Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Finnish weekend

One of the long weekends this year, we spent in Finland, in the city of Helsinki and then driving around to Turku and Lakeland. And I must say, I am not surprised that people rarely visit Finland. I would rate it as one of the rare places where I was not impressed by what it has to offer! Everything felt so un-different, so unimpressive. Maybe it is the understated style of Finland or I went to the wrong places, but I was not impressed at all..

The first day we were there, we drove to the town of Turku about 2 hours away. It had been the capital of Finland before Helsinki and apparently has a historic aspect to it. The drive was pretty, all green and woody all the way, dotted by wooden houses.

Turku castle
In Turku, we visited the Turku castle and cathedral which were pretty small and simple by European standards. We also walked along the Aura river, in the area called the Turku marinus which ran from the cathedral to the castle. On the way, we ran into a free concert being held on its bank, which was more interesting than the cathedral and castle!

Concert
The concert was being performed by the army band. It was fun, and most impressive was to see how the Finns dance. It is so understated, with limited hand and body movements that you don't realise that they are dancing! Of course, the movements increased when gangnam style played, but it was still minimal especially given my Indian taste in dancing:). Another impressive thing was that the concert ended at 11pm, and it was still daylight! First time I have ever seen that!

Waterfront
There were a couple of good eating places along the river too, especially the ones on huge ships! They seemed fun...Apparently during summer, there are dinner cruises which run towards the Aland archipelago from the Martinsilta bridge along the watrfront. But even though we went in August, which was still warm and summery, all summer activities had already closed down for the year. I found that pretty surprising, given how short the summer would be in this part of the world, it makes sense to extend it as much as possible rather than shorten it! In fact, some restaurants had even stopped offering their expanded summer menu by Aug end!

Savonlinna castle
The next day, we drove to the lakeland area, to the village of Savonlinna which is about 4 hours from Helsinki. Lakeland is exactly what its name means, this area is full of lakes, everywhere. If you look at the map, you will see more blue than green. The landscape was pretty again, water, woods and quiet! We first stopped at the Savonlinna castle, which though beautiful again felt like a let down. It wasn't as grand as we've come to expect European architecture to be. After a brief stop there, we drove some more to find a place which runs water activities, since most places were closed for that year already!

Rafting in Lake Saima
We found a place renting kayaks near Oravi and spent 4 hours kayaking in the lake Saima. We really enjoyed this part of the trip, the lake was huge and the edges pretty and green. The photographs we took here were almost magical, it was so pretty. The blue sky, the green woods and all reflections on the water, very mesmerising...

Lake Saima

Helsinki cathedral
The last day we were in Finland, we spent in Helsinki. We saw the senate square and the cathedral, walked around the harbour and generally chilled. By this time we had already given up on finding interesting stuff to do!! Helsinki was nice, feels like a small city, with about 2 million people, which is almost 30% of Finland's population! It is very modern and clean and with very less traffic. A nice place to stay but not too exciting!

Esplanade
The city center, around the Esplanade was where we roamed around, and it seemed more lively than the rest of the city. With green park in between and shops all around, its perfect for for spending a good Finnish summer day. People were picnicking there all day, as it was one of those rare sunny and hot days in Helsinki. There are cruises running from the harbour here too, to the islands nearby.

One place I really liked in Helsinki was Zetor, a rustic club plus restaurant just near the city center which was fun. Also Karelli is a restaurant in Esplanade which has a very nice ambience.

A church in Helsinki
I must say though, that even though I wasn't impressed with what Finland had to offer as a tourist, I am very very impressed with Finnish people. Although they don't talk much, they are very nice to interact with. During our trip, plus otherwise too it was a pleasure to interact with them.

English was easy to communicate in, as most people learn English in school. The architecture as I said was very simple and straight, almost like a communist country stressing on uniformity. The sky remains lighted even at night, which I found different. Also, I was in Finland in fall and the colours were pretty. Yellow everywhere, especially given how green it is was pretty too.

There were a couple of other places which might have been good too, like Poorvoo, a small city which has a wooden downtown. Then there are a couple of archipelagos which are fun to take cruises in. And of course, Lapland, the northern part of Finland, home of Santa and northern lights:). All for the next time we go there!


Monday, December 9, 2013

Relaxation at Koh Samui

Thai temple
I have been to Thailand a couple of times before, and I must say it has become quite a favourite country of mine. Most of it because of the variety of options it offers. Culture, shopping, beaches, water activities, nature, relaxation, luxury.. You could be looking for any of these ways to have a vacation, and you can find it all in Thailand!

Relaxation
On this vacation, we wanted to relax, and so decided to spend a couple of days on the island of Koh Samui. And as always, we were not disappointed! We were in Koh Samui for about 4 days and had an amazing time. To be frank, we did not do much, and our plans for diving also got spoilt because of communication issues, but still it felt that we had an activity filled vacation as well as relaxed completely.

Koh Samui is quite a small island, almost roundish in shape and about 20-25 kms across. The popular tourist areas of the island are all around the coast, while the interiors apparently has mountains and forests. The terrain throughout, even next to the islands is hilly with dense green forests everywhere. The whole feel of the island is very tropical, dense green vegetation all around, plus lots of mosquitos (and loud toad noises) at night.

Chaweng
The popular beaches on the island are Chaweng and Lamai, both located near each other, on the east coast of the island. Both these areas are pretty commercialised along the main streets, which run parallel to the beaches. Other than these, there are beaches all along the coast which are slowly getting populated, but for now don't have as much of shops and noise there yet. Also, even though partially commercialised, the overall atmosphere on the island is still pretty relaxed which makes it very easy to unwind.

Lamai at night
Both the Lamai and Chaweng beaches are quite similar - long stretches of white sand, with restaurants on the beach and multiple water activities available. Other than that, the parallel streets offer many shops to browse through, and massage shops to get different treatments everyday. Honestly, as I said we did not do much, just walked around, ate, got massages daily, swam and ate some more!

Chaweng
On a Sunday, we also walked into the local Thai market near Lamai beach. It was a street full of vendors selling all kinds of foods - meats, crepes, insects etc.. The interesting thing though was how cheap it all was! All the restaurants which seemed very cheap compared to London rates, now seemed like a rip-off! Also made me realise how much our sense of prices has changed while staying in London.

Koh Nangyuan snorkelling
One of the days, we took a day trip to two islands, Koh Nangyuan and Koh Tao, for a snorkelling trip, and had a great time. The first thing we were impressed with was how their process worked very efficiently. People going on different trips are picked up from multiple locations, by different vans. All assemble at one location, and after check-in sorted into different ferries based on the colour of the ribbon on the hand. Each tour runs efficiently with lunch, food, equipment well taken care of. When you come back, again based on the drop off locations, everyone is assigned a van and dropped back to the correct location. Many small things were so very well co-ordinated throughout the trip, it was very impressive!!

Koh Nangyuan
Koh Nangyuan was a pretty island, small but self-contained. It had good beaches with sun-beds, corals for snorkelling just off the beach, a small trek up to the viewpoint, a restaurant on the island and lots of sun - all making for a fun-filled day! Both these islands are more famous for diving though, but that's for another time:).

One thing I really liked were the spirit houses (or little temples as they look like) that you could see outside all Thai homes and businesses. They are very small and colourful temples that are built outside every building. They look so cute and beautiful, caught my eye everywhere.

Thai spirit houses

There are a couple of other things to do on the island (which we did not), you can go to see the Thai boxing matches, or visit the touristy places like the Big Buddha temple or go diving to the island of Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan. I would also suggest if you want to travel around the island, hiring a scooter is a very good option. Its comfortable, easy to park and good fun especially given the weather is so great. The mornings and evenings are pleasant with a cool breeze blowing most of the times. The afternoon does get sunny and hot and humid, but then thats what the sea is for:).

Renaissance
We stayed at the Renaissance hotel, between Lamai beach and Chaweng, which was a nice resort away from the noises of the main areas, and had a tropical hilly feel to it. Everyday, we would take their shuttle to one of the other two beaches and chill away the day. Other than that, we did not do much else. Food was tasty and spicy! People were helpful, though their English wasn't as good. Bargaining is key while shopping. Other than that, just sit back, relax and enjoy:)