Heading off to Norway

Perhaps instead of Intentional Traveler this episode should be titled the Insane Traveler!  Booking a trip not only to Norway in February but all the way up, up, up to the very top! All the way up to above the Arctic Circle!  In February!

Thank heaven it is a cruise.  Viking Ocean Star is the saving grace.  It will be bright, and cozy, and warm!  Outside it will be white!  I expect to see icy blue seas with, hopefully, not too many white caps.  I expect to see icy peaks of the fjords and snowy banks.  Mountains with white shimmering down their sides like crystalline ball gowns glistening in the night light.  I expect to see dark. 2o+ hours of dark!  In Alta, our highest point of land there will be sunlight on February 10 from 9:45 a.m. to 1:36 p.m. 3 hours and 52 minutes.  And for me, who loves sunlight so much that I have 38 windows in my house, every minute counts!  I wonder if someone will tell me how many seconds?

My friend, Ruth, and I will be traveling together.  We meet up in London which is where we started our last trip together.  If you were with us in August for England, Wales, and Scotland, you might remember that Ruth is a lot of fun and we always have a good time no matter what!   This will be her first trip on Viking Ocean.  Ruth loved the river cruises when I introduced her to them so now I think she wants to compare.

A year ago the Viking Sky had trouble on this same itinerary at this same time of year.  I remember saying that if I was in trouble on a cruise, and, knock wood, so far I have been very lucky, and Viking is the line and the crew to choose.  They proved themselves then and I have total confidence in my safety and enjoyment on this one. A harrrowing adventure!

 

My friend, Anna, and her husband, Gary, will be on this tour as well.  I year ago I introduced them to Viking River.  They were so pleased that they immediately booked an ocean trip and this will be their second. We will be all together on some of the shore excursions and others not. For instance, Ruth is going to spend 7 hours visiting a reindeer ranch and even take a ride on a reindeer drawn sled.  Anna, Gary, and I are going to the top of a mountain at midnight to watch, with any luck, the Northern Lights.  

Yes, the Northern Lights are the reason for this cruise and the reason to go at this time of year.  Why Northern Lights?  We will see the spectacle especially well if there are a lot of electro-magnetic collisions of solar gasses entering the earth’s atmosphere.  To best enjoy them there must be clear (read cold) darkness and the patience of the viewer.  

I think of the Aurora Borealis, the proper name in the Northern Hemisphere, as a feminine phenomenon.  Like a girl with the name Aurora the lights might be shy or if they like us they may dance showily on the horizon.  If Aurora loves us she will fling out her colorful skirts and swoop and swirl above and around us!  We hope for the best.

If Aurora is reluctant to perform for us we will still have a great trip.  I have not been to Norway and so can check it off the list.  We will not be going to the capital, Oslo, but to the western edges.  Leaving from London we will be crossing through the English Channel and into the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea – The Arctic Ocean.

So please join me, once again, and let us explore together Norway, experience Arctic weather, and meet the Sami people and their language!

Mai Chau Valley Trek

This popped up in DRAFTS so here you go.  No idea why this is here now but since I am heading to Norway next week I thought I would be all caught up.  Yes, I know this is weird but join me next week on my way to the Artic Circle in February!

Mai Chau Valley

Breakfast was done in a Western with eggs, bacon, sausages, as well as Pho and vegetables.  We were not rushed.  This was good since we really were still recovering from the jet lag of a day in midair.  We left the compound about 9:00 a.m. for a short drive to another village.  The White Thai people are farmers and, like farmers everywhere, love their animals.  They were in rugged enclosures that offered little protection from cold and rain.  As a matter of fact, there was an unusual drop of the average temperatures a few weeks ago and 1000 Water Buffalo froze to death!  But the VietNamese are resourceful and waste nothing.  The cattle were butchered and are being sold along the roadside.  Because the temperatures have remained refrigerator like, the meat has kept …as far as they are concerned.

Here we happened upon the butcher, a lady, who had the box of meat strapped to her motorcycle.  She carried a scale and was selling the last of the meat from this morning’s work.

This village was not too much different from the one yesterday but it was interesting to come upon fish farms and also to see that here some people are changing their culture by building more modern homes.  The have cement pillars and decorative cement walls with the upper floor of the more traditional wood.

By the same token traditional tools and methods are used for farming.  Here a man in an old army uniform is creating a plow share for the water buffalo to pull.

We passed some young men carrying long bamboo poles.  Later we came upon them again where they were beating the tree leaves.  One boy, carrying a pink plastic bag, was only looking at the ground.  He would quickly bend down and pick something up.  It turns out they were collecting a treat – bugs!

These would be fried for a crunchy special treat.  On the left you see the biggest Stink Bug you ever saw!

Working in the rice paddies is tedious but done with enough pride to make perfect tiny rows.  Row after row.  Each family has one or two paddies which take the whole family to maintain.

We stopped in at one of Phil’s sisters which simply means a woman of about the same age.  An older person is considered an aunt or uncle.  It is a sign of respect.  We had green tea and they entertained us with singing.  In return we sang You Are My Sunshine which is a song to which they knew some of the words.  We laughed and clapped along to each other’s music.  It is funny how you can communicate without words!

After lunch back at the stilt house it was time to say good bye to Mrs. Vuong.  Barbara, Susie, and Bruno were ready to go while sporting the scarves the lovely lady had woven.

We were driving back to Hanoi for dinner but stopped along the way.  Everything is made to seem spontaneous but we know that Phil and other OAT guides have been here before.  He got some corn at the road side stand and showed us different fruits and vegetables.  The roasted corn is not sweet like we are and is tough. Barbara fed hers to the cow wandering about.

I couldn’t help but joke about how the eggs are cleverly packaged.

                                                                They didn’t put all their eggs in one basket!

We stopped at one place to get coffee if you wanted and to use the rest room.  Since there was no door we took turns creating cover like Frida and Susie are doing here.  Hard to believe that Frieda is our senior member at 81!  She has a delightful sense of humor spritzed with Yiddish adages.  Frieda is from Manhattan and we have all seen her work in the past. Most of her career she was the Production Manager for both Sesame Street and the Electric Company!

We arrived back in Hanoi in time for dinner and then headed for the train station for an experience we were all looking forward to – an overnight journey on a sleeper train – the Sapaly Express!  (Here they are all laughing at my Cheeses of Nazareth joke which makes for a great photo.)

Left to right we have Frieda, Susie, Anna, Barbara, Bruno, Glenda and her daughter Leah.

The train cabins had two upper and two lower berths.  The walls had a wood finish and there was a large window beneath which a small table separated the bunks. So that we would be more comfortable we were only two in a cabin.  The bathrooms were at either end of the train car.  On one end the toilet was to the side but the sinks were in the walkway.  If you bent over to brush your teeth you might be run into by the cart of the snack selling lady!

The table in each cabin held a basket with packages of crackers, toothbrushes and combs. The basket was nailed to the table. There was bottled water and scuffs for our use.  Everything was in fours.  We were all giddy with excitement and going from roomette to roomette to comment and laugh and take pictures. 

I took this through the window as we walked rapidly to the correct First Class car.

We finally settled down and Susie fell asleep.  I watched the pilot episode of Law and Order!  Soon, I was asleep too.  The beds were arranged in such a way that instead of rocking like in a cradle it was more like riding a roller coaster.