’t believe this dwarf looking creature is me!	this was our 15-yr old hut for the night

puppy husky!

6^th March 2006 Monday Free-and-easy was the programme. We took our own sweet time to organize our 16-hour train expedition to Kiruna. Connex departed from Stockholm Central at 1800. We had dinner in the train and went straight to bed. Eng had stomach discomfort during the journey but he recovered by the time we arrived at Kiruna. We crossed the Artic Circle in Sweden along the way by noticing some posters and signs of indications.

7^th March 2006 Tuesday We alight at Kiruna, Lappland by 1030. It was bitterly wintry and attest to get used to the weather as it could be worse up North. We found our route to Yellow House (accommodation for the night) to unload our backpacks and headed straight for food.

yellow house hostel, affordable and clean !

I was craving for some Swedish meatballs (yes, the IKEA specialty) with mashed potatoes and they were indeed delicious. By 1400, we took a bus to the world renowned Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, the other one is located in Quebec, Canada. We were eager to witness the fairy tale land; the immense carving that is being rebuilt every winter. Check out its site if you need to know more but IMHO, the sculptures were remarkable but my feet were too numb throughout; imagine walking on ice with my thin soles from Clarks although I like my boots which I’d bought from the Christmas London sales. Shall not dwell further or else, this blog will divert from its origin

ice hotel, smaller than i thought from the outside

chapel next to the ice hotel, i thought it looks better than the hotel

entrance to the hotel, made from reindeer skin and horns, canggih!	dining area of the hotel with the infamous chandelier

icy reception desk and its friendly staff

Absolut Icebar, with everything made from ice including the glasses

You get proper bed in rooms. From the pic, the bed is a combination of 4 Ice blocks as Legs, wood frame on top of the ice blocks, mattress covered with reindeer skin and pillows

bored yet?	here’s more

5^th March 2006 Sunday Eng and I are early birds and it was unfortunate that Noreen had to wake up the same time as us to have breakfast together. Thanks for waking up pal! Eng could be a qualified travel guide as his itinerary and amount of comprehensive information he had gathered for our trip were pretty impressive and of course, tailored so much to my interests  We left for Gamla Stan after breakfast but we didn’t get to the subway station after half an hour as we were busy snapping photos of the environs outside Noreen’s apartment.

beautiful scenery 200m from the door step

I didn’t realised that I seemed to be obsessed with bicycles as every shot has its occurrence  .

Anyway, we arrived in the end. Gamla Stan literally an “old Stockholm” is a small island in the middle of the city. With its narrow lanes and attractive highlighted buildings, it is a charismatic vicinity to visit.

Identify the fake windows in one of the pix. Apparently in olden times, residents were being taxed for "installing windows" (ooopsss too much IT by now) in their units as it was considered luxurious.

looks like a cake!

4^th March 2006 Saturday Blanket of snow covering the Swedish landscape greeted Eng and I as the aircraft approached our long awaited destination. The view was pure white, something I would have imagined of North Pole (minus the forest). Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) SK1530 descended at Stockholm Arlanda at 1030 as expected. Arlanda wasn’t busy at all; interior is contemporary and there are washrooms almost every 50 metres (exaggerating a little but this was what I thought). Most importantly, we did not have to wait for our baggage vis-à-vis my various unpleasant experiences at other airports. Just 2 weeks ago, my baggage was delayed from Bangalore and the staff didn’t know the status.  I was so bengang as I accidentally put my Nikon in the luggage lah.

neat and well designed belt

impressive flooring for an airport

Without wasting any time, we took the airport coach Flygbussarna to S:t Eriksplan T-bana. The journey was 36 minutes; sights were spectacular along the way and we knew that we did made the right choice to discover Sweden. After alighting at S:t Eriksplan, we found our way to my dear old CBN classmate’s residence; Noreen. Noreen and her husband, Peter gave us a warm welcome, showed us to our room for the next 9 days and a tour around her cosy apartment. We chatted for some time before departing for an ice hockey game between Djurgården (Stockholm team) and Leksand at the Globe Arena. Peter and Noreen prepared yummy beef burrito for our dinner.

it wasn’t fun at all to find address with these luggages on slippery streets

national anthem in background

Close match, but Djurgården lost out at extra time

atmosphere was great, something i’ll never get on TV