Northern Lights ~ Part two

Part two of Y.'s aurora hunting! We finally get to the part where the estimate cost of the hunting trip, hehe! Knowing how people cannot live without updating their FB and instagram, wifi's availability is also touched on :D

How long was the wait for the aurora? Did you have to stay up the whole night in the cold? Or was there a guide? The village, where the hotel is located, is really small and the street lights were turned off at 11pm, so there was practically no light pollution. There was no need to go anywhere to see the lights. The second time I saw it, it was just above the hotel, so that was a plus. The hotel has an aurora alarm functionally up till 1am ( which was actually a Samsung phone, hehe). It would beep when the lights were spotted in the area. It was not necessary to sit outside in below zero weather looking up to the night sky. 

Touched up to enhance the aurora. 

Touched up to enhance the aurora.

Was there wifi? Wifi is available in the hotel's reception area and dinning room. If you want to be connected all the time, prepaid data cards are available and cheap in Finland (which is "Nokialand" too). But you can't buy them at the hotel and the nearest town is 42km away... so yes, fairly remote. So get them at the airport prior to the transfer.  

What advice would you dispense to those who have the intention to go? Clothing, training up, camera etc.? Photography-wise, I'm afraid you would need a SLR / DSLR camera and a good tripod. A too-light aluminium tripod risks crashing (seen it happened) and breaking due to the extreme cold (also happened). Plastic bag to put your camera when transferring it from the cold to the warm room (to avoid condensation). Extra battery for your camera as battery life shortened in the cold; I stored mine in my pocket under my thermal suit. The aurora that you can see with your naked eyes is very DIFFERENT from what the camera can capture, so if you go there with the mistaken assumption that you'd see dancing neon green lights, you will be sorely disappointed.

How was the flight like? There are direct flights from Singapore to Helsinki, and from Helsinki, you would need to transfer to a domestic flight to Ivalo, which is another 1.5 hour flight.

Can you share the ballpark of the entire trip? At Nellim, the ready packages range from 1250 to 1450 euros. The package includes airport transfers, all food, accommodation, activities and winter wear (suit, socks, boots, balaclava, mittens and helmet for snowmobiling). Aside from the flight, I need not spend another cent. Finland does not have a tipping culture, same as Singapore. There were different guides for each activity. Everyone in the hotel were really nice and friendly! Most speak good English and and are very accommodating. You just need toiletries, some warm clothing, thermal underwear, chargers, meds, if any. Give and take, be ready to spend about SGD4.5k per pax, depending on the exchange rate. 

What do you like most? It is hard to pick. The husky ride was fantastic, snowmobiling at night was fabulous (unfortunately need driving license so I can only be the passenger), feeding reindeers, tasting snowflakes. Wow. Besides the activities and lights, I liked the guests from the different places too - USA, UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Italy, France. Though I went alone, I was never lonely. 

Drilling over the frozen Inari Lake to fish - netting. 

Would you go back? I'm tempted to make a side trip there when I visit another part of Europe the next time. I'd do it all again. 

So that is the end of the hunt for the northern lights... Seeing the photos make everything that I saw on TV and read in National Geographic much closer, simply because they were taken by a friend. It was like... so it is real, not some camera tricks!

Northern Lights ~ Part one

Y. went to Lapland and caught the northern lights! I always thought there would be some day when I would catch the light but I still see them from magazines and TV!

I sent a couple of quick messages to Y. and asked if I could find out more about the trip, and she readily agreed! Y. sent an epic email, and I was totally grateful for the details. Information is put into FAQ format and two blog posts for easy reading. 

Here we go!

Why now: Considering we are now in the period of the peak of solar activity (it is an 11 year cycle), I thought it was probably the best time finally to catch this natural phenomena; the next peak wold be winter of 2014 / 15. Since there is no guarantee that one can definitely catch the aurora, I went with the mindset that catching it would be bonus. 

Was it expensive:  I looked around for a travel agent - local and overseas to arrange the trip, and came across this one based in UK. However, as the tours are priced in pounds, the packages are really expensive! Totally discouraged, but I thought I would check out this other place - Nellim Wilderness Hotel. They have their own packages, identical to the one listed by the travel agent, but at HALF THE PRICE! Still really expensive, but I did not want to overthink, so I sent an email to check on vacancy, and booked when they said yes!

The cabin looks like it it is on its own on the slope of a remote forest, but it looks really cool! Did you stay in the bubble cabin throughout? I paid an additional 155 euro for a night in the Aurora Bubble; it was really awesome! I was tempted to extend my stay there in spite of the cost, but I was already booked for day and night activities and would be away most of the time so it was really not worth it though I kind of regret it now. The cabin came with complementary mini champagne and chocolates - this is my favourite part aside from the aurora :) The accommodation for the rest of the nights was pretty basic - bed, chair, coffee table, wardrobe, hair dryer. Bathroom has towels, soap, shower, toilet, plastic cups. Both rooms were heated. If you book the apartment, you get a private sauna! There was a shared sauna that you can reserve as well. 

Is it remote? Tarzan or Lion King came visiting? I didn't see wild animals aside from birds and occasional reindeer. But there are bears around, I think :) 

How cold was it? Climate in Finland during winter is sub-zero (especially where I was, in the Arctic Circle) but it is DRY, so it did not feel that cold. Except when there was wind, it got really cold. But the outfit that was provided to us was really good. On my last night, I was hanging around on top of a frozen lake for around two hours with fairly strong wind, I did not shiver once. 

From your FB photo, food looks kind of primitive (not in a bad way, more like amazing!) - building up the fire with logs, reindeer soup ... What and how is the food like? Was all meals included in the package? Any alternative for vegetarians? It was buffet throughout, and it was FANTASTIC - I have the weight gain to prove it! The pictures of us eating outdoors were taken when we did the outdoor activities (snowshoeing, ice fishing) but all the other meals were in the hotel. Menu changed every meal except for breakfast which was pretty much the same every day. There were at least two bowls of different salads for vegetarians, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, assorted salad leafs. Coffee and tea were available FOC throughout the day. 

Y.'s email was really candid and good; it was almost wholesale cut and paste, haha! Part two will follow soon!