Snow Shoe @ Nellim

In my trip to Finland, we participated in the snow shoe programme arranged by the Wilderness Hotel Nellim which lasted slightly more than 5 hours, starting at 10.30am. Personally, I was surprised that the snow shoeing experience is much less strenuous than the skiing. :)

Well, first I should introduce what's a snow shoe. In summary, it's an oversized shoe with a big area. Your boots will be strapped into that oversized shoe. Below is a picture of my snow shoe. :)

The snow shoe programme started well. Wearing the shoes is slightly easier than the skis and we were walking mostly on flat ground. The snow is deep though. 2 guides were leading us and we had the option to lead the group and clear the way, if we want to. :)

As it was not as strenuous as sking, I had the energy to take some photos here and there. Below is a picture I took before our campfire lunch.

We climbed up a small slope to get ready the campfire. The participants also walked around collected dead wood for the campfire. After that, I snapped a photo of our surroundings. It's quite surreal.

I also managed to take a photo of someone assisting the guide to start the fire, well using matches. :)

After the fire is started, it's time to heat up the berry juice for everyone and get ready for BBQ! Hot dogs and bread. There are vegetarian hot dogs too. Yummy!

After a satisfying lunch, the 2 guides gave us a choice. We can either take the short route back, or the long route back. We took the long route. :)

What that means is that you'll be climbing up a small knoll. :) The slope will be steeper than the other slopes you have encountered, but you will be able to see the forest from above, and the Russian border too. During the walk, the guide will also point out and explain certain things that they spotted. They will also stop at certain points for a breather. Believe me, you'll need it.

Below are some photos I managed to snap when I was up there.

The guide also warned us again that not all lakes are safe to walk and shown us a small lake in the middle of the snow covered lake. Well, I've no intention of deviating from the route the guide ask us to take. :)

We had an enjoyable walk back to the hotel. It was rather long though. I think we were about half an hour late from the original scheduled time. Not that I'm complaining. :)

Stay tuned for more posts on my adventures in Finland.

Snowmobiling @ Nellim

In my trip to Finland, you can say that the snowmobiles were the most frequent mode of transport used in all the activities organised by the Wilderness Hotel Nellim. I've participated in 3 events that uses the snowmobiles, the night snowmobiling, the day snowmobiling, and the day with a reindeer herder which basically uses the snowmobiles to get around. You will need to sign a disclaimer form stating that you'll be responsible for your own safety, yada yada yada, before you ride the snowmobile, which the hotel will give you when you check-in.

For this post, I will concentrate on the night and day snowmobiling. Contrary to the naming of the programme, the 2 programmes are quite different.

Although it is stated that you may see auroras during the night snow mobiling, you won't have time to setup a tripod and stay there for many hours in order to take that ultimate photo. The main focus is still riding the snowmobile at night. You may have time for a shot or 2 but definitely not enough time to setup a tripod, setup the camera, and take that perfect shot. The night snowmobile ride concentrates more on maneuvering the snowmobile through tight corners, and going up and down slope. They will bring you up one of the small hills around Nellim but at that time, we couldn't see any aurora because it was snowing quite heavily. There is a short stretch of flat land at the lake where you can speed, but due to the low visibility, you will not be able to go above 30 km/hr. Even then, my night snowmobile ride started at 930pm and ended at around 1230pm.

The day snowmobiling is completely different. Personally, I felt that the focus is more on traveling fast and furious. The photos below will show the day snowmobile programme because it's really quite difficult to take pictures of the snowmobiles at night, in that limited time that is allocated for it. The day snowmobile ride is much longer. It started at 10.30am but ended at around 4pm. Lunch (campfire) is included. :)

Basically for all snowmobile rides, the guide will let you have a practice run around the lake before starting off. As I had my first snowmobile run at night, I was surprised by the speed that they took when they went off in the day. The average speed was about 40-50km/hr. You might think it's slow but do remember that the track that you're on is not even and you will need to balance the snowmobile and make sure it doesn't get stuck into deep snow. After all, if you damage the snowmobile too much, you will still need to pay for it. You will also need to be careful to drive only on certain tracks because not all the ice could bear the weight of the snowmobile and yourself. The guide will let you know the safe areas to ride.

Below is a picture of all the snowmobiles during one of our stops in the day snowmobile trip.

Pictures of the snowmobiles at the cabin where we had our lunch

Obviously we're all beginners but during one of the breaks we had, the guide actually let some of us have the experience of sitting in a snowmobile that is being driven well, fast and furious. Below are a couple of pictures of some people having fun.

The snow we were in was pretty deep, and the guide proved it by positioning some blocks of ice he found around the tracks made by our snow mobile. Look! It can stand!

 
Below is a scenery of a place during one of our stops. Isn't it beautiful?

Below is the picture of the cabin where we had our reindeer sandwich lunch. You can still see the smoke coming out of the chimney. The reindeer meat was delicious. Apparently, the recipe used is shared by Gordon Ramsay when he came to Finland previously. It is very good.

Below is a picture of one of the toilets you may see in the wilderness at Nellim, built by the Finnish government. 

Below is a picture of something which I still couldn't make out, but I find the structure unique. It was right next to the cabin we were in where we had our lunch. :)

Last but not least, I couldn't resist trying out my new Kenko extension tube when I was out roaming around when lunch was cooked. Below is a picture of a small plant covered with snow, and I was trying to play with the focusing ring. :)

More posts soon on more activities in Finland!

Skiing at Nellim

In my trip to Finland, we participated in the skiing programme arranged by the Wilderness Hotel Nellim which lasted slightly more than 2 hours, starting at 10.30am. Well, I guess we didn't know what we got ourselves into.

It was the first new day since we arrived at Nellim and frankly, we did not know what to expect. Visions of skiing usually include you going down a slope with skis, and magically not falling down. The fact is that the truth is very different.

Putting on the skis is already quite a challenge, to me that is. You need to make sure that your boots is secured tightly to the skis and that requires you to sort of step on your own skis in order to gain some sort of traction to secure the skis. It's difficult to explain. You need to try it. :)

The instructor started with the basics... Walking in skis. That itself is already not easy, especially if you're walking in snow. You need to co-ordinate your hand and leg movements properly to prevent yourself from moving. In summary, left leg in front, right hand in front. :)

After that, we progressed into walking up slopes in skis, which I felt is the trickiest part of the whole skiing. It is very difficult to walk up the slope in skis, but I guess having a loose ankle helps. Have the vision of a ski chair bringing you up the hill? Nah... You have to walk up yourself. It's extremely difficult, and requires a lot of strength.

Going down? Well, some say it's easy but you actually need to have a good sense of balance in order to slide down the slope. You need to "flow with the slope" which is how I called it. Basically, it means that you need to adjust and balance yourself constantly when going down the slope. I only encountered about 2 mini slopes during the whole ski exercise. First mini slope, I fell. Second one I got the hang of it. Sadly though, that's the end of all the down slopes. There were a lot of up slopes though.

Good news is that the skis actually comes "free" with the stay at Nellim, at least for us. That means that if you wish to borrow the skis for your own use, you just need to check with the receptionist if you can borrow it, and that's it.

However, my activities were too tightly packed to have any sort of free time. Anyway, my hands were quite sore after all that skiing up slope. :)

Sadly, I was too astonished by the amount of energy needed in the skiing that taking photos were completely not in my thoughts at all. The only thought after the small skiing exercise was to remove the skis and have lunch. :)

Stay tuned for my other posts on my trip to Finland!

Loitering around Nellim

In my trip to Finland, we managed to squeeze out some time to explore a 2km radius around the Wilderness Hotel Nellim. Proper roads though. :)

Nellim is a small village on the shore of Lake Inari, and is about 45 minutes away from the Ivalo domestic airport. Basically, the only 2 things worthy to take note is the Wilderness hotel, and the wooden Skolt Sámi Orthodox Church. :)

Below are some pictures which I took of the surroundings. Enjoy.

Walking trail down to Lake Inari

Un-used tent covered in snow

One of the houses along the street

The house near the Wilderness hotel

A boat that is stuck in Lake Inari

Another house with a snow covered boat.

Deserted streets of Nellim. :)

 

One of the many beautiful scenes around Nellim, taken during snow shoeing

The sign near the Wilderness Hotel that indicates the church is to the right

If I recall correctly, its one of the many signs marking the trail to the church

 

The wooden Skolt Sámi Orthodox Church

Door leading into the church

Any wildlife around? Well, I caught one at the last day!

More posts soon on more activities in Finland!

Lakeside Cabin @ Nellim

In my trip to Finland, we specifically picked a place where we have the highest possibility of catching the aurora, also known as the auroa borealis. There was one option that was given by the Wilderness Hotel Nellim, and that is the lakeside cabin.

The lakeside cabin is actually a small house that is situated right beside Lake Inari. The reason why it has a higher chance of spotting the aurora is because it faces North over the lake, and there is no light pollution whatsoever towards that direction, except for the moon.

We did not regret staying at the cabin because out of the 6 nights we were there, we caught the aurora on 2 of the nights that we did not have the aurora camp. All in all, we caught the aurora 3 times in our trip. That's pretty good and the experience is priceless! More of the aurora in another post. :)

The hotel arranged for a transport to bring us to our cabin because it's about 1.5km away from the main hotel lobby. Yes, we walk 1.5km every time we need to go for our meals. We can arrange for transport to bring us I guess but we always couldn't find anyone at the receptionist area. Moreover, we want a bit more flexibility in our time so we chose to walk. :)

Anyway, the snowman below will greet us when we reach the cabin. Cool right? :)

Below is a wide angle view of the cabin and the more zoomed up picture of the cabin.

Upon entering the cabin, you will see a small toilet to your right. Straight ahead will be the coat hanging area, plus the kitchen area as shown below.

To the left of the picture above is where you'll wash your clothes (the washing machine), your shower room and the sauna room. There is also a backdoor that leads directly to Lake Inari. Pretty cool place.

To the left of the coat hanging room, there is a small bedroom as shown below.

To the left of the bedroom is actually the TV/common room as shown below. There are 2 places where you can catch the Auroras, This room, facing the lake, or the kitchen, which is also facing the lake. You'll find that you'll spend many nights in the dark, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the aurora.

There is a small mini staircase up the cabin from the coat hanging area as shown in the picture below.

Upon reaching the top, you'll find the second small bathroom and 2 bedrooms further left as shown in the pictures below. As you can see, the lakeside cabin is quite big.

The cabin is also beautiful at night, as shown in the picture below.

Not only that, we had a few reindeers dropping by next to the cabin early in the mornings, digging for food. Below are a couple of pictures that I've taken of the reindeers as they came quite close to the cabin.

All in all, this lakeside cabin is a good place to stay if you intend to be at Nellim for a while. Because of its location, you can catch most of the auroras that will take place there, more so if there is no moon I guess as you'll be able to see the weaker ones.

Will post more about the activities I did in Nellim later.

Wilderness Hotel Nellim

During much of our trip at Finland, we stayed at the Wilderness Hotel Nellim, situated at Nellim, Northern Laplands. It is is an adventure based ecotourism company in Northern Lapland, Finland, which arrange camps and safaris in the Inari area in Finland. When it said adventure based, it really meant adventure based. Most, if not all activities, require you to exert a certain amount of strength. Just imagine, skiing up a slope and snow shoeing up a knoll. :)

Anyway, this has been one of the best holidays I had so far, mainly because the activities are spaced out such that you do have some form of rest before the next activity. In fact, even though the snow shoe and the skiing are available F.O.C for your own use during the trip, I did not have time to make use of it because there were just too many activities lined-up every day.

The hotel is about a 45 mins drive from Ivalo airport. If you have registered for the package at the hotel, the airport transfer is free. The driver, in our case is a taxi driver, will be there with a sign called Nellim. You will most probably see the scenery below once you reached the hotel.

Entrance to Wilderness Hotel Nellim

The main hotel lobby

View of the hotel from the front porch

Below is the picture of the hotel "back entrance", which will be the main entrance you'll be using if you're staying near the hotel. There are coat hangers at both entrances which you could use the hang your coats before you enter the main hotel lobby.

The moment you enter the main entrance of the hotel, you'll see the bar cum restaurant. The design is pretty unique, as you can see from the photos below.

Below is the "food area", where you'll have all your buffet meals in your stay. Lunch too, if you choose full boarding, which basically means all meals included. Breakfast time is 8am - 10am, lunch time is 12pm - 2pm and dinner time is 6pm - 8pm.

Juices are provided F.O.C only for breakfast. Otherwise, you'll need to pay 1.50 euros. Coffee and tea is available throughout. There's also a small fireplace cum tv room to the right of the kitchen.

They do have pretty unique fixtures in the hotel lobby. One of them is the picture below.

Last but not least, how to recognise the washroom when you see it. Somehow in Finland, they use the same pictures to depict the guys' and the ladies' washroom. However, if you do not see both of them side by side, it is difficult to identify which one is the guys' washroom and which one is the ladies' washroom.

For your information, the first picture below is the guys' washroom and the second one is the ladies' washroom. :)

 

The washroom is just opposite the receptionist counter, which is situated near the main entrance. You can't miss it. :)

More posts soon on my memorable trip to Finland. :)

Back from Ivalo, Finland

It has been a satisfying 2 weeks "rest" for me at Ivalo. Why I indicated inverted commas is because I did more strenuous activities at Ivalo than what I had tried in Singapore. :)

Finland is a place where everyone should go. The air is fresh, and the land is so big with so little people per sq km. It's only there where you can appreciate the advantages of having more personal space. It's also only there where you can appreciate the true sound of silence. It has a calming, soothing effect on you. If you wish to join in activities such as Skiing, Snow Shoeing, Snow mobile driving and Husky safari, it is best to also go there when you're young. The activities are pretty strenuous. My arms were sore within the first 2 days of arriving at Nellim, Ivalo. :)

If you're interested in going to Ivalo via Singapore, Finnair will be the most economical airline to take and it will handle all the transits for you. Based on my research, Finnair seems to be the only airline that handles the internal domestic flights so it will be better if you're taking the same airline all the way. I personally believe it will reduce the risk of your luggage being "misplaced". :)

It's about 11 and a half hours journey to Helsinki, and another 1 and a half hour flight from Helsinki to Ivalo. Yes, you will get leg cramps so don't be shy in walking around the airplane. You will need it.

The transit is pretty smooth. The map of how to transit to your next flight can be found at your seat pocket. You will just need to pass one border security point (just a check on your passport and air ticket) to the transit area.  When I arrived at Helsinki, we were at gates 32 - 40 in Terminal 2, which is the smaller area of the terminal. However, do take note that there are certain shops such as the Stockman shop at that area sells pretty unique stuff that are different from the Stockman shop at the other side of terminal 2, so do your shopping before crossing over through the border security. Do also note that the Santa shop is only found at that smaller area of Terminal 2.

There are a couple of things to take note in Helsinki Airport. First thing is that the duty free shops are only meant for international travelers. Meaning that if you're there to transit to a domestic flight, you're not eligible to buy anything in the duty free shop. If you're flying back to Singapore, then you can buy things in the duty free shop. From what I can see, there are 3 duty free shops within terminal 2, one of which is situated at the smaller section of terminal 2 (e.g. gates 32 - 40). One of the duty free shops will close at 830pm but the other 2 were open till quite late, so do not worry too much.

Having said that, it brings me to the second thing you will need to take note. Almost all the shops will close from 8 - 830pm, with the exception of certain cafes, duty free shops, and the Santa shop to name a few. So if you wish to do your shopping, make sure you go to those shops before 8pm to stand a chance of getting something. I was not aware of the closing time so there were a number of shops that we did not get to explore when we were waiting at Helsinki airport for our transit flight. They are open pretty early though. Most shops were opened when we were there at about 6+am.

There is free Wi-fi at Helsinki Airport, and Ivalo airport (after you checked-in). Just look for the Wifi access point that starts with "Free Wi-Fi ... ...".

Ivalo airport however, is a different story altogether. Below is the picture of Ivalo airport and the Ivalo airfield.

In another words, the Ivalo domestic airport is super small. I personally believe that the airport could only contain 1 airplane, which is the plane that I will be flying on. :)

There is practically nothing at Ivalo airport and the shops and service counter will only open 2 hours before the next flight (whether it's arrival or departing) so do not bother arriving there too early. There is practically nothing you can do at the domestic airport (except for sleeping) if you're there too early. The main crowd only came streaming in at around 1 and a half hours before departure. The free Wi-fi as explained earlier is only available once you checked-in, so are the food and drinks which is not very cheap. :) Personally I feel that the shops at Helsinki airport sells the stuff much cheaper but my friend said that there are certain items that are cheaper at Ivalo.

I will write more about my "adventures" at Ivalo in my subsequent posts. Stay tuned. :)

Inflation is up 4.9%

These are the Singapore inflation rates for 2013:
January: 3.6%
February: 4.9%

Transport and Housing are leading the pack, rising by 13.9% and 4.2% respectively year on year, where transport is significantly higher than January's inflation. February's inflation is significantly higher most probably due to the significant jump in the transport inflation.

The transport inflation is mostly driven by private transport, which means the COE is again causing anomalies in the inflation readings. Other than transport inflation, the other basket items are holding steady.

Looks like it will be much more difficult to forecast inflation due to the cost of COE which is difficult to forecast.