You may be richer than me,
but you will never be free like me
I'm traveler @rbaggo
who is finding 'Humanism' in
'Capitalism'
The last episode was about a ferry docked at Ilulissat every Sunday while having an unfamiliar Greenland bull steak for luch with Gunhild from Denmark.
In this story, I'll talk about why I call Greenland a 'special remote' country of polar bears.
You all know Greenland is a polar region with glaciers in the Arctic. Unexpectedly, Greenland has a larger population than expected, with many Europeans and Americans living there!
The reason why I call Greenland a special remote area, is not just about accessibility to Greenland. There are two ways to get to Greenland: you can fly from Copenhagen, Denmark and Reykjavik, Iceland.
Denmark-Greenland Flight Route
by Air Greenland
Iceland-Greenland Flight Route
by Icelandic Airlines
I'm going to book a ferry ticket in advance today. The ferry makes it easier to make a itinerary than flying, because it marries several cities for a while.
First, let's go to the post office. It is located in the center of the city next to the cultural center and playground. It's called TELE-POST center, and it's in charge of both postal and telecommunications.
250mb of data was the smallest unit that could be bought, and the price was about 27 USD. Besides the data, I have to buy Greenland SIM card, and the price of the SIM card was also 27 USD. So it costs 54 USD in total.
There were also cheaper options on the table. This only applies to Danish/Greenland citizens. I think it's because the operating cost of the communication equipment is expensive.
I'm going to go to the Internet Cafe that provides WiFi as another solution. There are two places in Ilulishat.
One is the Inuit Cafe where I ate the bull steak.
30 minutes 4 USD
1 hour 8 USD
2 hours 16 USD
Ohter one is Cafe Iluliaq, which also serves as a hotel,
30 minutes 4 USD
1 hour 7.5 USD
2 hours 15 USD
Cafe Iluliaq was a little cheaper over an hour, but it's still very expensive.
If you pay in advance for wifi, the receipt shows the password to access wifi as much as the time you purchased it, and the time is measured from the time you log in. I've never been so nervous about using wifi before.
Although I planned and started using the wifi, I failed to book a ferry ticket within the time I purchased it, so I eventually used the wifi with the help of the police station, which had a special relationship with the police officers. Greenland seemed to incur cumulative charges as even the police station used data. You have to buy wifi in most hotels, too.
Oh! There was one more problem, and I had to book the tickets on the Arctic Umiaq ferry website and print it out. I couldn't pay to access the Internet when I printed it, so I downloaded it as a PDF file, put it on my pen drive, and asked the travel agency's office where I kayaked. I have to print this ticket out because I have to show it when I get on the ferry later.
I thought it was Greenland with most of the items, but when I used the communication, I could feel that it was a remote place. It was inevitable because there weren't many base stations. Compared to this, I feel that I am living in a very comfortable environment.