TravelStream™ news feed for member colin on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/colin en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:52:55 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1254185553/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1254185553/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1254185553/tpod.html Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:52:55 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Hullo

My last day in Seattle was a Sunday and there was an American Football game in town, the Seattle Seahawks vs Chicago Bears. I decided to go along and have a look. After about 30 minutes of queuing at the only ticket window I was told the only tickets left were $94 - too much for me, I was prepared to pay up to $60. So I soaked up the atmosphere a bit, and the atmosphere was good - lots of people supporting both teams around. The local bars were full, there were people BBQ'ing and drinking in the car parks (they call it tail gating) and generally having a good time. After a bit I wandered back to the market. Sunday is the best day for the market, the street is closed, the buskers are out in force, and there are lots of people around. The guys at the fish market were tossing fish around and generally entertaining the crowd, as well as selling the occasional fish or crab. You can get pretty much anything at the market, it is fun to wander around and see what is there. I then went and sat in a park to soak up some sun and read a book for a while, and that was about it really. A nice relaxed day.

On Monday morning I was up early to get to the train station to catch my train to Vancouver. This was a nice scenic ride, largely along the coast, and into Canada. Canadian customs are at the train station in Vancouver and I was prepared with my flight confirmation, which they didn't even look at. They looked at everything else instead. Yep, I was selected (for whatever reason by the snooty bitch I first dealt with) to have my bags searched. Oh well, it could have been worse - no rubber gloves or KY were used.

Then I got the sky train and a bus to the hostel. And that was about that really. I couldn't be bothered doing anything much else so I didn't. However, while I was checking in the bloke at reception asked if I wanted to go see a Canadian Football game on Friday night, I said yes and bought a ticket - cheap, only $25. I asked him when the hockey season kicked off and it turns out he had tickets for the first Vancouver Canucks game of the season as well, so I bought one of them too. Tickets to hockey are hard to get here in Canada and when you can get one they are horribly expensive. These were season tickets that the hostel had, and as an added bonus they were selling them for less than the face value - only $49. The next day I bought one for the next home game. Hockey is a cultural experience in Canada, it has to be done if the opportunity presents itself.

The next day it was pissing down when I got up so I decided to go to a movie. And that was that. On Wednesday the weaather was good so I walked down to Stanley Park, a huge park next to Vanvouver. It has a great walk around the outside on the sea wall, forest (most of the park is forest - beautiful), a couple of lakes, as well as cafes, play areas, etc. I enjoyed walking around and especially enjoyed seeing about a dozen raccoons.

On Thursday the weather wasn't flash and I did bugger all. Oh yes, I did get a haircut.

On Friday I went to Lynn Canyon Park with Luke, an Aussie bloke I met in Seattle, nice walk in the forest, and that night went to the football game between BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders. The game was fun and exciting - it was a draw with 5 minutes to go and then with 5 seconds to go BC scored a field goal to win. Canadian football is very similar to American football, lots of players trotting on and off the field, depending on whether they are on offence or defence. Interesting though, they have a commentator to tell you what has just happened, and the chief referee is wired so he can explain his decisions to the audience.

Saturday, I went to Squamish and back. Squamish is a small town about an hour or so from Vanncouver. I walked around a bit then got the bus back to Vancouver. It was nice enough but not very exciting.

On Sunday Luke and I went for a walk along the seawall around the harbour - nice. The weather was great (as it had been since Tuesday) and it was a nice way to spend the day. On Monday I did bugger all until it was time to go to the hockey. The hockey was fun. It was the Vancouver Canucks' third game of the season and their first at home. They had lost the first two so everyone was hoping they would win, they didn't. But it was fun anyway, and the stadium is excellent.

On Tuesday I got up early to catch the Whistler Mountaineer train to Whistler. Great train ride, spectacular scenery along Howe Sound (actually a fjord) and another beautiful day. Once I got to Whistler I met up with Luke, who had gone there by bus, and we did a few walks around the place - there are a lot of walking/mounain bike trails around Whistler. Again, the weather was great and it was a nice day for wandering. Then I got the bus back to Vancouver.

On Wednesday I wandered around town a bit more than I had earlier, went into the historical part, called Gastown, and discovered it is where most of the homeless hang out. I didn't stay long. I passed through Chinatown on the way back to the hostel. I have always found Chinatowns to be a bit of an anti-climax and this was no different.

That night I went to the second hockey game - Vancouver v Montreal. The pressure was on for a win and the Canucks delivered by thrashing Montreal 7 - 1. Good fun again. To give you an idea how big Hockey is in North America here are some numbers. There is a salary cap - 'only' $US56.8 million per team, with one player allowed $11.35 million. The Vancouver Canucks extended their goaltender's contract by 12 years in a deal worth $64 million (all salaries in the NHL are paid in US$). The stadium only holds 20,000 (ice rinks aren't that big) but the tickets start at $73 (plus tax). The replica jerseys are a good source of income. $90 for a woman's, $140 for a man's (I don't know why they cost $50 more, but they do and no, I didn't buy one). To buy a man's jersey with the number and name of your favourite player costs $220 - that is a lot more than English football shirts. They charge that much because people pay that much. I saw a lot of fans wearing jerseys. There were a lot of families there, it must cost a fortune to take your kids to a game, the food and drink is well overpriced but again people pay it - they sell a lot of beer. Anyway, the game is exciting and very quick, and, on occasion violent. I can definitely see why they like it so much.

Thursday I wandered around a bit more but spent most of the day relaxing with a good book.

On Friday morning I decided at the last minute to do a tour to Capilano Canyon. This tour is organised by an old bloke who does it voluntarily for guests of the hostel. It was okay, but too much time in the city and not enough in the forest once we got there. We got there by bus and ferry. The forest was really nice but we seemed to be in too much of a hurry. There was an Australian girl on the tour who I had met in Jasper and also bumped into in Juneau so that was good, but she has a fungus fetish; she wanted to take photos of all the mushrooms so I waited for her and as a result we ended up getting left behind in the forest and then had no idea which track the group had taken. So we picked one and followed it, eventually we caught up with them but we had taken completely different tracks to get there. Funny. Then we had lunch and we all walked to the Capilano canyon swing bridge - what a tourist trap this is. They have a tree-top walk as well, but the one in Malaysia was much much better.

That night we went out and wandered around as we were going to try to get some night photos, didn't really work and Vancouver isn't that photogenic as cities go. But we did find the Steam Clock, which is a clock powered by steam. We fluked it by arriving just before 10pm as every hour it uses steam whistles to play the Westminster chiimes and chime the hour.

On Saturday we went to see Stanley Park again, it really is a real asset to the city, and would be to any city. So today is Sunday, my last day here. Later on today I will head to the airport and get on the plane home. It has been fun but it is time to go home. For those of you in NZ I look forward to catching up with you all, hopefully soonish. For those I caught up with along the way, it was great to see you again and I look forward to seeing you again one day.

Song of the day: End of an era, by the Dogs

Distance travelled so far:

21776k's by plane
14423k's by train
5880k's by road
2136 nautical miles (3951k's)




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Seattle, Washington, United States

Hullo

Last time I had arrived in Port Alberni but had yet to do anything much. The next day I hired a bike and went for a bike road or about 30 k's to see some salmon trying to jump up a waterfall. There is a salmon ladder there but not all the salmon use it. It was fun to see them jumping, and there was more light than at Ketchikan so I could get better photos. Some of them were hitting the rocks with a loud smack sound - that has got to hurt. I was going to cycle further but my left knee started to get sore whenever I put pressure on it. Not wanting to cripple myself I headed back to the hostel. I guess I am getting old.

Friday I got the bus back to Nanaimo. Spent the night and then on Saturday afternoon got the train to Victoria. The train ride was nice, through the forest, across some ravines on some very tall bridges - the train stopped on them so we could all get a good look at the view. Off the train, to the hostel, dinner, bed.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I did another whale tour in the hope of seeing orcas (killer whales). There are some resident orcas here, but we didn't see them, we saw some transient orcas instead. The 2 types look the same but behave quite differently - for example the residents are fish eating, while the transients are more into eating seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals. The residents have been seen using seals as toys and once the seals die the whales leave them alone, bit like cats with mice. Apparently there is a third type of orca; offshore orcas, about which not much is known, Anyway, we didn't get very close to the orcas. We saw them from a distance so headed towards them but they dived and then showed up in a completely different place and not where their earlier direction of travel would suggest they were going. So we headed towards them again (not charging at them, there are rules about how close you can get, etc) and the same thing happened again. Oh well, there you go. But it was nice to see them - magnificent beasties that they are. We did see sea lions and humpback whales too.

Once back on dry land I had some lunch then went for a walk around the waterfront. There is a walking path that goes for a bloody long way, I only went for a couple of hours before turning back. The waterfront is really nice, and very accessible on foot. There are walking trails on both sides of the harbout, so planned on doing the other side the next day. There are lots of nice expensive-looking boats in the marinas and even house boats - nice but costs about $800 Canadian to be connected to power, water, sewage, etc plus the $400,000 or so to buy one of them. If that doesn't interest you there are plenty of apartments (or condos as they are called here). One of the condo buildings has a penthouse apartment which is 4 stories of luxury - sold for $22 million. Nice for some, apparently several people from Alberta who did well out of the oil boom there have summer homes in Victoria.

On the harbour there are several ferries running around - they are like a bus service on water, except more frequent than any bus service I have experienced. The ferries are the same as the tiny one I rode from Nanaimo to Newcastle Island. I was liking Victoria (which is the capital of British Columbia), and the weather, as I said, was fantastic and the forecast was excellent too.

So, anyway, on Monday I did bugger all - needs to be done. I was waiting for an email from my travel agent with my confirmed flight home, once I got that I could book my ferry to Seattle. I needed it as crossing into Canada is a pain because the border guys suspect everyone of wanting to overstay. Not likely with winter coming on. But with a confirmed flight it should be sweet as. That evening I went to the cinema to see Inglourious Basterds (yes I know those words are both spelled wrong but that is the way they are spelled for this movie, ok) - very good movie, recommended.

Tuesday was more walking around the harbour, different walking trails but nice, they really have done a good job of the waterfront there. I also went for a wander in Beacon Hill Park, a nice park not far from the hostel. In the evening I went back to the cinema to see Distrcit 9 - also very good.

On Wednesday I got a bus to Thetis Lake Park, a very nice wilderness area where I did a walk around the lower and upper Thetis Lakes. It was nice, and so close to town too. In the afternoon I walked down to the waterfront and caught the ferry to Seattle. The ferry ride was good - biggish catamaran seating about 330 people and doing 30knots, it was less than 3 hours to Seattle. Once in

The next day the weather didn't look flash, overcast and not very warm, but it didn't matter as I got a bus to the Museum of Flight. The museum is run by a trust (not part of Boeing) and is excellent. I spent about 5 hours wandering around looking at the exhibits. There was the main gallery with reproductions of early gliders and the Wright brothers' plane and various other real aircraft including a modified SR-71 – the highest flying, fastest airplane ever. This one was a modified version from which they wanted to launch drones to spy on the Soviets however it didn't work as well as anticipated (on the 2nd test the drone hit the plane and caused it to crash) so they modified the drones to be launched from bombers instead.

I wandered into the gallery containing WWI and WWII aircraft – to me this was like a war memorial. They treated all pilots from all sides of the wars with equal respect which was nice. They also have the original shed that Mr Boeing used to build his first planes in (the first two went to NZ and were never heard of again – apparently they were scrapped in 1924), they moved the shed from its original waterfront location to the museum. The shed now contains mock-ups of the Boeing factory as it looked way back then. They also have several aircraft parked outside, including the first Air Force One, the Concorde which made the last Concorde flight, and the very first 737 and 747 ever built. Once I got outside to look at these planes, and you can walk through the Concorde and Air Force One, I realised that the weather had cleared up and it was a rather lovely day, one of 60 sunny days Seattle gets on average in a year.

Once I got back to town I wandered to the Seattle Center (I hate that spelling, but that is what it is called) – this is where they had the World Fair in 1962 and is home to the Space Needle (didn't go up) and some museums, a sculpture park (some good, rest just pretentious wank as far as I could tell – wouldn't it be great to put a whole lot of art people and a whole lot of wine buffs in a room together and let them bore each other to death?), the opera house, and other stuff like that. I wandered around and then rode the monorail ("the world's first full-size monorail") back to the centre of town – not to be confused with the Seattle Center.

The next day (another sunny day) I went on a tour to the Boeing plant at Everett, north of Seattle. They don't allow any electronics or cameras in the building so no photos. This is where they build the 747 and 777, and assemble the 787 (most of which is built elsewhere and then the bits are flown here to be stuck together). They have just started to build the new model of 747, the 747-8. There were 2 of them parked almost completed in the building and they managed to look small, although they are in fact bigger than the previous 747. This is a very large building – the world's biggest by volume. It covers 40 hectares, and has a volume of 13.3 million cubic metres. The numbers are impressive, but you really have to see it to appreciate how HUGE this place is.

After visiting the 747 bay we went to the 777 bay, there was one almost complete and a few others in various stages of construction, again they just didn't seem to make the area look full. Then we saw the 787 assembly area – yes, they are building 787's (or the 7 late 7 as someone called it). This is scheduled to make its first flight later this year and delivery should start late next year. It is only about 2 years late so far. Still, a nice airplane. They have already built 6 of them and numbers 7, 8, and 9 are under construction now – obviously they figure all the issues are solved and that it will get certification. I could give you lots of numbers to give you an idea how huge this place is (like the 3.2 kilometres of pedestrian tunnels under the building) and about the planes themselves (like the fact that a 747 paint job can involve up to 545kg's of paint) but most of you probably don't want me to do that.

Then back to town, where I did a tour of the underground part of Seattle. Yes, there is an underground area, there is a very long and entertaining story behind this part of Seattle's history (too long to go into here) and the tour was very entertaining also. Just trust me when I say that Seattle has an interesting history, most of which isn't in the mainstream history books as it involves nefarious activities (did you know that once upon a time when the population of Seattle was about 25,000 that there were 2,500 'seamstresses' in town? Anyway, thus ended another day in Seattle.

My hostel is about 100 metres from the famous Pike Place Market, which I decided to explore another day, and just around the corner from the original Starbucks (whoopee, but you would be amazed how many people I saw taking photos of the place and/or having their photo taken in front of it). You would also be amazed, or, like me, appalled, at how many Starbucks there are in this city (along with all the other coffee shops), there seems to be one at every intersection, and I am not exaggerating.

On Saturday I got up and wandered around part of the market, it is spread over 2 buildings and 3 levels, it is a (big word warning) veritable labyrinth where you can buy pretty much anything. Most of the shops weren't open yet so it was very quiet and a nice time to have a look around - no crowds. Then I headed back to the Settle Center to visit the Experience Music Project which is a museum dedicated to rock music, especially that originating in Seattle. There was a whole gallery dedicated to the evolution of the electric guitar. There is even an area where you can play various instruments, and buy a CD of yourself doing so. The whole place is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, a Seattle boy. I also visited the Science Fiction museum, also very good and entertaining. I then wandered around the market for a while again before riding a ferry to Bainbridge Island and back, just for the ride and a chance to see Seattle from the water. This was a nice way to spend an hour or so. And that was pretty much my day.

Seattle is fun, I like it and I still have one more day here.

By the way, I arrive in Auckland at stupid o'clock in the morning of Tuesday 13 October. Anyone in Auckland who wants to catch up I was thinking Saturday night at the bar on Aotea Square (can't remember the name of it but it is the only bar there). The rest of you in NZ, I will hopefully catch up with you at some stage.

Song of the day : Science Fiction Double Feature from the Rocky Horror Show (the song they were playing as I walked into the Science Fiction museum).

Distance travelled so far:

21776k's by plane
14052k's by train
5621k's by road
2136 nautical miles (3951k's)



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Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada

Greetings

Well I sent my last entry on Sunday, after going for another walk at Port Hardy to look for bears, and we saw another one - yay! The next day was Monday (Labour Day in Canada) and I did very little, and enjoyed every moment of it. On Tuesday morning I got the Greyhound bus to Courtenay, a bigger town of about 20,000 people. I walked to the hostel (about 30 minutes and lots of sweat) and got there at 2.45 to find their office was closed until 4. So I sat outside on the deck and logged into their wireless network until someone let me in, just as it started to rain. I did nothing of note the rest of the day.

I woke up (a good start to any day) on Wednesday morning to find it was raining - bugger - so I spent the day wandering around town and just generally doing not much. I thought about seeing a movie but they only show movies in the evening. I read a lot. I spent a bit of time looking at options for seeing more of Vancouver Island, and came up with a general plan.

Thursday was, according to the forecast, going to be a lovely day. I woke up and it was overcast and threatening to rain. But an English guy I met at the hostel, Andy, and myself decided to get the bus to a little town near Courtenay called Comox. We went out of curiosity and lack of much else to do. Once we got there the weather cleared up nicely. We went for a walk along Goose Spit which was nice. On the way we saw a Coast Deer Doe with her fawn, in a suburban street! Anyway, after walking to the end of the spit we headed back to town for lunch then got the bus back. That was that.

On Friday (beautiful day) I got the train (a one car railcar) to Nanaimo. Found my hostel, checked in, dumped my stuff and went for a walk along the waterfront. There are river otters and seals in the marinas - fun trying to spot them. Lots of salmon around so lots of people fishing - it looks a bit like the rivers near Turangi with all the fishermen lined up. I saw one guy lose a fish to a seal - he was not impressed (the seal probably was though). On Saturday morning myeslf and a Swede called Eric caught the world's smallest ferry to Newcastle Island, a small island just off the coast. We wandered around the island - it is very beautiful over there, mostly forest but a lake and very nice coastline too. We then got back on the ferry and asked the bloke to drop us at the floating pub on the neighbouring island. From there we got another ferry back to town. Later on I wandered back along the waterfront to watch the sunset. The actual sunset was behind me but the sky in front of me was rather nice too. I like Nanaimo, it is a pleasant place. There are a few marinas here, lots of boats. The main difference between the marinas here and those in Prince Rupert and Alaska, is that here the boats are for pleasure, not work.

On Sunday morning I got a bus to Ucluelet, a small coastal town on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The bus ride was ok, good scenery along the way and it was over pretty quickly. The driver dropped me off outside the hostel, which was nice of him. After checking in I walked into town, but not along the road. I used the "Wild Pacific Trail", a very nice hike through the forest along the coast. Once in town I had a look around and went to the supermarket before heading back to the hostel.

The next morning I was up early and wandered back to town where I booked a whale watching tour for 11.30 and filled in time by doing the other bit of the "Wild Pacific Trail". The 2 pieces are separated by roads. This was also very nice and I was back in time to don my survival suit for the boat ride. The boat was a 8.5 metre rigid hull zodiac which was purpose built for the company with the local conditions in mind. I was a little bit concerned about sea-sickness but it wasn't a problem at all. We did see humpback whales, including a mother and calf. It was interesting to see the 'footprint' whales leave in the water, they leave behind disturbed water which stays visible for several minutes. Every now and then we would drift through a bit of air which a whale had exhaled, it smelled bad, but I guess Listerine isn't a big seller among whales. We also saw sea lions (both Stellar and Californian). It was difficult to get good photos from a boat bobbing up and down ont he ocean, but I gave it a go (I have included a few of them). I enjoyed the ride so much that when we got back to the wharf I paid to do bear watching tour in the same boat. This was also good and we say a mother and 2 cubs. Unfortunately they were on a beach where the water was too shallow for the boat, so no good photos but nice to see anyway. While we were watching a single male bear came down to the beach which caused the mother and 2 cubs to leave. All in all a good day.

On Tuesday I went for a short walk, read a book, went for another walk, looked for bears, and generally had a relaxing day. I enjoyed my time in Ucluelet, nice place. On Wednesday I walked into town with my stuff. I had some time to fill before my boat left so I wandered into the local Aquarium. This is housed in what looks like a shed, with enought room in it to park maybe 2.5 cars end to end. But, it was only $5 and it was brilliant. Not only can you see the exhibits, all of which are from the waters around Ucluelet, but the staff will spend time explaining them to you, will take them out of the tanks so you can touch them, and will generally take the time to show you how the critters live. I got talking to the curator about the sea stars (not star fish anymore as they aren't fish) and he spent about 15 minutes showing me and a few others who had gathered around how the sea stars move, eat, and how they react when he introduced some of their food (sea cucumber, scallops (ever seen a scallop swim? Quite impressive.), and sea urchins) to the tank, and how the prey reacted. It was fascinating and much better than just looking at them through glass. They reckon it is the smallest aquarium in North America, but I reckon it must be the most interactive. It is owned by a non-profit organisation. They are about to build new premises. By the way, at the end of tourist season all the exhibits are released back into the oceean.

Anyway just before 2pm I boarded the boat to Port Alberni. The boat only operates on this run in the Summer and only 3 days a week. The last run for the boat was on Friday so I timed it well. The boat ride was fine except for about 40 minutes of not very smooth open ocean between Ucluelet harbour and the Broken Islands (a cluster of 100 islands off the coast). We didn't see any whales, they usually do from the boat and did on the way to Ucluelet, but I guess I have seen lots of those so I wasn't too disappointed.

We arrived at Port Alberni at about 7pm and I wandered to the hostel. That is where I am now.

Anyway, enough! Take care :-)

Song of the day : The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python


Distance travelled so far:

21776k's by plane
13935k's by train
5536k's by road
2065 nautical miles (3824k's)

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Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada

Ok, so after writing my last entry I went for another wander around Juneau. I found the Russian Orthodox Church (remember, Alaska was once Russian). The interesting thing for me about this was that the Russian missionaries did services in the native language, the American missionaries forbade the natives from using their language, so the Russian church was the most popular - good job. I hate that missionaries think it is ok to go into another culture and try to rob the people of their spiritual beliefs, culture, and language. Anyway, rant over.

I wandered back to the hostel to check in. The hostel has a lock-out from 9am to 5pm, and a curfew at midnight. I got back a little early and got chatting to some other people who were waiting to check in also. No-one was impressed by the lock-out or the curfew. I checked in and was allocated my task for the day (straightening out the bookshelf - I didn't do it), went to the supermarket, then ate dinner. Later on about 10 of us from the hostel headed into town to see a bluegrass band at a local pub. But first we had to convince the hostel manager to let us out until midnight, she wanted to close up at 11. Ridiculous! But the band were fun and we made it back in time.

I met a couple of ladies from Sitka who were going on the same boat with their car so I arranged to ride with them, saving myself a $34 taxi ride. So next morning, up at 5.15 to get to the ferry. I could have stayed in bed another hour but that would have cost me the taxi fare (cars have to be checked in 2 hours before departure). The ferry was a fast catamaran and was nice, and fast (32 knots - approx 59kph, the other ferries do about 18 knots). The ride was smooth and we saw more whales. At Sitka the ladies gave me a ride to where I was couch surfing. There is no hostel in Sitka so I tried the couch surfing website and it worked. I stayed with a young couple - Seth and Gillian - from Oregon. They are Americorps volunteers - kind of like the Peace Corp but domestic. They are working with disadvantaged youth in Sitka. Nice people.

Anyway, after meeting them they had to go to work so they dropped me in town and I went wandering. I walked through the Sitka National Historical Park (nice forest with a river running through it, lots of salmon in the river; many of them dead having spawned) and then up to the Alaska Raptor Centre, where they look after injured eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls. I liked it there and I was able to take photos of the birds close up.

I got up on Sunday morning and went walkabout again. I went back to the Raptor Centre as the cloud wasn't as low and I thought I might have better light (not really as it turned out but the photos were better). Then I wandered around town some more, looked at a few historical sights, and generally just hung out really. Sitka used to be the base for the Russians when they owned Alaska, and it was here in 1867 that the hand-over ceremony took place. For several years Sitka was the capital of Alaska. These days Sitka is a fishing and tourist town - another stop on the cruise ship run.

Monday morning Seth very kindly dropped me off at the ferry (at 6.15) for a 7.15 departure. The boat ride was fine. I was back on the same boat I left Prince Rupert on so the Solarium was much better than on the other boat. I set myself up and set about relaxing. The weather was great, as was the scenery, and I met some interesting people. We had fabulous weather again the next day and I spent most of the day sitting on the back deck in my lounger enjoying the scenery, looking out for whales, reading, and listening to music. To think, lots of people pay lots of money to do that on cruise ships - ha!

We arrived in Ketchikan the next morning at 6.15 and I walked to my hostel, dumped my stuff, had breakfast and went for a walk. The weather was superb, which is a little unusual it would seem. The locals say that if you can't see the mountains it is raining, and if you can see them it will rain soon. They get an average of 3.75 metres of rain a year, less than Franz Josef.

I wandered into the main part of town and discovered that the cruise ships were in - three of them. Oh well, so dodging old people I walked towards Deer Mountain, stopping along the way to watch salmon try to jump up a waterfall (they have built a salmon ladder here; a concrete structure with water flowing through it which allows the fish to bypass the waterfall - by the way; the salmon swim up the exact same stream they were born in), then set off to walk to the top of Deer Mountain. I knew I was unfit, and this walk reminded me in the worst way. By the time I got almost to the top, and enjoyed the great view, my legs were rubbery and sore, I was short of breath and sweating like the proverbial. The track got very narrow, the drop off got very high, and I figured that with my legs like they were I was likely to plummet to my death, or at least to my great deal of pain, so I turned around. Wuss? Maybe. I then wandered to the post office to post the door key I had inadvertently left with back to Seth and Gillian. The post office didn't have any envelopes. What sort of post office doesn't sell envelopes? I found a shop which sells envelopes and I bought one, only to then discover that I had lost the key!

Then I went back to the hostel, after having lunch, and there I met the owner who was out when I arrived. What a character. About 60'ish I guess, swears more than I do, and generally a bit grumpy. I am not sure what to make of him, when I phoned him to make the booking he was really good. He seems to have good days and bad days from what I can gather.

Next day I was still in Ketchikan until 9pm when my ferry left for Prince Rupert. I wandered into town thinking it would be nicer without the cruise ships only to discover that 3 more had arrived. Unbelievable. So I went back to the salmon ladder (watching them try to get up the falls is fun) and wandered around town. The towns here in South East Alaska are all long and narrow, they follow the coast as they all have steep hills behind them. Some of the streets are very steep, the walk to the hostel in Ketchikan was a test. A lot of the towns here are on islands, including Sitka and Ketchikan, and of the 30 towns in South East Alaska only 3 are accessible by road. As you walk around in Ketchikan you are serenaded by the less than lovely sound of float planes taking off. The actual airport is on an island just across the narrow strait from town.

Anyway, in Ketchikan there used to be a lot of brothels, all on what is called Creek Street. The buildings are built on piles over the creek (more of a stream than a creek in my opinion). To get there from the salmon ladder you take "Married Mens' Trail", used by married men to get to the brothels without being seen by their wives.

By the way, McDonalds have decided that Americans aren't quite fat enough, so have introduced a one third of a pound burger. I haven't had one, I don't do McDonalds.

I got the bus to the ferry terminal and got straight on the boat, different ferry again but same sort of solarium as the first one. I set myself up and went to sleep. We arrived in Prince Rupert, also on an island - very close to the mainland,but still an island) at 4.30am (Canadian Pacific time) and I was offered a ride into town. I went straight to the hostel in the hope I could get in and nap on a couch, I was in luck and dozed off until the owner woke me at 8am and I checked in. After breakfast I went for a wander around town, did a bit of a hike, then walked out the highway to another walk which took me through a really nice piece of forest by the coast. There are bears and wolves living there, but I didn't see any of either. There are signs warning people to not take their dogs in but I saw several dogs being walked in there. The problem with dogs is the wolves will kill them, even ones on a leash. Then I hitched back to town with an interesting local. Once back in town I discovered another bloody cruise ship had arrived. I can't get away from them.

I had an early night as I had to be up to get a taxi to the ferry terminal, the boat was leaving at 7.30. I also found out from the guy I hitched with that British Columbia Ferries had one of their ferries sink a two and a half years ago. It was on the night run when it managed to hit an island. Rumour has it the two crew on the bridge at the time were ex lovers and were having a, shall we say reconciliation in the minutes leading up to the sinking. Oh well, they have been fired, I went to bed hoping the crew still employed are less easily distracted.

So I got up on Friday morning and shared a taxi with 3 others from the hostel to the ferry. They let us board and I found a nice spot to sit. I was sitting with 2 Canadian guys I met at the hostel, they are from Vancouver Island and had been on a cycling tour on the mainland. We got comfortable - there weren't many people on the boat, certainly not the 600 it can take - and settled in for the ride. The ferry is brand new, only been doing the run for almost 4 months (it is the replacement for the one that sank) and it looks like it. The ride was very smooth and we even got to visit the bridge - very state-of-the-art, an interesting 40 minutes. We saw some whales too. The weather wasn't great, rain on and off, but the scenery was good - I have not done the Alaskan Inside Passage and the Canadian Inside Passage. We arrived at Port Hardy at 10.30pm, where the bloke from the hostel was waiting for me. At the hostel I splashed out on my own room as most of the people staying there were getting up at 4.15am to get the ferry to Prince Rupert. I needed a good sleep, so it was well worth it. I moved into a dorm on Saturday morning.

So Saturday evening I went for a walk with an old'ish Frenchman to the Quatse River to look for bears - black bears, no grizzlies on the island. We wandered around the forest trail for a while and then we saw one! At last, I get close enough to a bear (more the other way around really) to get a photo. There was bugger all light, but it came out ok. We tried again on Sunday morning but didn't see any. On Sunday I did see two bald eagles sitting together on a dead tree - nice. And they were also close enough to get photos of. The town itself is small and quiet. The main tourist season is over, which is nice. The weather forecast was for rain all day Saturday and Sunday. It rained Saturday morning and night, but it cleard up during the day and Sunday was nice too. It all came together nicely. And no bloody cruise ship! (though I did see one sail pass to the south).

My travels from Anchorage to Port Hardy were largely dictated by ferry timetables, but I don't feel I have stayed too long or not long enough at any spot.

ps In case you didn't realise, if you click on the photos they get big.

Song of the day : Tally Ho! by the Clean

Distance travelled so far:

21776k's by plane
13827k's by train
5172k's by road
2019 nautical miles (3739k's)

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Juneau, Alaska, United States

I left Fairbanks on Thursday by train for Denali National Park. Denali is the native name (it means Mighty One) for Mt McKinley, the tallest mountain in the USA (6194 metres). The train ride was great. They let you stand at the end of the carriage where they have stable-like doors (the lower half of the door is closed but they leave the top open). This means being able to take photos without glass - yay! Also, in the dome on the dome cars there is an open terrace at one end so you can take photos from an elevated view point. Anyway, we passed through lots of forest and saw mountains, rivers, moose, eagles, and passed through a spectacular canyon. We even saw Mt McKinley. They tell me that it is rare to see the mountain with no cloud on it, so at last I get lucky with the weather - not a cloud in the sky (bit chilly though, especially when between carriages). Not bad, given that only a couple of days earlier there was snow falling on the mountains.

We arrived in Denali on time and I was able to leave my pack at the left luggage office while I had lunch and wandered into the visitor centre. There I decided to take the free shuttle up to Savage River, this is 15 miles (I am in America now, but it is about 24k's) up the road in the park. On the way we got great views of Mt McKinley. I did a short walk once we got there and then got the shuttle back down. We saw a Caribou off in the distance on the way as well. I got to the hostel on their shuttle and found that due to an administrative error they had double-booked my bed, so they gave me a tent to sleep in - for free! No problem, they gave me two sleeping mats and a very nice sleeping bag.

I got up early on Friday morning (bit frosty) to get the first free shuttle to the Wilderness Access Centre where I got on my bus into the park. We travelled about 100k's into the park along the only road, turned around and came back. We made several stops along the way and managed to see moose, golden eagles, grizzly bears (good news and bad news with the bears; bad news - they were too far away to get a good photo, good news - they were too far away to get a good photo), caribou, a fox, a wolf, and the reason the park exists - Dall Sheep (although they were just white dots on a mountain side in the distance). And the weather and the park itself were stunning, including Mt McKinley which was out in all its glory again - two days in a row, the locals were gob-smacked. There is only one road, and after the 15 mile point only the Park buses are allowed. The road is dirt and to try to minimise the dust and the effect it has on the plants they spray a chemical on it. They can't seal it because perma-frost doesn't do seal well (the same reason most of the Top of the World Highway and the streets of Dawson City are unsealed). There are a few marked tracks but mostly the park is designated as wilderness, so you can hike and camp anywhere you like apart from a few areas set aside for the wildlife only.

Saturday morning I slept in and decided to go for a walk after breakfast. I set off on the track up to Morning Mountain but the ankle I twisted on Whistlers Mountain at Jasper, and again since, started to hurt again so I turned back - no point wrecking myself. So I did not much, and enjoyed it lots.

The next day I got the shuttle back to the park entrance and to fill time until my train I got a free bus to the dog sled team area where they do a free demonstration and talk about the dogs. That was fun and then I went back to the train station to get on the train to Anchorage. This was another nice train ride, even though the weather wasn't so good. I got to Anchorage and walked to my hostel - I chose the hostel because it was close to the train station. I had the next day off just wandering around town, got a haircut, and wondered how a town could have so many odd people, seriously, there are some strange people in Anchorage. That evening a few of us from the hostel wandered down to the coast to see the sunset - very nice.

The next day I walked back to the station to get the train to Seward - I went for the day. I had no real choice as there is only one ferry from Whittier to Juneau a month and I wanted to be on it. Anyway, the train to Seward goes through some beautiful scenery. We passed a lot of dead trees, they were killed by the 1964 earthquake (9.2 on the richter scale) which caused the land to drop up to 4 metres, meaning the trees' roots were in salt water. Once in Seward I got on a boat for a 3 hour jaunt around Resurrection Bay. We saw sea otters, bald eagles, sea lions, puffins, mountain goats, jellyfish, and glaciers - there are lots of glaciers in Alaska. The train ride back was also great, we saw a very nice sunset as we came around the coast just out of Anchorage.
.
Next day I was back on a train, this time to Whittier. It was a shorter ride, just 2 hours, and the weather was pretty awful - rain, rain, and more rain. We did see a brown bear on the coastal cycle path just out of Anchorage though. I got talking to David on the train, he had just finished a cycle tour on Alaska and was going home to Juneau on the ferry. At the Whittier station we met 2 other cyclist tourists who were also going to be on the boat. The four of us went to the one cafe in town for lunch and then to the one bar in town. All the locals live in one building - there is no land to build houses, it is all owned by the Railroad. After a while we headed to the ferry terminal and waited to board.

Once on board I made my way up to the solarium, only to find it wasn't like the first ferry I was on. This solarium was a room at the top of the boat, no heating, but it did have the sun loungers. I grabbed one of those and dumped my gear on it and went to get some bedding and a towel from the purser (only costs $3). I then set my bed up and chatted to some other people on the boat. While I was waiting to get my bedding, etc I noticed the weather forecast - not good. They were forecasting 22 foot (about 7 metres) seas for that night, 25 foot seas for the next day and night. I get sea sick. Later on I was talking to the purser and I told him I was in the solarium, he said that part of the boat would be the worst due to being so high. I asked where else can I sleep and he pointed to the couch behind me. Ah, I thought, good idea. So I grabbed my gear and moved onto the couch. The purser's office is on the lowest passenger deck so less movement.

I met the 3 cyclists in the bar for a while, had dinner, and went to bed on my couch. I ate some ginger biscuits and, before going to sleep, took a Dramamine. This is a sea sickness medication which supposedly doesn't make you drowsy, not sure about that but I slept through some very rough seas. Great sleep actually. I spent the whole day on my couch, I didn't see any point in not, I could read, listen to music, etc. I did get off to have lunch and dinner. I also got off the boat briefly at our stop at Yakutat. It was raining quite heavily and there wasn't much to see, but it was nice to walk on land again. Back on the boat, had dinner, chatted in the bar for a while, back to the couch. The weather that night was even worse than the first night, the ferry was crashing headlong through 7 - 8 metre waves - I was oblivious thanks to my couch and Dramamine.

I woke up to find we were in calmer waters approaching Juneau. We arrived in Juneau 2 hours late due to the weather, and I got a ride with David to the hostel. The hostel has a lock-out so I couldn't check in but they do have a storage area for bags. I dumped my bag and went into town to look around. Juneau is the capital of Alaska and is the only state capital in the USA you can't drive to - you have to arrive by boat or plane. It is a regular stop off for cruise ships and there were two in town when we arrived. Just like Skagway, there are lots of tourist shops, most of them owned by the cruise lines. I had lunch then wandered into a hotel lobby to use their wireless internet, where I am writing this.



Well, that is me up to date. I hope all is going well for all of you who read this (probably about 2 or 3 people).

See ya

Colin

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1250187853/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1250187853/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1250187853/tpod.html Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:53:28 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Fairbanks, Alaska, United States

Well, I am as far north as I expect to get.

Anyway, last time I was in Jasper. I spent my last day there mountain biking some walking/cycling trails around Jasper - lots of fun, great views, but no bears (probably a good thing). I also rediscovered how unfit I am. Incidentally, whilst hiking I was whistling to alert any bears to my presence (they don't like surprises), then I read somewhere that you shouldn't whistle as to bears this sounds like a wounded animal!

On Saturday afternoon I got on the train to Prince George. This was a nice train ride, even if the weather didn't co-operate and the clouds hid a lot of the mountains. We arrived in Prince George about 7pm and I got a taxi to the university residences where I stayed, had dinner, went to bed. Prince George is not an exciting destination. Next morning back to the station to catch the train to Prince Rupert. Another nice train ride, but all day this time. Again, some really nice scenery. Anyway we got to Prince Rupert and the hostel picked me and 8 others up from the train. Nice hostel too. The next day I did bugger all, wandered around town and looked at the museum, but spent most of the day inside - I was fighting a cold and it seemed like a good idea to stay warm. That evening I got on the ferry to Skagway.

The ferry was pretty big and if you didn't pay for a cabin (I didn't - cost $80 a night) you could sleep on plastic sun-bathing type recliners in the "Solarium". This is basically an area with glass roof and 3 walls open to the back of the boat. It has heaters hanging from the roof. So very warm by day and warmish by night. It was fun though, interesting people to talk to and a surprisingly good sleep. We had all day Wednesday to take in the scenery - mountains, islands, glaciers, humpback whales, bald eagles, etc and then spent Wednesday night on the boat too. Along the way we stopped off at a few places to drop off and pick up passengers. At a couple of places some of us wandered ashore for half an hour or so to have a look.

We arrived in Skagway on Thursday morning, right on time, and managed to squeeze in to the harbour amongst the 4 very large cruise ships. Skagway is a major tourist trap - I counted 25 Jewellery shops, not bad for a town with a permanent population of 800. All but one of these stores (the other one is local) close in the winter and the owners and staff relocate to Mexico or the Carribbean to sell to cruise ship passengers there. I tried to only visit locally owned shops and cafes (I asked around) and I think I succeeded. Town is crawling with retired people off the cruise ships - mobility scooters, wheelchairs, walkers, walking sticks all over the place. It is a nice little town though, lots of 100 year old buildings, even the footpaths are wooden. I did a couple of short hikes around the town, and wandered around town a bit. The highlight for me was watching the Salmon swimming up the streams. They do this to spawn, and then die. The locals were surprised at how far up the streams the salmon were this year.

So the next morning up early to check in for my train ride on the White Pass and Yukon Route. This is a privately owned railroad built between May 1898 and July 1900 to service the Klondike gold rush. It now operates as a tourist service (the length of its operating season is dictated by the cruise ship schedules) from Skagway to Carcross (it used to go as far as Whitehorse) and goes through some great scenic country, and up some very steep gradients. The railway is narrow gauge - only 3 feet - to enable it to get around some sharp curves. They use 1950's era diesel electric locomotives and early 20th century carriages (complete with pot bellied stove for heating).

The views were great (even with the Alaskan weather - low cloud - we actually went into the cloud at the White Pass summit of 873 metres), the included lunch at Bennett Lake was good, and I had fun, which is the main thing I guess. We crossed into Canada, but did the the border formalities a bit further down the line. The Canadian border guard was a bit dubious about me, asked me when I was going home (I am only allowed 6 months in Canada, and this apparently counts from when you first arrive) and my booked flight home is about a month after that. But, he did let me in, but I have a horrible feeling I am going to go through all that again when I re-enter Canada after Alaska The first bit of Canada we went through is British Columbia and then later on we entered the Yukon Territory. We arrived in Carcross and spent a couple of hours in this very small town. I wandered into a local jewellery store to see some photos of an old paddle boat that used to travel up the river and "I got you" by Split Enz was playing on the stereo - the lady tells me Split Enz were big in Canada. It was nice to hear a little bit of home so far from home. From Carcross I got to Whitehorse by coach. Due to an administrative error my bed at the hostel was sold so they put me into an old non-running VW Combi van - nice, all to myself with no noise - perfect!

I was going to spend a few nights in Whitehorse but to be honest there is bugger all there, unless you have a car and can get out to the wilderness, so when I was offered a ride to Dawson City I took it. It is only 535 kilometres away. It was good timing as that weekend was the anniversary of the first gold strike in the Klondike in 1897, so they were having their annual Discovery Weekend. This included the Mud-Bog, which is where they race their modified 4-wheel drives through lots of mud - great fun. I watched that for a while (in the rain - they don't get much rain in Dawson City but I seem to be a rain god at the moment). The streets in Dawson City are dirt, the footpathes are boardwalks, and some of the buildings are sinking as the permafrost under them thaws a little then re-freezes.

The hostel in Dawson City is a bit odd. It is basically cabins scattered around the place in among toilet blocks, bathrooms, and kitchen. There is no power, phone, or showers - you wash by heating water on a wood stove, then mix the hot water with cold water in a bucket and then pour the water over yourself. I haven't used a bucket to wash since I was in Pakistan. To get to the hostel you need to use the ferry to cross the Yukon River. The ferry is free and is paid for by the Yukon Territory Government instead of building a bridge. The ferry is part of the road to Alaska. It only runs until September when ice blocks the river and the Top of the World road is closed anyway.

In town there is a place called Diamond Tooth Gertie's - a casino. What they do here is recreate the atmosphere of the days of the Klondike Gold Rush. Every evening they have a show starring Gertie and the Can-Can dancers - wow, they are good. It is a lot of fun and they have 3 shows a night, so I watched all 3 on Sunday night and 2 of them on Monday - it only costs $6 and that is good for 2 days.

On Tuesday I tried to hitch a ride to Alaska, and succeeded after 3 hours. I was picked up by a young English/Canadian couple and they drove me all the way to Fairbanks. The road is called the Top of The World Highway (a dirt road for large stretches) and crossed from Canada into the USA. The border post is at a place called Poker Creek (population 2). Crossing into the USA is easy, unless you are flying in, yet crossing into Canada can be difficult. That is a surprise. Anyway, we carried on and joined up with the Alaska Highway. We stopped at a place called Chicken (fun place, was supposed to be called Ptarmigan but the miners couldn't spell that so called it Chicken) then on to Tok (used to Tokyo Camp but during WWII they shortened it to Tok due to not liking the Japanese). Then on to Fairbanks, via a small town called North Pole, where you can find Santa Claus. Very nice. So we stopped for a look.

I am in Fairbanks now. I have been to the supermarket to buy food (very expensive here to eat) for today and while I am in Denali National Park, my next stop. Well, assuming I get an email from the hostel telling me I have a bed and there is space on the train.

Right, done.

I hope all is well. See ya

Colin

Song of the day: I Got You by Split Enz

21776k's by plane
12802k's by train
5172k's by road
696 nautical miles


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248999938/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248999938/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248999938/tpod.html Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:31:22 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Jasper, Alberta, Canada

Last time I was in Winnipeg and it was raining on and off. The next day it was just raining. I slept in late, much needed after two nights trying to get comfortable on the train, then went into the VIA station to buy my train tickets from Edmonton to Jasper, and Jasper to Prince Rupert. Unfortunately due it being the last day of the 60% sale there was a bit of a queue and by the time I was at the front of the queue the ticket office was closing. Fortunately they gave those of us still in the queue a voucher each which gave us another week to buy tickets at 60%. The reason the queue moved so slowly was the people who got to the counter and then figured out where they were going and when, instead of sorting that out while in the queue. I wonder if people that stupid need reminding to breathe. So I walked back to the hostel in the rain.

On Saturday (no rain, sunny with blue skies) I got up early to go back to the station to buy my tickets. There was no queue at all so it was nice and quick. I even bought my ticket from Jasper to Vancouver. It was 60% off and is fully refundable and exchangeable. I wandered back to the hostel and relaxed until it was time to head back to the station to get on the train. I shared a taxi with Matt and Caitlin, it is a 20 minute walk so a taxi seemed a good idea.

As I was travelling with Matt and Caitlin the train crew gave us seats facing each other, which was nice. The train crews have all been very friendly and helpful. Sleeping arrangements were debated, should I sleep in the luggage rack at the end of the carriage, or in the overhead rack? Ultimately I found a nice piece of floor and baggsed it for the night. The crew pass out pillows and blankets as the sun goes down so you can try to make yourself comfortable. I have had trouble trying to get comfortable enough to sleep but have got a few hours in each night.

As we left Winnipeg the terrain was very flat and we passed great swathes of yellow fields – rape, or canola as they call it here. There were also fields of lavender. As you travel by train in Canada you often stop in the middle of nowhere to allow freight trains to pass, this can take some time as the trains are very long - we counted 135 carriages on one. Canadian National own the lines so they get priority over the passenger trains.

So, on we went. I sat up in the dome for a while, it was fun talking to some other passengers and watching out for wildlife in the fields. We saw martins (similar to a stoat), deer, hawks, and coyotes (but no roadrunners). We also saw some little shelters and, later on, what looked like tents in the fields. We were trying to figure out what their purpose was (I suggested they were for all the homeless people they would ship out of Vancouver while the Winter Olympics are on in February) so we asked one of the crew who told us they are for the beehives, all the crops are pollinated by bees. I am not sure why bees need shelter for their hives. We passed a lot of grain silos where the grain is loaded into the trains. We also passed a few potash mines.

So I went off to try to sleep about 10pm and managed to get a bit of sleep during the night. I was awake in time to get up and ready to get off in Edmonton - we arrived at about 6.50am. I found my way to a bus stop and got the bus to town and then walked to the hostel. I got my room, showered, had some breakfast and then phoned Suzy (who I met in New Brunswick and bumped into again in Quebec). She came and picked me up, we went and got her boyfriend then we all headed to West Edmonton Mall, once the largest mall in the world. It is now just the fifth largest. Anyway, this place is huge and contains the world's biggest water slides and an amusement park, where we played for a few hours before seeing a movie. The amusement park has 3 roller coasters and a variety of other rides, some of which I refused to do (that heights thing again). One of the roller coasters is billed as the world's largest triple loop indoor roller coaster. I suspect it is the world's ONLY triple loop indoor roller coaster. To give you an idea how big this place is; it has its own China Town, a street called Bourbon Street based on New Orleans, more than 100 food places, a full-sized ice rink, aquarium, 35 shoe shops, 37 womens' wear shops, 11 mens' wear shops, 74 unisex clothing shops. Insane, the place is insane.

Anyway, on Monday (a public holiday in Canada - no apparent reason, just a holiday) we went to the last day of the Heritage Festival. This is where the various expat communities in Edmonton can show off their culture and food. This was fun, but the highlight for me was the aboriginal (Canadian aboriginals, formerly known as Red Indians) dancing - awesome, and the costumes were great, very colourful.

I got back on the train on Tuesday morning and rode for 5 and a half hours to Jasper. The weather was disappointing, overcast, but the ride was nice and we passed some nice lakes and rivers. We arrived at Jasper and I asked at the tourist information how to get to the hostel and found out it is a $5 shuttle ride away. The hostel is 7 k's from town, which they neglect to mention on the website. They also don't tell you that the dorm has 44 beds in it, and that the lights go out at 11pm and come on again at 8am, so no sleeping in. Seems a bit like a school camp to me. Oh well, I caught up with Matt and Caitlin again and JF (Jean Francois) who we met on the train, so that was nice.

On Wednesday (wet and cold) we hired a car and drove down towards Banf to visit the Icefields, basically the Athabasca Glacier. Pretty awesome, you can walk up almost to the glacier but there are lots of signs warning you to not go past the rope. From there we headed back north stopping off at some waterfalls and went up to Mt Edith Cavell where we could see the Edith Cavell and Angel Glaciers. We were hoping to see bear but didn't. But we did see some chipmunks, squirrels, and elk (Wapiti to the rest of us, in Europe the word elk is used for what the Canadians call Moose - all very confusing).

Thursday was a beautiful day so JF and myself walked up Whistlers Mountain which is just behind the hostel. I knew I was unfit but boy this was hard work, but the views made it worthwhile. There is a cable car that goes up and down but we chose to not do that. We walked back down and then I went on a Wildlife Tour, again hoping to see bears. We didn't, but we did see a 7 pointer Elk who was shedding his velvet (making him very pissed off and dangerous), a coyote, a bald eagle, golden eagle, and a pika. Nice tour, but still no bears - a paw result.

Today, Friday (also a gorgeous day), I went for a hike on some of the trails around town. I was hoping to see a bear, but at the same time hoping not to - they are dangerous. I didn't see any bears but it was a nice walk anyway. I have one more full day here then get the train to Prince George on Sunday and on to Prince Rupert on Monday.

Right, I know this was a long effort and I have also uploaded lots of photos but so much is happening here and the place and the beasties are so beautiful.

See ya

Song of the day: Saskatchewan by Superette

Distance Travelled :
21776k's by plane
11534k's by train
4020k's by road
211 nautical miles
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248309578/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248309578/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1248309578/tpod.html Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:07:47 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Well, last time I wrote I was going to go to Niagara Falls the following day. And I did. It was a nice trip but the weather didn't play along - overcast skies. My photos aren't great - it is hard to tell where the sky ends and the falls begin. Oh well, shit happens I guess. We started out visiting a vineyard/winery, yes they make wine over here despite the harsh winter. In fact this winery makes an ice wine. They use grapes that have been left on the vine through winter and have had 3 consecutive nights of -8 degrees celsius or colder. They are picked in the middle of the night while they are frozen. Apparently the wine is very sweet.

Then we headed to Niagara on the Lake, a small Canadian town on the shore of Lake Ontario. This is also where people swimming across Lake Ontario start their swim, it is 52 kilometres. While we were there a deaf woman started her swim to raise money for a summer camp for deaf children. Then we went to Queenston Heights where the Canadians defeated the USA in a crucial battle in the early days of the 1812 war.

Then it was on to the Falls themselves. Impressive, it must be said. And only 75% of the water is flowing, the rest is used to make power. Overnight it drops to 50%. It was also interesting to note that the crowds are very small this year due to the new rules requiring Americans and Canadians to have passports to cross the border. This rule was brought in at the behest of the paranoid Americans and is having a huge impact on the Canadian tourism industry as most Americans don't have passports. It has to be said that there were still lots of people there, I am glad I wasn't there when tourism is at its peak.

Anyway, we did the Maid of the Mist boat ride up to the falls - got a bit wet from the spray. They did give us all disposable ponchos to wear, it looked like a boat load of penises with blue condoms on. At one point the mist makes it appear like a white-out, you can't see anything. After that we went up the Skylon Tower. We had bought our tickets for this before I was told the lifts are on the outside of the building (my thing with heights is getting worse) but survived and the view was good and you could take photos without having windows in the way - yay! They have some really big mesh to stop suicides but you can stick your camera through the holes easy enough. Then after heading back to the ground we wandered around for a while getting wet from the spray from the falls, before heading back to Toronto.

I woke up on Thursday to rain - it rained most of the day. I went down to the train station to check on the strike. The engineers who are represented by the teamsters (oh oh) gave notice of going on strike so VIA (the government-owned passenger train company) cancelled all long distance trains (and in Canada the trains are long distance, from Toronto to Winnipeg is 1943 kilometres, to Vancouver it is 4466k's) to avoid passengers getting stranded en route. They didn't know whether my train would be affected or not.

On Friday I joined a tour with Moose Travel to Algonquin Provincial Park. I was one of the last to be picked up and I knew as soon as I got in the van it was going to be a good trip - the others on the tour were great, we all had a good time together for 3 days. 4 of us - me, Regina (Reg) and Ianina (Ian), sisters from Melbourne, and Tony from England) in particular. The tour itself was good too. The park is home to wolves (we saw none), bears (none of them either), moose (nope, didn't see moose), beavers (none seen) and other wildlife (saw some toads and a chipmunk). Oh well, we did some nice hikes, went swimming and canoed up to a waterfall where we slid down on the smooth'ish rocks using life jackets to sit on.

On the way back to Toronto we drove through a spectacular electrical storm and also heard, via the radio, that the train strike had been called off - yay! And VIA were offering 60% off all train tickets for three days by way of trying to make up to passengers. I went to the station on Monday to buy my ticket from Winnipeg to Edmonton. I was going to stop off in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan but there isn't much to do there and there is no hostel so I decided to head to Edmonton. The rest of the day I caught up with Reg, Ian, and Tony and we did lunch, a movie, dinner and generally just hung out together.I did bugger all on Tuesday in Montreal, basically sat around the hostel until I decided to go to Subway to buy dinner, I got back to the hostel to see the other three being dropped off from their Niagara Falls trip, they had come to my hostel, where none of them were staying, just to see me - it was nice to see them and we hung out together and then they walked with me to the train station.

Toronto really isn't that flash to be honest. It is ok, but there isn't a great deal to do or see. I didn't go up the CN tower as the weather really hasn't been good enough to spend $21 on it. I managed to get a good picture of it though during a 2 minute break in the cloud cover. All of Eastern Canada has had a pretty crap summer weather-wise. Lots of rain, fog, low cloud and humidity. I was lucky in some places, not so lucky elsewhere. By the way, the other strike involving city employees was settled on Monday night, so clearing up the rubbish should start soonish.

Anyway, on the train I met an English couple (Matt and Katelin) and a couple of Canadian guys and we played cards and chatted at various times on the journey. We left Toronto at 10pm Tuesday and arrived in Winnipeg at 7.10am - fifty minutes early! The train trip was fine, we passed through lots of forest and past lots of lakes, with a few stops in small towns along the way. Matt and Katelin also got off in Winnipeg and were staying at the same hostel so we walked to the hostel together and, after showering for the first time since Monday night and having breakfast, we wandered into town together. There isn't much to see here, but we were amazed at how wide the city streets are - one was 12 lanes, most seem to be 6 to 8. New Zealand doesn't even have motorways 8 lanes wide. We did spend some time in the museum though. The weather here is crap, it rained on and off all day. I was planning on staying here 4 nights but have changed my train ticket and am now staying just 2. So all three of us are leaving here at noon on Saturday. The other 2 are going through to Jasper.

So there you go, I am sitting in the lounge of the hostel writing this. I will upload some photos and then send this off and then have dinner. After that, who knows.

Anyway, I hope you are all well.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1247333078/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1247333078/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1247333078/tpod.html Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:29:28 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hullo

Well, after 6 weeks of wandering around Eastern Canada I made it back to Montreal. I arrived on Friday afternoon and Kim (the chick I met at Cape Breton Island) picked me up, then we picked up her 3 surviving Grandparents (her grandfather is a bright 93 year old) and we went to Kim's parents' place for a traditional Friday evening Jewish meal - really good. Nice family and I enjoyed it (they seemed to like me too - go figure). After dinner we dropped off the grandparents and went to the house Kim is house-sitting - what a mansion! Well, that is a slight exaggeration, but it is very nice and in a very nice part of town. The house has more bathrooms (5) than bedrooms (4).

Anyway, we went out later that night with some of Kim's friends. We started at one bar where I bought a G n T for Kim and a sprite for me - $13 plus tip. Bloody hell, not only do they speak French here, they think they should charge French prices too. Anyway, we then went to a club called Rouge, apparently the girls I was with (5 of them) knew another chick who was already there, so we show up and this other chick managed to get us in via the back door - no queuing or cover charge for us VIP's. This club does what is known as Bottle Service. You don't buy a drink, you buy a bottle. I saw the price list (stole it as a souvenir) and was gobsmacked. Bottles of vodka start at $150 for 1.4litres. Plus tax and tip (15% is normal). For your money you get the bottle with pourer, carafes of your chosen mixers and glasses (well, actually plastics) and ice. Some examples of prices, Johnnie Walker Red (1.4l) $170, JW Black (1.4l) $220, and JW Blue (750ml) $500. And apparently this is one of the cheap clubs in town. I guess it works out cheaper than buying that many individual drinks but still...

So anyway, Saturday was sleep in day until lunchtime then that afternoon Kim and I headed to Burlington, Vermont to collect Kim's cousin (Michelle) from the airport and then we headed to the cousin's grandparents place on a lake for the night. Getting through US customs was easy and pleasant, the bloke was nice and chatty and not at all like the cyborgs they use at airports. Michelle's flight was supposed to land at 9.52pm and the arrivals board said so and that it was on time, so we went and waited at the gate until about 10.10 when we found out the plane had landed about 50 minutes earlier - good of them to change the flight status on the board. Anyway, we found Michelle ok. The next day we visited a Summer Camp which both the girls had attended as kids and then worked at. Interesting to see an American Summer Camp, but not very exciting watching people catch up with other people. The kids' parents pay about $5000 a month to send their kids to this camp, some go for 2 months. There are cheaper camps, and dearer ones.

So Sunday night we were back in Montreal (breezed through customs) and went to see Ben Harper play a free concert as part of the Jazz Festival (apparently the Jazz festival is no longer exclusively Jazz). We got there late (to be expected with 6 girls trying to get organised) and we ended up having to sneak in to the concert area via a hedge and were right at the back and had to settle for watching a screen. Mind you, the girls and everyone else around us just talked non-stop anyway and didn't even listen to the music. The worst thing is the way these people talk, I guess it is a generational thing (the girls are all 22 - 25) but do they really have to use "like" (as in, "it was, like, so cool, and like...) and "OH MY GOD" constantly?

Today, Monday, I am moving into a hostel. Kim, in the tradition of the North American obsession with teeth is having surgery on her gums. When my dentist told me my gums were receding he suggested using a softer brush, in Canada it seems you have gum removed from the top of your mouth and transplanted onto your gums. Sounds painful (apparently it is) and a bit daft but these people can afford it so there you go.

I had fun at the hostel - met lots of cool people. The hostel, like the one in Quebec City, organised group activities so I went along to have fun and meet some people. The pub crawl was ok, though I only did 2 bars, and the group walk up Mont Royal was also fun, if a bit too much like exercise. I was going to leave Montreal on Wednesday so I could see a band called The National play at the Ottawa Blue Fest but that was the only day Montreal was due to have good weather so I stayed and did the walk up Mont Royal instead. I also wandered around Old Montreal and it is ok, but Old Quebec is much better.

So I left Montreal on Thursday for Ottawa and got there ok and found the hostel and settled in and met 2 other guys who were going to go the Museum of Civillisation (it is free after 4 on Thursdays) so I went along. Very good museum. Ottawa is in Ontario, but it is right on the border with Quebec, so you can walk across the bridge over the river and change provinces. The museum is in Quebec. The local teens tend to go to Gatineau (the Quebec town over the bridge) to drink as the drinking age is lower, 18 instead of 19.

Also in Ottawa I have been to see the free Sound and Light Show at the Parliament Building, been up the Peace Tower at the Parliament Building, got dragged over into Quebec to a dance club (hated it, but I was thinking with the wrong head) and been to the Blues Fest to see The Dead Weather (Jack White's new project) and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's play. The Blues Fest is no longer exclusively for the Blues it would seem, they even had KISS play the Wednesday night. Ottawa people don't do moshing. I met a couple of English guys and we were looking forward to a good mosh but it didn't happen. We ended up just taking the piss out of the people around us, including the girl in front of us who was using her phone to post updates on Facebook! For fuck's sake, you are at a concert, not an internet cafe!

On Monday evening I got the train to Toronto, found my hostel and settled in for the night. Today (Tuesday) I have wandered around town a bit (not very exciting) and bought my train ticket to Winnipeg . The Municipal workers are on strike in Toronto so no-one is collecting rubbish. This has been going on for about a month now and parts of town smell like parts of India, I guess you could call it an Indian Summer. The strike includes workers on the ferries to Toronto Island so I can't go there. When I was buying my train ticket the lady told me that the train might not run due to the engineers going on strike. We'll see. It is raining now so I thought I would do some laundry and update my blog. I did find one cool building in town, it is part of the Ontario School of Arts and Design. Tomorrow I am booked on a day trip to Niagara Falls so hopefully the weather is better. On Friday I join a 3-day tour to the Algonquin Provincial Park, so that should be fun, he said hopefully.

Well, that's about it really. I hope you are all well and not got swine flu, which is having an impact in NZ I see. The earthquake in Fiordland made the news here too.

Ok, see ya

Colin

ps Apparently sending me a message via the travelpod website involves answering a whole lot of questions so just use my email address. Thanks to those who have emailed me, always nice to hear from you.

Song of the day : Turn Into by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's

Distance Travelled 21776k's by plane
7934k's by train
3445k's by road
211 nautical miles
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1246989208/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1246989208/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colin/2/1246989208/tpod.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:35:30 -0400 Recession? What recession? I'm going anyway. Singapore to London overland, then Canada!

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Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Hullo

Well here I am again giving you something to read whilst at work.

Last time I was in Halifax and it was Canada Day. I discovered that Canada is younger than New Zealand. Quebec city was established in 1608 - I know, I know, very young relative to Europe and Asia, but still bloody old to us New Zealanders- (Halifax was only established in 1749) but the confederation of Canada (and even then it was only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New Canada which became Ontario and Quebec) didn't happen until 1 July 1867.

Anyway, that night a few of us went to a free rock concert featuring local musician Joel Plaskett. I had never heard of him before but he is very popular in Eastern Canada and he was good. After he had finished at 10pm the fireworks started and we got a ferry back to town and went to a bar to watch another band play, they are called Bop Ensemble and were staying at the hostel too, and they are very good. It was nice to be somewhere where the locals celebrate their national day (as opposed to NZ where it is just another day off for most, and a day of protest for others). In the province of Quebec however, Canada Day is widely ignored, and in fact it is "moving day" for a lot of people. The leases on apartments all expire on June 30 so on July 1 people move apartments.

Anyway, the next day I got the train to Moncton, New Brunswick (Moncton should be spelt Monckton after a British General during the war with France, but it was mis-spelt on one piece of paperwork and that was that). I told a few people staying at the hostel that I was looking at hiring a car to visit the Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy and managed to find 4 people (all of them Canadian - I have met so many Canadians in the hostels, I now have people to catch up with in Edmonton and Vancouver, and am staying with one in Montreal) to share the day and cost with me (ended up costing just $35 each including entry to the park compared to $155 each with a local tour company). The Bay of Fundy has the world's largest tides, up to 16 metres (53 feet), depending on the phase of the moon and how close the moon is to the Earth, etc. They reckon 100 billion tonnes of water flow in and out of the bay during each cycle - more than all the world's rivers. So we headed down to the Hopewell Rocks to see high tide at 9.45am and stayed around to see low tide at about 4.10pm. It was 'only' an 11.1 metre tide that day. Two of the girls (from Edmonton, Alberta - I bumped into them again in Quebec) with me had to be back in Moncton in time to catch a 5.30 bus so we didn't see the tide at its lowest but it was low enough to see a dramatic difference and to walk around the "ocean floor" where just a few hours earlier we would have been under several metres of water. We got a bit dirty due to walking through ankle-deep mud and clambering over rocks but it was great fun, despite indifferent weather and getting rained on.

I spent the next two days in Moncton doing not much. I didn't really think about the fact that the train to Quebec left late afternoon so could have just done 2 nights, but it did give me a couple of days to rest and recover from all the late nights I have been having, and I managed to re-read all 4 parts of the "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" trilogy. So I got the train to Quebec on Sunday evening and arrived in Quebec first thing Monday morning. The weather was good and the forecast for the next couple of days wasn't, so I spent the day wandering around the old city - probably the most photogenic city I have ever been in. I really like it here. I found a place where they show a free 20 minute movie about the "360 Days that changed History" - basically about the British defeating the French outside the city in 1759. This is the only walled city in North America, the walls are impressive and well looked after. The streets are narrow and still made of cobblestones in places. The Provincial Parliament building (referred to locally as the National Parliament - the two girls I met at Moncton did a guided walking tour here and they tell me the guide referred to Quebec as 'our country' and the rest of Canada as 'your country'. They reckon it wasn't malicious, it is just how they see things) is very impressive, as is the Chateau Frontenac - a 116 year old hotel with 618 rooms. They even do guided tours of the hotel, the only hotel I have heard of doing that. It was in this hotel that the D-Day invasion of Normandy was planned.

The people are friendly and mostly happy to speak English (which is very helpful when your French is as bad and limited as mine). The old buildings are great to look at and the whole place has a nice atmosphere about it. And it is safe, according to Wikitravel.com between November 1st 2006 and July 14th 2008 there were no murders in Quebec - not bad for a city of over 700,000 people. It must be said though that this is not a city to be paraplegic in. There are lots of steep hills and stairs - very difficult in a wheelchair.

Some Quebecois (people who live in the Province of Quebec) want the province to secede from Canada, but I have been amazed how many Canadian flags I have seen here. In Montreal I saw two, and they were both at the Railway Station - a government building. But I have seen several here, along with the provincial flag and the city flag. I find the idea of a largish segment of a nation's population wanting to secede a bit odd, it is not like they are oppressed or repressed in any way. It would be a bit like the South Island ceding from New Zealand (and yes, I am sure a few South Islanders would find that an appealing idea). I did suggest to some Canadians from other provinces I have met that perhaps next time they have a referendum in Quebec on the whole separatist issue the rest of Canada should have one as well: "do we want Quebec to be part of Canada?". The result could be interesting.

On Wednesday night a few of us from the hostel (including the girls from Edmonton who I went to the Hopewell Rocks with) wandered a few minutes down the road and joined a few thousand other people under the motorways (think Spaghetti Junction in Auckland) where Cirque du Soleil were putting on a free show. This was awesome, basically lots of acrobats, aerial artists, and other talented people doing all sorts of amazing stunts with great music and lighting.

Today, Thursday, I wandered through the park which was the battlefield - really nice. Tonight we went and watched the free light and sound show down at the old port - brilliant! The pictures were projected onto a very large building on the harbour and we watched it from over a piece of water. The show was designed for the building and was basically a journey through history with an emphasis on Quebec. The Quebec Summer Festival kicked off tonight also. One of the performance areas is just around the corner from the hostel and a few of us caught the tail end of a performance by a Latin-American band. We saw it for free, but if we had taken one step to our right we would have entered the official area and would have needed a ticket. To be fair though, a ticket for the whole month, which gets you entry to all events, is only $45 (Canadian). That is over 300 performers, including the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Sting, Kiss, Jeff Beck, The Proclaimers (!?) and Placido Domingo. I should also mention here that the Montreal Jazz Fest has just finished and most of the events were free - including Stevie Wonder. I have to wonder why Auckland, with a population double that of Quebec, can't put on events like this.

Quebec has a real buzz to it at the moment, on the way back from the show we had to walk through crowds of people. Great place to be right now. I have discovered that I have mis-timed my trip slightly though, the Indy Cars are in Toronto this weekend, and Scott Dixon is leading the championship. I will be in New York state this weekend and the Indy Cars will be in Edmonton two weeks later - I won't be due to there being too much to see and do between Montreal and Edmonton. Oh well, whaddya do?

Ok, so tomorrow I am off to Montreal - should be fun. I am going to be staying with a girl from Montreal who I met on Cape Breton Island, she is house-sitting what she says is a $2million house. And her and her friends are heading to upstate New York to spend Saturday night in a cottage by a lake, and I am invited - talk about landing on your feet, can't wait. It will be interesting to see if i get another 6 months visa when I cross back into Canada on Sunday, should do. I will keep you posted.

Bye for now

Colin

ps, yes, Pepsi, Coke, 7-up, etc come in bottles of varying sizes but one of them is 591ml, not 600ml, but 591ml. I think it is because that is very slightly more than 20 US fluid ounces so I guess they can use the same bottles in both countries, still it seems a bit pedantic.

Speaking of pedantic, I forgot this bit last time

Song of the day : Hello, It's Me by Lou Reed and John Cale

Distance Travelled 21776k's by plane
7029k's by train
3020k's by road
211 nautical miles
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