North Pole

What does a boy with some pounds on the wallet, plenty of holidays and infinite desire to travel the world (and beyond) do on a laid back Sunday after noon? Look out for backpacking destinations! Having traveled in over 25 countries so far, I am not an amateur when it comes to traveling. In the past, I have considered – Euro trips, Olympics vacation, African safari, Cheap Asia tour, trekking in Himalayas, Learn Spanish in Spain, GAP holiday in S America and other popular ones. The thing about the “off beaten destinations” is, everybody talks about them, some even manage to get there and in the end they are not off beaten enough.

Then I reached out to my freeze box to grab my Irn bru when it hit me – North Pole! To be frank, I thought North Pole is an exclusive zone for scientific researchers and environmentalists. Then I wiki’d North Pole and the page I got turned out to be the funniest wiki page I’ve ever read. First some random facts and then some random funny facts from the North Pole wiki page.

North Pole Wiki Page-link - http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Pole

Random Facts:
1. Nobody knows who reached the North Pole first
2. Latitude-Longitude: latitude 90°N (longitude not applicable)
3. There is no official marker or flag or monument marking the North Pole (may be someone should build one)
4. Yes, there are Arctic tour operators  woo hoo!! You don’t have to be that strangely bearded scientist to be in the North Pole.
5. How to get there? By air ($ 13000) or By Sea ($ 20000) – I personally feel the 2 week expedition trips on ice-breaker vessels are the best way to get there.
6. There is only 1 protracted sun rise and sun set each year!

Random funny-facts: [these are quotes from the Wiki Page – I told you]
1. Tour operators stick a sign pole into the ice, but that's unofficial and purely for photographic purposes
2. Each year, there is a marathon foot race called the North Pole Marathon organized by Polar Running Adventures
3. It is impossible to buy anything at the North Pole; you should bring everything you might need [how unobvious - hehe]
4. Adventurous types may try searching for Santa Claus but it is highly unlikely you'll be able to locate him [Jesus Christ..!]
5. Most visitors to the North Pole head south next [I can believe that, coz I am already finding it hard to make a choice between the poles]

To be fair you should read a bit about the South Pole as well – I found an interesting organization acronym’d as IAATO (International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators) http://www.iaato.org/