While drinking the hot cocoa provided by Frozen Tony and waiting for the one taxi guy who was actually willing to take us back to Fairbanks, San and me both said this at the same time "Wish we could have some hot tea and samosas right now!"
We had already checked out Indian restaurants in the area earlier in the day.. Hari Om was the one with the best rating. So we asked our taxi to drive us to the restaurant. Given it was closer to the hotel we were hoping to get a taxi after dinner to take us to the hotel.. we were going to cross that bridge.. after some chai and dinner.
This restaurant was small, cozy, and the ambience, service and food were just amazing! I was naive enough to ask the owner "how do you get fresh corriander leaves in this weather ?" and his response was "this is America man. I can get anything here! not an issue". Then he went on to talk about how he gets to see the Northern lights from his bedroom window all the time and how the cold is something you get used to etc..
My mind was still elsewhere.. reliving my snowmobile experience. The food was just mouth watering. If you ever go to Fairbanks, don't miss this place. The dal tadka here was better than any I have had in a bay area restaurant. San thinks I rate desi restaurants better when the outside weather is too cold..like when we went to Banff! Maybe desi food tastes better when you walk into a restaurant after freezing your ass off. Maybe..
Do check it out if you hit Fairbanks. We did manage to get a taxi after dinner and Chai!
Pretty much covered everything we did in Alaska. There were not many things to do over a weekend and we did as much as we could given the time. Best part was we made it back to bay area and did not fall sick with a cold or flu or covid! After that Banff experience we were worried about that! Got lucky this time!
We have successfully seen the Northern lights, snowmobiled towards a gorgeous sunset and have had a nice dinner in a desi restaurant, no matter where we go!
The original plan post seeing Northern lights was to go on a viator tour to Casper glacier to visit a naturally formed ice cave. Even by viator description, it said that this was a moderately difficult trip and only "able bodied adults" were to come for an approximate 3 mile walk on snow and ice to get to the cave.
After the previous nights experience, San decided that Alaskan standards to rest of US standards are like US system to metric system. An "able Alaskan body" was a 6 foot 2 inch plus, 250 lbs, pure muscle body with a heavy beard that could fight Commando or Rambo for at least a few minutes and live to tell the tale.. or something close to that.. We did not fit that description..In short, she bailed on me.
Now for a backstory and the title of the post.
One of my favorite songs during college days was by Franco de Vita, "Golpeando en el mismo lugar", which translates to "you get hit in the same palce again and again". We have a similar saying in Tamil "patta kaal-laye padum" which is "you get hit in the same leg again".
Two weeks prior to this Alaska trip, I hurt my right knee. A knee that already was cracking from a skin issue. After coming back from yoga class, I had the mat towel etc and was trying to go through a narrow gap between the car and the fridge in the garage. License plate holders are strategically placed in cars at exactly knee height. If you bang your knee sideways on the holder, you are guranteed a horrific experience for weeks. After realizing that, promptly iced the knee. While on the couch, my daughter wanted me to do something for her. Given the bandage around the knee, didn't want to fold the extended leg on the couch and in a brilliant move thought I could just step outside of it and get down. Bad ideas come in twos. Promptly banged same knee on the coffee table, just an hour after the first hit. Sometimes a picture is worth a long paragraph.. so here you go..(the gaps have already been fixed in the photos below and credit has been given to the accident causers!)
The next two weeks were spent trying to make every effort to recover, with yoga, ibuprofen, ice, triple pillows under leg, crepe bandages, etc. just so I don't screw up the Alaska experience.
I really wanted to go through that ice cave!
San saw the disappointment on my face when she cancelled the ice cave tour. To make up for it, she was checking with Viator if there was some other activity that did not involved walking on ice. There were two options. A dog sled experience where huskies pulled us on the snow for 30 minutes and we got to see the kennels, which was promptly rejected for her fear of dogs. Another trip where we got to ride a snowmobile on a frozen lake and ride into the sunset in the Arctic circle. She agreed to do that and off we went.
It was a 40 minute drive to North Pole, Alaska where we met an amazing dude, Frozen Tony! He ran what appeared to be a one man operation on a weekend as he was our receptionist, trainer, and guide.
After explaining the operation of the snowmobile and going over the warnings, he started assigning vehicles to the folks in the group. When San shook her head and said "I will be a passenger, don't ask me to drive!" and also said "Can I just drive with you?" .. Tony said "Your husband passed the test! You ride with him!" Then he realized that not all vehicles he had were two seaters. So he gave me his vehicle and said "this is mine and the controls are different but you can do this!" and went over the control differences in his vehicle. San was not exactly sure of my mobiling ability. We had 7 other folks in the group, 4 from New York and 3 from Columbia!
Fortunately we found some gear that was large for our size but still covered us. Helmets, goggles included. In spite of all this gear, the outside temperature was -5F after 4 in the evening and we were to go see the sunset at 5PM.
Tony was just amazing. He guided us and made sure we went from simple to complex terrain and gave enough time for everyone in the group to reach the next point before proceeding. After the first 15 minutes, I was gunning it and racing across the snow and ice at 40 mph. Turns out, I am a natural when it comes to flying over the snow on this thing! When you go at 40mph in -5F, the wind against your face makes it a lot more below zero and the water that drips from your nose becomes ice and you look like a mini walrus! San could not hug me as our helmets clash at that speed.. so she had to hold on to the mobile hand grip and hang on for dear life. Apparently she was screaming for me to go slow but I could not hear it, given the helmet and the wind in my face.
Tony took some great pics of us and even a video clip.
Frozen Tony even had a great Pano shot on my phone which was a pleasant surprise!
There was one tricky place where he had to make us wait and get every snowmobile through a point.. then we all got back on to return. There we got to take some pics by ourselves..
Driving towards a sunset in Alaska is an amazing experience!
A video, thanks to Tony! It was not easy to drive without gloves.. so had to ask for the phone back and keep going! My knuckles were feezing and burning without gloves!
We got back in one piece and I was clearly very happy and San was happy for me. She said I reminded her of Bond movies. She didn't know that my nickname in high school was Sundar Bond. Was happy to live up to that name after many years.
We had called a Lyft and no one showed. The rest of the group had left as they had their own cars. We had arrived in a taxi. Tony realized our issue and helped call a local North Pole taxi, who is the only guy who comes to pick up folks after sunset. We were talking to him on and off about Alaskan life for 30 minutes while waiting as he was closing shop. We got some hot cocoa during the wait!
Would strongly recommend this adventure, especially thanks to Frozen Tony of Alaska Wildlife guide! He made this whole thing an evennig to cherish and remember for a long time!
Finally we got the taxi to take us back towards Fairbanks. We were in for a treat before reaching the hotel..
It has been a little over 2 months since I turned 50. After my 35th birthday, a bunch of people reminded me of my "mid life" point. Basic math then suggested that they expected me to live to 70 or thereabouts. A few months ago, was told that it is time to start doing things on the "bucket list" as this is a mid life point. On the one hand was happy to see that the logic of midlife had extended the 70 to past 70, but was also sad to see this bucket business.
I am just happy on a 6 feet by 2 feet yoga mat (with at least an extra 3 feet on either side where my hands are, just to do a few yoga asanas that require stretching my hands out like an airplane). The idea of trying to list just a few things to go see or do, within a time frame seems to extend the rat race to outside of work and on to retired life and that did not sit well with me. All that said, I love to travel and will gladly experience new places.
One thing that both me and San have wanted to see together in this lifetime is the Northern lights (Aurora Borealis). Our past plans were fails. Our friend in Iceland sees this from her window and has been asking us to visit, but we couldn't make a plan to go yet given other things that keep coming up. So we jumped at a chance to do a weekend trip to Alaska to see the lights.
Going to the arctic circle in Feb to see the lights and back over a weekend, especially where you get two chances over two days (in case day 1 was a dud) was a good plan. We just had to take a Friday afternoon and Monday off. So far so good..
For the second time within a year we heard this statement "there is no bad weather, only bad gear!" and this time it was even more apt. We booked tours through Viator and the Alaska Wildlife guide for the two days.
The weather in Fairbanks when we landed was -4 F. We did dress up in layers using the "32 degrees" brand we get in Costco which goes for thermals in "Northern California Winter".. ha ha ha.. The joke was on us! Northern California Winter is an oxymoron. It isn't really winter. 32 degrees doesnt work in -4 degrees. Regular new balance shoes with double socks... what were we thinking?
We landed, were picked up by the Best Western in a taxi and shortly after reaching the hotel and putting things in our room, were picked up within an hour to go 45 minutes north to more desolation. There was a heated shack where all the folks on the tour had a chair and were huddled around tables. There was hot cocoa for everyone. A TV on the wall which showed the lights from a point 20 miles north (kind of a one minute heads up) and some very passionate locals who gave us tips on how to take photos, how be safe outside etc.
Aurora Pointe lodge does not have any living space. It is a warm room with two doors to run out take pictures and come back to warm yourself before running out again. There was also a restroom there, which was a blessing.
The outside temp by 11:30PM when we reached the point was -9 to -10 F. Once there, one of the folks who work at the place runs in and says "It's happening" and also tells us "look at parking lot side" or "back of cabin side".. and all the photographers and models run out in a straight line to try and find a vantage point on the snow to take a few pictures and run back. You are lucky if you get even a few pictures. Nothing to do with the aurora.. it does its thing. Your face, fingers all freeze once you are out for more than 4-5 minutes. At that point, cannot find the button to click the photo. Forget trying to change any shutter speed or ISO settings.. You have to set it up inside the room, run out, click, run back in. If you walked further into the snow with New balance walking shoes and double socks which are already wet, good luck to you!
We did maybe 10 such runs in and out between 11:45 and 2 AM and got a bunch of shots. Here is another thing. You can get great shots of the Aurora, as it is pitch dark outside. The timer is usually set to 4 to 6 seconds to get these shots. The lights keep dancing around. It gets interesting if you have to be in the picture also! We literally have to "light paint" ourselves. I did this for the most part by using my iphone flashlight and taking it out of my pocket and shining it in our face towards the end of the 4 seconds, or if lucky asking another photographer to shine it on us just in time. Depening on their experience and how much their hands are shaking, it becomes an interesting photograph where you can see others folks in the background getting lit up as well.
All said and done, wear snow boots if you go. Then you can wade further in the snow. Have double gloves where the inner one can still be used to touch screen controls (capacitive gloves apparently). Wear the right puffy jackets. If you have a camera with touch screen controls, even better! My camera is 12 plus years old and it was a challenge to use the set button to go to different parameters to adjust!
One day to fly in, see the lights. If no lights, see them second day. That was the plan! We got lucky and were treated to an amazing light show by mother nature, the same night we landed. Once the moon came up at 2PM the shack closed. 15 minutes before that the lights were almost too faint and the buses and vans started leaving one by one. We were the last ones out of the place and we got to see the moon rise over the Aurora Pointe.
The highlight pictures are here..
We did not see any kids on this trip! Some teens who worked at the hotel but that was it. Mostly bearded men.. and a few women! Interesting demographic in this place!
this was the view inside the Aurora Pointe.. photo of me and my valentine... grow a beard they said..it will come in useful in Alaska they said... my beard wasn't Alaska grade.. my face still froze!
This was what we drove through to get to Aurora pointe..it was a very black and white world we were driving through till we entered the room..
The rest of the pictures are in this slideshow gallery!
It was a long day for us and we were happy to reach the hotel room by 3AM and just crash.. we used hand and leg warmers but still couldn't feel our toes and fingers and we woke up at 9AM and the sun was not out yet!
Finally a short video of our experience...
Our next day was equally adventurous and will write about it soon..
On our recent trip to Alaska we saw many animals on the Denali Bus tour, on our way to and from Denali, at the wildlife conservatory in Turnagain Arm..
You could watch animals cross the desolate roads.. closest we saw this was at Yellowstone. The area of the preserve has to be really huge for this to happen is our guess!
Here are some of the pictures ..
That was Dall sheep on the steep cliff faces, elk, grizzlies, moose, musk oxen, an owl, Ptarmigan which happens to be the state bird in Alaska, wood bison which is endangered and caribou!
We are definitely going to plan another Alaska visit for a longer time in a couple of years.. Apparenlty you need to have 20 photographs published to be able to apply for a permit to go inside the park to photograph wild life and it is a lottery system of sorts. Will get there in time!
The original which was over exposed (my mistake for not changing settings after switching lenses)
My first attempt to cover it up by using artistic filters and adjusting the shadows and highlights..
The "Sankara Sastry" in me refusing to accept the "artistic" fix and doing a proper job of layering the image and blending it. .
At this point the image gets incremental improvement for every 10 minutes spent n the picture.
This goes to show the importance of many things..
a. make sure you check your settings everytime you switch lenses from Telephoto to wide angle so that you don't have to photoshop in the first place.
b. always shoot raw images so you can pull this off in post processing
c. If you have overexposed sky and you cannot take bracketed shots (too much movement like this boat, wave etc. ) create smart object copies and blend images!
This was worth the effort.. when printing the larger version of this image on an 8x10 it came out pretty good!
Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 7:24PM ;)
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