Saturday, September 30, 2006

day 2




we had a hearty breakfast at whitespot. breakfast was absolutely wonderful - scrambled eggs, melted cheddar, bacon, omelette, jalepeno, hashbrown etc - all in very large servings - and to top it off with a wonderful cup of coffee. the response was what a good start to the day!

joseph's friend very kindly invited us over to her church. one thing that struck me about the church was that it provides alot alot alot support to the university students there. for example, there's free breakfast on weds, free lunch on sats and free dinner on tues for uni students every week! the turn out is usu quite good too - up to 400+ in attendance once! there's also an incredible lot of activities and support programs for the students as well. this is really good as students (especially those from overseas) can get very lonely sometimes..

it's really amazing how God provides:) we met herb, this really kind church elder. he lived in singapore for about 8.5 years (a very long time ago) before moving back to victoria. so we had alot in common to talk about:) haha. but whatever herb could remember about singapore, do seem pretty ancient to all of us. heh. but he was really friendly and made us feel very welcome:) we had a nice bbq lunch in church - the usual burgers+soda+icecream:) after lunch, herb went the extra mile for us by offering to drive us around the compound of university of victoria. he also brought us to mount tolmie - where one can enjoy the bird's eye view of the whole of victoria and parts of the US as well..

notice that the buildings in victoria are all low-rise - that's the luxury when you have so much land! but herb told us that the property prices in victoria are escalating coz of the influx of rich americans who are willing to pay more for the property here. a hint that the trend (of having low-rise buildings) maybe reversed in the near future - can be seen from that (literally) outstanding building on the far left - it's one of the newer residential buildings in victoria! oh that's mount olympia in washington in the background btw - vancouver island is just a strait away from the US!

there's washington's mount st helen on the background!

herb kindly drove us to our next destination! thank God for his help - otherwise we probably would not have the time to cover this attraction! next stop- the craigdarroch castle. it was such an awe-inspiring sight!

the builder/owner of this castle - Robert Dunsmir, a very very very rich businessman

what luxuriously furnishings - victorian-styled!!

this is what i call living in opulent comfort. wow what pretty rooms! heh.

haha. i simply cant resist uploading more photos of butchart gardens- leached them from joseph's blog. haha. i cldnt take as much photos as i wanted to coz my cam battery was getting flat and i had to conserve for the next day as well.

the start of the path to butchart gardens! we continued with our ooohhs and ahhhs - until the guys had to remind us that this is only the start?! haha.

the star pond - pretty obvious eh?:)

the garden castle!

hiroko, myself and gilbert - with more flowers!!

the idyllic butchart cove - it used to be a recreation pond for the Butchart family!

hiroko and i 'practicing' the wedding march at the rose garden - this is such a nice place to have a wedding! haha

ooh. what have they found in the well?

we stayed in hotel douglas that night. the room rates were really cheap CAD$24/night. we were supposed to get 2 hostel-styled double rooms with communal bathrooms. but the hotel forgot to reserve 1 more room for us - so the girls' got a free upgrade to room with attached toilet! yayy. the room was quite crap though - especially the super small toilet. but frankly it was very worth it - for the price we paid:)


haha. all that glitters is not gold.

we ended the day with a wonderful dinner at a cosy restaurant called smitty's! i had craving for fish and chips - and even though i ordered grilled fish, it was really everything that i wanted:) yayy. we were all very satisfied:)

after dinner, we went for a stroll around downtown victoria and its beauitiful harbour. the atmosphere had strong british influence - the architecture of the buildings and there were even the famous london red double-deckers! there were many baskers performing as well - there was, inter alia, a lady playing the harp, a cowboy playing the banjo and there was even an acrobat performing stunts! the arts scene over in victoria seems so much more vibrant than that in singapore! however i must say that the streets are quite scary in the night. the people seem more complicated - there are more homeless people and hooligans wandering around the streets (as compared to vancouver). there was even a drunkard who gave joseph a 'friendly' punch on his shoulder - we were all too stunned to do anything and we decided to quickly go back to the hotel for the night!

victoria (23rd-24th sept 06)

day 1
the weekend was absolutely fabulous! i went with hiroko, gilbert and joseph to victoria and we stayed there for 1 night! the journey to victoria was a horrendous 4+ hours via many many buses and a ferry ride from tsawwassen jetty to swartz bay - but the scenery on board the ferry was really beautiful so that made the journey at least more bearable:) heh. i was so relieved that my motion sickness wasnt triggered:) thank God for that!



the 4 of us at the airport busstop - all happy and ready to go!! we had to wait 1 hr coz we just missed the bus:( im starting to appreciate sbs and tibs back home. there are so many buses in canada (especially in victoria. argh) which has such low frequency - the buses come once every hour. madness. bah.

the ferry that we took to swartz bay in victoria - spirit of vancouver!

hiroko and me - on board the ferry! this picture doesnt do justice to the beautiful scenery behind us though!! the wind was really freezing cold! in fact i was still very cold - even though i wore 3 layers + a thick jacket!

the ferry passed by many islands. we noticed many houses constructed sporadically along the bay of the islands. that is really what i call having a waterfront view.

WHERE'S THE BUS?!? haha. we missed so many buses (coz we decided to be adventurous and find alternative routes to the butchart gardens. and no, im NOT blaming you gilbert - our navigator for the trip;) haha) and it really didnt help that their frequency was like 1hr? it's so crazy! we waited for soo.. long. when the bus finally came, it couldnt carry us coz it only had space for 3 more passengers - but there were the 4 of us. tough luck.

in e end, we decided to take a cab - after waiting for more than an hour! we didnt want to waste another hour waiting for the bus - coz it was getting late and we were all very tired of waiting! anyway the taxi meter in canada jumps at such a crazily fast rate - almost like once every 2 seconds - this is the case when the taxidriver is NOT speeding?! in the end, the fare for our 10min cab ride amounted to a hefty CAD$15. bah.

this was what made everything worth it - the world-renowned butchart gardens! this is actually my 2nd visit here! i came here with my family about 8 years back. but the beauty of this garden still moves me greatly. there were many improvements too! my family would be delighted to know that there are now fountains and fireworks in butchart gardens!! i bought a 12 month season pass coz i will probably be coming back a couple more times - at least definitely with my family and the other half. oh by the way, butchart gardens looks different during every season!

my favourite part of the garden - the sunken garden. when we came here, the 4 of us couldnt help but go wow!! it almost seems like it is a setting of a fairy tale? really a sight to behold!!

another of my favourite part of the garden - the italian garden. absolutely breathtaking. alright i shall let the pictures do the talking ;)

oh look! there's the fountain in butchart gardens! there's a fireworks display here every night as well!

me, my jap friend hiroko and the japanese garden in butchart:) heh. but we look so small though.

haha. quite understandbly, all of us couldnt stop taking photos! click click click...

after exploring the whole of butchart garden, we all went to have traditional english afternoon tea - scones with jam, honey and butter!! yummy.

i had a nice dinner with adelle yest at Moxie's Classic Grill. the place was pretty posh and ambience was just fantastic!! to my (pleasant) surprise, the food wasnt that expensive - by the standards of these kind of classy fusion restaurants! heh. we had calamari for appetizer and carbonara as main. and the bill (+tip) came up to be CAD$16 each. my most expensive meal in vancouver so far actually. heh. but the food was great!! i think this wouldnt be my last time coming here! haha. oh btw it is sorta mandatory to tip in restaurants. a guideline would be about 15% of the bill.

adelle and myself at moxie's - nice place eh? pity i didnt take photos of the patio and bar area - they were even more impressive;) yummy place! heh

we love moxie's!! haha.

after dinner, adelle and i were so full that we decided to walk around in downtown! but it was so cold!! somehow the freezing cold weather will make one go to the toilet more often. haha. we later walked to the landmark hotel vancouver to use their nice toilets. heh. how nostalgic. about 8 years ago, i also went there to use the toilet with my mummy and aunt - after a long day of shopping in downtown!! haha. hmm dunno what's that yucky-looking stuff on the wall though..

Part 4: The long long long walk back

the david lam garden - that overlooks the jetty. lot of pretty yachts!! reminds me of rsyc but this is definitely much more impressive. this is just another piece of evidence that reflects the affluence of the people living in downtown. if you look carefully, granville bridge is just behind me!

more of the waterfront scenery as we continue our walk along david lam park.

walking along the bridge. mich and i got so impatient after waiting for the bus for so long - that we decided to walk across the bridge ourselves. this is the beautiful skyline of vancouver downtown!!

we braved more than 41 avenues, got abit lost but we finally found our way to samurai sushi - this really good and cheap jap restaurant! it's really the best jap restaurant we have eaten so far! the sashimi was so thick and huge. the long walk was really worth it! heh.

Part 3: Yaletown

formerly a warehouse district where textile shops and train yards provide little in the way of beauty or entertainment, yaletown has been transformed to one of vancouver's hip-est areas, filled with sidewalk cafes, trendy restaurents and a thriving nightlife scene.

tired after all the walking, mich and i went for some coffee at the canadian coffee company at hamilton street in yaletown. i didnt like my drink though - iced chai latte. it was horribly weird. it just wasnt my cup of tea - literally and figuratively. bah.

ooh what a beauty. wanna hitch a ride from me? heh:) the people here appear to be pretty affluent? mich and i had a field day looking at all the exotic cars! woohoo.

11:43 PM

it's been a tiring week. but im finally done with those yucky assignments! heh :) back to updating:


PART 2: Chinatown
our next stop after gastown was chinatown. i went there with uncle anthony and aunty liyeng 2 weeks ago, but there were still more stuff to see..

west pender st - it's quite obvious that we have arrived at chinatown! haha. look at how almost everything is red - lampposts, buildings, tents, cars, signboards and what not..

east hastings street - the notorious street where the homeless, prostitutes, drug-dealers, beggars and troublemakers hang out in vancouver. apparently, gunshot battles sometimes occur over there at night! madness. it was pretty scary even in broad daylight! mich and i were warned by eldon NEVER to venture there. but aimless walking led us to that street. upon realization, we scrambled to the next street. haha. really must thank God that nothing happened to us while we were walking along that street:) one of my male friend who very recently went pass there alone during the day got harrassed by a homeless beggar..

thank God for so many of these bakeries and dimsum cafes in chinatown - at least i still can have my siew mai, eggtart and charsiew pau over here. heh

this is a very interesting shop. usually, vcd/dvd shops will sell original and pirated stuff. and even if pirated stuff were being sold, it wouldnt be displayed in the windows in such an obvious fashion. the sellers would probably also be more secretive as well. but lo and behold - this vcd/dvd shop sells ONLY pirated stuff. whatever happened to ip protection and anti-piracy laws? looks like it is very much lacking over here- at least in chinatown. haha. but it's great for us - the consumers though;)

11:16 PM

Sunday, September 17, 2006

oh yes.. i spotted this van, which was full of anti-war words printed on it. what a way to express one's anti-war sentiments. talking about anti-war sentiments, i chatted with a lady on the bus the other day. she was from the liberal political party (she showed me her badge) and she was on her way to attend a leadership talk by up-and-coming leaders of the liberal party. she was really quite vocal about her unhappiness against the present canadian gov's pro-war stance and condemned the influence of US on canada. she just went on and on.. speaking so passionately about the liberal party's "peace-loving" vision/position.. interesting.

10:06 PM

i must also mention how fastastic those roadside hotdogs are. the bratwurst sausages r really yummydelicious!! but it was a bit pricey - CAD$5 though. but worth every bite. heh. anyway i didnt have a choice coz i was really famished and there werent any restaurants or cafe nearby. it didnt help that the smell of the hotdogs was just oh-so-tempting. haha.


me and sherry, the hotdog vendor! look at all the different kinds of sausages - and they are all so HUGEme looking satisfied - haha. it's really good!! definitely a must try!

9:58 PM