Well the initial plan was to keep the last day free; but a combination of weather and general laziness resulted in a plan re-shuffling. Last day ended up so packed that there was no time for nostalgia.
Me and S set off early to Niagara. The highway is 'as usual' - straaiighhht road. Then a board saying 'Niagara Falls'. Then you turn a corner. The thing is, you read about it, hear about it, it is a kind of a 'standard pilgrimage' to ALL Indians heading to North America. A very 'routine' place. Agreed, but nothing prepares you for what you see. Nothing.
Massive, massive expanse of water. right next to the road man! Your mind first goes blank. Then you think, all that is fresh water. Your mind goes blank-er! Then you recount, fed by waters from all five of the Great Lakes. Wow.
We reached early, before the sun was scorching; the spray from the falls was drenching everyone on the road; it felt absolutely awesome! After the while, the enormity of the Falls settles down inside you and you start appreciating the beauty of it. There is an "American falls" that is - you guessed it - on the US side of the falls, that is huge by itself, but in comparison to the Canadian side, ahem, its little. The Canadian side has the 'actual' Niagara - a horse shoe shaped monstrosity that belittles everything around it.
It got better still. There is a little boat (forgive me, it is a huge boat, but well it looks like a zit on the face when the falls are in the background!) called Maid of the Mist, that takes you till the Falls, till you are in the middle of the 'U' of the horseshoe. We did get on the boat. They give you these bright blue eyesores of ponchos that you wear (and still get wet), and then for the most spectacular boat ride of your life. Even when you look at Niagara from the road, you kind of get a 2-D view of it; it is just too big to absorb the actual horseshoe at one go. But on the boat, well inside the U, you can feel the Falls' horseshoe-ness, if you see what I mean. Absolutely mind blowing; surrounded on three sides by towering walls of water, soaking in the spray and listening to everyone screaming (not that I liked it) is an experience in itself.
After this very eventful morning, went back home, and re-joined the rest of the gang before heading for the African safari just outside Toronto. The idea is that you can take your private vehicle and drive through large areas where wildlife is maintained in large enclosures. It is like a well maintained highly glorified zoo! Separate areas for carnivores, herbivores, birds and fish. Cheetah for the first time in my life! Also lions, plenty of them; ostriches, Thomson's gazelle, wildebeest, bison, elk, various types of deer from all over. Very different. But I kept wondering what all these tropical animals will do in cold Toronto in winter! I am sure they have warm enclosures, but still. Most of them are third generation zoo animals; I wonder how different they are from their wild types.
After all this excitement started my long journey home. I will spare you the details of that!
:)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Toronto!
So back to the concrete jungle. High rise buildings, gridded roads riddled with cars. The works. Sigh.
But a different day all the same. Did all the touristy things, but actually took in all sights with a friend. A lot different from travelling alone; refreshingly different, I might add. A new friend, but a surprising likeness in interest that made the basis of an extremely enjoyable day.
at
The CN tower. Classified as one of the seven wonders of the modern world for the sheer brilliance of the civil engineering. It has a glass floored observation deck at 342 m (the 113th floor)! It proceeds skyward for another 30 odd floors (till 346 m) where there is a 'look-out'). It was really brilliant! Not as much as it should have been on a 'normal' clear day, but there is a heat wave in Ontario that is making the world shimmer in a bright haze. But hey I don't have a parameter for comparison, and still found it amazing! The view is just buildings with Ontario lake fringing one part of the view; but the sheer fact that a skyscraper that looked so enormous when walking next to it is absolutely dwarfed to an apology to its original size is fascinating. So is the fact that you are walking on glass after a ascending 113 floors; what separates you from the ground about 340 m below is a layer of transparent material! Ya ya glass is super solid and can support the weight of a dozen hippos (http://www.canadacool.com/COOLFACTS/ONTARIO/TorontoCNTower.html); but the mind is a playful thing. I am not scared of heights, but walking on the glass was a test, I can tell you! It is such a weird feeling. Then I spotted this small spider hanging away underneath the glass, completely at peace. She put things in perspective in my mind.. It was almost like the silk she was spinning read, hey you, check me out!
The glass floor provides an uninterrupted view of the Rogers stadium (the one with a cover that was called SkyDome). So when we were making our way up and down the tower, we saw the cover at various stages from open to completely closed - interesting just by itself!
The Tower also included a 4D show. They fill you in with a bull crap of an introduction, about hybridization of an Amazon tree and a Himalayan tree to get a super tree, but if you ignore that, the show itself was good. Also a 3D show about Tahiti - reefs, underwater life and surfers - together made an interesting presentation.
Also went to Casa Loma, a castle built at Toronto by one of its wealthiest inhabitants, Sir Henry Pellatt during the 1900s. It was really beautiful, well kept, and had an interesting way of exhibit. It is a self guided digital audio tour - each person is given an instrument with pre-stored information. Need to key in the number of the room you are in to know more about it. Neat idea hey? So you move at your own pace and hear only what you want to hear! Nice.
Oh and I had a dosa after the longest time. Cheers to you back home!
But a different day all the same. Did all the touristy things, but actually took in all sights with a friend. A lot different from travelling alone; refreshingly different, I might add. A new friend, but a surprising likeness in interest that made the basis of an extremely enjoyable day.
at
The CN tower. Classified as one of the seven wonders of the modern world for the sheer brilliance of the civil engineering. It has a glass floored observation deck at 342 m (the 113th floor)! It proceeds skyward for another 30 odd floors (till 346 m) where there is a 'look-out'). It was really brilliant! Not as much as it should have been on a 'normal' clear day, but there is a heat wave in Ontario that is making the world shimmer in a bright haze. But hey I don't have a parameter for comparison, and still found it amazing! The view is just buildings with Ontario lake fringing one part of the view; but the sheer fact that a skyscraper that looked so enormous when walking next to it is absolutely dwarfed to an apology to its original size is fascinating. So is the fact that you are walking on glass after a ascending 113 floors; what separates you from the ground about 340 m below is a layer of transparent material! Ya ya glass is super solid and can support the weight of a dozen hippos (http://www.canadacool.com/COOLFACTS/ONTARIO/TorontoCNTower.html); but the mind is a playful thing. I am not scared of heights, but walking on the glass was a test, I can tell you! It is such a weird feeling. Then I spotted this small spider hanging away underneath the glass, completely at peace. She put things in perspective in my mind.. It was almost like the silk she was spinning read, hey you, check me out!
The glass floor provides an uninterrupted view of the Rogers stadium (the one with a cover that was called SkyDome). So when we were making our way up and down the tower, we saw the cover at various stages from open to completely closed - interesting just by itself!
The Tower also included a 4D show. They fill you in with a bull crap of an introduction, about hybridization of an Amazon tree and a Himalayan tree to get a super tree, but if you ignore that, the show itself was good. Also a 3D show about Tahiti - reefs, underwater life and surfers - together made an interesting presentation.
Also went to Casa Loma, a castle built at Toronto by one of its wealthiest inhabitants, Sir Henry Pellatt during the 1900s. It was really beautiful, well kept, and had an interesting way of exhibit. It is a self guided digital audio tour - each person is given an instrument with pre-stored information. Need to key in the number of the room you are in to know more about it. Neat idea hey? So you move at your own pace and hear only what you want to hear! Nice.
Oh and I had a dosa after the longest time. Cheers to you back home!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Jasper National Park
Took the Discover Jasper tour today.
I somehow like Banff better than Jasper. It is a busier place, with a lot more people; normally I would have liked Jasper better but there is something about Banff; it is at a higher elevation, and it is more majestic!
Anyway, back to Jasper. It started off as a fur trading outpost and then developed into a prominent tourist destination. The place is pretty small, about 3500 permanent inhabitants. Very quaint little town, with the typical charm associated with it - town hall, post office, small houses with porches and gardens. as yet unspoilt, and gives the impression they are trying their best to keep it rustic!
So there is a whole bunch of stuff named as 'Maligne' (pronounced ma-line) here - a lake, its associated canyon, even a mountain peak. Seems a Belgian priest travelling in Jasper before the roads were built had a torrid time there, and so named everything Maligne - French for 'wicked'!! (His boat overturned into icy winter lake water and he almost died, so I don't blame him!) So back to me - went on a cruise on the lake to a little island in the middle called Spirit Island, from where there is a spectacular view of the lake laced by forest and bordered with mountain. Personally, I got (and am) quite sick of pine! Quite monotonous.
There was another lake called Patricia Lake on the way. It has an interesting history. During World War II, British ships were being torpedo-ed left right and center so there was the need for an outlandish idea to overcome that. Somebody from a mental asylum (!) - actually an Oxford graduate who landed up in an asylum - had the idea of building a ship of ice, which will not burn! So a prototype of that ship was built at Patricia Lake; the project was not successful, but gave a lot of insights into 'ice physics'!
Overall nice day. To top it all, we saw black bear and elk too, which was great. And a mountain that looks like the profile of an Indian chieftain lying down!
I somehow like Banff better than Jasper. It is a busier place, with a lot more people; normally I would have liked Jasper better but there is something about Banff; it is at a higher elevation, and it is more majestic!
Anyway, back to Jasper. It started off as a fur trading outpost and then developed into a prominent tourist destination. The place is pretty small, about 3500 permanent inhabitants. Very quaint little town, with the typical charm associated with it - town hall, post office, small houses with porches and gardens. as yet unspoilt, and gives the impression they are trying their best to keep it rustic!
So there is a whole bunch of stuff named as 'Maligne' (pronounced ma-line) here - a lake, its associated canyon, even a mountain peak. Seems a Belgian priest travelling in Jasper before the roads were built had a torrid time there, and so named everything Maligne - French for 'wicked'!! (His boat overturned into icy winter lake water and he almost died, so I don't blame him!) So back to me - went on a cruise on the lake to a little island in the middle called Spirit Island, from where there is a spectacular view of the lake laced by forest and bordered with mountain. Personally, I got (and am) quite sick of pine! Quite monotonous.
There was another lake called Patricia Lake on the way. It has an interesting history. During World War II, British ships were being torpedo-ed left right and center so there was the need for an outlandish idea to overcome that. Somebody from a mental asylum (!) - actually an Oxford graduate who landed up in an asylum - had the idea of building a ship of ice, which will not burn! So a prototype of that ship was built at Patricia Lake; the project was not successful, but gave a lot of insights into 'ice physics'!
Overall nice day. To top it all, we saw black bear and elk too, which was great. And a mountain that looks like the profile of an Indian chieftain lying down!
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Columbian Icefields glacier experience
Today I got up feeling "finally!".. I have been waiting for this day with great expectations since the time I booked myself into one of Brewster's Icefield tours. Well whoever is coming to this side of the world, this tour is highly recommended. It is breath taking, only you are so awesturck that there is no breath to take!! It is also extremely instructive, with the tour operator, a great guy who obviously enjoyed his job and adored the Rockies with all his heart. Geology, glaciation, history, wildlife and animals all thrown into one enjoyable narrative.
So the trip is on a highway - part of the Trans Canadian Highway that runs coast to coast. It starts off with Banff (4500 feet), through the Icefields (the highest point being about 7000 ft and ends up in Jasper (3500 ft). The Icefields traverse four National Parks in Canada - Banff, Jasper, Koteenay and Yoho, together covering about 20,000 sq km (the largest expanse of glacial ice below the Arctic Circle), declared a world heritage site!! Imagine! And to top it all, there is one more national park and a network of province parks in the Rockies alone in Canada!
Enough of the information! So all lakes and rivers here are a deep turquoise blue in this region because of all the suspended sun from glacier run off refracting incident light at different angles. To see an expanse of bluish water, with white sand on its banks, a green conifer cover, grayish black mountains in the background wreathed in powdery snow - is something else. We passed through Lake Louise, nestled among majestic hills, with the glacier in the background and bordered by the Chateau Lake Loiuse. An aside here - the Fairmont is an 'ishtlye' chain of hotels in all these lovely places; it has the most beautiful, imposing castle at Banff - it completely took my attention when I was looking at Banff from my gondola, I thought it was an actual castle. The Chateau is right by the lake; quite an imposing building. So when it was set up, they imported mountaineers from Switzerland to act as tour guides. At that point it was not so much a chateau as a shed! But to this day, people working at the Chateau wear Swiss livery!
It only got better after that. Passed through many lakes, each unique, nestled within its own valley - Herbert lake, Hector lake, Bow lake (where Bow river that passes through Banff originates), Peyto lake (the most turquoise of all the lakes in the Rockies; when I saw pictures I thought they were photoshopped, but hey they were not!), and finally the Sunwapta lake right by the icefields. Each lake is fed by its own glacier and there are usually rivers originating from them too! There are three main rivers - Bow river, Athabasca river and the Saskatchewan. Between them, these water bodies drain all three main ocean systems that border Canada - the Pacific, Atlantic and the Arctic. Ok enough of geography!
Now for some geology! So after the Rockies came up in a plate collision event, in the Cretaceous, there were repeated ice ages, giving rise to the extensive glacial system. The glacial retreat and movement as a result of historic climate change led to the craggy formations of the Rockies today. It is just amazing! The high uneven-ness makes the area prone to avalanches, that can be upto 300 km/hr. The temperature can drop till -40 deg. And in earlier times before temperature regulated buses on excellent highway roads, there were natives and European explorers trading fur here!
But that feeling is continuing now - that the native history is not recorded at all. Everything, from the interpretation center to all the stories, is from a highly European (Brit or French) viewpoint.
Now finally for the best part of the tour - the Icefields. The comfortable coach we were on is stopped at the Icefields center - a set of buildings in the middle of nowhere with a restraunt and cafeteria (expensive - but of course!). People are transferred onto the Brewaster Ice Explorer. So Brewster has gotten these ice vehicles made (the one extra that was made was bought by the US army in Antarctica!). These vehicles seat about 55 people, and have a driver who also doubles as an interpretive tour guide. There is a short drive atop the glacier, after which you can walk around on the glacier for a while! Phew! Lovely. I somehow expected the ice to be flat! But it was craggy and gravelly, and quite easy to walk on. Surrounded by ice everywhere! Then driven back and join respective tours. It takes in 4 to 5000 people per day throughout summer; it is pretty expensive! I think they are nullifying what they spent on the massive ice explorers - they were close to a million dollars each!
Then to the Sunwapta and Athabasca falls. Fierce, voluminous; reminded me of the Alaknanda near her origin in Nepal! Turquoise blue, plunging down into craggy ravine, and spreading out in the near plain, suddenly calm and at peace. Wondrous.
To end my day I also went to Whistler's mountain close to Jasper which has a tramway till the top. Met this Chilean biologist on the same tour as me and we ended up going together to this place; I touched snow for the first time! So fluffy yet crunchy! lol.. at the top of Whistlers, there is a 2 km hiking trail, quite steep; but the view was simply grand. A 360 degree panorama of snow capped peaks with a smattering of cloud; and a green valley; numerous lakes each shimmering its peculiar hue all over, with Jasper nestled in the middle (It is built in the shape of a 'J', imagine, I was quite amazed!). The temperature here was close to zero and because of a sharp wind, the 'feeling temperature', negative! My ears and nose almost froze and by the time I came down I was just waiting for a regulated environment!
The day basically exceeded my expectations! And I cant wait for tomorrow. Oops, it IS tomorrow. Time to sleep!
So the trip is on a highway - part of the Trans Canadian Highway that runs coast to coast. It starts off with Banff (4500 feet), through the Icefields (the highest point being about 7000 ft and ends up in Jasper (3500 ft). The Icefields traverse four National Parks in Canada - Banff, Jasper, Koteenay and Yoho, together covering about 20,000 sq km (the largest expanse of glacial ice below the Arctic Circle), declared a world heritage site!! Imagine! And to top it all, there is one more national park and a network of province parks in the Rockies alone in Canada!
Enough of the information! So all lakes and rivers here are a deep turquoise blue in this region because of all the suspended sun from glacier run off refracting incident light at different angles. To see an expanse of bluish water, with white sand on its banks, a green conifer cover, grayish black mountains in the background wreathed in powdery snow - is something else. We passed through Lake Louise, nestled among majestic hills, with the glacier in the background and bordered by the Chateau Lake Loiuse. An aside here - the Fairmont is an 'ishtlye' chain of hotels in all these lovely places; it has the most beautiful, imposing castle at Banff - it completely took my attention when I was looking at Banff from my gondola, I thought it was an actual castle. The Chateau is right by the lake; quite an imposing building. So when it was set up, they imported mountaineers from Switzerland to act as tour guides. At that point it was not so much a chateau as a shed! But to this day, people working at the Chateau wear Swiss livery!
It only got better after that. Passed through many lakes, each unique, nestled within its own valley - Herbert lake, Hector lake, Bow lake (where Bow river that passes through Banff originates), Peyto lake (the most turquoise of all the lakes in the Rockies; when I saw pictures I thought they were photoshopped, but hey they were not!), and finally the Sunwapta lake right by the icefields. Each lake is fed by its own glacier and there are usually rivers originating from them too! There are three main rivers - Bow river, Athabasca river and the Saskatchewan. Between them, these water bodies drain all three main ocean systems that border Canada - the Pacific, Atlantic and the Arctic. Ok enough of geography!
Now for some geology! So after the Rockies came up in a plate collision event, in the Cretaceous, there were repeated ice ages, giving rise to the extensive glacial system. The glacial retreat and movement as a result of historic climate change led to the craggy formations of the Rockies today. It is just amazing! The high uneven-ness makes the area prone to avalanches, that can be upto 300 km/hr. The temperature can drop till -40 deg. And in earlier times before temperature regulated buses on excellent highway roads, there were natives and European explorers trading fur here!
But that feeling is continuing now - that the native history is not recorded at all. Everything, from the interpretation center to all the stories, is from a highly European (Brit or French) viewpoint.
Now finally for the best part of the tour - the Icefields. The comfortable coach we were on is stopped at the Icefields center - a set of buildings in the middle of nowhere with a restraunt and cafeteria (expensive - but of course!). People are transferred onto the Brewaster Ice Explorer. So Brewster has gotten these ice vehicles made (the one extra that was made was bought by the US army in Antarctica!). These vehicles seat about 55 people, and have a driver who also doubles as an interpretive tour guide. There is a short drive atop the glacier, after which you can walk around on the glacier for a while! Phew! Lovely. I somehow expected the ice to be flat! But it was craggy and gravelly, and quite easy to walk on. Surrounded by ice everywhere! Then driven back and join respective tours. It takes in 4 to 5000 people per day throughout summer; it is pretty expensive! I think they are nullifying what they spent on the massive ice explorers - they were close to a million dollars each!
Then to the Sunwapta and Athabasca falls. Fierce, voluminous; reminded me of the Alaknanda near her origin in Nepal! Turquoise blue, plunging down into craggy ravine, and spreading out in the near plain, suddenly calm and at peace. Wondrous.
To end my day I also went to Whistler's mountain close to Jasper which has a tramway till the top. Met this Chilean biologist on the same tour as me and we ended up going together to this place; I touched snow for the first time! So fluffy yet crunchy! lol.. at the top of Whistlers, there is a 2 km hiking trail, quite steep; but the view was simply grand. A 360 degree panorama of snow capped peaks with a smattering of cloud; and a green valley; numerous lakes each shimmering its peculiar hue all over, with Jasper nestled in the middle (It is built in the shape of a 'J', imagine, I was quite amazed!). The temperature here was close to zero and because of a sharp wind, the 'feeling temperature', negative! My ears and nose almost froze and by the time I came down I was just waiting for a regulated environment!
The day basically exceeded my expectations! And I cant wait for tomorrow. Oops, it IS tomorrow. Time to sleep!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Banff - properly!
I was reading the blog I wrote yesterday and thinking I was so off color! It was the after effect of being alone after being surrounded by people all day for four days, and having a lot of fun with them. But I am ok now! Enjoying alone time again - so I am going to make up for it today, how does that sound :)
First a little about Banff (in order to tuck it away in my memory as much as wanting to share it with you. It is a little town situated inside Banff National Park and owned by Parks Canada, which leases land out to various people. But - there are regulations to how big Banff town can get! Isn't that nice.. It is nestled in a valley; the mountains around are not as tall and imposing as the Western Ghats, the max is about 10,000 feet, and Banff is already high so there is not much of a gradient. But as a function of the latitude - there is snow and ice here! So its like a kid made a clay model of a black mountain, after which he/she got careless and dropped random dollops of powdery white paint on it! The last snow was in June (late this year) so its still melting.
So I went on the Minnewanka lake cruise today. An interpretive tour with a very witty guide who kept us enthralled with interesting narratives relating the places we are seeing at that point, history, anecdotes associated with it. These people really take the trouble and go the extra mile to show off their sights! Very pretty lake, brilliant blue and edged by these mountains. One part of the forests surrounding the lake were burnt down in a forest fire; other side intact. The contrast was blinding! Some of the names were interesting First People names and some were named after the first European explorers. So Canada is so young that some people can trace their ancestry to the first colonizers, which is - ahem - two to three generations earlier!
After the lake tour, went to Cave and Basin Historic Site that has the origin of a hot springs inside a cave. You enter the cave's vicinity and start getting lungfuls of sulphur (it is located on sulphur mountain, lol). The water is a different greenish blue as a result. Quite interesting.
The evening was awesome. Went to a performance by the Cornerstone theater; a musical about Canada. Called Oh Canada Eh!, you are supposed to watch out for when they say Eh! and repeat it loudly! I ended up with this huge American group who kind of absorbed me into their 'fold' because I was alone! It was tough being as noisy and enthusiastic as them though! So we were driven down to a nearby town called Canmore for it. The show was a dinner theater - tables set in front of a stage with elaborate settings; the waiters double up as singing/dancing performers. The whole routine encapsulates Canadian history by tracing music from various ages (really old waltz till Shania Twain, who is from Ontario). The waiters dressed appropriately and they sang so beautifully - pure, evocative tone. Everything from lumberjacks to Anne of Green Gables. A lot of comedy thrown in (some French!). Overall highly enjoyable. Though it left me wondering how the hell these people garner all that awesome energy every single day.
The drive itself was really beautiful. Mountains on either side. As we were coming back the land was getting ready for a golden sunset. There was rain and sun for a while simultaneously, resulting in this heavenly rainbow across the snow covered mountain. We were driving straight towards it for most of our trip! It got a little cloudy after a while - smoky wisps of cloud of all colors and shapes' one minute against the dark mountain, and the next against a patch of cobalt blue sky which cropped up suddenly. Oh man, like a parallel universe.
This is what I thought Canada will be like!
First a little about Banff (in order to tuck it away in my memory as much as wanting to share it with you. It is a little town situated inside Banff National Park and owned by Parks Canada, which leases land out to various people. But - there are regulations to how big Banff town can get! Isn't that nice.. It is nestled in a valley; the mountains around are not as tall and imposing as the Western Ghats, the max is about 10,000 feet, and Banff is already high so there is not much of a gradient. But as a function of the latitude - there is snow and ice here! So its like a kid made a clay model of a black mountain, after which he/she got careless and dropped random dollops of powdery white paint on it! The last snow was in June (late this year) so its still melting.
So I went on the Minnewanka lake cruise today. An interpretive tour with a very witty guide who kept us enthralled with interesting narratives relating the places we are seeing at that point, history, anecdotes associated with it. These people really take the trouble and go the extra mile to show off their sights! Very pretty lake, brilliant blue and edged by these mountains. One part of the forests surrounding the lake were burnt down in a forest fire; other side intact. The contrast was blinding! Some of the names were interesting First People names and some were named after the first European explorers. So Canada is so young that some people can trace their ancestry to the first colonizers, which is - ahem - two to three generations earlier!
After the lake tour, went to Cave and Basin Historic Site that has the origin of a hot springs inside a cave. You enter the cave's vicinity and start getting lungfuls of sulphur (it is located on sulphur mountain, lol). The water is a different greenish blue as a result. Quite interesting.
The evening was awesome. Went to a performance by the Cornerstone theater; a musical about Canada. Called Oh Canada Eh!, you are supposed to watch out for when they say Eh! and repeat it loudly! I ended up with this huge American group who kind of absorbed me into their 'fold' because I was alone! It was tough being as noisy and enthusiastic as them though! So we were driven down to a nearby town called Canmore for it. The show was a dinner theater - tables set in front of a stage with elaborate settings; the waiters double up as singing/dancing performers. The whole routine encapsulates Canadian history by tracing music from various ages (really old waltz till Shania Twain, who is from Ontario). The waiters dressed appropriately and they sang so beautifully - pure, evocative tone. Everything from lumberjacks to Anne of Green Gables. A lot of comedy thrown in (some French!). Overall highly enjoyable. Though it left me wondering how the hell these people garner all that awesome energy every single day.
The drive itself was really beautiful. Mountains on either side. As we were coming back the land was getting ready for a golden sunset. There was rain and sun for a while simultaneously, resulting in this heavenly rainbow across the snow covered mountain. We were driving straight towards it for most of our trip! It got a little cloudy after a while - smoky wisps of cloud of all colors and shapes' one minute against the dark mountain, and the next against a patch of cobalt blue sky which cropped up suddenly. Oh man, like a parallel universe.
This is what I thought Canada will be like!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Banff
So the conference got over (I don't feel like a detailed blog about that, it was a good experience but nothing travelogue-ish to share)! Now I am sitting in a dorm in the Hosteler's International's Aspen Lodge at Banff. Me and two Spanish girls in this room.
Man the bus here was like an airplane on roads. They had a video of safety instructions, push back seats, each seat with ear phones and radio.. and beat this - free WiFi on the bus! I was really impressed. Stop over at Calgary airport and then onward to Banff. The way was amazing. First plains; we could see the Rockies looming in the distance. Then the vegetation got more wooded, and in a short while we ended up in the village of Banff, which is just inside the Banff National Park.
I left immediately after I checked in and went to the Banff Gondola. Really really awesome! Seems they discovered this whole place when they were doing the railroad construction in Canada. The 8 minute ride with an elevation gain of about 680m is too good to describe! It takes you atop the Sulphur Mountain. The panorama of views from here - slopes covered with boreal forests with little bald patches in the middle; the tops of the surrounding mountains were snow capped, with little patches of snow in the lower elevations. Looked like someone made mountain models and then stuffed cotton wool in some places!
You can then walk along a boardway to a disused weather station atop Sanson mountain where this guy called Norman Sanson climbed up and down for almost 30 years, many times giving up all hope of leaving Banff alive. The place has very fierce thunderstorms off and on! All along the way are boards with information about the wildlife here and also about Sanson. It even had excerpts from Sanson's journal with drawings and in his handwriting! Nice. His hut is also preserved intact; complete with a loaf of bread and plate with a fork and spoon, even shoes!
tomorrow planning to go on a lake cruise and also maybe a natural history museum. Currently almost asleep on my laptop so will go now and catch you guys later!
Man the bus here was like an airplane on roads. They had a video of safety instructions, push back seats, each seat with ear phones and radio.. and beat this - free WiFi on the bus! I was really impressed. Stop over at Calgary airport and then onward to Banff. The way was amazing. First plains; we could see the Rockies looming in the distance. Then the vegetation got more wooded, and in a short while we ended up in the village of Banff, which is just inside the Banff National Park.
I left immediately after I checked in and went to the Banff Gondola. Really really awesome! Seems they discovered this whole place when they were doing the railroad construction in Canada. The 8 minute ride with an elevation gain of about 680m is too good to describe! It takes you atop the Sulphur Mountain. The panorama of views from here - slopes covered with boreal forests with little bald patches in the middle; the tops of the surrounding mountains were snow capped, with little patches of snow in the lower elevations. Looked like someone made mountain models and then stuffed cotton wool in some places!
You can then walk along a boardway to a disused weather station atop Sanson mountain where this guy called Norman Sanson climbed up and down for almost 30 years, many times giving up all hope of leaving Banff alive. The place has very fierce thunderstorms off and on! All along the way are boards with information about the wildlife here and also about Sanson. It even had excerpts from Sanson's journal with drawings and in his handwriting! Nice. His hut is also preserved intact; complete with a loaf of bread and plate with a fork and spoon, even shoes!
tomorrow planning to go on a lake cruise and also maybe a natural history museum. Currently almost asleep on my laptop so will go now and catch you guys later!
Fort Edmonton Park
At all - food is just the usual man not so special! But ya nice slushes and coffee :)
One thing about Edmonton is that when you have to go outside city limits, its public transport is not the best. So I set off with the aim of reaching Fort Edmonton Park and almost got lost along the way (I did go over a bridge in a nice green slopy/foresty area with ducks swimming around in the stream below, as a consolation). The Park is a good 2 km walk from the road.
But it was worth it. The Park is arranged in a series of 'roads', each depicting a period of the history of Alberta; hence it is called a living history museum. So each lane is like a time capsule that takes you back! Starting with tepees; wooden forts that existed during the peak of the fur trade; farm houses - how they evolved when the conveniences increased. Well done, but it is more like a white European take on Canadian history. The First People (politically correct name for the native Indians) are given a single tepee, thats it. which I found weird.
But otherwise, very accurate reconstructions. old time coaches and wagons being driven around. In the 1800s street, there was a milliners store lifted straight out of Jane Austen; also in one of the houses two women dressed in Jane Austen-ish gowns and having tea on the porch of one of the houses! so thats what they both do all day. Sit there and drink tea with whoever comes by!! There was also the first bank in the area. So I entered and a guy from inside (dressed in a tail coat) comes and says "Welcome to the Bank of Montreal. You must be new to the area! Do you want an account?" and so on and so forth! It had a mechanical cheque writing device and a rudimentary cash counter and calculator! Also the first Post Office. Old seals made of wood! An old drugstore complete with posters and advertisements (even a notice saying shop boy needed). A miniature golf course called Tom Thumb! Very cute. There was even a Masonic Lodge with all the Mason uniforms on display. I remembered Sherlock Holmes - one of the novels in the background has a lot on Masonic lodges. Also a tobacconist, a horse related stuff store, a hardware store.. All very well re-constructed, almost like they were still functional. I really enjoyed it.
I also went to Valley Zoo. Again, had to walk a lot! I htink i mist have walked for some 10 km or something today, with the walk to and from bus stops and inside the PArk/zoo. I was disappoited with the zoo; I think I had too many expectations, so it kinda left me feeling deflated! Zoos depress me; I thought that this will be a well maintained, very different kinda zoo, as it seemed from the ads. But nah - not worth it!
One thing about Edmonton is that when you have to go outside city limits, its public transport is not the best. So I set off with the aim of reaching Fort Edmonton Park and almost got lost along the way (I did go over a bridge in a nice green slopy/foresty area with ducks swimming around in the stream below, as a consolation). The Park is a good 2 km walk from the road.
But it was worth it. The Park is arranged in a series of 'roads', each depicting a period of the history of Alberta; hence it is called a living history museum. So each lane is like a time capsule that takes you back! Starting with tepees; wooden forts that existed during the peak of the fur trade; farm houses - how they evolved when the conveniences increased. Well done, but it is more like a white European take on Canadian history. The First People (politically correct name for the native Indians) are given a single tepee, thats it. which I found weird.
But otherwise, very accurate reconstructions. old time coaches and wagons being driven around. In the 1800s street, there was a milliners store lifted straight out of Jane Austen; also in one of the houses two women dressed in Jane Austen-ish gowns and having tea on the porch of one of the houses! so thats what they both do all day. Sit there and drink tea with whoever comes by!! There was also the first bank in the area. So I entered and a guy from inside (dressed in a tail coat) comes and says "Welcome to the Bank of Montreal. You must be new to the area! Do you want an account?" and so on and so forth! It had a mechanical cheque writing device and a rudimentary cash counter and calculator! Also the first Post Office. Old seals made of wood! An old drugstore complete with posters and advertisements (even a notice saying shop boy needed). A miniature golf course called Tom Thumb! Very cute. There was even a Masonic Lodge with all the Mason uniforms on display. I remembered Sherlock Holmes - one of the novels in the background has a lot on Masonic lodges. Also a tobacconist, a horse related stuff store, a hardware store.. All very well re-constructed, almost like they were still functional. I really enjoyed it.
I also went to Valley Zoo. Again, had to walk a lot! I htink i mist have walked for some 10 km or something today, with the walk to and from bus stops and inside the PArk/zoo. I was disappoited with the zoo; I think I had too many expectations, so it kinda left me feeling deflated! Zoos depress me; I thought that this will be a well maintained, very different kinda zoo, as it seemed from the ads. But nah - not worth it!
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