Back to British

Passing through Canadian customs we head towards Vancouver Island and back into the Canadian state of British Columbia. It's a fairly large island just off the coast from Vancouver itself. We pass through Vancouver on the way to the ferry and happen upon a long street near downtown that we didn't see during our stay. It was lined with homeless people pushing trolleys or lie on the pavement with rubbish sprawled around them, possibly for sale. Skeleton looking drug addicts fish in the bins whilst guys in wheelchairs hold cardboard signs asking for money. It's an even bigger problem than I'd thought.
We carried on north to catch a morning ferry from a small town in a bay. The ferry ride was decent enough with views back on towards Vancouver and the nearby mountain ranges. It's damn cold though.
We land in the grim port town of Nanaimo and head west across the island through dense forest. It's still cold be we talk a couple of icy walks through some immense tree groves and a waterfall or two. It's all very picturesque.
An overnight stop in Port Alberni in the middle of the island shows off the sunset on the snowy peaks just behind. Although Port Alberni is in the middle of the island it has a large inlet from the ocean in which boats bring and take goods in from. It's another non too special looking place.
The drive towards the west coast from here is spectacular and we often pass or stop off at beautiful still mirrored lakes.
It's fairly quiet and the trees and mountains of this island are almost reminiscent of New Zealand. Snow surrounds us everywhere now and is piled higher than the car by the roadside.
We arrive on the west coast and at the Pacific Rim National Park. It's another UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are walks a plenty here that are mainly over slippery boardwalks in lush forests. It's a stunning place. After a boggy walk we stroll for an hour or so through thick rainforest to arrive on a rugged beach on which waves hammer the jagged rocks and pebbled beach.
The west coast of Vancouver Island is unprotected from the force of the Pacific Ocean and it gets battered constantly, no wonder there are a few surf shops around here. The driftwood here is huge. Giant trees have been buffeted about by the tumble-dryer ocean and stripped of their bark before being thrown onto the shoreline. It's a good place to get away from it all too as no-one is around. The weather is a bit drizzly and cold but the whole place looks mysterious and moody because of it. We stop in a town and eat great fish and chips and ponder over the amount of surfers that must frequent the place in summer.


We hit Long Beach the next day and it certainly lives up to it's name. A wide and long stretch of dark sanded beach that curves on into the distant sun which is masked by spray from the pacific. A couple of brave souls run into the sea with boards. Nutters!
A small aboriginal community live next to the beach in run down houses all with satellite dishes.
We wander into another dense forest in which two large bald eagles swoop by us to attack some prey in a tree. It scares the life out of me at first, they were soo close and the place had been deathly silent beforehand.


We drive further along the coast, heading north, to arrive at the end of the road in the town of Tofino. It's a small place and not bad looking. It's a life based around water here. A family waits by the dock for a small boat to come and take them and their shopping across the bay. A couple of seaplanes bob around by the dock waiting to fly off towards the mountains. The blues of the sky and the water seem accentuated as the family boards a boat across the bay towards their roadless town.
The sun sets across Long Beach and it's thin layer of water glistens over the wide stretch of sand. Back inland to Port Alberni and stories of real cold weather further north from the motel owner. He told us in his younger days people had to leave their cars running whilst they went into supermarkets or else they'd freeze up. They'd have two sets of keys. Now there's points at supermarkets where you can plug your car in to stop it turning into a block of ice whilst you go and buy groceries. Serious cold and I want none of it!
Driving towards the east coast the sky is clear and the mountains are in full view reflecting off the huge lakes we pass. We reach a small town called Chemainus. This town was falling apart a few years back. It couldn't sustain itself until someone came up with the idea to paint a couple of large murals outside. This sparked more murals and now the town is covered with various murals depicting local history, some better than others.

The mural idea was to bring tourists, and therefore money, into town. It worked a treat and made the town decent looking too.
Multicoloured wooden houses add to the scene as well as small town shops and the odd totem pole thrown in for good measure.
Further on down the road we stop at the tired town of Duncan. We drive around a couple of available motels that all look like sets from films about drug addicts. We pick the best of a bad bunch.
On we go to the capital of the state of British Columbia, Victoria. I thought it odd that the capital wasn't Vancouver and that a state capital would be off the mainland. But Victoria justifies it's status. It's a nice city that's a decent size not to be crowded but not to be completely deserted either. As it's name suggests, it's a fairly English looking place and has plenty of European style buildings. A decent harbour adds to the place and is a decent place to stroll that is overlooked by the large and grand government building and a vine covered hotel both designed by the same 24 year old architect. Inside the government building you can wander around taking in a bit of Canadian history and it's British background.
Big thanks have to be mentioned to Jen at this point for putting us up, and up with us, for the days we were in the city. Including the excellent food she made for us and supplying us with Lucky beer! You really helped us out.
Nearby we take a day out of the city to go to Sooke pot holes. This is an area worn down and smoothed off by gushing water that has made deep pools in the rock.
Back in the city the homeless count is fairly low compared to where we've been and we only get asked a couple of times for cash.
We go for a night at a local cinema which is ultra cheap and watch two films back to back. It has to be the loudest cinema I've ever been in, people are constantly talking and making comments about the films or eating the loudest possible food available to mankind. There's even a guy fast asleep and snoring loudly! The audience breakout into applause after the first cheesefest movie ends. Dire. It's the first time I've ever been in a cinema when people have applauded. 'Into the wild' is the other film and is far better, it doesn't get any applause at the end though!
On the edge of town is a stony shoreline with a clear blue ocean calmly lapping up against it. The sun is out and although it's cold it's decent break from city life. It doesn't feel like a city when you're strolling along an undeveloped coastline looking out towards the Olympic mountains of America. There's a decent park nearby too and further along the coast is a British looking graveyard full of the past residents of Victoria, mainly from Scotland and England.
Jen takes us to a bar in town, Big Bad Johns. It's a small place covered in old bank notes, number plates, the odd fake spider and bras. Once you start these things it seems they just get out of control. Whilst in mid-conversational flow the barmaid lowers a rubber chicken down onto my lap from fishing wire at the bar. It frightens the bejesus out of me to much humour to the rest of the bar.
I like Victoria. It's a nice looking place that's got the trappings of a city without the overcrowding. It's waterfront is a good looking place to stroll around and it doesn't take long to be on the beach and away from the hustle and bustle.
Vancouver Island itself is a cracking place. Not all the towns have much to offer but the natural beauty is worth the visit alone. It's mountains, lakes, forests and coastline are stunning. Its capital is a worthy one and it's far from crowded. A decent place to be and probably a decent place to live.
But back to the US we go and a ferry awaits to take us across the water.

Vancouver on the rocks

I knew it was going to be cold but still, cold is cold. And this is cold. It's that icy wind that gets right into your bones, yet still we see people in shorts and sat outside coffee shops like it's the middle of frickin summer! Are these people numb or what?!
The transport system doesn't leave us in the cold though and a simple couple of buses gets us right into town, and it's not only poverty stricken stumps that use them (unlike Dallas).
Vancouver has consistently been around the top of international polls and research of the best cities in the world to live in. Last year it came joint 3rd with Vienna behind Zurich and Geneva of best cities to live. I was keen to see why.
I'd heard about the pockets of homeless about but after 10 minutes on the streets around our hotel we realise that the pockets are overflowing. Every couple of minutes we're turning down change giving to various street living tramps. It's very odd to me that the homeless here, North America that is, seem to expect people to give them cash. I can only but imagine what would happen in China.
Mental health and drug addiction is also a problem and many mental health institutions have been closed down meaning random nutters walk the streets day and night shouting abuse at themselves, and sometimes us. Brilliant. Number 3 in the world!? You're having a laugh!
But saying that, good stuff is abound in Vancouver and once you've zig-zagged through the guys sticking out their hands the place is good looking. The sky is a very blue blue and and the waters edge location and snow covered mountain background make for scenic living.
Snow based action is big here in winter. Grouse Mountain being only an hour away from downtown means that you could finish work and go snowboarding in the evening with the slopes being lit up like giant Christmas trees.

Upon arrival at our hotel we get offered free tickets to an African music show that evening. Free, my kind of price. Not normally my thing but the show itself was tremendous. Some powerful drumming and extremely powerful dancing all telling the history of South Africa. Really good stuff. As we leave the theatre we see homeless guys waiting outside asking for money. That's enterprising! Normally there are guys selling posters and the like but to actually set up with your scraggy dog and bent cardboard sign is a sign of a true marketeer.
It's a shame because downtown Vancouver is a nice looking city that has many a modern building interspersed with green roofed classic European structures.
It's also got leafy areas such as Gastown and Yaletown that are good to stroll around even if I can't afford to buy a thing. Gastown is the original part of Vancouver that once was a bit rough but now is smartened up. It includes a well photographed steam clock that pours out steam and whistles every 15 minutes, just for show now as it's run on electric. Walk on a bit further and you enter a large Chinatown that seems to be branching out all over the place. This is the nearest to China we've been for a long time, and looking at the lizards on sticks for sale I remember why I'm not that bothered about going back. It's a bit scruffy in places and we keep on walking to what seems like the edge of town with battered old crumbling buildings and litter blowing all over the place. The characters become scruffier too and as we look around I notice we are the only people who don't live on the streets. Oddly we don't get asked for change here. We head back. On the way we stop off at a nice looking Chinese Garden that's happily hobo free.
Surviving on a low budget here is difficult. Luckily for us we're located next to a block of cheap pizza places that sell large slices for $1.25, bargain even when they add the tax. Tax is another gripe of mine. Most places in Canada and America don't include the tax in the price on the shelf so when you get to the till it's actually another 13% or 10% or 9% or 6.5% or 3% more depending on what the item is. It drives me right up the wall constantly. Even when you ask store clerks what the tax on certain items is they often don't know, so what's the point?
Visiting the large Stanley Park on the edge of town gives us a break from the homeless and a chance to walk in semi-wilderness. It also provides great views back onto Vancouver over the water whilst watching sea planes fly in and out. There's a few walks around the park that take in totem poles, the odd statue and large trees. A good break from the city and not too far from downtown. A storm last year ravaged the area and toppled many an ancient tree so a lot of work is still left to be done. We can still get down to one of the beaches, the dark sand kind, and walk around the windswept rocks.
We manage to catch a Winter solstice night that was taking place for free in the fashionable Yaletown area. This involved some wacky music, a bit of crappy religious music, some odd maze paper bag scenario and some hippy-esque themes.


We walk back along the harbour into town checking out the flash boats and waterfront apartments and can't help thinking of the amount of money that is floating around here.
Christmas approaches and after 6 months of travelling around we decide to stay put and do not a lot for a few days over the festive period. Christmas day itself is a bit of a nothing day for us, if there's ever a day when travelling the world doesn't seem to great it's this day. Everything is shut aswell. On Christmas Eve we manage to get out of town onto a suspension bridge in a canyon just out of town. An old tourist attraction that still gets em in. As a side note there is a guy who works at the bridge whose job it is to sit in a small box all day saying, 'Please do not rock the bridge or run on the bridge'. Bummer. But when we get back we realise everything is quickly shutting up shop for Christmas.....at 17:30!!

We struggle to get a booking in somewhere that's open on Christmas Day and would you believe it they don't even have turkey on the menu. What the hell is going on! I mean come on! At least it snowed.

On Boxing Day we head up to Grouse Mountain for views over the city and to eat at the very fancy restaurant up there. This enables to get up to the mountain top without paying the expensive cable car that everyone has to pay before they've even got onto the snow, then they have to pay further cash for sky lift passes and so on. Too pricey for the likes of us. Playing around in the powder-like snow is comic and eating at the restaurant is very good indeed.
We do wait for an hour down at the bottom for our taxi to not turn up. We then get the last bus and miss the connecting bus so then have to wait another half an hour in the freezing cold. I needed a stiff drink or three.
Overall I liked Vancouver. I'd go back. The endless Starbucks, Vancouver has more than anywhere else, and people sitting outside in the freezing cold still trying to look good is annoying but forgiveable. But to say it's even in the top 10 of cities to live in the world is a bit of an overstretch. It's not in my top 5 and I've not seen half of the what the world has to offer. The homeless is a massive problem and bothers me from day one. Not being able to relax doesn't make for a pleasant time. But it still has plenty to offer. Nearby mountains, boat-based action, nice wooded parks, swanky neighbourhoods and a diverse population. Crime was one factor that lost Vancouver points in the rankings and this must be related to the amount of addicts roaming the streets. The homeless are truly mental. I can think of at least 5 cities I'd rather live just off the top of my head and all of them are in South America. Now I wouldn't have thought I'd ever say that.


After 10 days it was time to get moving again. We had tickets for a New Years gig in San Francisco and had to get down there some how. A four hour bus ride to Seattle awaits.