adventures in *

Starting off at Phippsøya, we head to the northernmost point of our voyage. Along the way, we encounter the swimming polar bear.

After reaching 80.5N, we turn south to visit the Krassin marker at Beverlysundet.

We end with the sighting of fin whales at 11:30pm, basked in the golden light of the midnight sun.

Click here for the full size version

cabin 208

First impressions of the ship, it’s quite nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s basically a 3 star hotel on the sea. My cabin has 3 beds, 1 of them a bunk. Three 1 ft wide closets, a desk, couple chairs and table between the beds. The bathroom was tiny, but functional.

The ship’s engines are much quieter than the MV Orlova, which I took to Antarctica, but every once in awhile the entire ship would vibrate like the engine was misfiring or out of balance – never did figure out what caused it.

I was the first one in the cabin, so I picked one of the bottom beds. Looks like Ross and Nicolas would be my cabin mates.

After wandering around the ship for a bit, an announcement was made over the PA system looking for the luggage belonging to Nicolas Chan. It turns out he wasn’t in my cabin after all. The crew saw the last name on the tag and grouped it with mine. So I essentially got a free upgrade, sweet.

During the evening briefing, Laurie Dexter, our expedition leader outlined our itinerary. We would be sailing south to Hornsund, then cutting between the islands of Edgeøya and Barentsøya, passing Nordaustlandet to the northernmost island in the Svalbard archipelago, Sjuøyene. Then visit Ny Alsund, a research station, before arriving back in Longyearbyen.

In the past 2 sailings, the ship went clockwise around Svalbard, but now mid-season, enough sea ice has melted to allow the ship to sail counter-clockwise along a slightly different route.

I’ve posted some photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/alvinychan/SvalbardNorway
I’ll have more updates in the next week.

I’m finally over my jet lag but now with the 24 daylight, I want to stay up all day to take photos. I got up at 7 to get breakfast then spent an hour cleaning my lenses, filters, and camera bodies.

This trip I think I brought too much gear. I bought a bigger backpack and ended up filling it completely.

Gear includes
5dm2
40d
panasonic lx3
Gopro hero hd

16mm f2.8 Zenitar fisheye
20mm f3.5 Voigtlander
17-40 f4l
24-70 f2.8l
70-200 f2.8l is
100-400 f5.6-6.3l
Rode video mic
64gb 400x transcend cf
3 x 16 gb sandisk extreme iii
8 gb sandisk extreme iv

Manfrotto 190mf3 with Acratech Ultimate ballhead
Slik mini tripod

580exii flash

Alienware m11x laptop
2x Seagate Freeagent 500 gb usb drives

All in a F-stop Satori bag, which I didn’t have any problems fitting in the overhead compartments of an Airbus 320, 757-200, and 737-800.

I met up with Mirjam and her friend Peter at the Radisson in the afternoon for tea. Lesley-Anne, from Scotland, whom I met on the airport shuttle bus also joined us. Once the rest of the passengers arrived at the hotel, we were shuttled 5 minutes down to the pier.

On board and settled in, we were doing a mandatory safety drill when 4 beluga whales were spotted off the bow. The drill was abandoned and we all ran to the front of the ship to get a view. We hadn’t even left the port and already had our first wildlife spotting, a sign of good things to come.

Life boat saftey drill

The midnight sun, hiding behind the clouds

I took the 9:55a flight to Longyearbyen, arriving around 2pm. I ran into Mirjam and her friend on the plane, she was seated in the row in front of me, funny coincidence.

Checked into the Radission SAS, the world’s northern most 5 star hotel. I don’t think it’s worth $300 USD a night, but I keep telling myself Norway is expensive. It did have a nice view of the surrounding mountains and shore.

Longyearbyen is an interesting town, definitely has that arctic outpost feeling. Population is 2000, mostly in the service industry. Cruise ships transit through here before heading around the island. Before tourism took hold, it was a mining town and still is today. Old coal mines dot the mountainsides and towards the airport, a new clean coal burning plant is built next to the old one. I was able to walk freely around Longyearbyen’s main source of power, there was no security.

After a small lunch of a Clif bar and oatmeal raisin cookie, I headed out for a walk. I saw remnants of a coal mine on one of the hills and headed towards it. I was only planning a short walk, but ended up hiking a couple miles to the peak of the western mountain overlooking the city. It was cold and blustery up top, but I stayed up there for a few hours shooting.

Returning to the hotel, I went to the adjoining pub for a well deserved steak, fries, and beer. I headed out after a bit of digesting, it was midnight and the sun was hanging over the northern horizon. It’s bizarre walking around in broad daylight but there was not a soul to be seen. I got back to the hotel and crashed at around 2a.

Stave Church near Vann

Rain woke me up around 4:30, I fell back to sleep and got up at 8 to mostly sunny skies. Today I need to head back to Oslo to catch a flight to Longyearbyen the next morning. Along the way, I stopped by a couple stave churches – built in the 1100s, they were in great shape, I wonder how much renovation they needed through the centuries.

I drove through the Laerdalstunnelen, which was as cool as I thought it’d be. A 15 mile long tunnel bored through the mountains. 3 large caverns every 4 miles were brightly lit blue to simulate daylight. Its designed to keep drivers awake so they don’t doze off and crash. Speed cameras kept me from flooring it but it was fun never the less, I drove through it twice.

It took me 7 hours to get back to oslo, minus the detour for the tunnel – 220 miles in distance. In addition to the low speed limits, the norwegian roads are narrow and twisty. The highways are mostly 2 lanes, but vast stretches don’t have a center line and sometimes narrows to a single lane with pullouts. Its a little scary going around blind corners or steep drop offs at 80.

I made it back to the hotel at 8p and spent a few hours sorting photos, I’ll have some to post tomorrow.

I camped overnight and actually slept better than at the hotel. Woke up around 4a when it started getting light out. I met up with the Icetroll tour guides around 10 and we drove up to the trailhead with a group of 7 other people.

We put in the kayaks and paddled 6 km to the edge of the Austdalsbreen glacier. After a break for lunch, we put on crampons, roped up and headed onto the glacier. The sides of the glacier were covered with a dark sludge, Carlos our tour guide explained that it’s ground up rocks that get picked up by the glacier and moves to the top as the glacier melts. There were also hundreds of dark 1″ holes in the ice, they were dead lemmings. During the winter when the glacier is covered with snow, lemmings come out to forage for food. Unfortunately they don’t find anything and die of starvation. Their dark bodies absorb more heat from the sunlight and melts the ice faster then the surrounding area. That was interesting.

We trudged around on the glacier walking near crevasses and admiring the deep blue color deep within the ice.
Carlos threw some ice chunks into one and we heard it bounces down and down for 30 seconds. That’d be a bad place to fall down.

Later we noticed a wave forming in the lake, the front of the glacier had calved into the water and sent a 5 ft tall wave across. There were 2 kayakers in the water and we watched them bob up and down as the waves passed them. They were ok, Carlos radioed to another tour guide to warn them.

We headed back to the kayaks after a couple hours of hiking then paddled back. My hands were starting to blister and my shoulders were sore, it had been awhile since I’ve kayaked this far.

We got back to our cars around 7, I headed to Sogndal to stay overnight. By the time I got there, it was 9:30 and all the hotels I checked were either full or charging $250 USD, too much. I camped down next to the Sognefjord with the sound of the water lapping against the rocks to put me to sleep.

I picked up a Toyota Prius at the airport, I was hoping for a new Golf but it was all they had available. I had an exhausting drive to Gjerde, 445km away but it took me nearly 9 hours. The speed limit in Norway is generally 90kph on the E roads (major highways) and 60 on the minor ones. Photo radar boxes are set up along the road to catch speeders, they do a good job keeping everyone near the speed limit. I was worried about snow on the road along route 55 through the Jotunheimen mountains, at an elevation of 1430 meters, it’s the highest road in Northern Europe.

I’m too tired to sort through photos today, I’m going to try to get more than 2 hours of sleep like the previous nights. I’ll need it for the kayaking and glacier hiking at Styggevatnet tomorrow.

Only managed 2 hours of sleep, thanks to the jet lag and tram. Headed out around 8:30a to Holmenkollen, using the subway and bus. One ticket system to use the mass transportation here – bus, tram, subway, ferry. Real easy to get around.

The Holmenkollen Nordic Center includes a museum of skiing. It shows the history of telemark and they had wooden skis from 600AD to present day carbon fiber skis.

A short elevator ride to the stop of the jump to get a birds eye view of the city. A weather system moved in overnight and the skies were cloudy, so I didn’t get take any good pictures of the skyline. The ski jump itself was still under construction for the FIS Championships next winter.

Next I took the ferry over to Bygdøy to visit the Viking Ship and Fram museum. Vikings buried their heroes with weapons, jewelry, and even full size ships – to use in the after life. Three ships were on display, dating back to around 800AD, they were in good shape considering how old they are.

The Fram museum houses the ship used by Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen, they explored the South and North Pole in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Rain started to fall, it was starting to feel like Seattle. I walked over to Vigeland Park and risked my camera taking pictures in the heavy rain. There were hundreds of stone statues showing the human form in everyday poses. There weren’t too many people out braving the weather, I practically had the park to myself.

In the morning, I head off to Sogne og Fjord region in the west. Route 55 goes through the mountains, highest point is 4600 feet, I’m hoping it doesn’t snow.

Opera House

I took the Flybussen (bus) from the airport, which is about 40 miles north of Oslo. The area reminded me of Springfield Oregon, rolling hills covered with expansive field of grass. Sparsely populated with small farms dotting the landscape.

I went to check into my hotel, the Thon Hotel Europa. My room has a great view of the tram, which passes by every 5 minutes until midnight and starts again at 7a. The room itself was very basic, tiny double beds and a bathroom the size of a closet.

I went to the Royal Palace, which was an impressive sight. Armed guards with rifles at the entrance. I like the fact in Europe, such places are easily accessible to the public.

Next was the National Gallery to see some famous works by Munch, Picasso, the one that impressed me the most was Dahl. He painted landscapes that look almost like photographs.

I make it a point to visit a chinese restaurant in each country I visit. In a place that is completely foreign to me, seeking out chinese food is a comfort. My first meal in Norway was authentic dim sum. The waitress I spoke to is first generation Norwegian Chinese. She spoke cantonese, english, norwegian and vietnamese – real impressive. There’s a large vietnamese population in Oslo, didn’t expect that. Oh and no tong yun gai (chinatown), the closest thing was Torggata gata (street) which is lined with ethnic restaurants.

I walked to the Opera House, a wedge shaped metal and glass covered building on the waterfront. It was designed to allow people to walk on the building, all the way to the roof, pretty cool. The weather was perfect for sitting by the water and people watching for awhile, lower 70s with a cool breeze.

Enough sight seeing for the day, back to the hotel to rest.

Over the North Atlantic

During the flight to Philadelphia, I ordered a sandwich for lunch. As I was handing the steward my credit card, he said “I don’t need that, Ill trade the sandwich for your Blackberry.” I told him I’d be lost without it.

He replied, “It’s better to be lost than to be hungry.” Something to ponder. I’m probably over thinking it, needless to say, I kept my phone.

Then leaving Philadelphia to Oslo, the plane was taxiing down the runway and the captain announced that a thunderstorm cell was in our flight path. New York center air traffic control needed to re-route us but their system was down. They needed to manually re-route, I imagine it was a bunch of chimpanzees with slide-rules drawing over maps. While they were working on that, we pulled off to the side of the runway and waited. After an hour, we had a new flight plan and were on our way to Oslo.

No time for Russia like I had originally planned, instead I’ll focus on Oslo and Sogn og Fjordane in the west.

2 days in Oslo, I’m going to see Edvard Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’ at the National gallery. Then visit the Holmenkollen ski jump north of the city, great views from the top. It was rebuilt last year in preparation for the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. It’ll be cool to stand at the top of the jump, although I wouldn’t want to strap on skis to go down it. Not sure what else I’ll do in the city, depends on how jet lagged I’ll be.

I’m renting a car on Monday to drive around the Sogn og Fjordane region, it’s famous for its fjords and glaciers. I have a tour booked on Tuesday to kayak around the glacial lake Styggevatnet, then put on crampons to hike on the glacier itself. The company I’m using is www.icetroll.com

Wednesday I’ll visit Balestrand and then to Aurland through the world’s longest road tunnel – 15 miles!

Thursday I fly to Longyearbyen, staying there overnight before boarding the MS Expedition to cruise around the island. I’ve been reading the ice charts for the past couple weeks and it looks like most of the large icebergs have melted making it possible to completely circumnavigate the island.

After 8 days at sea, I’ll head back to the states and start planning for my next adventure.

I grabbed the code from Gap’s site, this will show the MS Expedition in near real-time. Its first sailing of the season is June 30 from Edinburgh to Longyearbyen. I’ll be on the July 30 to August 7 sailing.

I received an email from Quark Expeditions yesterday morning around 11, they’re offering the kayaking option ($500 value) for free on their Arctic cruises this summer. That got me thinking, I remembered a friend that I met on the Antarctica cruise, booked a trip for Spitsbergen awhile ago. I emailed her to see which cruise company she’s going with.

She sent me a link to Gap Adventures, they were having an even better deal, 50% off. A long night of research and I’ve booked my trip this morning.

Spitsbergen is the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, it’s located about 600 miles south of the North Pole and at 78′N, is above the Arctic circle, so there’s 24 hour daylight during the summer. I’ll be going towards the end of July and returning on 8/8.

I’ll catch a flight from Las Vegas to Oslo and spend some time there before flying to Longyearbyen, in Spitsbergen, to board the ship. The itinerary calls for circumnavigating the island which will take about 8 days. Stopping to view a variety of wildlife – polar bears, puffin, whales, seals, walruses.. We’ll take Zodiac rafts to shore to visit old whaling stations, research bases, and get a closer look at the wildlife.

Since I’m arriving a week before the cruise, I’ve been looking into visiting Russia, I didn’t realize Norway borders it in the far north. The town of Kirkenes is 9 miles from the border. Still doing research on whether I’ll have enough time to go to Murmansk or atleast Nikel.

(photo from gapadventures.com)

I’ve uploaded the rest of the pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/alvinychan

Goodbye Hong Kong

Woke up to the sound of pouring rain. Headed to the airport at 8:30a to fly back to the states. Our flight was delayed 40 minutes due to lightning and rain. Once we got off the ground, it only took 10.5 hours to reach San Francisco, we went straight across the Pacific Ocean, rather than going over Alaska. Top speed was 811mph according to my gps.

Praying at temple

Rest day, I had dim sum with my yee-mah (aunt) and yee-jeung (uncle). Afterwards my aunt took me to a temple to bai-sun (pray). There were numerous statues of deities throughout the temple. I was told to light incense sticks and place them in containers in front of the statues. My mom asked my aunt to get my fortune told, I was given a container of wooden sticks called cheem. Each of the sticks has a number written on them and I shook the container until one of them fell out. I took it to the fortune teller to have him explain it.

I was taking a pictures in the temple when a lady yelled at me and said photos aren’t allowed. My aunt apologized and said ‘he’s american and doesn’t know any better’.

I had lunch with Grandfather, Grandmother, and my other aunt and uncle. Came back to the apartment where I watched them play mahjong for a few hours. Then went out for dinner with yee-mah and yee-cheung.

After 14 long hours, we finally arrived in Shenzhen, so I thought. My blackberry went haywire the previous day. It only displayed a white screen so I wasn’t able to see what I was typing or view google maps. I had no idea where I was exactly. I asked if anyone on the bus spoke cantonese, no such luck.

The bus driver directed me up the street, where I asked a couple police officers how to get to Lo Wu bus station. Didn’t seem like they knew either, but one of them pointed me to bus 311. I got on the bus and the lady collecting fare laughed, said something in mandarin and I gathered that I was on the wrong bus. We arrived at a check point and a military police accompanied by a normal police officer boarded and shouted something in mandarin. Half the bus got off then they motioned for me to come with them. Outside, they asked for my passport then I tried to explain that I was trying to get to Lo Wu. They kindly directed me to the shuttle bus that would take me there. I’m not sure how they spotted me on the bus, maybe the big backpack I was carrying.

At Lo Wu, I approached a gentlemen next to the baggage scanning machine and asked him where to take the bus to Hong Kong, he offered to take me to the terminal and said it costs 200$. I pulled out my guidebook and pointed to the section saying it should cost only 50$, he said ok and would take me to a bus stop. Starting to get suspicious, I ducked behind a corner as he led me somewhere. He came back and found me and we continued walking to customs, once there, he asked for $50 for showing me the way. He tried to rook me, I told him I was expecting to get a bus to HK and not be guided to the customs area which was well marked. He said he’d take 15$, I pulled out my wallet and said sorry, nothing for you – what a jerk. Made it through customs and back to HK in about 16 hours of travel time. Went to my Grandfather’s place to have dinner with another uncle and aunt.

Sleeper bus

I was looking at my options for getting back to HK. A flight from Guilin to HK would be 1200rmb, I’d still have to take a 1.5 hr bus ride from Yangshuo to Guilin, then another hour bus to Guilin airport. Flying to Shenzhen then bussing to HK was another option, 500rmb. The hostel worker recommended taking an overnight bus directly from Yangshuo to Shenzhen for only 180rmb. I wouldn’t have to transfer up to Guilin and I could get some sleep as well. I’ve never been on a sleeper bus, I wasn’t even aware they existed. The bus had 3 rows of beds going all the way to the back, no bathroom.

I picked a spot in the back corner and settled in. The little bed compartments seemed like deathtraps. If the bus gets in a collision, I could see people getting their legs pinned in. With the way people drive here, I was worried that I might not make it back to HK. I fell asleep quickly, but every once in awhile, we’d hit a bump or pothole, in my half awake state, I dreamt I was back in Antarctica, crossing the Drake passage. I would bounce out of the bed and felt momentarily weightless as I came back down. In Antarctica, we had 30+ft swells on the way
back to Argentina, the ship was tossed around like a toy and staying planted in the bunks was a challenge.

Around 4am, I was woken by the sound of the engine shutting off, I looked outside and noticed traffic wasn’t moving. After 20 minutes, the driver started up and moved 20 feet before stopping again. This continued for several hours. We passed by a bus on the side of the rode, it looked like it was involved in a sideswipe collision. All the passengers were standing outside in the rain. That didn’t make me feel easy about the ride.

Near Xingping

I had noticed the previous day, locals would order bowls of noodles and top it with various vegetables from a table in the back. Rather than ordering the specialties, which most tourists probably get rooked into because that’s what the waitress shows them on the menu first, I tried out the noodles. It’s a rice noodle, with slices of roasted pork. A stockpot had a broth to pour on top after adding condiments like pickled beans, radish, green onions, peanuts, cilantro. Good stuff, it was only 3 rmb!

After breakfast, I went to the river dock wanting to head north to Xingping. A boat owner spotted me right away and offered to take me there for 200rmb, seemed like a good deal. The first hour was a bit boring, not too many karst mountains, but the I did see the rural china. Locals were washing clothes and vegetables along the river. Cormerants were hanging out on fishermans’ rafts. Oxens were feeding in the grass along the riverbank.

As we got closer to Xingping, the mountains started appearing in the distance. This is what I came to see. The boat operator docked on the opposide side of Xingping, there was a ferry shuttled passengers to the other shore for 1 yuan each. We had noodles for lunch, at the restaurant, I noticed they used coal cores as a heat source for cooking. Come to think of it, I don’t think I saw any propane or natural gas stoves the entire time in Yangshuo or Guilin. The boat guide offered to take me further up the river for another 100 yuan, what the heck, I was already here. 100 yuan is only 12 usd, so a bargain. He pointed out the mountain range featured on the 20 rmb note.

We passed by some more amazing scenery to a bend in a river. Canopies were set up along the shore with locals sitting around camp fires. Some were cooking up food for visitors, others had computers and printers set up, powered by car batteries. The locals all had Canon or Nikon dslr’s, offering to take photos of visitors in traditional festive outfits next to the river for a few yuan. I had a photo taken of me holding a couple cormorants on a bamboo pole. I ran into a couple that I had first met in Guilin at Reed Flute cave.

Floating down the Li River

I took a raft down the Li river to the next town Fuli. Had beer fish, a local specialty of carp steamed in beer, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and topped with red and green peppers. Yangshuo was full of chinese, german, british tourists. The main pedestrian road, West Street was lined with tons small shops and restaurants.

chinese calligraphy

Another day in Guilin, I walked to Seven Peak Park in the morning, a park dating back to the Sui dynasty. Many of the locals were out practicing tai chi. I hiked up one of the peaks where a lady was practicing chinese calligraphy with a water brush on the ground. Another group of people were singing, I sat down to soak in the amazing scenery of the 7 peaks. I later took a taxi to Reed Flute Cave, a giant cave system about 15 minutes outside of town. All the caverns were colorfully lit and in the main cavern they had fog machines and lasers setup for a cheesy show.

In the afternoon, I took a bus to Yangshuo. As we made the 1.5hr journey, the bus stopped several times to pick up additional passengers. As the seats filled up, the co-driver pulled out plastic foot stools and set them in the aisle for people to sit, the bus was packed like a can of sardines.

Reed Flute Cave

Commuters in Guilin

Today is a travel day. I still haven’t adjusted to the 16 hour time difference, I’m going to bed at 12am after taking some melatonin, then waking up around 3 and laying in bed until 7. I took the train from Hung Hom station to Guangzhou. As we crossed the border from HK the the mainland, the skies grew darker and hazier (is that a word?) Passing by the small towns were giant pits of burning trash.

After arriving at the GZ East train station, the air was thick with diesel exhaust and cigarette smoke. I hailed a taxi to GZ airport. I thought there would be more cantonese spoken here but my cab driver and most of the other people I encountered only use mandarin. I was able to pick up a couple words here and there, the pronunciation of some words are similar. I asked to go to the ‘fai gei cheung’, the driver asked ‘fei ge?’, close enough.

Made it to the airport and sat around for 5 hours for my flight. Going through security screening was easy, didn’t have to take off my belt or shoes. The security personal were much more pleasant to deal with than our DHS TSAs.

The plane was late but there wasn’t any updates about when we would leave. The plane arrived 15 minutes after scheduled boarding. China Southern Airlines is generous with the inflight snack. Even though the flight was just 1 hour, they handed out boxes of tea and a large package of spring onion crackers, sure beats a bag of pretzels.

Landing in Guilin, I somehow missed the sign for baggage claims and walked out of the secure area. Unsure of where it was, I asked a police officer, who didn’t speak cantonese or english, he directed me to some cashiers at a nearby concession stand, with no luck. I spotted a white guy, so odds were high that he’d speak english. He directed me back to the security area where the military police were very hesistant of letting me through. One of them led be back to the baggage claim area and kept a close eye on me until I collected my backpack.

I thought my taxi ride through Guangzhou was hectic but it’s even crazier in Guilin. Buses, taxis, cars, motor bikes, scooters, and bicycles all competed for a piece of the road. Traffic signals and signs were mere suggestions. Going against traffic in the wrong lane, swerving between vehicles, running reds was a common sight. No need to wait for a crosswalk signal, just walk into traffic and vehicles will go around you.

I checked into the hostel then walked around the main street where it was packed with street food vendors and craft stalls.

I had dim sum with Grandfather and Grandmother, then spent the rest of the day walking around Central District. In the evening, I had dinner at my aunt’s again. This time, her dog bit my arm.

view from Leu Muk Shue

My Grandfather came by in the morning to take me to his apartment at Lei Muk Shue estates. It’s a public housing development with at least 8 different buildings, with over 37,000 residents. The development had it’s own bus station terminus, shopping mall, and farmers market. I was expecting a ghetto project but it was very clean and safe. The apartment itself has 3 bedrooms, single bath. I think he said it’s 400m^3 and pays 2000hkd a month. From the 19th floor, I could see the skyscrapers in adjoining city Tseun Wan. Grandfather took me to Yuen Yuen institute, a temple. My Tai-po (Great Grandmother) is laid to rest here.

We picked up some roasted pork, hum bao, and bag of paper money as offerings then went to her site. We set up the offerings on a table in front of her site and prayed. Later we took the paper money to a fire pit to burn.

Grandfather headed home and I walked around for a few hours to see Sam Tung Uk and Chuk Lam Sim monastery.

In the evening I took the subway to Central then trammed up to Victoria Peak to see the HK skyline.