Friday 15 April 2016

My Iceland Experience: Iceland in a Nutshell

It's been a month since I'm back from Iceland. If you didn't know, my heart missed its flight back to Singapore. He's currently still wandering around that northern frosty utopia. I guess he'll find his way back eventually...The frigid waves may take him back in a floating ice-cube...or maybe, a puffin might deliver him home...

I spent 8 days in Iceland. From 11th March 2016 to 19th March 2016. I covered most of the main attractions that Iceland has to offer. But I still feel a trip to Iceland will only be truly meaningful if you:

1) Travel without an itinerary
Ok, you need to know where the good stuff is...what I mean is, you're not there to clock as many attractions as possible. You just travel freely, not time-bound. Take a few days to leisurely debauch yourself in each mountain, each waterfall, each nightscape, etc.

2) Don't spend the night under a roof
And by that I mean camping out under the northern stars. Practically, camping out in freezing temperatures will glaciate (literally) almost all heat-accustomed Singaporeans like myself. Ideally, armed with the proper -10°C sleeping bag and heat packs, it'll allow you to revel in the pristine beauty of the northern night sky.

Anyway, as I was still road-trippin' around Iceland and Norway, and ever since I've returned, many friends of mine have been asking me for my Iceland itinerary.

So to my lazy-to-plan-your-own-trip friends, here's my ten-year series answer to scoring an "A" for Iceland. LOL.

If you've been following my blog posts, you'd have known that this trip to Iceland was inspired by all the "Northern Lights are dimming for the next 11 years!" posts. I'd talked about them in my previous post here: http://historymakers-jonnyboy.blogspot.sg/2016/01/7th-jan-2016-water-marbled-mugs.html

And guess what, I got what I set out to find! THE ELUSIVE NORTHERN LIGHTS. Also known as the Aurora Borealis or 北极光. HAHA! I'm so fascinated with the Chinese interpretation of it because I totally didn't know what Northern lights was called in Mandarin. When my colleagues said "北极光" it took me a minute to decipher it word by word....北 north, 极 region, 光lights...And I did it in front of them which resulted in a huge amount of laughter. LOL.

Anyway, here are a few snapshots of it, with the enchanting starry night sky in the background:

The strongest part of the aurora dance we saw at Djúpivogur, South-East of Iceland :D
Not forgetting our amazing Jeep Cherokee who brought us here :D
My first instagram post on the northern lights! :D
Check out my GoPro nightlapse of the lights here:

Yes, I captured all these Northern Lights footage with my GoPro Hero 4 Silver! Grab a tripod, set it to night lapse mode, increase the shutter speed to 30s exposure, leave it there for about 15 - 30mins and woah-lah! You get what I get above :D

The other main take away for us is our dive in Silfra! We only got our open water dive certs like...last year..and we only have like...6 dives under our belt...and here we are, #YOLO-ing in freezing waters in a foreign thing called "dry suit" which we've never worn before, in a foreign land called "Iceland" which we've never set foot on before.

First EVER drysuit dive! #YOLO
I have yet to edit the entire dive footage...I got a 30minute long GoPro footage which is gonna take some time for me to edit...Meanwhile, this raw 15s cut-out footage which I posted on my instagram should suffice:


Lastly, what amazed us all was the beauty of the Icelandic landscape. From the black and frozen beaches, to their lovely, breathtaking mountainous ranges.


On the go mountain shot 1
On the go mountain shot 2
On the go mountain shot 3
On the go mountain shot 4
On the go mountain shot 5
On the go mountain shot 6
On the go mountain shot 7
On the go mountain shot 8
On the go mountain shot 9

Ok, the 11 photos above should be enough to whet your appetite. Haha. I'll be printing them as postcards and giving 'em to my good friends as well :D So, to my #bffs, besties and buddies, I've spoilt the surprise for you :( Boo hoo :( LOL

Yep, these 3 things really were the main take-aways for me - The Northern Lights aka Aurora Borealis, the dive in the Silfra fissure and the on-the-go mountainscapes.

I'll be doing a series of posts on my Iceland trip, so, stay tuned :D

To my I-don't-want-to-do-my-own-itinerary-planning friends, finally, your long-awaited exam model answer is here...Behold...my Iceland itinerary...LOL. Enjoy!

Day 0 Iceland itinerary
Day 1 Iceland itinerary
Day 2 Iceland itinerary
Day 3 Iceland itinerary
Day 4 & 5 Iceland itinerary
Day 6 & 7 Iceland itinerary
Day 8 & 9 Iceland itinerary
If you noticed, I included the daylight hours in my itinerary...This is because, in winter, Iceland experiences very little daylight. In December, the sun could set by 4pm and if you planned your itinerary to last till 6pm, you're gonna be really disappointed.

So, DO TAKE NOTE OF THE DAYLIGHT HOURS PEOPLE! Just Google "Iceland daylight hours" and your answers are all there.

I also over-planned my itinerary...squeezing in more than what a day can actually take...unless you're in war mode - reaching the destination and planting a flag and moving on...without spamming photos and videos of the place...Haha

This over-planning is good because if there are any hiccups during the trip - for example: the road to an attraction is closed due to heavy snowing - we'd still have alternatives...Or say, if we take a much shorter time exploring a certain attraction and find ourselves 2 hours ahead of schedule, we could always an additional stop somewhere planned along the way. Or let's take the more common example...we take TOO LONG exploring a certain attraction and have insufficient time to complete the day's itinerary - we can just strike off the extras. Easy peasy let's go baby...LOL

It's kinda like having spare batteries. You never know which one will last longer and which one will die first...so you bring extra just in case...So yeah, here I have it, a couple of "spare batteries" or a couple of extra attractions that I could go to if I had extra time or if my plans go awry.

Also, in winter, roads maybe closed due to the roads being frozen or covered with snow. So, check the road conditions! They can be found at http://www.road.is/

Before I left for Iceland, a few dozen of my NTU friends just returned from Europe. Out of the 12, 10 got into road accidents. That's a 83.33% hit rate. Lemme share with you the most horrific one:

My friend who survived a car crash in October 2015 in Iceland, in their last leg in Iceland, near Blue lagoon
My friend who related the story to me told me that they were speeding before losing control, causing the car to flip thrice. He was telling me that it is really by God's grace that the car held together. Should the car's frame break, the result might have been fatal. If I recall correctly, out of the group of 8, I think about 2 to 3 of them sustained shoulder dislocation and had to be hospitalized.

My cousin had a somewhat similar experience...but his was less serious...here's the photo he snapchat-ed to me immediately after the crash:

Another Icelandic traffic accident
Well, his story wasn't as bad. But I'm not supposed to relay his story now because he's still settling the car insurance claims...I'll update this post once it's all said and done.

That's NOT ALL. The rest of my friends' vehicles either got:
  1. Stuck in the snow or mud
  2. Or they skidded and rammed into another vehicle or railing or fell into a ditch and got stuck in the snow - back to scenario 1
The most outlandish recollection was from my friend who rammed into a wild moose that suddenly charged onto the road in Finland...they jammed brake, swerved, rammed the moose's horn, got their side mirror broken off in the ramming process, before their car flew into a ditch. Sounded like a movie scene. But the post-accident bills that came in after will attest to its non-movie reality. Ok, I just realized this example is a bit off, but I shall leave it here anyway. HAHA!

You must be wondering, "Why y'all so stupiak go and drive into the snow leh?" Lemme tell you, in Iceland, many of the attractions are off-road. So, to get there, it involves a lot of off-road driving which includes driving on snow, gravel, mud, etc...

Anyway, my friends and I NEARLY got stuck in the snow as well! We were heading to this off-road attraction called Hraunfossar - a nice waterfall near the village of Reykholt, which is about a 100km away from Reykjavik.

I tell you, the snow is deceiving. It looks fine and solid and all ready to take your weight but the moment you set foot or set wheels on it...there you go...a few feet into the snow.

Our car was kinda stuck but not that stuck...after revving the reverse gear a little, it managed to get out of the rut. But maneuvering the vehicle back to the proper road took a bit of skill and patience.

Even while we were ice-caving...you could be walking perfectly fine in the snow but your next step in that unexplored patch of snow could get you knee to waist deep into the snow. Yes, it is that scary. If you think those Sim Lim Square Jover Chews are deceiving, I tell you, the snow here in Iceland beats them hands down. LOL.

Another group of Singaporeans that we met in Myvatn hot springs (wefie below :D LOL) also got their vehicle stuck in snow. They had to call their Airbnb host to drive all the way to rescue them...The entire rescue operation took them 3 hours! Three cheers to their Icelandic Airbnb host!

The 3 other Singaporean dudes we met at Myvatn hot springs...they were telling us how they were "scammed" by the charlatan Icelandic snow as well
Since traffic accidents are so common in Iceland, the locals are always ready to help. Most of my friends who got stuck near attractions received help from either locals or other tourists. So, if you see some poor soul stuck in the snow or mud, please be the angel to rescue them. You could save a life. Literally.

Now that you've heard and seen all these horror stories, you would have most probably kia-see-ly concluded "WALAO EH. SO DANGEROUS. MAI DRIVE LIAO LA!"

But hey, lemme tell you, if you don't drive, you would NEVER properly explore Iceland.

The road trip is simply amazing. You get to see so many amazing sights, landscapes and nightscapes along the way as shown in the photos above.

Being in a tour bus will make you miss all those! Because, you can't just pull up to the side of the road and snap photos! Not to mention the bumpy ride - which means you can't snap GOOD, CLEAR pictures from the bus...

Apart from that, the tours in Iceland are SUPER-DUPER EXPENSIVE. Yes I know, driving isn't that cheap either - because of the petrol cost. But I'd daresay it's still at least 1.5 times cheaper. A one day tour in Iceland will probably cost you about SGD$500 to about SGD$1000 or more...a self-drive trip in Iceland would only cost you about SGD$100 if you pumped petrol.

So don't get all pussified and avoid driving altogether. If you do, really, you can never get the full Iceland experience...

So, please, I beg youuuu, DRIVE! The road trip scenery is out-of-this-world amazing! The views will change your atheistic ways to believe in a Creator God...Ok, lemme quote myself from my own instagram post. LOL. I remember being so blown away by all the road trip scenery that I captioned this:


So yeah, moral of the story:
  1. GET A FOUR WHEEL DRIVE!
  2. Make sure your vehicle has proper studded wheels that are meant for winter and off-road driving
  3. Try not to drive into untested grounds...If others have drove past it...then it's probably safe...but then again, they also could've weakened the snow already...so, think carefully before going ahead
  4. DON'T SPEED. Yes the distances are great in Iceland. Yes, you sometimes gotta drive 100 to 200km non-stop for 4 to 6 hours before you reach your next stop. But, if you want to reach your next stop, drive safely
Okay, we violated point 4 above. There was this VERY STRAIGHT section of highway that disappeared into the horizon. So, we decided to drive as fast as possible. LOL. #YOLO.

I remember snapchat-ing that moment...The snapchat speedometer read "151km/h" and I happily sent it to all my friends. LOL! That was when some of them replied my snap telling me to be careful and warning me not to repeat their accidents. Haha. Such good friends I have :D HAHA!

Well, thankfully, my friends and I (3 of us) returned our Icelandic Jeep Cherokee with all four wheels, bumper, side-mirror and windscreen intact. LOL

I was really asking all my friends to pray for me and we actually started each day with a prayer for safety. Usually when you're overseas, all you got is excitement and would not really think of praying and all...but hey, after hearing all those horror stories above, even praying to a statue would ease your anxious heart. LOL.

So yep, check the road conditions and drive safely!

Another handy thing to do would be to download offline maps and apps to help you. I downloaded (but didn't really use) these few:
  1. Iceland Travel & Tourism Guide
  2. 112 Iceland
  3. Iceland Map offline
  4. Iceland - FREE Travel Guide
Before the trip, I was just playin' around with those apps above. When I was there, I was only playin' around with my Camera, Snapchat, Instagram and GoPro app...HAHA!

Yes, a social media whore like me had to buy data right? I bought a data-only SIM card in Iceland. There are 2 main telcos in Iceland - Siminn and Vodafone.

When I first saw "Siminn" I was like "WHUUTTTT...THAT'S MY FRIEND'S NAME." LOLOL...Since when did Chinese names get into the Scandinavian naming convention? HAHA.

Can't remember how much I spent on the data SIM card though...to me, it was a necessary expense so I didn't really bother about the price.

Another question many of my friends were asking me about is the price of the food...The food prices there are EXORBITANT. How did I keep expenses low? Here's my solution:

Icelandic Maryland COOKIES! :D :D :D
Man I tell you...those cookies up there kept me alive in Iceland...LOL. Cheap, good and plenty.

Since it's cheap, means I can spam :D HAHA! So I bought like, over a dozen rolls of it and munched on it whenever my bottomless pit needed some entertainment.

Ok, so basically, what I'm trying to say is, GROCERIES are the way to go. Get them from cheap and affordable grocery stores like:
  1. Bónus
  2. Krónan
  3. Nettó
  4. Kjarval
We patronized only these 4 grocery stores within our short stint in Iceland. These stores are strewn all across the vast, wintry planes of Iceland. However, none of them are open 24hours. The latest to close was Krónan, at 10pm...if my limbic system is working properly.

Apart from cookies, we also bought bread, cheese and ham. It's a great on-the-go snack as well but it's more of a hassle as you need knives to spread the cheese and all unlike the tear-open-and-devour Maryland cookies :D

If you need hot food, you could also buy cup noodles...most of their petrol kiosks and stopovers provide hot water.

Or you could grab their hotdog buns. Their hotdog buns are AWESOME. Mainly because they add a copious amount of their signature CRISPY, FRIED ONION FLAKES together with their medley of sauces like ketchup, mustard and all...*SLURPS*

However, the price of one such hotdog bun usually costs about SGD$10 or about 900ISK?

Yep, I went at a time where SGD$1 is about 90ISK. Not the best exchange rate. If I'd went during mid-2015, the currency exchange rate was about SGD$1 to about a 100ISK.

Oh by the way, just in case you were wondering, ISK stands for Icelandic Króna. And if you're an anal linguist like me and thinking "Shouldn't it be ICK? Since Iceland is spelt ICeland and not ISeland?", chillax, it's just a currency code...like how Malaysian Ringgit is not MR but RM. LOL. #grammarnazi

Ok, we're severely off point...So yeash, if you're lucky, you could find a hotdog bun costing as little as SGD$5. FOR JUST ONE FREAKIN' BUN! I need like 5 of them to keep myself full! That would cost me a minimum of SGD$25 already...

SO...GROCERIES PEOPLE. IT'S THE WAY TO GO. Don't give in to temptation! Because the tempter will tear your wallets! Unless you're filthy rich that is...well, if you're filthy rich, you'll probably have your own personal assistant planning your trip and wouldn't be reading this noob-blogger's blog, so...moral of the story: GRAB THEM GROCERIES!

One more advice can be summarized in this souvenir mug that I found at some souvenir shop in Reykjavik:

#Truestory
The above is super true. It could be sunny and bright this minute and the next minute the fog, rain, wind and snow may just overtake you, destroying the beautiful blue sky in your photos' background, leaving you with a gray, gloomy backdrop for your photos :(

That was what happened to us for our first 4 days in Iceland...half of Iceland was covered with massive gloomy rain clouds leaving us with no chance to catch the auroras and no chance for picturesque photos :(

It's ok if the sky was simply cloudy...but it never was...It was raining non-stop for 3 days which soaked my boots and jeans to the skin. That's not all. The WINDS THERE I TELL YOU IS A KILLER. It's not only COLD, the winds are also VERY STRONG and COULD BLOW YOU AWAY...NO KIDDING. We had to walk with a 45 degree tilt against the wind in order to move forward...not forgetting the snow-covered grounds in Iceland...slipping and getting pushed over by the wind is very probable.

The thing about the wind is that it affects the temperature. The temperature as reported on your apps or the weather stations could be like 2°C. But with the wind...it could make the temperatures drop to -2°C or worse. So, pray for a clear sky and windless environment when you're there people.

Ok, back to the weather conditions...It's not all bad...It could also work vice-versa where the attraction you're at is getting bludgeoned by heavy winds and snow and 5 to 10 minutes later, it all clears up...and if you're lucky, the naughty bad weather goes away leaving you with a rainbow :D

Yup, I gotta go work tomorrow so that's all for my introductory post to Iceland.

I'll be posting in detail about the rest of the amazing attractions in Iceland. But really, the whole of Iceland is an attraction in itself. Haha. Yep, stay tuned! And share my post if you like it! :D More views is good news :D :D
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Wednesday 13 April 2016

Wuxi 无锡

Last historical post from my Shanghai exchange...haha...The most important thing I remembered about this trip was that the name of the city - 无锡 - literally means this city has no tin (锡石).

The story goes something like this I think...haha...The authorities or whoever went to this place to find tin. They dug and dug and discovered that this piece of land doesn't have what they're looking for...it has no tin so they gave it the most literal of names - No Tin Town, aka 无锡市...It's kinda like a label to the metal harvesters...they label this area "no tin" on their map and it becomes the city's name. Wow.

So yeah, here are the hundreds of photos we spammed while travelling around Wuxi. It's a really nice place though even though it has no tin...haha...worth a visit :D

And yes, once again, no captions...too many photos to caption already...so, be your own storyteller, I've given you the pictures which is half the job done...haha!





















































 






















































































































































































































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