Norway in a kuaci shell

A few years ago I watched a program on Norway. I can’t remember whether was it National Geographic or Discovery or some other TV programs, but images shown from various landscape of that country have been etched in my memory ever since. When BMW launched the latest model of my favorite motorcycle, they shot its promotional video amidst the beautiful landscape too. Now that wife and I are in Scandinavia, we thought we should visit Norway and see the country for ourselves. We skipped our honeymoon when we first got married in early 2007, so this trip makes up for it.   We figured that if we fly there, we will miss a lot of the countryside. If we take the train, we will not see as much as well. So we decided to rent a car, buy a road map and have a little adventure finding our way and driving to places we want to go. It's exciting because any place we end up at is new to us. And we can stop anywhere we want or when we want to see something up close. On the day we went to Hertz office to collect our car, we were told they didn’t manage to reserve the car that we booked, a Volvo S40. So, they had to upgrade us to a Volvo S60 instead. This trip started very well. We have a very long journey ahead of us and we have a very nice and comfortable car to travel in. And if we lose our way or run out of money for accommodation, we can even sleep in the car. Now we hope they fail to reserve the car we book in future, every time.   Hotels in Norway are very expensive, even more so than Sweden. It’s even more expensive during summer holiday season. Travelling off-season will present some inconveniences as a lot of roads will be closed due to snowy conditions, and some places and attractions won’t be open to public as well. To save cost, wife and I devised a plan to stay at youth hostels and to try camping. We loaded up the car with as much food, snacks, cooking utensils, water bottles, clothes, and other survival equipments we can carry. Well, it was actually MY plan. Wife is more of a city girl. She would never think of a camping holiday. I was worried that she couldn’t take it but it turned out to be unfounded. We enjoyed the trip so much that we’re already discussing where we should go and what we should do for our next adventure together!

Start of our journey

We stayed at youth hostels in Oslo, Geilo, Bergen & Hellesylt for first few days. Hostels are not exactly cheap here, but cheaper than hotels. They only have basic facilities. In smaller town (or village), these are basically big wooden structure with multiple rooms. With wooden walls and floors, every movement can be traced, every conversation no longer confidential. If we had to wake up to pee in the middle of the night, it’s best to walk to the bathroom as normal despite the noise instead of trying to keep it quiet by taking slow and soft steps. Other guests might mistake the faint and gentle squeak of the wooden floor as some spirits roaming around, especially for someone who just woke up from a nightmare. These hostels seem to be manned by college kids who are bitter about having to work instead of having a summer vacation of their own. They were just there to hand us our key and collect money and then leave the rest for us to figure out for ourselves. The service, if exists at all, was impersonal, unlike this one staff at Geilo. He was extremely friendly and enthusiastic about having us around because we were the first guests from Malaysia to have stayed there since he started working 6 years ago. For an average price of around 550 NOK per night, we get breakfast included, free use of common kitchen, toilets and shower. But we had to bring our own bed linens, comforter covers, pillow cases and towels, which we did because we’ve already done some research on staying at hostel. After a traumatizing experience of finding centipede at one hostel in Singapore some time ago, we made sure to check the mattresses and the space underneath the bed. Fortunately, all we find was some unexplained stain in Oslo which we covered with our bed linens. Despite this, there were many other things to feel upbeat about. Breakfast, though simple, was quite good. Wife was also quite happy that she gets to use their kitchen to cook our own food. Wireless internet access is available at all the hostels, and they’re free since we brought our laptop along. And some of these hostels do have nice view of the surroundings. Plus, we didn’t spend a lot of time in the hostel itself. The sceneries and sights are out there, and we have a car, so we can’t wait to get back on the road everyday.   Hostel in Geilo - A house with many rooms. Thin wooden walls, we can hear our neighbours   Hostel in Bergen - Meant for 4 person but there were only 2 of us. Privacy possible, intimacy not.   Hostel in Hellesylt - Again, a house with many rooms. Wooden walls and floor. Everybody can hear each other.

Staying in hostels, we get to use the common kitchen to cook our dinner.   In Geilo   In Bergen   With a good cook in tow, sometimes dinner can be very enjoyable   Hostel breakfast is simple, not too bad         No idea why she smiled this way. Probably due to the bacon cheese   Sometimes we get unexplained “stain” on our bed   And no place to dry our own towel   Some of these hostels do have nice view of the surrounding though In Bergen   In Hellesylt

After a few days of high-cost hostel living, we decided to bite the bullet and try camping. No sense paying so much for a place just to sleep and clean up. To our delight, we discovered that camping in Norway is quite enjoyable. We were able to find camping sites everywhere we go. For an average price of around 150 NOK per night, we get to choose our spot, set up our tent and park the car right beside it. With our waterproof tent, rubber mats and sleeping bags, it was easy to keep ourselves warm and sleep quite comfortably at night. All the camping sites we went to are strategically located. We get to admire the sunset before getting under our tent, wake up to a view of snow-capped mountains and glacier in the distance, have breakfast on the bench under the tree, or grab our rod and start fishing in the river just several meters in front of our tent.   Our portable home – tent, sleeping bags and rubber mats   Camping near Brikdalsbreen Glacier   Camping at Ålesund   Camping at Eide   Camping at Åndalsnes     Camping at Mjelva

Toilet, showers and common kitchen are available for our use, and they’re being kept clean regularly. We can even do our laundry if we want to because they provide washing machines and dryers too, for a small fee, of course. One thing strange here is they charge you for shower, like 10 NOK for 5 minutes or 5 NOK for 4 minutes. All these camping sites charge for limited time of shower. It’s free to use water in kitchen, it’s free to use water at the wash basin, it’s free to fill up our bottles or pails with water using the tap found around the camp sites, but we got to pay for shower. The only explanation we can think of is we’re actually paying for warm water in the shower. If we didn’t want to pay, nothing stops us from collecting warm water from the kitchen or wash basin for our shower. It’s inconvenient, but possible. Nobody does that, of course. It was just a thought. We paid for our shower dutifully. With the time limit imposed, both of us tried not to get in a situation where the water stops flowing when we’re not done yet. It took some time to get used to. It’s quite amusing to think back about the fact that these were some of the most expensive and stressful showers we’ve had.           The shower stress-inducing device   What made us enjoy camping most are the people we meet. There were always a lot of people who park their caravans or campers, or simply set up their tent beside their car like us. And they were very friendly and welcoming. People greeted us, said hi, or just waved when we first arrived. People who offered us their electric kettle when they see us trying to boil water using our pot. People who offered us tips when they see us struggling with our new fishing rod. People who showed us the direction when we're lost. People who offered piping hot coffee when they see us shivering in the cold of the night. People who offered to share their grilled sausages with us. Everybody did their part to keep the camping site and its facilities clean after use, and naturally we did the same. Nobody made a nuisance of themselves and disturb the peaceful and friendly atmosphere. Everybody was just trying to have a good time enjoying their vacation. We felt totally comfortable and safe. This was a new and very pleasant experience for us. This is better than staying at hostels.

Driving in Norway is an experience in itself. Apart from the fact that we’re on the right side of the road (we joked about how we’ve been driving on the “wrong” side of the road back home), we also have to face some other peculiarities of driving in Norway. We frequently drive on roads that look like they were cut out of solid rock of some mountain-side, winding their way around fjords and hugging cliffs. Road engineers here probably have difficulties cutting too deep into the mountain because these two-way traffic roads look like they barely fit two cars side by side, and there’s no divider. Many locals won’t even slow down when they go past us. One miscalculated turn or slip of the steering wheel and we’ll have a nasty collision on our hand, or it’s the shortcut into the bottom of the icy lake or swimming with salmons. It’s quite difficult to enjoy the scenery when wife constantly make abrupt moves of pulling her legs to her chest, covering her face with her hands and letting out a scream whenever a fast-moving oncoming truck or bus appears out of the next corner. My cholesterol intake didn’t kill, my wife’s panic scream would. It freaked her out so much, I had to initiate the slow down or pull over at the side of the road whenever we can.   Passed by many farms on our way   It's pretty. but we can hear bees buzzing all around us. Probably near a bee farm.   Nice apartments in the mountain   Hardangervidda mountain range - A lake in the mountain   Unmelted snow in summer         Evening at Bergen   Relaxing at Flam   The Flam railway - train that took us up the mountain   One way of alleviating the stress of driving up the mountain is to take the train instead. We took Flåm Railway for the journey up to the mountain station of Myrdal for some sight-seeing. On the 2-hour train ride, we saw rivers that cut through deep ravines, waterfalls cascade down the side of steep snow-capped mountains, and went through tunnels that spiral in and out of mountains. Riding the steepest railway lines in the world, we marveled at the skills of Norwegian railway engineers. Halfway during the train ride, it stopped at a large wooden platform overlooking the upper parts of a monster waterfall. As people got out of the train, music started blaring in the background and a lady with long flowing blonde hair appears on some rocky area close to the waterfall and started dancing. The PA announcer mentioned something about a mysterious lady luring people into the mountains with her singing. I was almost lured into giving her a tight slap for putting up such a cheezy “performance” to attract tourists.   Viewing platform in Aurland overlooking the small town of Aurland and surrounding fjord.           The waterfall that divides the small town of Hellesylt into two   Ferry along Geirangerfjorden     Some ladies sunbathing   Norway is famous for its fjords. Fjord is a long, narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs. They are usually formed after millions of years of glacial erosion. One of the famous ones is Geirangerfjorden. It is even on UNESCO World Heritage List. It is so famous, we can see many ferries and busloads full of tourists there. Every viewing points are full of tourists. We had to wait for our turn to take photos against the beautiful backdrop. Eager to have a better view, I ventured beyond and ignored the steel cables put up for safety purposes. I went as far as I could and sat at the edge of a cliff, away from everybody else. The view is so good, I could’ve sat there for hours but wife is in the background constantly nagging at me not to go too near the edge, it’s enough, let’s go, etc. After I vacate my spot, others started taking over. I must commend the Norwegian for being so in tune with the needs of tourists. They built so many nice viewing points that allow unblocked views and photo-taking opportunities. It is also remarkable that they managed to keep the place so clean despite the number of people passing-by everyday. Either that or tourists here are exceptionally well-behaved. I read somewhere that they frequently re-align winding mountain roads and carry out renovations just so they look better in photos. They do this at attractions all over Norway.   I'm not holding her to prevent her from slipping down the cliff. She's afraid of height, so I'm holding her to prevent her from running away before the camera can snap this picture   The view from Dalsnibba   The whole time we were driving along this mountain route, wife did not dare to look out the car window. One miscalculated turn or slip of the steering wheel, it's the shortcut to all the way down.       Another monster waterfall. Got wet from all the water sprays walking past it     A view of Alesund town from Fjellstua     At one of Europe's largest saltwater aquarium. According to the staff, the glass is made from a material that will not distort our view. What we see is the actual size of fishes in there.       The Atlantic Road - zigzags across 12 bridges that jut out over the Atlantic ocean.   The Trollstigen       Almost like mirror   Camping, boating AND fishing at the same time

We also get to do a bit of fishing. It’s my wife’s first time fishing, actually catching a fish, cooking and eating it. My wife has had a lot of firsts with me.     This fish was a bit too blue for us. Afraid of it being poisonous, we set it free instead of eating it. We found out later the name of this fish is Cuckoo Wrasse and that there is only one dominant male at any particular stretch of coastline. One special characteristic of this fish is that the females have the ability to change sex. This happens when the dominant male in that area dies or disappear. Due to its color, we can tell the one we caught is a male. Females have orange head, body and tail. It's a good thing we threw this male back into the sea, otherwise some poor female will have to undergo painful sex change operation.     These two look harmless enough to eat. Found out these are Haddock   Sprinkled with salt and pepper, wrapped in aluminium foil, and oven-baked.   We wanted to try fishing for salmon but were told by locals that there's a virus/parasite (some say virus, some mentioned parasite) problem affecting wild salmon currently, decimating their population. Researchers are still trying to find the cause and fix the problem. . We did see live salmons at the Atlantic Sea Park, one of the largest seawater aquariums in northern Europe. Salmons kept here are so big, we can’t stop thinking about sashimi.

Our travel route   Road kills chalked up from the trip. Sometimes when we stop, birds can be seen near the car having a buffet feast

We get to do some hiking, exploring, drive through countless tunnels bored into rocky mountain, winding roads, hairpin bends, drive along fjords, across fjords on car ferries, past waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, and visit many beautiful places with breathtaking sceneries that we’ve never experienced before. We went home tired but happy, rich with fond memories but empty pocket and bank account. This road trip was worth getting broke for.   >>>> See Photo Album of our Norway Trip <<<<

Yen Can Cook Wife feels she's been away from her kitchen for too long, and we have been eating too much outside food. The day after we came back from our trip, she made Glutinous Rice for breakfast and preserved vege with pork for dinner.       And we also spotted cherry trees for the first time in our life