Vietnam skiing

November 2018. I am in Bangkok, my meetings are over and I have already skied in the local indoor ski place, Ski 365. A day left before flights home, now what? Take an airplane to Ho Chi Minh City, of course, and head to the children's ice & snow playground...

It wasn't a long flight, not expensive, and it seemed I could do this all in a day, before returning back to my hotel in Bangkok. I took a taxi to the Snow Town Saigon Playground in the city.

There was a lot of kids... and no one was skiing. But they had given me a moment after the kids left to actually ski the slope.

One more country to my collection of countries that I've skied in!

Post scriptum: Sadly, the playground is no longer operating. Rest in peace, hopefully there will be some new service that the Ho Chi Minh kids can experience snow and ice in!

Video:

My skiing:

Kids on the slopes:

Slopes:

The Snow Town from outside & booths inside:

Airplanes below. I took Air Asia flights, as they are a reliable but cheap airline. I also saw Vietnam Airlines planes at the airport.

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko.

Snow Centre Again

I was coming from North America, and had a long layover in Heathrow. (There's always a layover in Heathrow, isn't there?) What to do? Drive to Hernel Hempstead and its Snow Centre, of course! 

I was here before, in 2012 (article, alt. link). A very nice ski center. Not too far away from Heathrow, about 40 mins by car. Doable with taxi or rental car, if you have 5 hours or longer layover.

But a word of WARNING. The snow be slippery. I know, shocking!

Other photos:

This article has also appeared here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.

Riihimäki on my mind ...

... or was it Mäntsälä? In any case, I ended up at the Riihimäki swimming hall. Had not been here before, but wow, what a nice surprise. Only 50 minutes from home, and a completely refurbished hall, airy, nice new design, quiet & empty. Two Finnish saunas, and nicely hot and another that's a bit milder, plus a Turkish bath. Recommended!

In the pools there was a very nice surprise for a Finnish community-run swimming hall: an outdoor pool. Well, not entirely outdoor, it was in covered space but in outside air. A warm pool, with nice waterjets. Nicely done!

Inside there was a cold plunge pool, jacuzzi, the main 25 meter pool, a kiddie pool, therapy pool, and a waterslide. And there's a jumping platform in the 25 meter pool. There's a small pool also inside the bookable private sauna complex. 

Here's the official web page and the Wikipedia article.

Here's the entrance (first, not very impressive) and the sports field side front (second, quite nice):

This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Check-up results in detail

Sigh.

This article is also published here. More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot or Planetskier.net. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Parc du Trou de Fée, Crabtree

A cave by the river!

Very nicely shaped tunnel.

There are two entrances, the main, low entrance from the river bank rock, and another straight-down entrance from the top.

The cave is long, 126 meters, but the easily accessible part is just 24 meters, the rest is tight and may also be blocked by water unless it is dry season.

Here's the 3D scan-based map (of the part that is accessible, the cave continues further):

A high resolution version of the map is here. The model itself can be accessed here in GLB and Blender formats, you can also rotate it yourself on your browser screen.

The official map from the place itself has a more complete map:

My model looks like this:

The cave is open 9-21 during the tourist season. There's ample parking and an overall nice environment.

The entrance:

More pictures from the nice tunnels:

The cave is by this river:

For more information about the cave and access, try these web sites: Tourism Joliette, Crabtree. I visited the cave in (late) summer 2024.

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Vuosaari walk & swim

On a dark, late November evening, I drove to Vuosaari in eastern Helsinki. I had to complete my daily steps, so walked through the neighbourhood. In a landscape of high-rise residential buildings -- maybe they should even be called skyscrapers in Finland at 26 floors. There was also the glow of the local shopping mall, and then ... the swimming hall.

The destination was Vuosaaren uimahalli, an older swimming facility that has been thoughtfully extended to now feature two 25-meter pools. I talked to some other swimmers and they thought this was perhaps the best swimming hall in the region, with its extended facilities. There's two big pools, jumping platforms, plenty of places for massage water jets, a teaching pool, a kiddie pool, a warm pool with the water jets, two cold plunge pools, and a water slide.

You can still tell the two sides are different, the old part is a bit lower ceilings and old style... the new one is quite flashy. But overall very good. There's also two sets of saunas and dressing rooms for both men and women, both equally furbished and styled. But on the old side there's two Finnish saunas, reportedly "one tool cold and one too hot", and on the new side there's a Turkish bath and a medium hot sauna. I liked both of those. 

Finding the parking proved tricky at first, but the secret is to turn into the tunnel entrance at Tyynylaavantie 9 B, which leads to both outdoor parking spaces and a covered parking hall – both conveniently free of charge. 

I have previously visited several other pools in eastern side of the Helsinki and the region. These include nearby facilities such as Hakunila (alt. link), and Kontulan uimahalli (alt. link) in the eastern part of Helsinki. Other swimming experiences in the city have taken place at locations such as Malmin uimahalli (alt. link), Puotilan uimaranta (alt. link), and Siltamäen uimahalli (alt. link). Not to mention the old-time favorite, underground swimming hall / bunker in Itäkeskus (alt. link).

Parking entrance:

Vuosaari images:

This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Last check-up?

My Volvo was at check-up today. Good news: just one tech issue with bearings, easy to fix. Bad news: 10+ hull issues, costs to fix unknown but considerable. Sink more costs to it, or sink the car in a lake?

I got a loaner car from the repair shop, a Peugeot 604. Cool car, at least this morning:

This article is also published here. More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot or Planetskier.net. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Skiexpo 2025

For many years, I went to see the Skiexpo event, often organized in the biggest fair place, the Messukeskus. But for the last fifteen years I've often not been able to go, traveling typically around the time that it happens, being too busy, or just not as interested. This year I went to the much smaller event, organized in the Tripla shopping mall in Pasila, Helsinki. I liked it!

The reason was that it was so much oriented towards the small local ski areas. I found a crew from my original ski resort, Porvoo's Kokonniemi (now called Porvoo ski, website). Nice!

There was also some movies.

For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! This article has also been published there in this link. And of course the Planetcaver for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.