Remember this!!!

Since i am back in Singapore, I wouldn’t mind sharing the address of the place that i have stayed over the past one month in Vancouver. For those who are really interested in getting a temporary shelter over there either for your holiday or study program, please contact me for the address and contact number of the owner! Look at the June post Stephens and see it for yourself. 

Victoria, British Columbia

We’re at Victoria, B.C, Canada. Victoria is on Vancouver Island (not Vancouver itself). The coach cum ferry ride takes about 4.5hrs, each way. The other alternative is to take the seaplane, which takes only 35mins. However, the cost of the seaplane is rather steep, about CAD110 each way.

Victoria was the first capital of Canada, if I’m not mistaken. It was so simply because of its location. Its located south on Vancouver Island. In the history of Canada and USA, there were many conflicts between the 2 countries as to where the border between them should be. Hence to first gain more land, so to speak, Victoria was slated to be the capital.

Victoria is very much like England, bearing in mind that Canada was once under the British colonial rule. So, afternoon teas are quite popular in Victoria. There seems to be quite a few things to do in Victoria. We only had 2 days and 1 night in Victoria, so again, we had to rush.

We went to the Royal B.C Museum. Boy, this is a must come museum. Its way cool! Only in the summer, is there the Titanic exhibition. This exhibition showcases certain artifacts that were taken up from the sunken Titanic itself. There were museum staff who posed as certain people who were on board the ship on that fateful journey. So before we were admitted to the museum, we were given boarding passes. These boarding passes indicated which real passengers we were on Titanic. In a room in the museum, we can then find out if the person with the name on our boarding passes survived the Titanic event. Turns out Mum, Nick and I were all first-class passengers and Gwen is the only third-class passenger. Haa haa! I was the passenger who booked the most expensive suite on the Titanic. Er-hem!!! And the 3 of us high-class ones survived while poor Gwen didn’t.

The Titanic exhibit is quite amazing and touching. They didn’t just display the artifacts. They also included many quotes and comments from the actual people on board it. When I see how the ship sunk again and again, it still strikes some kind of awesome fear in me. There was even a display of the kind of iceberg that Titanic hit. Being through the cold temperature in Whistler, I can comprehend how cold and terrible it must have been for the people out there in the sea.

The rest of the Royal B.C museum was even better. This is especially so of the nature section. They have displays of the animals, some of which were extinct. These displays were coupled with sound and lightning effects, which all add up to an awesome experience.

Then we went Whale Watching. It is a 3 hours tour. So we were dressed in wetsuits which would keep up warm in the event that we fall into the water. We were told to put on hats and gloves as well as it will get really cold out in the water.

We have to search for the whales. The guide told us that there was a sighting of a transient killer whale on that day. So that was out first search. The guide told us there are 3 main types of killer whales. Basically, they all look the same. They are classified according to their feeding behaviour. If I remember correctly, the transient killer whale is the one that will kill other whales, hence giving the killer whales their names. The transient killer we saw is a male, as can be seen by the sharp fin. Females have a shorter and rounded fin.

When we all saw the first whale, we were all so excited. We can’t get too close to the whales because the regulations are strict. Something like 100yards away from the whales. However, there are ways to get round the rules. Our guide maneuvered the boat and positioned it such that the whales will come close to us in their direction of swim. We got really close to the whales only at one time (or at most 2) and Gwen managed to get some nice shots!!! One boat was lucky because one whale did a tail flip very near to their boat. Some distance away, a whale breached (jumped up)! We were told another breach will usually follow the first one and we waited. Unfortunately, the whale didn’t want to entertain us further.

The whales are really impressive. They looked so majestic and somehow, I just feel so privileged to be able to see them, even at a distance. With some imagination, I feel like I’m in Free Willy 4.

On our way back to the shore, we spotted the bald-head eagle!!! It seems to be quite huge. It was standing really still, preying on fish I suppose. Its quite cool, that botak! Hee Hee!

For dinner, we went to this Italian restaurant recommended by the hotel. This has got to the THE best Italian restaurant around ever!! The price is actually very reasonable, if you are earning Canadian dollars. The food here is the best that I’ve ever tasted. This meal changed my perception of pasta, and I kinda like pasta now (only by that restaurant). The pasta is quite QQ and the way they did my tuna is absolutely fantastic. The outside of the tuna is cooked but the inside is raw. This is apparently the best way to have the tuna. The seafood is soooo fresh and you can taste the sweetness of the veggies. Il Terrazzo is it!! Its really so good, I feel like flying to Victoria now to have dinner there!

The next morning, we went to the world famous Butchart Gardens. Butchart Gardens was set up by a couple and the gardens are still under the care of the Butchart family. Isn’t that a nice tale? If I’m not wrong, Butchart Gardens has been in existence for over 100 years now! Somehow, I find it very touching that a legacy of this kind is going on.

Know what? Butchart Gardens indeed lived up to its name! The spectacular sights of the colourful flowers within will definitely brighten someone’s day. My vocabulary is actually quite limited at this point. I think no one will correct me if I say no words can do justice to the amazing, wondrous garden. Just look at the pictures we took! In this garden, a picture says a thousand words and more!

The roses in the garden are huge and so pretty! How the Butchart family ever started and maintained the garden is really quite remarkable. There is a Japanese garden within the garden but since we are not fans of the bonsai type of vegetation, we couldn’t really appreciate them. But still, to the untrained eyes, the plants look quite good.

In addition, there’s a lovely fountain in the garden. Needless to say, this fountain was also designed and created by one of the Butchart descendants. While there is no fancy ultra high tech movements of the fountain, the simplicity of the fountain, with the backdrop of the quarry on which part of the garden is built on, is enough to awe.

There’s also the Italian garden. This garden is the most formal section of all. The Italian garden is small compared to the rest of the garden. But despite its small size, it still managed to impress. At one side of the Italian garden, there is a nice spot for taking photo. At this spot, we can get the view encompassing the Rose garden.

After Butchart gardens, we headed to the Empress Fairmont Hotel for Afternoon Tea. Now, after all that’s been said and done, its been said that if you don’t have much time for everything in Victoria, you must make time for the Afternoon Tea at the Empress Fairmont. The Fairmont chain of hotels are rather high end, catering to royalties. The Hotel Vancouver Fairmont in Downtown Vancouver is the hotel in which Queen Elizabeth would stay when she goes to Vancouver. The Empress Fairmont is where the Queen of England had her Afternoon Tea at, hence the tea that is served for Afternoon Tea is now called the Empress Tea.

So we were seated for Afternoon Tea at the Empress Fairmont. And of course, among the variety of tea we were given, we chose the Empress Tea (which came highly recommended by our server). The traditional way to have tea is to have 2 lumps of sugar with milk. Anyways, the tea comes with sandwiches, scones, biscuits and other snacks. We all loved the sandwiches, particularly one sandwich which has chicken and curry in it (its not curry chicken) and one with salmon. Maybe its just us but we felt that certain snacks were too sweet for our taste. Although the sweetness of the strawberry jam suits the scones just fine. And surprise, surprise, each of us were given a box of the Empress Tea for us to enjoy back home. That was a nice touch to round up our trip to Victoria.

P/S: We’ve decided not to post too many nice pics for you guys to view. Cos we want you guys to meet up with us. So we really don’t mind showing you our entire photo collection, let you ooh and aah and enjoy B.C from where you are. One very important thing, remember to bring your card or loads of cash to pay for our meals and drinks!

Whistler Blackcomb Again!!

Oh my, what an exciting day we had!!! We went to the Whistler Blackcomb again, this time with Mum and Gwen – their first destination in B.C.

The weather forecast was there is 60% probability that it will be raining in Whistler. We took our chances and went. Reached Whistler Village at about 10.30am and indeed, it was drizzling. So when its drizzling over here, temperatures hover between 10-15 degrees. Most of the times, the temperature is about 12 degrees. It was really cloudy and when the wind blows, oh boy, it can get really cold.

So we went to the Visitor Info to book our activity for the day. Thank goodness we arrived early as the last timing for activities is 4pm. So we booked for dog sledding at 1.15pm and thought that after we are done with that, we’ll book the horseback riding. Then we bought lift tickets to go up the mountain. This time round, the chairlifts we took were different from the ones we took the first time. We had to walk to the base of Blackcomb Mountain and take the chairlifts from there.

It takes about 45mins to 1 hr to reach the top of the mountain. So in order to make it to the dog sledding on time and have lunch, we have to hurry a little. However, when we reached the chairlifts at the base of Blackcomb, the attendant told us to get waterproof and warm clothing as it was SNOWING at the top of the mountain! So we hurried to rent warm clothings as we only had 3 thin layers of clothes. We think we were quite remarkable, why? Because we braved about -2 degrees in just our jeans and normal shoes!

Then we started on our way up to the mountain. At that time, the rain was still a slight drizzle. There was a group of Indians on the descending chairlifts who said that the attendants didn’t let them go up the mountains. Oh oh, we went. But we managed to continue to change to another chairlift to continue our journey up. After this 2nd chairlift, we had to take a bus to the 7th Heaven Express. This will bring us up to the top.

So on the bus, the friendly and humourous driver told us a bit of the mountains and the animals sightings such as bears and deers on the mountains. Turns out the bus is to be our last warm comfort.

On way up via the 7th Heaven Express, it started to SNOW!!! Snowflakes falling from the sky! And yes, by this time, we were really cold especially with our wet shoes. By the time we reached the top, we were really ‘chilled out’. We dashed to the hut to get hot drinks and some food. The journey up Blackcomb to the Horstmann glacier is a rather unforgettable journey.

Looking out of the hut, we could convince ourselves that it is Christmas. Snow seems to be falling heavily and even the skiers can’t seem to take it. Suppose no one expected a snowfall, much less a heavy snowfall. It was difficult to walk around on the snow mostly because our fingers and toes felt frozen! We could feel pain in our toes and hoped that we wouldn’t get frostbite. So after a few photos, we started to go down the mountain. We were ever so thankful that the attendant at the bottom of the mountain told us to get warm wear. I suppose this was why the Indians were told to turn back because they were not warmly dressed enough.

By the way, at the top of the mountain is a glacier, called the Horstmann glacier. This glacier allows skiing in summer, the longest operating ski run in North America. This ski run is recommended for intermediate skiers. At this glacier, we were a least 7000 feet above ground!

Somehow, the descent down the mountain seems to get colder. Most probably this is because of the open space and the wind is blowing. On our last chairlift, we saw a deer!!! But it was a kinda of too far away for us to get a proper look at it.

When we reached the bottom of the mountain, it was cold! So we kept our rented jackets on and headed for our dog sledding.

For the dog sledding, we were brought up to a mountain. This time, its Whistler Mountain. We went up in a car and were told to look out for bears, deers and moose. For some time, we didn’t see any animals. Then suddenly, I (JACKLYN YONG) spotted a black movement on the mountain and quickly said “I think there’s a bear!” So the driver stopped the vehicle and everyone looked to their right. 1 second passed, no bear. Another second passed, still no bear. At this time, I wondered if I had been too anxious (and my usual klutzy self) and didn’t actually see the bear. Then the driver said he thinks I got it! Then we saw one bear walking slowly. Followed by another bear. So we have a mother bear and a cub. The males will be traveling alone as this is mating season and they will be on the lookout. Then we continued up.

Then Mum said “Deer, deer”. We saw a deer, this time on the left. It seems to be a young one and it looked kinda lost. But it stood still and we were able to take nice pictures of it.

Then the rest of the trip up was not as eventful. And then we reached where the dogs were.

They were Alaskan Huskies, cross-bred and not entirely full-bred. This is because even at B.C., whereby average temperature during winter is about -10 degrees, its still considered too warm a climate for the pure-bred Huskies. Hence the ones we were going to sled with were crossbreds. (So, in S’pore, whereby people are rearing Huskies, I think these people are being very cruel, even with the air-conditioning on 24hrs. The Huskies must be in perpetual sauna. So, please, don’t rear any Huskies in S’pore. Go to the North Pole or somewhere close there to do so. I’m serious!)

So we played with the dogs for some time, getting to know them. Some of the dogs were really shy. One didn’t even liked to be patted. However, despite their shyness, they are very good in their job. The youngest dog we have is 8months old and who is just trained for 2 months and is already excellent in her job. The oldest is about 11years old. Some dogs were real friendly, jumping onto us and wants us to pat them. They seemed really eager to go and run and run and run.

Gwen and I went first and then Mum and Nicholas will have their turn when we return. The sled ride is about 10 minutes. So, once the dogs were told to go, they ran like they were trying to catch up with the winds. After a while, they lost steam and slowed their pace. I was told that when they finish the run, they will feel very hot and some of them will even roll in the snow to get cooler. While riding, we can shout to the dogs to encourage them because everyone and every animal needs to have encouragement to go on right? Towards the end of the ride, we let the dogs rest for a little time so that they can run fast to pull us up the slope. When its time to go, we shout “Up, Up” to get the dogs moving. When they stopped, I saw a dog eating snow! Gwen saw some dogs rolling in the snow.

When we were done, its Mum’s and Nicholas’ time to go. Everything went on normally until suddenly the dogs pulling Nicholas went off the trail and headed for Mum’s sled! To Gwen and I, there appeared to be some kind of collision. But Mum said there was actually no collision. The guide explained that the dogs followed the trails by smell and they must have smelt something which threw them off-trail.

When we have all completed our runs, we gave the dogs treats. At this time, even the shyest of the dogs became friendly. At the same time, it started to fog up and it got foggier by the minute. Guess we were in the clouds then. It got colder and colder as we waited for the driver to reach us to bring us down. While waiting, we got to know the dogs better. This is nature at its best!

Unfortunately, on the way down Whistler, we didn’t see any moose or other animals to complete our collection of animal views. But we got to know that the best time to go Whistler will be January, where it won’t be that crowded. But it will be at its coldest. By the way, winter Olympics will be held in Whistler in 2010. People in Whistler aim to complete the preparations for the Olympics by Dec 2008. So, its time to plan when is the most economical time to go skiing in Whistler. And yes, we have to save again because Whistler is one of the most expensive place to live in as there’s only one road leading in to it. When the road is blocked by snow, prices skyrocket, reaching the peak of the mountains.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Here we are, at one of the must-go attraction in Vancouver – the world famous Capilano Suspension Bridge.

First of all, the entry fee is rather steep!! While there’s student price, its still very costly; around CAD20 bucks.

So we first entered, we went to get the map cum passport of Capilano Suspension Bridge. On this ‘passport’, there are 6 stations which we can get stamps to complete our journey.

So after taking a few pictures here and there, we started out on the bridge itself. On first sight, the bridge is rather impressive. Seems very long and high up. Probably because we did the ziptrek at Whistler before, so the heights weren’t that intimidating. In fact, I thought this is rather similar to the treetop we have back home at MacRitchie. If I remember correctly, the one at MacRitchie is more steady while this one is more rocky esp when people run on the bridge. And one main difference is this one at Capilano has a river rushing through between the trees.

So, with the trees and river taken together, we got a rather splendid view. And since we got here in the evening, it started to get quite cold. Anyways, as we made our way through the bridge, we thought there’ll be nothing much. But we forgot that Canadians care about their resources alot. On the other side of the bridge, there are several routes to take to look at the vegetation and to get educated on the forests.

We saw Nurse trees; they are something like fallen trees and do not grow – however, they give life to other trees. Somehow, another tree can grow out from this fallen tree. There’s a picture with the caption of ‘Nurse Tree’ – didn’t take the full height of the tree that grew from the nurse tree. This ‘new’ tree is rather thin compared to other trees but it is tall. Isn’t this interesting? Well, its fascinating to me! Nature continously gives life, how great is that?!

Mainly, the predominant trees in B.C are the Douglas Fir (if I’m not mistaken). FYI, the age of trees are measured by how wide their trunk is. It turns out that one Douglas Fir in Capilano is about 300 years old and it can live to a ripe old age of 1000 years!! So, as it grows, the boards that surrounds the tree (where we can stand to hug the tree) will have to be adjusted for the increasing diameter of the tree.

Then saw a longgggg tree (note: long) which was on the ground. This tree fell when a hurricane brought it down. It is real long. It was split into 2 parts and the sign there challenged us to find the end of the second part. Of course, we lived up to the challenge (I hope)!

What we have come to see is that Canadians always try to educate tourists. So there will always be posters and stuff to do just that. And I must say, with their brightly and well-decorated posters, they are doing a good job.

Then we walked back to the side of the bridge whereby the entrance is. We must say, the souvenirs here are so attractive. However, the price is a tad too high. So we decided to do the souvenir-shopping at Gastown. I love the Black Bear!! They are so cute and awesome! So many stuff here we can buy to decorate our house (which we haven’t bought yet, by the way) and it will look just as good as our place in Kitsilano.

Unfortunately, we haven’t spotted any exciting animal in B.C yet – only saw the Great Blue Heron, which sounds impressive eh? Well it is a big bird…saw it at the beach & Stanley Park…but didn’t dare to go closer, in case it decides to peck me. Now we know who’s the brave one

So we completed the passport with all 6 stanmps of course and gave it to the lady at Guest Service. In return, we got We Made It certificates which entitles us to 2 LONG YEARS of BRAGGING RIGHTS!

Burnaby Village Musuem

So we’re at Burnaby Village Museum. This museum shows how British Columbia would have looked like in the 1920s. Upon entry, we saw British flags. But this is Canada eh? History lesson 101 – Canada was once under the British colonial rule.

Anyways, this buildings here are pretty cool. The country styles that some people are emulating now are exactly like these. Some of the exhibits here are dated from 1920s and hence they are No Man’s land. There are replicas in the exhibits based on photos from the past.

Somewhere in the middle of the village, we saw some people walking around in the 1920s clothes. Turns out they are the staff of the museum, some being volunteers. They don’t seem busy…just walking around. They do have some exhibits in which they are the interpreters – explaining what was going on in the 1920s.

Then we came across a mechanic – very nice guy. He gave a live demo on making a door knob, you know, heating and beating the metal. He even gave Nicholas some stuff to put on for photo taking!

We went into the Burnaby Post which is a newspaper publishing company. In those days, it takes 2-3 days to complete a newspaper. Hence news in those days aren’t exactly news. Then some guy (can’t rem his name) came up with a machine that allows the printing of newspapers in a day. This machine is amazing! In brief, you put the letters in a row to make up your sentence which is then made into an iron piece. So each time you want a new sentence, you gotta make a new piece. But people in the past were economical. When you are done with an iron bar and you don’t need that sentence anymore, just melt the iron and it gets recycled! Its a pity that this guy and alot of people in the print industry died of tuberculosis because of the unhealthy environment, the lead etc…

We ended our trip by taking a ride on the carousel. It is a beautiful and colourful carousel. Music was blasting out from the ‘jukebox’, which is pretty by itself. We didn’t know that carousel can go that fast…then again why not, since we had the carousel to ourselves at that time and the attendants were amused by perhaps, 2 old kids.

UBC Botanical Garden

This is a post targeted mainly towards nature lovers and botanists.

At the UBC botanical gardens, there are around 7000 species of plants from all over the world. Due to the mild climate in B.C, a lot of plants can thrive here.

When you first enter the garden, you will come across the Asian flowers first. One of the main things that will hit you first is the scent of the flowers and the air is supremely fresh. In fact, the air in Vancouver is really quite pollution-free. As you continue walking on, you will reach a tunnel which connects you to the other side of the garden. Personally, this other side of the garden is more captivating.

What is most striking is the busyness of the bees in the garden. They were constantly flying from flower to flower, gathering nectar. I’ve tried to capture the bees on the flowers but the quick movements of these insects make capturing them a little blur. Sadly, its either the resolution of the camera that needs some twitching or my photography technique that needs some brushing up, some pictures taken, esp those of flowers were not clear enough to portray the beauty of the plants as they undeniably are.

The garden has a Food Produce section which, very interestingly, is used for the growth of plants produce which are then diverted to the hungry and poor. There are signs which notifies people against plucking these produce. This is really nice of the people at UBC. Seems like they remembered to give back to society and render the poor help and food.

There are small sections in the garden which separates plants from the continent they can be found. In the Africa continent, the flowers look real bright and a little wild. Basically, the flowers found around the world are bright, colourful and outstanding. However, it seems that plants from Australasia seem to lack flowers. It appears from a novice point of view that these plants are mainly shrubs and non-flowering plants.

So anyways, some of the flowers have the nicest shades of colours. I’ve seen the most beautiful blue, pink, orange and purple colours amongst these plants, not to mention the unbeatable combination of these colours. Again, I was once again impressed with and by Mother Nature. It was indeed an afternoon whereby my senses were assaulted on almost all fronts.

Seattle, Washington, USA

Seattle, Washington, USA is our destination. We headed out to Seattle with some friends from the exchange programme. There’s a total of 9 of us, so we rented 2 cars. Got a Ford and a Chevrolet. First of all, we had to get used to driving on the right side of the road. Traffic rules in Vancouver are slightly different. A blinking green light indicates that there is a pedestrain crosswalk and drivers have to get ready to stop at anytime when the pedestrain presses the button to cross the road. Also, at a junction whereby there is no traffic light, the right of way belongs to the car which reached the junction first. So that caused a bit of a confusion and the drivers here, they don’t hesitate to shout at you or show you the finger. While most drivers are quite nice, they let you change lane when you signal, there are some not so nice ones….sigh, let’s not talk about them!

So we got the cars a little late and hence set off at around 11plus in the morning from Vancouver. Took us about 45 mins to reach the border between Canada and USA. My regret is that because I was at wheel, I didn’t manage to take a pic of the Peace Arch at the border (which is really nice!). Nic and I were in different cars because the cars were rented in our names and so, initially we hesitated in letting others drive the car….in case anything happens (luckily, everything was okay).

Then at the border, while we let the officers inspect the cars, we had to pass through immigration. You gotta pay USD6 dollars for dunno what fee and then let them scan your fingerprints and take photo of you. Some American officers seem nice, being humourous etc.

Once we pass the customs, its a pretty direct route to Premium Outlets in Seattle, whereby all the shopping action begins. But before we can move on, we gotta pump gas (it’s gas and not petrol here). The guy at the car rental said gas in USA is cheaper than that in Canada. But still, its very expensive!! Then its like 2 hrs drive to Seattle. We reached there at 1plus. By then we were starving. So we went to the foodcourt and decided to get chinese food. That is very expensive as well….for rice and 2 side dish, it costs like USD 7-9plus. That’s the most expensive 菜饭 we ever had!

Then we wasted no time in hitting the shops. The brands here they carry are mainly the American brands (duh!). The stuff here are considered real cheap since they are designer labels. Nicholas got 2 Levi Jeans, each at about USD29.90. He’s got good deals from Polo Ralph too. Its mainly bags galore for Jacklyn – got the best deals from Fossil; the Fossil bag that’s going for over SGD100 costs only USD29.99!! As the meeting time was 6.30, we didn’t have time to go into each and every shop in detail, skimming some shops only from the windows. However, there is a shop which we both like. It sells mainly home decor stuff and real dainty display items.

Then we began the drive back to Vancouver while looking for a place to stop for dinner. We went into a couple of restaurants but backed out before we were seated; dishes were a tad too expensive. So in the end, our choice was good old Burger King. Know what, the fries form the BK here is way better than the BK in S’pore and they don’t have chili sauce though they did offer us Buffalo sauce (some weird tasting sauce).

At the border, we of course said No when asked if our purchase per person exceeded USD400; otherwise we’ll be taxable. The drive on Highway 99 was delightful, with the setting sun (sun sets here at about 9plus at night). So at the end of the day, everyone was happy with their purchases and all wanted to go back and shop again! that’s enough swiping for one day!!

175km (Approx 2 hours excluding waiting time at US border)

Whistler Blackcomb

Saturday, 2nd June

We took the 11am Greyhound bus to Whistler Village via the Sea to Sky Highway. We reached there at about 1.30pm. At the visitor information centre, we booked the ZipTrek activity which cost CAD 99 each. Yep, its costly, but then again almost all the activities cost about the same price. What the heck, we decided, we came here to enjoy ourselves, so we just splurged!! Due to time constraint, we could only sign up for ZipTrek and not dog sledding. Then we got tickets for the gondola and chairlift rides which will bring us up Blackcomb mountain. FYI, there are mountains at Whistler village; Whistler & Blackcomb. Whistler mountain was closed in April and only Blackcomb mountain is open for winter acitivites (until 3rd June, then its closed!!). This is why we had wanted to go Whistler by 3rd June and boy, we’re glad we did!!

So, up the gondola we went. Nothing exciting, as it was slow – though the slopes of the mountains were staring in our faces. Then after the gondola, we gotta take the chairlifts to go further up the mountain. Though named the Excelerator, it doesn’t live up the speed its name indicates. Its the route down the machines that gives the marvellous views.

So after 25 mins of ride, we reached the top of the Blackcomb – not the peak though cos that’s for skiers. As skiing is still going on (for intermediate and above), we were limited to where we could walk about. So, snow is not fluffy….more like ice kachang…but we were still in awe of it, cos its made by Mother Nature. Walking on snow is fun! It can be slippery, so we had near slips. Finally, we were able to throw snowballs at each other (that’s our dreams come true)! It can be painful esp if the snowballs were tightly compacted. But it gets too cold to keep touching the snow continuously. And oh, from the photos, you can tell that its not very cold even high up at the mountain. Perhaps its because the sun is really strong (we returned home with slightly burned noses). And sunglasses is a must…to protect eyes from the sunrays reflecting from the snow. So though it wasn’t freezing, when the wind blows, it feels really cool.

The mountain was picturesque!! The views were astounding. Standing on the mountain, looking up the blue sky, snow covered slopes and staring down at the steepness of the slopes, you can’t help but feel small and insignificant. And we felt honoured to be able to take in all these views that nature has to offer. I can’t help but hope that such awe-inspiring views can be preserved for all eternity and not be damaged by human’s earth-damaging acts. Of course, we hoped that the mountains will stay unchanged so that when (that’s a definite) we come back again, we can admire all that we’ve seen today. So that was the wish of most people here. In fact, in B.C, everyone seems to be environment friendly.

The rides close at 4pm. We enjoyed the snow so much we didn’t want to go for the ZipTrek we signed up. We were supposed to report at 4.05pm. We had decided to forgo the ZipTrek. When we reached ground level, it was about 4.25pm and we headed to the centre to cancel our scheduled activity. BUT, they said there was a 24 hr cancellation policy, so we had no choice but to go since they had our credit card details.

The ZipTrek is what we call Flying Fox. We went into the mountain to zip around. The tour we signed up for has 4 zips. The zips were located mainly above the Fitzsimmons River. The longest zip was 1100 meters while the highest zip was 150 feet above ground. It wasn’t scary esp when you see the beautiful lanscape and feel the cool winds on your face. So, we had, what the locals would say, good times.

The Anthropology Museum @ UBC

This is our short trip to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Only on Tuesdays, does the museum opens until 9pm. It closes at 5pm on other days (This is like the normal closing time for the entire country!) Anthropology is the study of human kind, by the way. The museum is not very big but it does hold very interesting items from the First Nations (as they called). My understanding is the indigenous people here are termed First Nations. Apparently, the totem poles are the highlights of the museum. Totem poles was a way of preserving the natives heritage as well as honouring tribal rituals and sacred spirits of people. The natives also had a ‘house post’ near their house, probably as a welcoming gesture?? (Not too sure as we’re moving too fast and we didn’t join in the tour; so will probably go back there again) Besides the totem poles, we saw a lot of masks, baskets and figurines. Interestingly, there were exhibits on the indigenious inflicted with AIDS. Those inflicted with AIDS (to be more technically correct, HIV-positive) were deemed as outcasts and they were recognised easily by the community simply based on their appearances. It always does seem that its the ‘invading’ foreigners who bring diseases and disaster along with them – some ‘wood’ for thought.

UBC Campus Tour

The campus is simply stunning, in terms of size and natural beauty. To the west, you can get fantastic views of the snow-capped mountains. To the north, there’s a bus terminal whereby the turnover of the buses are so fast, they put our SMRT and NUS shuttle bus system to shame! To the East and South, there are still unexplored and unknown areas to us. Grass is indeed greener on the other side; UBC students can be spotted sitting on the grasses anytime, in just what they’re wearing – no mats, nothing! Indeed that was a done deed – wednesday is laundry day! No wonder the West is way ahead in their innovations, ideas and whatnots – who wouldn’t when the beauty of nature is just a glance away.