September 2022

David and Sibo, decided to follow up on their exciting honeymoon to Italy and Greece last year with an even more epic 30th birthday exploration of the Arctic aboard a Silversea expedition cruise.
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This all started when my wife, Sibo, and I were discussing our birthdays. I turn 30 this year and Sibo said “you want to do something crazy? It’s your 30th birthday! Let’s make it a big thing; let’s travel someplace you’ve always wanted to go, but you never had the time or chance to.”

I thought of the Arctic because, to me, that was the most exotic place on earth. I mean, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to go into outer space, and exploration really excited me. The Arctic was probably the closest thing to “crazy,” so we reached out to Amy and asked if she was familiar with Arctic trips and the options for something like this, and she sent me options like Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. I’d never even heard of Svalbard. I looked it up and thought, “wow that’s really far north.” I wanted to just do the most exotic, crazy thing I could and that excited me most because it’s only 500 miles from the North Pole. So I read into it further, and if people wanted to see glaciers and arctic animals, then Svalbard is a really good choice. The islands themselves are not naturally inhabited, there are no "native" people there. It’s just pure, wild nature: all these animals, cliffs all filled with birds, and polar bears. It was exactly what I wanted an Arctic trip to look like. 

I just liked my idea of a dream vacation, exotic, a “no one else has been there” kind of place. Plus seeing polar bears. You can really only see them from a distance because they’ll eat you. In the town of Longyearbyen (on the island of Spitsbergen), you’re actually legally bound to carry a gun with you when you leave town…. And every house has a back door that’s unlocked…useful to escape from polar bears. Longyearbyen is a really interesting little town, all very self-contained, with a little school, a hospital, a few hotels and restaurants. It’s really interesting that people come here to live and to visit. The area is just this remote little place in the middle of nowhere near the Arctic.

The cruise was for a week, six nights. We were out on the waters, around the fjords, and did landings twice a day on Zodiacs to go to shore. There’s really no fixed itinerary, it’s all very “on the go.” The main point is to see wild animals and polar bears, so you cruise around the glaciers, and they have a team on the top deck with binoculars, whose sole job is to scope out polar bears and other wildlife. It’s all very spontaneous. Like, one morning at 5 AM, they came on the PA and announced “polar bear” so we jumped out of bed and got dressed in two minutes, to go out on deck and try to see the bear. The cruise line supplies almost everything you might need: a backpack, a heavy parka, water bottles, life jackets, etc. You need to bring your own boots and pants, but other than that you’re well-covered.

I had been on a cruise to Alaska once a long time ago, a big one, with a lot of people. That was mostly just being on the ship rather than going ashore. This cruise was very small, probably about 100 people. We saw walruses, seals, and all different kinds of birds. There’s this one bird, the Arctic tern, that flies from the North Pole to the South Pole every year. We saw Svalbard reindeer, this special type of reindeer that’s endemic to Svalbard, we also Santa’s sleigh, that was pretty cool….(laughs)…no, not really, just kidding.

We were 80 degrees north, that’s the farthest we got to the Pole on this trip. It was only around freezing there,30 degrees, like winter here in the Bay area, not a super deep freeze. And we were there during the Midnight Sun, it’s like time stood still. So around Svalbard, the sun doesn’t set during the summer, we get up at 2 AM, and it’s bright outside and looks it's like the middle of the day. It’s like a different world there, as if time stood still. There are not many sunsets or sunrises throughout the year, it’s pretty much either all sun or all dark. 

After the cruise, we went down to Oslo and stayed there 2 nights before heading to Bergen by train; the rail journey had stops in the middle. The fjords are very pretty, and we did see a double rainbow over a waterfall in Flåm, which is somewhere halfway between Oslo and Bergen. We hiked up to the top of the waterfall and just as we got to the top, the sun came out, and there was a double rainbow!

The Norwegian part was special, we stayed to tour the fjords, but for me, it was really about the Arctic. Getting close to the North Pole was very exciting for me, and of course, we fell in love with the scenery and the cruising experience. We’re actually thinking of doing the cruise to Antarctica in the future. 

Seeing glaciers and the scenery, feeling like an adventurer. The trip made me appreciate nature and animals a lot more. You hear about things like wildlife conservation and being green down here, but you really need to go somewhere like this a pristine wilderness, something that is really amazing. And you feel like you want to protect it and be more, conscious and protective of what’s out there, to see that things like this are really in danger, because of our actions here. We have a deeper appreciation for nature and the wilderness looks. And we really like polar bears too (laughs). We’re watching documentaries about polar bears, and the documentary about filming that documentary. 

We thought we’d seen two different polar bears, but it was one that was just really active and getting around. They really just looked cute, like big white dogs (we have a Great Pyrenees that weighs 80 pounds). 

The cruise itself is really nice; when you’re not active outside, they have lectures to occupy you. One of the lecturers told us that the early explorers brought dogs as early alarm systems for polar bears and to fight them off. 

We met all these different people, if you go on an Arctic trip, then you’re probably going with really interesting passengers, most of whom have been all over the world. They’re mostly retired people, and they’ve been everywhere, like the Antarctic. Some had been to the Amazon, and some had been to the Arctic four times. 

We did the Polar Plunge, which is an activity where you get into your swimsuit and just jump into the arctic ocean. It’s a fun activity they have near the end of the trip, they put a harness on you, in case you feel you can’t get back to the ship. So like thirty or forty people stood in line next to the side of the ship, and just jump in. And you come back up and get some vodka to warm you up. Sibo and I jumped at the same time. It was a bonding experience. You get a certificate. If you are a repeat cruiser and you do the Antarctic cruise polar plunge, you get Bi-Polar Plunger status. (laughs). 

Planet Hoppers are on the road again! Please #planethoppers your Instagram photos so we may follow all your journeys!