Antarctica, the ice continent on top of the world, is a curious place for travel enthusiasts. After the liberalization of overseas travel, the search volume of luxury tours in Antarctica has skyrocketed, becoming one of the options for Chinese and international tours.
Source: Photographer @ Chen Xiyu
Some people share their Antarctic travel experience on the Internet: after nearly 50 hours of flying from the country and connecting flights many times, I finally arrived at Antarctica, and when the weather was bad, the cold wind mixed with rain and snow, blowing on the face like a knife scraping the face; Wear layers of warm clothes and waterproof suits to the island every day, and hike for hours like a physical training camp; Not to mention the devil's seasickness experience on the itinerary...
Is it worth the Antarctic tour, which travels for tens of hours and costs 100,000 to 500,000 yuan per person?
A cruise ticket worth 170,000 yuan
The vast majority of tourists in the world who travel to Antarctica will choose the cruise travel method. Most cruise ships depart from Ushuaia, the southernmost point of Argentina.
For tourists departing from China, they first have to fly to Argentina, the most distant country in the world from China. Even without counting the time of the plane delay, this usually requires more than two transfers and more than 40 hours of flight.
Post-90s photographer Chen Xiyu decided to travel to Antarctica in early 2020 and decided to set off from Beijing. Unexpectedly, in February, when the new crown epidemic began, Emirates, which she chose, canceled flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou successively, and only kept Beijing's.
Chen Xiyu went well when applying for the visa, and she felt that this trip to Antarctica was fate, so she boarded the flight to Argentina.
In early February 2020, the epidemic spread around the world, and Chinese tourists had to leave the country for 14 days before they could board the ship. Chen Xiyu's originally scheduled ticket for February 12 had to be extended for 14 days.
She had arrived in Buenos Aires on February 10, so she had to return to Brazil for 12 days, in time for the Brazilian carnival, so that she was not so bored in the past ten days.
Most of the Antarctic tourist cruises that tourists can take are divided into two categories. One is the C1 boat, a traditional expedition vessel that can carry 13-200 visitors. The second category is C2, which refers to large cruise ships that can carry 201-500 passengers.
On February 24, Chen Xiyu finally boarded her choice of Island Sky, a C1-class expedition ship. She originally booked a $7,000 cabin, which is not expensive. But due to the delay of the date, the crew on board upgraded her to a more luxurious cabin free of charge.
Chen Xiyu shared a room with another lady, and after communicating with her, Chen Xiyu learned that the ferry ticket purchased by that lady was about 170,000 yuan converted into RMB.
The ship is like a five-star hotel floating in Antarctica, with six cabin classes, restaurants, bars, small libraries, lecture halls and lounges. The standard of food and accommodation on board is high, the team of chefs are Italian, rooms are cleaned twice a day, there is free afternoon tea in the lounge, and small snacks are provided before bed.
But unlike other luxury cruise ships, there are many service personnel on Antarctic cruises, and the ratio to guests is probably more than 1:2. In addition to the crew, cooks, etc., there is also an expedition crew on board.
The expedition team members are a team of professionals responsible for taking tourists out to sea to cruise, leading everyone to land on the island for "adventure". Antarctica is a long way and sometimes it may take a day on a boat, in which case the expeditions will organize a variety of knowledge lectures about the geography, biology, history, environmental protection and other knowledge of Antarctica.
Chen Xiyu recalled that she had a feeling of being truly integrated here, rather than just seeing a look in the picture.
"Drum washing machine" route
Seasickness during the Antarctic tour?
The most commonly discussed part of Antarctic travel is seasickness, and some people dare not go to Antarctica for fear of seasickness.
From Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula, one is bound to pass through the famous Drake Passage. It is one of the most dangerous shipping lanes in the world, known for its storms, gathering almost all the gale waves in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, with winds above category 8 365 days a year.
For visitors who only visit the Antarctic Peninsula, it is almost impossible to experience seasickness for a total of 4 days round-trip. These ships are equipped with doctors and medication to relieve seasickness, as well as vomit bags everywhere.
Chen Xiyu said that when passing through that area, he would feel like he was falling down when lying on the bed. But she chose to travel to the three islands, first going to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, she recalled that in good weather, most of the voyage in Antarctica was relatively smooth, and only in the famous Drake Passage, she would have a more serious seasickness reaction.
For the problem of heavy equipment, Chen Xiyu felt that it was all necessary. It's just that Antarctica at the end of February is not so cold yet, sometimes it is enough to wear a sweater on deck. There is always heating in the house, which feels similar to winter in Beijing.
The Antarctic Treaty stipulates that only 100 people can land on the island at a time. The ship chosen by Chen Xiyu was exactly 100 people, and it could land all at once. When you go to the island, you will be issued a waterproof storm jacket on board. Basically, wear a ski suit, ski pants, a waterproof storm jacket and pants, and a lantern waterproof boots. Hats, glasses, gloves will also be equipped.
Although she had to wear heavy clothes to hike, Chen Xiyu felt that the scenery was worth it. South Georgia is her favorite, and there are many animals on that island. Penguins stand densely together, smelling stinky, but very shocking.
The Antarctic Treaty requires visitors to stay at least 5 meters away from penguins so as not to disturb their lives, but sometimes they take the initiative to get closer.
Albatrosses can be seen in the Falkland Islands, and she loves them too. "This bird is stupid, they fly all their lives. I would feel like I might have a little bit of a connection to this bird. Because I seem to be flying all the time, I don't want to stop, I always want to have a state of exploration.
"I used to have a photography studio in Beijing, and the epidemic was three years old, and the studio was not very easy to do, and I didn't know when the epidemic would end, so I simply stopped the studio work and decided to come out and shoot things. It has been half a year since I traveled abroad in October last year. ”
The Antarctic Peninsula is mainly a magnificent landscape. Perhaps as a photographer, the scenery of the Antarctic Peninsula did not make Chen Xiyu feel so shocked, because he had seen too many pictures before going.
"Before you go, you always have an imagination of that place, imagination can be infinitely beautiful, but reality is not infinite. So when I actually get to Antarctica, I feel that the scenery there is not as beautiful as I imagined, or maybe not as beautiful as I thought. ”
There are also many small islands between the three islands, as well as many landing sites, and the scenery on each island is different. The expedition team will decide whether the island is suitable for landing based on the local weather and wind direction. When there is no way to land on the island, tourists wait on the boat or simply change to the next landing site.
In addition, since the ecology of each island is different, visitors have to sanitize their whole body very strictly before going to different islands. Chen Xiyu said that every time they landed on the island, they stepped into a disinfection tank to clean everything on their boots and clothes. The staff even take nails to clean the soles of their shoes, not at all grass, to prevent the island-to-island ecosystem from being damaged by the things that tourists carry.
Foreign old people with money and leisure
According to statistics, Antarctica receives about 85,000 tourists a year, most of them elderly people with money and time. Among those who boarded the ship with Chen Xiyu, she was the youngest.
There was an old grandmother in Chen Xiyu's group, probably eighty or ninety years old, who came with her grandson. The grandmother had bad legs and feet, and she had to get on and off the boat in a wheelchair, she was the last to get on the boat every time, and when the others landed on the island, she sat quietly in the wheelchair and watched.
There was also an old man in the team, an Israeli. A slightly younger leader in their group told Chen Xiyu that he looked like he was wearing particularly torn clothes, his hair was messy, and he didn't look like a rich man at all, but he was the owner of a private hospital in Israel and had contracted a luxurious suite on the top floor of the ship.
Usually, when we meet on deck, we share our stories with each other. Chen Xiyu said that there was a Canadian in his thirties on the expedition, who had not bought a house or married. He divides the year into three segments, in the summer of the southern hemisphere, he works in Antarctica for three or four months, then returns to Canada, drives his own converted RV, drives all the way to the United States with his girlfriend, stops on the road, and when the Arctic season begins, he sells the RV to work on a cruise ship in the Arctic.
Many old people hear about Chen Xiyu's experience of traveling the world as a photographer, and they will also say with envy that they hope that they are doing the same thing at her age.
The ship's trip lasted from February 24 to March 13, and Chen Xiyu was one of the last tourists to land on the island during that time. By the time they disembarked and returned to the city, many companies doing Antarctic tours had stopped the boats that landed on the island for the two months due to the global outbreak of the epidemic.
Chen Xiyu remembers that on the day she was leaving, after the diving experience project, two whales appeared and swam around them for a long time by the side of the boat.
"Although I have seen whales before, I have never seen such a huge ancient creature so close and so clearly. We can see its eyes and hear its voice. The time it came was like saying goodbye to us, and it was a very shocking feeling. ”
Interview & Written by: Yuzu
Source: Respondent, authorized
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