Arctictropic Blog

Posts labeled with Country
' Russia'

Flight 99 – Newark To Hong Kong

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

On Sunday morning , May 8th. I flew from Miami to Newark to board Continental Flight 99 – a 16 hour, 8450 mile flight to Hong Kong. The flight took off at 3:25 PM . Five minutes later we were over Lower Manhattan.

Less than two hours and and a thousand miles later we were over Northern Quebec – still frozen in May.

After cloudy Baffin Land ( Nunavut ) we cross Greenland.

Northern Greenland – only a few hundred miles from the North Pole.

A Frozen fjord. Note last year’s icebergs trapped below. The local time is close to Midnight.

We cross the Arctic Ocean and fly over the North Pole. Sunday becomes Monday. Above shot is Northern Siberia on Monday afternoon.

Over the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Final approach to Chek Lap Kok.

Beautiful Tropical Monday evening landing.

After check- in to the hotel, off to explore the busting streets of Kowloon.

Kowloon Dance Hall.

Delicious Spicy Crab Dinner ! ArcticTropic is back on the ground in Asia !

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Over The Pole – EWR-HKG

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

On April 3rd I will return to China , for the first time in a  little over a year. This time, the focus will will on South China, entering from Hong Kong and finishing in Shanghai.

After a short flight from Miami to Newark, I will board Continental Flight 99 – the 9th longest flight in the world. Flying time is 15 hours and 50 minutes for the 8055 mile / 12980 km distance. Leaving at 3:45 in the afternoon,  the 777-200ER  will fly northwest over New York State, Quebec, Hudson’s Bay,Baffin Land , and across the Arctic icecap within about 200 miles of the North Pole. Continuing in the same direction, due south, the plane will travel over Siberia,Manchuria and East China, before landing at 7:45 the NEXT night.Because the northern Arctic is in 24 hour daylight by April, all but the last hour or two of the flight should be  sunny – hopefully with few clouds – to enable aerial shots and videos.

ArcticTropic will be meeting with many South China adventure travel providers. If you would like to meet with us between April 4th to 14th please email  - travel@arctictropic.com

Newark is also home to the world’s longest flight – to Singapore – 9535 miles/15345 km at 18 hours 50 minutes !

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Posted in Air Journey, Markets, Shanghai | Countries: , , , , | No Comments »

Over The Pole

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
The Labrador Sea between Baffin Land and Greenland, as we head toward the
North Pole. The next shot is when we were back in daylight over the Laptev
Sea of the Arctic Ocean as the plane approaches the North Coast of
Siberia.

Posted via email from arctictropic’s posterous

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Arrival in China

Monday, March 1st, 2010
Yesterday ( March 1) I arrived in Beijing after a 14 hour flight from
Newark. The flight plan was a bit different than reported earlier. After
takeoff, we went north through New England, over Maine, then Quebec and
Western Labrador. We then went out over the Davis Strait along the coast
of Baffin Land, then crossing over the Labrador Sea and Northwestern
Greenland – then over the Arctic Ocean and went directly over the North
Pole ! Then our Northward trajectory became South. Over the Laptev Sea
into Russian SIberia, for several hours, Then across Mongolia, past
Ulanbaatar. FInally we landed in Beijing bout 3 PM. Aerial photos will be
posted later.

Posted via email from arctictropic’s posterous

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Silk Way Rally – Tatarstan to Turkmenistan

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

From September 5 th to 14th , the Paris based Dakar Rally will stage a 4500 km off road race from Kazan to Ashkabat.

The world famous Paris -Dakar Rally – which began every New Year’s Eve from 1978 to 2008 in the Place Concorde, finishing in Dakar ,Senegal about three weeks later, was discontinued this year because of terrorist threats. It relocated to Chile and Argentina during Southern Summer and the Silk Way Rally will be the adventure for Northern Summer. ArcticTropic will have periodic updates and perhaps will particpate in the race in 2010.

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Posted in Four-Wheel, Rallye | Countries: , , | No Comments »

Notes and Credits

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Special thanks go to Alexander Kazantsev of Otkrytie Travels in Moscow, for providing many great photographs in these posts. Many of the rafting photos are courtesy of the trip provider – Quatro Elementos.

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Posted in EcoAdventure, Rafting | Countries: , | 1 Comment »

Crossing the Amur River

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Trucks cross a floating bridge in the Amur River on the Russian-Chinese border near Khabarovsk. Note the ships pulling the bridge to keep it in place. In the winter the river freezes solid in -40 degree temperatures and the the trucks drive on the ice. ArcticTropic already has several adventure destinations in the Russian Far East and Siberia.

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Kamchatka – Ring of Fire

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Kamchatka is the newest area on earth,save for a few islands, and has 15 active volcanoes, is snowbound most of the year,is bigger than California, with only 387,000 people – most of them in Petropavlovsk.

Major boiling points below:

About 100 miles away, over an ice or deep mud road,snowbound 11 months of the year, high into the mountains is a geothermal plant – to harness volcanic energy. Here is one of the buildings. Getting the power to the city is problematic.

A five hour climb brings you into a volcano that sometimes erupts . This is foul smelling hot sulfur gas escaping from the blowhole.One must walk carefully – sinking into the hot earth would turn your leg into charred bone instantly.

Back down in the valley – boiling mud bubbles out of the Earth everywhere – creating a beautiful,surreal scene.

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Posted in EcoAdventure, Glacier, Remote, Volcano | Countries: | No Comments »

Russian Meat Market

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Marketplaces are always a fascinating place to learn about local populations. Here in Vladivostok,Primorye the meat is fresh from the farm. ArcticTropic will have many locations throughout the Russian Far East – a vast land of adventure.

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Posted in Food, Markets | Countries: | No Comments »

Time Warp – Soviet Factory

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

In the Far East Russian City of Khabarovsk were some dingy old Soviet era factories. The old motto in these places was “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”"They” being Soviet slavemasters creating make-work factories to churn out shoddy useless products – and have shortages of such products. ArcticTropic leads adventure travelers to explore everyday life in distant points of the Earth.

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Posted in Government, Technology | Countries: | No Comments »