 90° NorthMy trip to the top of the World Azam Chowdhury
I always thought what it would be like to stand on the top of the world. But as the Geographic North Pole is on the thick ice shelf on Northern Arctic Ocean, the only way to get there is by powerful ice breakers. After doing some research, I decided to book through a Russian Expedition company that uses Russian Navy’s most powerful nuclear powered ice breaker called 50 Years of Victory, which is the most powerful ice breaker in the world. I thought it would  be wonderful to see how it breaks through thousands of miles of thick ice, and also how it would feel to stand on top of the world at 90° north. Because of the limited number of seats available for the expedition, I made my booking 9 months ahead of the scheduled trip. I had already planned to visit Bangladesh so I decided to start my journey from there. After some anxious months, I finally left Dhaka on the 16th of July 2012. For some reason, I wasn’t feeling very excited. I knew anything and everything can go wrong. Jet Airways Flight to London via New Delhi left Dhaka on time at 9:20 am. When I decided to start my North Pole trip from Bangladesh I knew I was taking a big risk. Once I took off, I was relieved that finally I am on my way to the North Pole. Jet Airways flight from Dhaka to Delhi was fairly un-eventful; except the young man sitting on the other side of the aisle kept talking to me. He would be around 25, cleaned shaved, wearing brand new shirt, trousers and shoes. He was going to Doha and asked me where I was going. Then he started his complaints, at first he complained for not getting a refresher towel, then he complained about not having a printed menu in the seat pocket. I started reading the newspaper. Then he said in Bengali "Ashole ki janen? Eida ekta faltu airline". After 2 hours layover in Delhi, our flight left for London. After less than 8 hours, we arrived at London Heathrow Airport at 6:30 PM local time. My next connecting flight to Helsinki was at 7:30 next morning. I went to the food court and had something to eat then went to terminal-3, found a long bench without handles and lied down. Couldn’t sleep for long because of the noise. Around midnight the terminal was totally empty and managed to get some sleep. Finland: Helsinki - Around 6:30 in the morning Finnair check in desk opened. I went and stood in the queue. We left London Heathrow Airport exactly at 7:30 am as scheduled and arrived Helsinki at 10:15 am local time. On my way to the hotel from the airport I asked the Taxi Driver why the roads were so empty and so few cars on the road. She replied, almost 50% of the Helsinki Population takes their holiday during summer. Usually they go to the countryside. Helsinki is a small city but very neat and clean. I checked into the Hotel and after lunch I was feeling restless and went down to the hotel lobby. I met Ajit who is a hotel employee from India. He was very friendly and suggested a few interesting places to see in and around Helsinki. I went for a walk around the lake at first, which was close to the Helsinki Crown Plaza where I was staying. In the Northern Hemisphere the sun remains high in the sky until very late. It was after 10:35 pm. I could see the sun is still up and outside was very bright. During summer months, Helsinki gets about 18 hours daylight and it doesn’t get dark before 11 pm. After two days I left Helsinki with rest of the group for Murmansk. This was my second Finn Air flight. Finn Air is a relatively small Airlines and I was really surprised to see their efficiency and punctuality. Russian Republic: Murmansk - We arrived at Murmansk, located in the extreme northwest part of Russia. With an average yearly temperature of 0°C, Murmansk is the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle. Average temperatures exceed 0° degrees Celsius only from May through October. The average low during the coldest part of the year in Murmansk is approximately −14 °C. However, temperatures routinely plunge below −20 °C during winter. Murmansk was Soviet Union's most important nuclear fleet and submarine base.  This is the first time I set foot on Russian territory and naturally was eager to see the Russian efficiency. As Murmansk is the homeport for Russian Navy’s Nuclear and submarine fleet, security in and around the airport was very tight. But there were only a few well-dressed woman police officers inside the small terminal building. There were only 3 custom booths with 3 custom officers checking our travel documents and arrival cards. They were working like 3 industrial robots. They didn’t talk and had no expression on their faces. After customs clearance, we were directed by a soldier towards our buses waiting outside to take us to Murmansk harbour. Once again there was no talking, just looking at us and pointing to the buses. We saw there were more Russian soldiers outside and around the terminal building. It was very cold and windy outside, and to make things worse, it started to rain. It took us 45 minutes to go to Murmansk harbour. The road to harbour was almost traffic free. Either side of the road was covered with natural pine forests and there were a few lakes, made our journey quiet scenic. When we reached the harbour we could see our giant nuclear powered icebreaker in front of us next to a Russian Navy’s nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier. Although we were told not to take any pictures in or around Murmansk harbour, but few people couldn’t resist the temptation. They kept on talking pictures even though it was still raining outside. I was really surprised to see such an important place is in such a mess. It looked like a ship wrecking yard. Rusty ship parts, old propeller, old lifeboat were scattered all over the place. Soldiers were standing with their guard dogs. We were told to remain in the bus until further notice. Then after about 15 minutes customs police came on board our buses to check our passports again. He was very polite and quietly checked all the passports and left without saying a word to anyone, not even to our Russian driver. After another 10 minutes our buses were allowed to pass through the double security gate.  Our buses had to negotiate through all sorts of obstacles to park next to the gangway to go on board our ship. It was a long climb and when we reached the top of the gangway for the very first time we saw a smiling face greeted us and said, "welcome on board". He was our German born expedition leader, Jan. Once we were in, we had to surrender our passport and we were showed our cabins. It was a very proud moment for me. I always wanted to see how a nuclear powered ship or submarine works, now I was in one of them, and it was going to be my home for next ten days. I was very excited. When I went into my cabin I saw my roommate’s luggage already in the room. But surprisingly my luggage did not arrive yet. I decided to go out and join rest of the group for briefing. After the briefing, I came back to my cabin and met my room mate Andre from Moscow. To be continued . . . . . . . .
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Home Page Published on: 10-Aug-2014 
