10 Feb - 13 Feb (Kurravana, Kiruna)

On the morning of 12 Feb, we made our way to Kurravana via dog sled and snow mobile.

The way to Kurravana on the dog sled and snow mobile was really really cold with about -25 degrees temperature and the wind blowing at you. It is seriously freezing cold. My fingers and toes were frozen. Not numb, but frozen. It was a very terrible feeling. Even the chemical warmers didn't work in that temperature.

After enduring the 10km ride, we walked for about 1km to the little community village set up by the organizers of the tour. Thanks to the little walking exercise, we were able to thaw a little before reaching the little lappish village.
Our cabin for the night.
These are the other 2 cabins available. There's one more that is still under construction. I think the people there are very pro, they built all their huts themselves from scratch.
The kitchen where the caretaker cooks our meals for us and we will have our meals here as well. For the 1st and 2nd day lunch, we had pasta with reindeer meat. And for dinner, we barbecued chicken fillets to go with rice and tomato sauce. As for breakfast, we just had cereal or bread with butter, jam and cheese.
This is the toilet for the ladies. Haha.. There's no running water here, so basically, the toilet is just a hole in a raised platform inside the hut. No flush, no tap. Just do your business and come out.
And here, we have the warehouse to store fire wood which we will need to keep us warm and to provide a little light in the night as there is no electricity supply.
Yup, and this is us! Sawing our own fire wood for the fire place in our cabin and also for the sauna and BBQ. It's a good exercise I guess. But I've never sawed wood before so it was rather tiring and my arms almost cramped! Muahaha..

After chopping fire wood and before dinner, PC and I went to feed the reindeers! Haha.. But they refused to eat from our hands. So we just scattered what looked like leaves and branches all over the ground and they ate from the ground instead.

Before coming to Sweden, my cousin showed me a picture of himself in T-shirt and jeans in some -10 degrees temperature. Now, I show you something more! Muahahah.. Beat this! The temperature there is approximately -25 degrees.
Well, I just came out of the sauna at that time so I was able to lie like that on the snow. Else, I will just be freezing my ass off. It is a tradition in Sweden to go naked in a sauna then roll on the snow or jump into a cold lake outside then go back in the sauna to warm up again. Being, conservative Singaporeans, we were of course not naked, but we tried rolling on the snow nonetheless!

After sauna, we had some snow activities, which I tried skiing and sliding down the slope on a 'plate'-like board. The sliding was fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Don't like skiing though. Haha.. Think I have some balancing problems as I either fell on my butt or crashed into the fence. Hahaha.. Poor reindeers must have been traumatised.

Having injured my poor butt so much, we decided to go on a walk to explore the surroundings.

And we were totally mesmerised by the beauty of nature. Enjoy!