Kemi Hotels - Reviews and Rates

Kemi was REALLY EXPENSIVE. REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE. ALMOST REDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. It was rather smelly here because of the massive pulp factories and it was also raining the second day I was there so everything started to melt and it was just slush everywhere. The 'Ice Hotel' was alright for what it was but it really didn't compare to the Ice H...

Last night we stayed up late talking to Klo Gay and Margaret as well as their niece Elsa who came by. Elsa lives in a different apartment less than 100 feet away. On Skype we contacted Elsa's parents who have now moved to Norway from a refugee camp in Thailand and are in the same program as the Doh's. Elsa's father is Klo Htoo Doh and her mother...

What a wonderful visit on Sunday and Monday with Klogay and Margaret Doh. Their niece Elsa Doh also lives with them and we all felt like we knew each other for years as we met again tonight. As I had explained in a previous post from last summer, the Doh's are refugees from Mai La refugee camp in Thailand. They are Karen who have become displace...

We board our flight to Kemi/Tornio located close to the Swedish border on the northern tip of Gulf of Bothnia. This is new territory for us with new people to visit. We are to see Klo Gay and his wife Margaret are refugees from Maela, a large Karen camp of 60,000 inhabitants outside of Mae Sot, Thailand. The Doh's were taken in by the Finnish go...

On the 31st we (Steve, Judy, Maaret, Gunnar, and I) went to see Lumi Linna in Kemi- an Ice Palace that people can rent rooms at. It wasn't quite finished, so we didn't have to pay to see it, but that night, 40 people were going to stay in the ice hotel. They wear special winter 'suits' to keep them warm.

A curly-haired Australian guy stayed in my room at the hostel this week. He had been hitchhiking around Sweden like me, and he'd also been having a tough time of it. He'd accepted one ride that dropped him off on a small side road. Here, some cars passed him but none stopped. It took him two miserable days and FORTY-EIGHT kilometers of walking b...