Arctic Adventure

Pregnancy is a phenomenon where the expectant mother gets all the attention from family and friends. Nobody should argue against someone with surging hormones, apparently extremely uncomfortable body changes, the urges to bitch about everything and anything, and have something growing inside her. She gets what she wants, she does what she feels like to, she farts as and when she feels like it and nobody should complain about the stink. People only care about the expectant mother. Nobody realize the existence of the husband anymore. Sure, he has to man the Midnight Food Cravings hotline, manage the Body Changes Complaint Bureau, and operate the Massage-Me-To-Sleep apparatus, but nobody thinks he is important enough. The husband’s role, if remembered at all, has been reduced to… that guy who donated his sperm some time ago.

The husband however, under the guise of wanting to make the expectant mother happy (and “compensate” her for all her suffering), can give himself a holiday. It’s absurd to bitch about the cold and dark winter, and then chose to go somewhere even colder and darker – inside the Arctic Circle. But we’ve always wanted to visit the Ice Hotel near Kiruna. Now seems like the best time while wife is in early stage of her pregnancy.

We’ve read about the Ice Hotel even before we came to Sweden. So, while researching for this trip, the first thing that came to mind was to stay in Kiruna. By some stroke of luck, we found Björkliden instead, about 110km northwest of Kiruna. Touted as the last European wilderness, this small village resort is nestled in the mountains about 250km north of the Arctic Circle, about 1500km away from Stockholm. The prices for everything are considerably cheaper compared to Kiruna, even after calculating total transportation costs. Concerned that we might end up in a small village in the middle of nowhere with no electricity, no heating, no amenities, having to chop our own firewood, and hunting reindeers or elks for food, I was initially apprehensive although I did not share this with wife at that time. Gut instinct told me to go for this adventure. Common sense told me these folks at Björkliden won’t let a couple of Asian tourists pay to suffer the cold arctic winter. Or will they?

Our journey started with the overnight train ride from Stockholm. We booked ourselves into a 6-bed mixed-sex sleeping car, the cheapest available. The sleeping car was comfortable and clean. Unfortunately, we had to share it with a middle-age Swedish uncle who is quite fond of snoring loudly in the middle of the night. As he had already happily shared his knowledge about the places we’re visiting, we forgave him. He was even nice enough to give us the telephone number of his friend who stays near Kiruna in case we needed help with anything. We just didn’t have the heart to smother him with a pillow and toss him out of the train while everybody is sleeping. Plus, he looks very heavy. After the 18-hour train ride, 12 of which spent in darkness, we reached Björkliden station.

The people at Björkliden is not exaggerating when they claimed that this place is nestled among the mountains in the last European wilderness. The location and view are truly spectacular.

When we arrived at the station, someone from the village was waiting for us with his van, ready to greet us, take our luggage and fetch us to our “stuga” (meaning little Swedish house). Our “stuga” is about 40 sqm with fully-equipped kitchen, toilet and shower, a living room, and sauna! No issue with lack of electricity or heating. Too bad it didn’t have a fireplace because we felt like burning some wood for fun. It also has a wooden balcony overlooking the 330 sq km lake Torneträsk which was frozen at this time of the year. We realized we came at a low-season because only a few other stugas were occupied. We felt as if the whole place belongs to us for that few days.

Staffs there were very friendly towards us. One common question asked by almost everybody we meet is, how did we learn about this place? We get the impression that they don’t get a lot of visitors from Asia. In one of our conversations with the manager, we found out we are the first visitors from Malaysia, ever. It didn’t occur to us at that time to ask whether we are the first Asian visitors, but judging from their curiosity towards us, it could very well be. We did meet a couple of Chinese tourists who alighted from the train at Kiruna. I guess Kiruna is where most visitors will congregate when they visit this part of Sweden.

We made a mistake of not bringing enough food to cook in our “stuga”. It was almost a waste to have a fully-equipped kitchen but not utilizing it fully. The nearest food store is 10km away. Instead, we had our lunch and dinner at the village’s restaurant. Food there was edible, but doesn’t justify its high price. Maybe it’s just us being Asian, always want cheap AND good food. We managed to stop by the supermarket at Kiruna and bought some food on our way back from the Ice Hotel on the last evening. Our driver, who is also the manager was nice enough to make a detour for us. Other than this small oversight, the rest of our trip was great.   Wife gets to ride and drive a snowmobile for the first time in her life. I would surely get us one of these if we decide to stay here for long. Problem is in finding our way. The landscape is almost completely covered with snow. It’s difficult to tell where we are. There’re markings along the trails, but if we were to venture outside the trails, then it’s going to be interesting finding our way back. Our guide led us up the mountains. We stopped on top of a hill to have coffee break and enjoy the view.

When we first approached the kennel for our dogsled trip, the dogs were barking and howling like crazy. We thought they didn’t like strangers, but our guide told us that they were just excited. It’s in the genes of these dogs, the moment they sniffed a hint of being able to pull something, they get extremely excited. When some of the dogs are being let out of their pen, the rest were barking loudly, as if protesting for not being selected. We can see the dogs are extremely eager to go while being tied to the sled, barking and jerking wildly. As soon as the guide gave them the order, all 8 dogs immediately went silent and pulled the sled as fast as they could. It was bizarre, several minutes of deafening barking and howling, and then suddenly, total silence except the sound of the sled being dragged.   Along the way, our guide, Morgan, shared with us his quest in getting the perfect breed of super dogs. He and his wife, Ida, are breeding a mix of Siberian huskies, Alaskan huskies and hunting dogs in order to get speed, strength and ability to withstand extreme cold. He sounded like a mad scientist to me. Wife was probably thinking of offering her Rocco stud so that their super dogs can be fast, strong, hairy and annoying as well.

We also get to visit the world’s original Ice Hotel in Kiruna. This is where it started 19 years ago when a crazy entrepreneur figured out a way to extract natural ice from frozen river in his backyard and use them as building blocks. Back then he was known as crazy, now he’s recognized as genius. His idea has since turned a mining town into a bustling tourists spot generating millions each year, and sparked copycats in places elsewhere. It’s also an expensive place to stay and play. One night for 2 persons here costs 30% more than 3 nights in Björkliden for a stuga for 5 person, and you sleep on a big block of ice in a “room” with no door and attached bathroom. Snowmobile and dogsled also cost almost double of what we paid in Björkliden. It is of course a unique experience, but we would rather just drop by for a visit, and go back to warm room and comfortable bed.   It is indeed a very interesting place. It sparked our curiosity about the whole structure, like whether is it ok to lick the ice (I’ve been warned not to)? How do they construct toilets out of ice (they didn’t)? How do they light up the place without melting it (fiber optics)? There’s even a bar in the hotel, serving cold drinks only, for obvious reasons. There’re many rooms with ice sculptures open to visitors during the day. At night, paying guests get to sleep in these rooms.

We almost did not get to see Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights. It was cloudy on our first 2 nights there, not an ideal condition to see this natural phenomenon. By the 3rd and last night, wife already gave up, preferring to stay indoor and watch Hell’s Kitchen on TV instead of braving the cold outside. I was however unwilling to give up, so went out on my own. Thanks to my perseverance, I managed to see and capture it using my camera. Funny thing is, the green color wasn’t that obvious when seen thru naked eye. Only after seeing it on digital form and enhancing the colors do I get these results here. Nevertheless, it was a sight not to be missed. I was admiring it so much till I almost forgot about my wife back in our “stuga”. Thank god even among the mountains, our mobile phones still work. I managed to pry her away from Gordon Ramsey’s profanities so we can spend our last romantic night together under the dancing green fire in Björkliden.