Tourist Traps and Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle

 After a long 31 hour flight, we landed in Helsinki exhausted in the middle of the day. We took an easy light rail train to the main train station and stashed our bags in the lockers there because our night train to Rovaniemi didn’t leave until 11:45pm.

Lockers at the Central Train Station in Helsinki-Easy and cheap place to stash our luggage

 This gave us about 8 hours to wander around and we were able to get acquainted with the city just a bit but we were so tired we could barely keep going.

 We ducked into a movie theatre for the sole purpose of taking a nap, which turned out to be a great idea!

The “Polar Express” night train to Rovaniemi was nothing short of  awesome. We had a private cabin that had a bathroom and a shower, and it was relatively cheap considering it was our transportation AND accommodation for the night.

After arriving, we picked up our rental car and headed to the Apuuka Resort about 20 minutes out of town. We stopped at a place called Santa Park on the way for lunch and were delighted at how corny it was.

 Because it was September, it was obviously the off-season so there wasn’t much going on, but we walked around the merch-shop for a bit. First thing when you walk in was a giant display of reindeer hides and canned reindeer meat. I can only imagine how many little kids have been traumatized by this. 

In the back was the cafeteria where reindeer is served at the buffet. We found this hilarious for some reason. They also served moose which was super tasty!

You could also get a photo with Santa for 30€. To say this was a tourist trap would be an understatement. We bought a can of reindeer for fun (which was later confiscated at the Tallinn airport) and went next door to Santa Claus Village which was bigger but just as cheesy. It’s possible that these places seem more magical when there’s snow, but who knows?

This is what you do when you refuse to pay 30 Euro to see the real Santa.

So is Snowman World just a lake in the off season?

Santa Claus Village

The decision to go to Lapland was so we could try to see the northern lights, and it didn’t disappoint. They say that when the weather is clear, you can see them 50% of the time. We were lucky, the lights were visible both nights! We brought a good camera to take photos and the pictures definitely were more colorful than what we saw with the naked eye. The reds and purples were only visible in photos.

The Apukka Resort has igloo-like rooms with glass in the ceiling for viewing the lights, and we feel this was essential. It was chilly outside (50 degrees for us is chilly) so being able to be inside until the lights were visible was key. 

We aren’t usually resort people, but we really liked the Apukka. The grounds were right on a tranquil lake, and they had private saunas where you could also go in an outdoor hot tub. We did this and were lucky to see the Auroras during our session. It was magical!

On the second night, we went down to a dark spot on the lake hoping to get a better view. 

There wasn’t a ton else to do in Rovaniemi, but having been up all night viewing the lights, we were sleeping really late anyway so it didn’t matter. We did, however, go to a great museum in town called the Arktikum where we learned a lot about Lapland and the Sami culture.

We stayed for only two nights, which was plenty. We’re glad we rented a car and besides the museum, we just walked around the town to soak in the vibe. 

We also ate a stellar meal at a restaurant in town called The Arctic. They served us “Reindeer Three Different Ways.”

On our last day we had time to kill before catching the night train back to Helsinki, so we went bowling at a sportsplex called Santa Sport. Neither of us had been bowling for years and were paying for it later. Who knew bowling could make you so sore?!?

Siem Reap WOW!

First of all, Siem Reap has a new airport. 

When we booked our flights months ago, the plan was to fly into REP airport which was 5 minutes out of town. Between then and our actual flight, they shut down REP airport and diverted all the flights to SAI which is a new airport about an hour out of town. Strangely, Cambodia Angkor Air alerted us to the change, but Thai Air Asia (who we booked our out bound flight with) did not. So up until we arrived, we thought we were flying into one airport and out of another! We obviously figured this out, and the only inconvenience was that it cost us $60 round trip to and from the new airport. Weird that Thai Air Asia never gave us a heads up. 

The new airport is apparently owned by the Chinese which we found strange. 

We stayed at a great homestay we found through AirBnb that was about $23 a night. 

View of the family compound at our homestay taken from our balcony.

Their overhead fan appeared to be a disassembled floor fan hung from the ceiling. We saw this everywhere.

The host set everything up for us which was really convenient. His mom (Mamma) made us delicious food and did our laundry. 

Mamma’s kitchen

The room was huge, had AC, and the whole experience was way more than we could have hoped for! 

We had our own dedicated tuktuk driver for two days which cost about $17 a day. Could you piecemeal together tuktuk rides for cheaper? Probably, but it wouldn’t have been too much of a difference, and we didnt have to haggle. He also had ice cold water for us after each stop! Totally worth it!

We came to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. We had no idea what we were in for. Angkor Wat is only one of many temples that Siem Reap Province is known for. To see them all takes a few days. A one day ticket costs $37 for a single day ticket and $62 for a three day ticket. You can also get a week long ticket but three days should be enough unless you’re super hardcore about seeing temples. It does get hot though during the peak season (and probably rains a lit in the off season,) so if you have a lot of time it might be good to get the week pass and visit at your leisure in the early evenings or late afternoon. While we wore our slippers (flipflops) for the majority of our trip, we wore good sturdy closed toed shoes for the temples. We’re glad we did because some of the terrain can be uneven and the stairs steep.

We got up super early to see Angkor Wat on day 2 even though we had already been there the day before. The goal was to see the sun rise behind the main temple. It was incredible. However, this is one of the most popular things to do so we were amongst 300 or so other people who didn’t seem to have much respect for the majesty of the moment (talking loudly,) and who evidently didn’t understand that you can’t brighten up a backlit subject with your camera flash. Other than that, it was amazing!

While Angkor Wat is the largest, it’s hardly the most impressive. Just north of Angor Wat was Angkor Thom where we saw the Bayon and Baphuon temples. 

Outside of Baphuon, Margarite was accosted by an agressive monkey. He rushed her and only stopped when she chucked her water bottle at him in sef defense. Evidently, that was exactly what he was going for. We saw another monkey doing this to two women who were walking ahead of us on our way out. Helmut scared him off and saved the day. These monkeys were crazy. Definitely hide your water bottles and anything else they could snatch from you if you visit this temple. It was the only temple where we had this problem.

We saw a bunch of other temples that were all amazing in their own way. One of the others that stood out was Ta Prohm where all the trees had grown over the ruins. This one was our favorite and photos barely do it justice!

We also went far north to see Banteay Srei, AKA the lady temple. 

It took awhile to get there and the temple interesting but the scenery on the way made it well worth it. It was interesting to see how the people in rural Cambodia live, and it was definitely different from the things we saw in the city.

In the evening, we took a tuktuk to the Riverside Night Market. It was hoppin! Such a vibrant scene and great shopping. The quality seemed better than the Russian Market in Phnom Penh. 

After we were all-templed-out, we hit the Angkor National Museum. It was about $12 to get in and an extra $5 for the audio tour. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to visit this museum prior to going to the temples as it explained the history of the Kmher empire and also had a lot of information about the religious imagary that we saw earlier. It was very informative and well worth the money.

So far, Siem Reap has absolutely been the highlight of our trip. Such an amazing place and we easily could have spent a few more days wandering around. 

Fried Crickets and Fried Chicken feet

Recreational badminton