| Langford,
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, August 4, 2005, 5:05 am
Hello from Victoria (1) - Reaching the West
Coast
Jetlag is an amazing thing. It's barely after 5 am and I have already
been reading for an hour an a half. So I figured I might as well
use this bout of sleeplessness and record my first impressions of
British Columbia.
Empress Hotel, Victoria
My WestJet flight out of Toronto left a 7:15 am yesterday, so that
meant I got up at 4:30 am, after 2.5 hours of sleep, to check all
my luggage, eat a brief breakfast and get myself out to the airport.
Sometimes a little travel savvy goes a long way, I had decided to
use my Airmiles to go to BC
and upon doing some research I found out that WestJet had a special
on that only required me to use 1600 Airmiles instead of the regular
3900 Airmiles, so off I went and booked the trip, saving myself
60% of the Airmiles that I would have otherwise spent. When you
travel frequently, you have to look at every available option of
savings costs and my travel reward miles came through big for me.
I was able to book a flight from Toronto to Calgary and another
from Calgary to Vancouver. WestJet is always an interesting experience
because its flight attendants are known for cracking jokes over
the PA system. The flight to Calgary was actually really bumpy and
for about an hour we went through what felt like a dirt road in
the sky full of potholes, hitting the occasional air pocket and
dropping a few feet. But the WestJet crew brought us down safely
and humorously, something I was very happy about.
In retrospect I actually felt pretty lucky, considering that the
very night before my departure an Air France flight had crash-landed
in Toronto. Fortunately, all 300+ passengers and crew survived and
only 43 people ended up with light injuries, despite the fact that
the plane went up in flames. Not surprisingly the newspapers referred
to this incident as the Miracle Flight.
Images of Victoria
Well, my aerial transport went a lot smoother and after about 7
hours of flight and transfers our plane touched down in beautiful
Vancouver. The natural setting of Vancouver is indeed impressive:
it is set in the Coastal Mountain Range, surrounded by Vancouver
Island and the Pacific Ocean. It certainly looked breath-taking
from the air, but my exploration of this city had to wait since
my first item of the agenda was to get myself to the City of Victoria,
on Vancouver Island.
I located the Pacific Coachlines desk at the Vancouver airport
and for just over C$70.00 I bought a return ticket for a coach and
ferry ride across to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.
I only had about a half hour between my arrival at the airport until
a comfortable air-conditioned bus whisked us to the Tsawassen Bay
Ferry Terminal, following which the bus went onto the BC Ferries
boat itself.
The ferry was a very large vessel with 3 different decks for cars,
trucks and buses. There are 3 additional passenger decks including
an open-air sitting area in the front of the ferry. We slowly started
our crossing of the Straits of Georgia and I thoroughly enjoyed
the panomara of mountains and water. Due to my lack of sleep my
head got a little heavy and I fell asleep on the open-air deck.
When I woke up we were just chugging through the narrows between
Galiano Island and Mayne Island. The narrow channel is embedded
in between these islands which are covered by coniferous forests.
The entire approach to the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal was one of
the most scenic waterways I have ever seen.
Totem Pole in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria
Punctually at 2:25 pm people headed back down to the bus, at 2:35
the bridge was lowered onto the ferry and our bus was the first
vehicle out of the boat. Another 45 minutes later and we arrived
in downtown Victoria at the bus terminal, right next to the Fairmont
Empress Hotel, one of Victoria's most famous landmarks. Designed
as a chateau-style luxury hotel, it was built in 1908 for $1 million
and was extensively restored in the late 1980s to the tune of $45
million. But more extensive exploration of this stunning building
would have to wait, since a local friend was picking me up at the
bus station.
My co-worker Clare, who works with me in my full-time business
in new business development, relocated to Victoria with her husband
Haishan in March of this year, and the two of them have been graciously
accommodating me since my arrival yesterday. Both Clare and her
husband are originally from mainland China and have been calling
Canada their home for the last few years.
The coastline of Victoria
Haishan came to pick me up and after a beautiful drive through
Victoria and some of its suburbs, I arrived at Clare and Haishan's
beautiful house in a little hillside community outside Victoria.
After a couple of hours of rest due to my utter exhaustion, I got
up to a beautiful Chinese dinner complete with 3 different meat
dishes and the most delicous chicken with chestnuts dish I had ever
eaten.
While we were savouring this gourmet meal, a deer made its appearance
in the backyard, and Clare had already informed me earlier that
deers show up in the backyard on an almost daily basis and take
care of all newly planted landscaping and flowers, much to the chagrin
of the residents.
After this delicious dinner we went on a little drive in the neighbourhood
and drove down to the lagoon from where we had a perfect lookout
to the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington State, across the narrow
strait from Vancouver Island. One of the mountains was snow-covered
and this majestic mountain range combined with the waters of the
Pacific creates one of the most stunning sceneries this lovely planet
of ours has to offer. We had a view of a historic light house and
the Esquimalt navy base and after a brief drive through the hilly
coastal roads (and another close encounter with a deer) we drove
back to Clare's beautiful house on the slopes.
Esquimalt Lagoon
After another hour or two of shop talk I was positively exhausted
and dropped into bed like a sack of potatoes, only to wake up before
4 am, unable to sleep. Well, this early rise has given me a chance
to record my first impressions, and I have avidly been reading my
guidebook on Vancouver and Victoria, laying out a draft itinerary
for today. The sun is coming up now so I've got another couple of
hours of reading ahead of me in preparation of today's discovery.
Useful Books:
Related Articles:
Hello from Victoria (1) - Reaching
the West Coast
Hello from Victoria (2) - Exploring
Victoria and its vicinity"
Hello from Vancouver (1) - Arrival
in Vancouver
Hello from Vancouver (2) - Wheeling
around Stanley Park
Hello from Vancouver (3) - The Grouse
Mountain Experience
Hello from Vancouver (4) - A Walking
Tour through the Downtown East Side
Hello from Vancouver (5) - Gastown
and My Final Explorations
Hello from Vancouver (6) - Covering
the Servas Conference
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