A
journey through South-East Asia - visiting the temples of Thailand,
floating down the Mekong in a slow boat, seeing the sunset in Laos,
waiting for the quiet of night in Hanoi, drifting through Halong Bay,
trekking the mountains of SaPa, travelogue, trip, travel, journey,
road, Asia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indochina, Mekong, Halong Bay,
Hanoi, Vang Vien, Chang Mai, Bangkok, slow boat, Luang Prabang, Pak
Ou
I decided to drive up to Fairbanks to try to see the Northern
Lights. It was raining anyway, so flightseeing was out.
I stayed at A Cloudberry Lookout, a lovely B&B designed
with popsicle sticks and built by hand by Sean and Suzi,
the owners. The centerpiece was a spiral staircase to the
sky, surrounding a huge spruce tree trunk.
It continued
to drizzle, so I headed off to look at the pipeline and
toured a satellite weather station. There didn't seem to
be much point in driving to the arctic circle just to cross
a line, especially as the scenery flattened out the further
north I went from Denali.
When I returned,
the entrance was filled with yoga mats. The neighbors had
arrived for their regular practice. I joined them for two
hours and then for the hours afterward, visiting and drinking
tea. In the darkness
of winter in Alaska, neighbors are essential.