Israel - A trip to remember

I visited Jerusalem yesterday. It was an intriguing, emotionally exhausting, thought provoking and finally, haunting trip.
I know not many like to read winding tales with minute details of the trip, so I will try to keep it short and precise.

Drive

Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is about 60Kms only, it took 45mins to reach Jerusalem. It is very near Palestine border, infact they wanted to split Jerusalem into two parts and then somehow they decided to keep the city whole. Lot of police on the highway and lot of security, as Mr Bush was visiting and he was due to go to the airport, fly to Saudi. Israel Museum in Jerusalem was closed as thats where he was having his meeting. Jerusalem is beautifully set on top of mountains. We had to drive between Mt. Judea and Mt. Samaria. The drive was beautiful in its own way. Not lush green or magnificent, but it looked like it had seen a lot, endured a lot, if you know what I mean. We drove past the place where Jesus was supposed to have appeared to two of his disciples after his resurrection. We also drove past the place where Elizabeth, John the Baptist's Mom and Dad had lived. It was mind blowing to think that characters that we read in the Bible, images of whom are in my mind from the Episodes of Biblical stories shown on TV, lived and walked in this place, over 2000 years ago.

Holocaust Museum
The museum was made to look like a concentration camp. I knew what to expect, as I had read about it a lot. I kept my heart hard and went. I held my forte, my emotions for most of the museum. But I broke, when I came to some videos and pictures. Videos that break your heart, that trigger anger towards those who did not treat human beings like human beings. I shed a few tears. 6million Jews were murdered apparently. The guide said not to think of it as just a number. For reference, there are currently 6 million Jews in Israel. Calculate the magnitude. A whole country was murdered. There was a Children's Memorial as well. 1 yr, 2 yr old kids were killed as well, and they were used for medical research. This quote I remember "There were no Children in the camps. only little Jews".

New Jerusalem
We drove past new Jerusalem. It mostly had the parliment house of Israel and all the other important, but uninteresting buildings like Defence Ministry, Foreign Affairs etc. As Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. We drove past the rich neighbourhood of Jerusalem where all the big politicians, actors etc lived. More importantly I was able to observe the homes in Jerusalem. They were different. All the homes are made of stone. And built like in the olden days. All buildings were stone colored, the uniformity is beautiful.

Tomb of david, Room of Last Supper
King David built Jerusalem about 3000 years ago, 900BC. The Star which is the Jewish Symbol and which is in the flag of Israel is the Star of David. This is the only place where there is a Synagogue, a Church and a Mosque in the same building. The ground floor was the tomb, which is a Synagogue, first floor is a church, the room of Last Supper. The actual place where Jesus and his disciples sat and ate the day before Jesus was crucified! The church here is also the first ever Gothic structure built. Gothic structures are characterized by the arches, you see in most churches. I didnt any any magnificent structures, because most of the structures are of historic significance. I saw a group from India, Christian Tamilians on a Bible Tour, aunties in sarees. My parents will also probably do this trip once.





Old Jerusalem Streets
We got out of the bus, and entered the Old Jerusalem through the gates. They have tried to keep Old Jerusalem as old, save the old structures as much as possible. We passed through the Armenian Quarter and went into the Jewish Quarter. Old Jerusalem is split into four Quarters, Armenian, Jewish, Muslim and Christian. In the Jewish Quarter we saw the Cardo (cardio), which means 'heart' of Jerusalem during David's time. the road which was the main road of Jerusalem, was preserved. And yes it is over 2000 years old. It is very easy to get lost in the Old City, as its all tiny streets, what we call 'sandhu's. We also saw remains of the Jerusalem Wall, also built thousands of years ago. We passed the Muslim Quarter and then went to the Christian Quarter. Here we had our Lunch at a local shop. Shawarmas are supposed to be very famous here, I had Falafel in Pita for 25 shekels. The cheapest meal I have had in Israel, if I dont count the times I skipped meals.




Tour group
Let me stop to say a little about the tour group itself. The guide was ok, cannot match our Guide, Luc, in Europe, but still ok. There were two other Indian guys. One guy came and talked to me, the other didnt. I made friends with an Aussie Lady. She was good company. Atleast I was able to talk with her and relate with her. She was quite well travelled, made me want to travel more. There was a Polish guy I made friends with too. He looked very lost, and geeky. Others were from UK, South America, Turkey, Italy and US as far as I knew. Yeah, the friend, wasnt interested in coming, so I went on my own. I thought I would feel like a loser, but surprisingly I quite enjoyed the tour.






Church of the Holy Sepulchre
After lunch we set off to the Church of the Sepulchre or the Church of Resurrection. This Church is built on top of the stone on which Jesus was crucified. Again, pullarichifying. Saw various places of significance with respect to the crucifixion. The Church is being fought over between many Christian denominations apparently. Its pathetic. I have to visit this Church again, some other time, without a tour guide to rush us. This is supposed to be the Holiest of places. We could get anything blessed here.








Via Dolorosa
Via Dolorosa also known as Way of Sorrow is the path taken by Jesus from where he was sentenced, to the Golgotha the rock on which he was crucified. They are the Stations of the Cross. Every Friday before Easter, we pray concentrating on the different Stations in the Church. And now I actually walked the real, stations of the cross! I have no words to describe what went through me. The way is now filled with shops and all, but still. The image that came to my mind is from movies. I have to come here too again.








Western wall
We passed through security to visit the Western Wall. For those who are lazy to click the link to know what it is, here is a gist. So King Solomon son of David, built the First Temple of God 3000 years ago. It was destroyed. And then Herod rebuilt it. That was also destroyed. I dont know how many times it was destroyed but now, there stands a Mosque,called Dome of the Rock, which is actually once converted from a Church. So much for the holiness of the place itself. Of the destroyed Second Temple, which is Holiest of the Holiest place for the Jews, only the Wall remains. The belief is that God resides in that Wall as well. The Guide said it is the Almighty God, not specific to a religion, so anyone can go and pray. There were separate entrances for Men and Women and I had to wear a shawl to cover my arms before entering. I touched the wall and prayed for the well being of everyone. People stick notes in the crevices of the Wall. God reads them apparently. The bottom of the wall, is very old, and then over it for some height was the wall built second time, and then the top was all rebuilt and not so old as the bottom part of the wall.



Mount of Olives
Here on we got into the bus to drive to Mt of Olives. This has much significance in both Jewish and Christian faith. This is where Jesus was praying when he was arrested. I havent been to those places yet. I have to make another trip to Jerusalem. For some more History, the Guide said this, I am not sure how true it is. Adam and Eve when they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, came into this world here, the place where the First Temple was built, and where the Dome of the Rock stands now. So Jews and Christians also looks like believe that God will come to the Valley between the Mt Olives and the Jerusalem, on Judgement Day, and hence the Mt Olives side looking the City of Jerusalem is a Cemetery with lot of Jews buried here.

Last but not the least I saw a real Camel for the first time in my life! I wanted to go on a ride, but I will have to do it another time.

There is so much history, most sites here are Archeological Sites. I was awestruck when I visited the Vatican City, the St Peter's Basilica, but this experience surpasses that. It was a wonderful, thought provoking, one-of-a-kind experience, that I will remember for years to come.

Phew! I thought I will never be able to finish this post. But I did. I left out a lot of details, but atleast I could write this much. I wanted to post lot more pictures but I am losing patience with blogger's picture upload.

Err.. and I just saw the size of the post, it is huggge. A special thanks to those who reach the end. I guess such trips can never be written concisely. Sigh!

Israel - First trip

I was dreading this weekend, as it was a long weekend. 3.5 days of holidays. Wednesday was Fallen Soldiers Memorial Day, Thursday was Israel's 60th Independence Day, Friday and Saturday the usual weekend.
As is obvious, the patriotism amongst the Israelis is immense. All of past week I saw cars with the flags on them, buildings having huge flags hung on them. The whole place near the hotel looked very festive, all decorated.
But we were not sure it would be safe to go anywhere on Independance Day especially Jerusalem, as it was feared that there might be attacks on Israel on this day. There was extra security at the border of West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Friday, myself, B, and two other colleagues set off to Rosh Hanikra, at the Israel Lebanon border. Since I didnt plan the trip and since there is not so much information online on these places and also as I am still am not able to relate to distances in Kms, I realized how much of Israel we had covered only when I saw the map. ;--)


The yellow border on the top is the Lebanon border. The Red border in the middle is the WestBank border. Click on the pic for better resolution.

We started near Tel Aviv at around 8AM, I think. I dont have a watch. My time references are the clock on the TV in the room, my laptop, time in the car. The cellphone has some random time, and I havent bothered to check how to fix it. So if I am outside, I am clueless about the time.

We crossed Herzliyya, Netanya, Haifa, got lost a little in Haifa as we had to go through the 'downtown' of Haifa, Akko, Nahariya to Rosh Hanikrah. I liked Haifa instantly. Grass is always greener on the other side I suppose. Our Haifa site overlooks the Mediterranian Sea. Haifa is like the Silicon Valley of Israel. There is Technion in Haifa which is supposed to be the MIT of Israel.

By 10:30 we were near our destination. We saw a sign which said, "Caution, Border Crossing ahead!" There were these mountains beyond which was Lebanon. I had to wonder, how the people near the border lived every single day at the edge?! This area was war prone only two years ago! It must be like living in Kashmir?! I am not able to comprehend how powerful the rockets that went all the way from Lebanon to Haifa would have been!
Israel borders so many countries, I am sure I will 'see' them from a distance even if I dont visit them ;--)

Rosh Hanikrah is a place where there are grottos, caves formed by sea water currents gnawing into cracks on rocks by the sea.

Rosh Hanikrah is a tourist place, only for the locals and not for international travellers like us. ;--) International tourists mostly visit Jerusalem, for religious reasons. So one person was curious to know as to how we landed in this place.



This is a view from the top of the cliff of the road we took to reach this place. The drive was a coastal drive, with many 'natural' beaches along the way, with the coastline giving us company. We couldnt get lost. We had to take a short ride in a Cable Car to go down to the Sea. The fee is 42 Shekels, expensive in my opinion. We went into the caves and saw at different places where the sea was gushing into the grottos. The camera was not able to capture it all that well.







Once out of the caves, we were out on the rocks looking at the sea. The rocks were limestone I think, the white color looked amazing against the sea color. Then we went to the tunnel where we saw a video of the formation of this place. It was in some language, we didnt have the patience to wait 30mins to see it in English.

Ok, now for some History lesson. This place was actually a tunnel built by the British in 1941 for transportation between Tel Aviv and Beirot in Lebanon. In 1948 when Israel got Independance, they blew the tunnel at this place, to prevent terrorists apparently. We went to the end of the tunnel, the other end of the tunnel was Lebanon. I have never been to the border of any country, so I was a good experience for me. How do they mark these territories? Till here is Israel, from here is Lebanon?
We saw some markers, floaters on the sea as well, we thought it might be the border in the sea as well. We were not sure.
Here is a picture I took of the mountain which separates Israel and Lebanon. You can also see the Israeli flags on cars in the parking lot.



By noon we were out of there. We drove to Haifa, and looked for a place to eat. We saw this beautiful place which really stood out from the rest of the place, as we were driving, and I realized it was the Bahai Gardens of Haifa. Haifa is a city set between the Carmel Mountains and Sea. There were many houses in the mountains slopes, with a great view of the Sea. We saw some tall buildings on the slopes as well, wondering how such tall buildings stood on the slope.



Back to the Bahai Gardens, it was news to me that Lotus Temple in Delhi is a Bahai Place of Worship as well. Although I have been there, and I remember that it was a place with lot of seating, where people just come and sit in silence, I didnt know aboutBahai Faith then. It is always nice to visit a place with the back up of all the information, so we can appreciate the place much better.



The place was very well maintained, the garden looked beautiful from outside, even from far away. We were on the street right in front of the Bahai Gardens, we had to grab something to eat. There were a lot of restaurents on the street, it was a German Colony. Israel has Jewish Refugees from all over Europe. Friend B said this place was a Mafia place, and that all the restaurents were owned by them, only after we were back.

We went to a Lebanese-French Restaurent. Had amazing food and dessert, with some Indian Chai. After the food we just wanted to lie down and sleep! We were in no mood to walk the slope to the Temple. But we did. The front entrance to the Temple was closed, and the guard said the garden entrance is open. He showed us some back way to enter the Gardens. We climbed a bunch of steps. The steps seemed never ending. So many, I was huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top. BUT, I got to see more Israeli homes, middle class homes. I saw an Arab girl with her head covered walk by, so may be it was an Arab neighbourhood, I had no idea. There were homes on the sides, I wondered how did these people manage to bring stuff to their homes?! These stairs were killing.

We were disappointed that after walking so much, only a teeny portion of the Garden was open, it was soo not worth the walk. We were not even able to get a view of Haifa from the top, it was not so good. But my exercise for the day was done. We came down the same way back to the German Colony. We got to our car to realize we had gotten a ticket! Apparently there was a parking ticket machine, where we had to buy a ticket, to park. What the heck! Everything is in Hebrew, how the hell would we know?! We didnt understand the ticket as well as it was in Hebrew, we stopped a passerby to ask and they said we had to pay a 100shekels fine! It was a bummer.

We reached our hotels by 5PM in the evening. A day well spent. Finally I got to see the real Israel, not the fancy schmancy pseudo Israel.

**

Today I got to see real Israeli Soldiers with big guns! While I was going to the Church in Old Jaffa Tel Aviv.
Most Israeli people have to be in the army after high school. It is mandatory. After serving for a few years they return back to college and work. Which is why most of the people at work look older inspite of being less experienced in work. Even women have to be serve in the army.
We havent seen many beggars here. I think its because everyone gets to be in the army and earn some money.
Israel Independance Day is known as the Day of Catastrophe for the Palestinians as that was when they were thrown out of their homes in Israel.
I am beginning to like trying out different restaurents to eat. As that is the only pass time for us. Food is expensive. A decent meal cost about 80shekels. Buffet at the hotel is 150shekels!
Boss back home, when he heard we are not going out much on weekends,gave us 'improvement required' for 'having fun in Israel' :--)
Only when I go out with others to see places, I realize how much nicer it is to go with DH. I am glad DH is as interested in travel and history as I am.

The long weekend is almost over, back to work tomorrow.

Alaska Trip - Denali National Park

The next day we visited Denali National Park. It was two hours drive from Fairbanks, on the way back to Anchorage. One of the ways to see the Park was to ride the Shuttle buses which went deep into the park. Since we did not make reservations earlier, we got seats in the 11AM bus, which was pretty late, as we had to drive back to Anchorage the same day.

The park was huge, just as the name suggests, some 6 million acres of land, the bus covered only abut 100 miles or so, the rest was for the brave to explore. The right way to see Denali would be to camp for a few days and hike.

DH had a brainwave at the right time, just as we were ready to board the bus and he rented two binoculars. What is the point in going wildlife viewing without binoculars. Unfortunately we didnt get to see Mt McKinley. She is supposed to be a shy lady, comes out of the clouds only 5% of the days.

We saw our first arctic animal at Savage River. It was a Caribou. Caribou is just a fancy name for a Reindeer. It was too far away, but the driver stopped for us to look at the animal and watch what it was doing, which was pretty much nothing. It just stood there grazing, eating.

Out first stop was at the Teklanika River. The place was getting heavenlier as we went further inside. Green mountains, threatening skies, dark clouds, with the sun shining once in a while, We were a group of people in the middle of nowhere.







Our next stop was Polychrome Overlook. On the way we were on the look out for other animals. The driver told us that if we spotted any animal we should holler and he would put the brakes as hard as possible and as fast. We were now trudging at 25 mph over a mountain, with the road pretty narrow for even one bus to pass by. If there was another bus from the opposite side, it was scary to see the two buses crossing each other. I was very much reminded of India, of places like Ooty which had such roads.





Polychrome pass was the most beautiful part of the park. The mountains had so many many colors, and to top it off, there were snow covered peaks here and there, and then it was cloudy threatening to rain. We saw a cute wild squirrel, looking at us curiously, standing on its hind legs. We saw a few more Caribous on the way, and a few Dall Sheep standing on the mountains, grazing. The Sheep were in groups unlike the Caribou. We saw a few birds too, I dont exactly remember what they were.





We reached Toklat River at around 2:30PM. We saw hikers in the middle of nowhere, walking happily. Now that would be a real good hike! Just walk in the middle of nowhere, half expecting to bump into animals, lose your way, explore new routes, make your own hiking trail.





We saw everyone looking at one direction on a mountain. Upon enquiring, we learnt that there was a bear on top of the mountain. I was so excited. I zoomed my binoculars and panned the whole area. But the mountain was too far away, and our little friend was just a speck even with the binoculars. After a lot of explaining, like "see the brown patch between the green patches, a little to the top, go up a little and to the right, see the while speck? well thats a bear!" I borrowed a more powerful set of binoculars from a fellow bus rider and took a good look at the light brown colored bear. I even saw him move a little.
My day was made. I had seen a bear, even if from so far away. It is very tough to spot animals with binoculars, it really is a skill I think.

We had planned to return back from here, but the driver advised us that we might not get a seat in a bus going back right now, so we would be better off to stay in the bus go to Fish Creek our next stop and then return in the same bus. I am glad we went to Fish Creek. Fish Creek itself wasnt magnificent, it was just a small stream running amidst the tundra forest. This place looked like a real Tundra region and we were standing right in the middle of it. We saw some fireweed here too. We took some pictures, watched some hikers, as little specks far far away. How would it be to just get off the bus and take a hike in the park. Scary, yes, but that would be a real adventure. I like quiet places, and places which are not crowded with people. Here you can have a million acres to yourself to explore, it would be wonderful. But we had to return to our buses, our only connection to civilization for now.



We returned to Toklat River for another break, and this time we took photos with Caribou racks and Moose Racks on our heads. These rack aka horns, were really heavy, I couldnt lift them with both my hands, err, inspite of all my work outs at the gym.



While returning we saw three more bears, a Mama bear and two kid bears, we saw them moving, up and about, it was amazing. Atleast these bears werent really in captivation. We marked the area and called it a park, while preserving their habitat. I like to see animals this way than at the Zoo.

We saw more Sheeps and more Caribous, standing in the middle of nowhere, all the land to themselves to enjoy and cherish.



My trip to Alaska was complete with this, having seen the bears. It was past 7PM as we started driving back to Anchorage. Beautiful clouds formed nice pattern in the sky, I clicked them as I tried to locate Mt. McKinley without success. We reached Anchorage well past midnight. It was eerie driving towards Anchorage. I knew there were mountains surrounding the city, but it was cloudy and drizzling, so I couldnt see the mountains. The twilight after the sun had almost set had a ghostly quality too. We crossed a river, and the river had vapours hanging on top of it, it was amazing.

Though the drive was good, it did feel nice to jump into a cozy bed for the night.

The next day we wanted to see some places in downtown Anchorage, but we woke up pretty late and ended up walking in the downtown area, shopping for souveniers all morning. We took the flight back to home sweet home in the afternoon.


The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Alaska is still unexplored, there are so many places probably not yet set foot on by man. This was probably one of the few places we have been to where even Americans were clicking away at the scenic beauty that unfolded. This was the only trip in which we took more pictures of the scenery than of ourselves.


Ah, there I finally finished it.

Alaska Trip - Visit to Barrow

Day 3 (contd)

It was 1:30 as we set off in an old bus, our tourist bus, with our guide, who was a native of Barrow, talking in an accented English.



It was Founder's Day in Barrow, and hence the whole town was gathered, celebrating. There was free food, and Eskimo music and Eskimo dance. Yes! This was an Eskimo town, the people belonged to the Inupiat tribe. FYI, Alaska was bought by US from Russians by a guy called Seward. Of course, before they knew how much natural resources the piece of land had, he was taunted left and right for this 'stupid' act. It is a known fact that the natural resources in Alaska have not yet been exploited fully. The people looked different, kinda flat nosed and chubby, unlike regular Americans, but like folks in Hawaii. Its because they have a Russian lineage. Just like Hawaiians, these folks must have come to Barrow years ago, trying to find a place to settle down. Did they know all of earth was not bitter cold? :--))

The town itself looked very old, almost like a third world country, if I may say so. The roads were unpaved, dust coated vehicles lifted dirt as they drove by. We had a short history lesson, I will spare you of that.

The celebration was simple. A group was singing songs, in their language, the Inupiaq. And there was a group dancing. At one point, the singers called the tourist to join in the dance. DH forced me to join the dance. The dance was simple. I just had to stamp my left feet, and make a sweeping motion with my hands, like I was swimming. DH caught this on the camcorder. We saw this person dressed up in a thick coat and thick hood, made of real wolverine fur. Me and DH took signature pics with him, he happily posed for us.





Our next stop was the Visitor Center.There was a monument, I didnt really care to see what it was, I couldnt understand what the guide told us, I left it at that. We watched some native kids playing on the dirt roads. The houses looked really old. Each house had an ATV and a Snowmobile. It was their regular mode of transportation. I realized the roads were unpaved, because they get to drive cars only four months of the year, why take the trouble to build roads. :--))





After some more sight seeing, of whale bones, buried houses, finally it was my most awaited part of the trip - the arctic Ocean. I was a little disappointed. I imagined the Arctic Ocean with ice, and snow but I saw none. Our guide said a big mass of sea ice floated away only two weeks back. Only after that we saw the mass, far far away, (check out the picture). So much for visiting in Summer.



Some of the oldies wanted to take a full dip in the Arcitc Ocean. You get a membership in the Polar Bear Club if you do. They saw how cold it was and backed off. Me and DH went and wet our legs in the ocean. Boy, was it freezing! I had to go into the water three times before DH could get a decent picture, as I kept jumping and shrieking. Legs felt totally numb. But it was great! Our guide, had been inducted into the Polar Bear Club only the day before. And since it was summer for him, a relaively warm temperature of 48 F compared to negative celsious rest of the year, he was able to stand deeper in the ocean for a longer time.



Our next point of interest was the Barrow monument , made of whale bones. Whale hunting is a favorite sport/profession in Barrow. If they catch one whale apparently the whole town of 4800 can be fed for days. Our guide told us that if a whale is caught, the whole village comes and helps in pulling the whale on to the shore. Then each family takes a piece of the whale home to eat. It sounded very interesting, like the olden day stories, too unreal to be true.



We went to the only decent Hotel in Barrow, called Top of the World, rightly so, with the most basic amenities, to buy some souveniors. This is where we would have stayed had we opted to spend a night in Barrow. Although I would have loved to see the midnight sun, and the sun making a circle right in front of my eyes, there wasnt really much else to see or do in Barrow, and we were short of time, so we had dropped that plan. The time that the sun was not hidden in clouds, it shone so brightly, that it was impossible to see it with naked eyes.

We visited the Cultural Center next, it was pretty deserted, saw and read about the history of the place, the different Eskimo tribes etc etc. Everything used in this place has to be flown in. So everything was too darn expensive. Our guide asked us to guess the gas price. 5 bucks a gallon. The people generally worked in Prudhoe Bay at the Oil Drills. They were are flown in and flown out everyday, and were paid a lot of money too. Money was the main reason people lived in Barrow. Alaska is one of the places where you get paid to just live there. There were schools for children in Barrow, but for college they had to go to Fairbanks.

It was half past four when we left Barrow. We had seen most of what was there to see in the three hours we were there. We flew directly to Fairbanks, I slept most of the way. I was thinking of the people in Barrow, what a unique life they led. I wouldnt want to live there of course, but still, it was interesting to see this side of the high and mighty US of A.

Once back in the hotel, at about 7PM, it was still bright and sunny. Since most tourist places were closed by then, we went to see the Trans Alaskan Pipeline up close. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and went from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, where the oil was refined.



Then we went to North Pole. A city in Alaska. :--) About 15 miles from Fairbanks. We saw huge Santa Claus, and boards which said "get gifts from Santa with a real North Pole postmark!" :--)

It was 10:30PM when we went back to our rooms, stil bright. We forced ourselves to sleep, pulling the window curtains tight shut.

PS: I will finish this in the next post, I know it is getting really boring.

Alaska Trip - Arctic Circle and Beyond

Day 3

We were a couple of sleepy heads in the morning, having slept late the previous night. It was already really bright as I openned the window shades. Once I saw where the sun was, and had risen from, I knew my answer to the question in the previous post.

This is one of the places where if the teachers teach "Sun rises in the east and sets in the west" kids would be baffled. Sun rises in the north east and sets in the northwest, I guess, in Summer. To give a background, We know the earth is tilted on its axis. As it revolves around the sun, in Summer, the earth's north pole is tilted towards the sun. In winters, the earths north pole is facing away from the sun. If the tilt were not there, there wont be any seasons, just like it is in the equator, like in India. Because of the tilt, there is a certain part of earth near the north pole, which always faces the sun. Even when the earth makes a full rotation, this place never away from the sun. As we go down from the north pole, the Arctic Circle separates that area and the area where the sun does set. But the sun is hidden for a short while, because the circumference of the earth as we go towards either poles is smaller.

I am terrible in explaining things. Here is a wonderful website which shows what I am trying to say. The red circle on top is the Arctic Circle. So as we go more north, across the arctic circle, the sun would make a neat circle right in front of our eyes, as it sets and rises again. The concept of day and night, which we folks closer to the Equator, take for granted is so differnt in these places.


The picture above is from the web.*

We had to be at the airport at 9AM. We got ready and had the Hotel Breakfast. The airport was 15minutes away. Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska, next to Anchorage. Still it was small. We went to the Northern Alaska Tour Company. There were already a group of oldies. We were going to travel with them. It looked like they all wanted to fullfill their dream of crossing the Arctic Circle before they died, or something. Yes, we were going to cross the Arctic Circle. This was my birthday gift from DH.

We were travelling onboard a twin engine plane for the first time. It was so small.


The pilot, he was our host too, he took our bags and jackets, and put them in a compartment in one side of the wings and locked it. There were eight seats in all, four rows, and one seat next to the pilot. All the flight controls were directly visible to every person onboard. The pilot took off, it was pretty smooth. It was very noisy, as all small planes are. And it was very bumpy, as all small planes are too. We gained altitude pretty fast. The landscape of beautiful Alaska stretched out for us. No snow. Just green mountains, with meandering rivers in the middle. For now. We saw Dalton Highway, winding along in the middle of nowhere. When we decided to cross the Arctic Circle, one of the many plans was to drive on Dalton Highway, that way you can actually physically stand on the Arctic Circle. But we had a lot of driving to do already, so we dropped it. We saw the Trans Alaskan Pipeline zigzagging along, in the middle of nowhere too. We also saw the Yukon river, flowing through the wilderness.







To give some history, Dalton Highway was constructed to transport machinery from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, where Oil is drilled. The Highway is just gravel road, unpaved. Trans Alaskan Pipeline is one of man made wonders, winding along cold tundra, about 800 miles long I think. transporting gallons of oil everyday from the drill site.

I rarely have motion sickness. But this time, both me and DH had trouble because of the very bumpy ride. I surely would have thrown up if we had landed just a minute later. It was a 90 min flight to Coldfoot, which is 55 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The vegetation slowly changed. No trees, only small shrubs, and plants. Lot of Fireweed, giving a reddish pinkish color to the ground. The pilot told us exactly when we crossed the Arctic Circle. By the time we landed on Coldfoot, We reached the part of Alaska where, it was too cold most of the time even for trees to grow. BUT, it was 70 degrees when we stepped out of the plane. :--) There was a van waiting to take us to a small restaurant, where everything was exorbitantly priced. We had our lunch waiting for us. Coldfoot has a population of 14. Yes 14! And one of us was our van driver. There was nothing in that place really. Saw this sign board, 240 miles, all the way to DeadHorse in Prudhoe Bay, no services on the way.





I shyly asked an old lady who talked nicely to us, if she had any medication for motion sickness. She gave us Ginger Candy. Ah! Namma Inji mittai. I have never had motion sickness, so never realized how charmingly the candy works. She asked us to suck on it slowly. The next leg was a longer one, almost two hours to Barrow, we had to make sure we were alright.

Barrow is the northernmost settlement in Northern US. It is one of the fifteen or so cities touching the Arctic Ocean. We saved out lunch till the end of the flight, while sucking on ginger candy. The landscape was beautiful, as we flew over the Brooks Range. We seemed to be close to the land because of the tall mountains over which we were flying. We kept clicking pictures like crazy. The others in our plane also did the same.









The mountains were barren. I guess most of the time they are covered with snow. No trees whatsoever. Real Tundra! An hour later, the mountains ended, it was barren flat land thereafter. It was really like flying over nowhere. There is no road connecting Barrow to civilization. Only means to reach Barrow is by flight. Makes one wonder who would want to live there.



There were numerous lakes. It was from all the snow melting from Brooks range. We finally saw some patches of snow on land. I thought we would never see any. In Summer this place didnt seem to reveal what bitter winter it suffers every year. The sun was shining really bright. I guess we are closer to the Sun across the arctic circle in summer, than in any part of the earth. It was irritatingly sunny, I had to wear my sunglasses.



Finally, we saw the land end. The Arctic Ocean. It was like the beginning of any other ocean or sea, but to think it was part of the mass of water, often covered in ice, around the North Pole, it was a huge deal. There was no sea ice for as far as we could see though. It was a bummer.

When we landed and went out, it was cold. It was 45F, one of the warmer days in Barrow. We hurriedly wore our jackets and set off to see the northern most point in continental US.

* With due credit to the author of the picture taken from here.