Alaska

Day 3 (contd)

It was 1:30 as we set off in an old bus, our tourist bus, with our guide, who was a native of Barrow, talking in an accented English.



It was Founder's Day in Barrow, and hence the whole town was gathered, celebrating. There was free food, and Eskimo music and Eskimo dance. Yes! This was an Eskimo town, the people belonged to the Inupiat tribe. FYI, Alaska was bought by US from Russians by a guy called Seward. Of course, before they knew how much natural resources the piece of land had, he was taunted left and right for this 'stupid' act. It is a known fact that the natural resources in Alaska have not yet been exploited fully. The people looked different, kinda flat nosed and chubby, unlike regular Americans, but like folks in Hawaii. Its because they have a Russian lineage. Just like Hawaiians, these folks must have come to Barrow years ago, trying to find a place to settle down. Did they know all of earth was not bitter cold? :--))

The town itself looked very old, almost like a third world country, if I may say so. The roads were unpaved, dust coated vehicles lifted dirt as they drove by. We had a short history lesson, I will spare you of that.

The celebration was simple. A group was singing songs, in their language, the Inupiaq. And there was a group dancing. At one point, the singers called the tourist to join in the dance. DH forced me to join the dance. The dance was simple. I just had to stamp my left feet, and make a sweeping motion with my hands, like I was swimming. DH caught this on the camcorder. We saw this person dressed up in a thick coat and thick hood, made of real wolverine fur. Me and DH took signature pics with him, he happily posed for us.





Our next stop was the Visitor Center.There was a monument, I didnt really care to see what it was, I couldnt understand what the guide told us, I left it at that. We watched some native kids playing on the dirt roads. The houses looked really old. Each house had an ATV and a Snowmobile. It was their regular mode of transportation. I realized the roads were unpaved, because they get to drive cars only four months of the year, why take the trouble to build roads. :--))





After some more sight seeing, of whale bones, buried houses, finally it was my most awaited part of the trip - the arctic Ocean. I was a little disappointed. I imagined the Arctic Ocean with ice, and snow but I saw none. Our guide said a big mass of sea ice floated away only two weeks back. Only after that we saw the mass, far far away, (check out the picture). So much for visiting in Summer.



Some of the oldies wanted to take a full dip in the Arcitc Ocean. You get a membership in the Polar Bear Club if you do. They saw how cold it was and backed off. Me and DH went and wet our legs in the ocean. Boy, was it freezing! I had to go into the water three times before DH could get a decent picture, as I kept jumping and shrieking. Legs felt totally numb. But it was great! Our guide, had been inducted into the Polar Bear Club only the day before. And since it was summer for him, a relaively warm temperature of 48 F compared to negative celsious rest of the year, he was able to stand deeper in the ocean for a longer time.



Our next point of interest was the Barrow monument , made of whale bones. Whale hunting is a favorite sport/profession in Barrow. If they catch one whale apparently the whole town of 4800 can be fed for days. Our guide told us that if a whale is caught, the whole village comes and helps in pulling the whale on to the shore. Then each family takes a piece of the whale home to eat. It sounded very interesting, like the olden day stories, too unreal to be true.



We went to the only decent Hotel in Barrow, called Top of the World, rightly so, with the most basic amenities, to buy some souveniors. This is where we would have stayed had we opted to spend a night in Barrow. Although I would have loved to see the midnight sun, and the sun making a circle right in front of my eyes, there wasnt really much else to see or do in Barrow, and we were short of time, so we had dropped that plan. The time that the sun was not hidden in clouds, it shone so brightly, that it was impossible to see it with naked eyes.

We visited the Cultural Center next, it was pretty deserted, saw and read about the history of the place, the different Eskimo tribes etc etc. Everything used in this place has to be flown in. So everything was too darn expensive. Our guide asked us to guess the gas price. 5 bucks a gallon. The people generally worked in Prudhoe Bay at the Oil Drills. They were are flown in and flown out everyday, and were paid a lot of money too. Money was the main reason people lived in Barrow. Alaska is one of the places where you get paid to just live there. There were schools for children in Barrow, but for college they had to go to Fairbanks.

It was half past four when we left Barrow. We had seen most of what was there to see in the three hours we were there. We flew directly to Fairbanks, I slept most of the way. I was thinking of the people in Barrow, what a unique life they led. I wouldnt want to live there of course, but still, it was interesting to see this side of the high and mighty US of A.

Once back in the hotel, at about 7PM, it was still bright and sunny. Since most tourist places were closed by then, we went to see the Trans Alaskan Pipeline up close. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and went from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, where the oil was refined.



Then we went to North Pole. A city in Alaska. :--) About 15 miles from Fairbanks. We saw huge Santa Claus, and boards which said "get gifts from Santa with a real North Pole postmark!" :--)

It was 10:30PM when we went back to our rooms, stil bright. We forced ourselves to sleep, pulling the window curtains tight shut.