Canada Trip Day 23: Briefly in Vancouver

5 July 2010 - Strangely as part of the itinerary, the bus driver had to drop some people off at Vancouver before we headed back to Whistler, which is like a round-about route. Nevertheless, I managed some random shots of the activities of the city.


Caught half of the mosque.

The street lamps at china town

Man selling magazines

Man texting on this phone and a person sitting on the street

Men doing some kind of construction work

View of apartments at the water front from Cordova Street

Reflection of a building on the glass walls of another building

Out of service fire hydrant

Another glass reflection of buildings

Random shot of a street - W Hastings Str

Parked bicycles

Going on Lions Gate Bridge

Buildings and apartments

Lions Gate Bridge with traffic signs to indicate direction

Houses on the hill top

Canada Trip Day 23: Minter Gardens

5 July 2010 - After a lunch buffet at the Trillium Restaurant & Conservatory of Minter Gardens, we wandered around the garden displays of a wide selection of blooms. The drowsy effects from a lengthy coach journey and a heavy lunch may have dulled our experience at the gardens. Possibly also, having been to Butchart Gardens in Vancouver Island, our expectation of  large acres of colourful botany have greatly increased. Put these together with the very limited time we were given and the finally warm summer weather, the visit turned out to be rather rushed and uninteresting. This is not to discredit Minter Gardens at all for there were some spectacular flower displays such as the impressive peacock display. Strangely, I cannot seem to find the names of these flowers on the Internet!


Pink plant with stems, stalk and tiny flowers all in pink

Flower display with flowers arranged in a spirally sort of pattern

Minter Gardens flower display

Lady tending to the flowers

Map of Canada flower display

Orange lilies

Staff member mowing the lawn

A bridge covered with plants

Yellow flowers lined around the stem like a pyramid

Mum and sis having their photo taken in front of a butterflies flower display

Red Dahlia

Small red tube-like flowers clustered into a ball

Peacock flower display

Canada Trip Day 23: At a town called Hope

5 July 2010 - We arrived at a quiet town of Hope, where one of the first sights was a large wooden carving of a man and a huge salmon fish on which a circular logo of Rotary International sits. The town looked rather deserted. With the allowed half an hour or so, we walked around and entered a few handicraft shops. We quickly noticed the many wooden sculptures of bears and totems that surround the town site.

While Hope may not have offered the excitement of Whistler or Vancouver or the serenity of Lac Le Jeune, there was something very homey and historic about the place. Homey, perhaps from the neat bungalow houses that lie on one side of the town and historic from learning bits about the Stó:lō nation people who live near Fraser River.

First sight when arriving in Hope; a large wooden carving with Fraser River behind.

Wooden carving of a bear on a shop signage

We visited handicraft store, Beadifferent

Nice, neat bungalow houses

Another bungalow house with a caravan parked by the side

Mural on the side of a building

Wooden carving of bear and beardy man hidding in a tree stump

Sign pole bearing flags of many countries and a shelter with nice hanging purple flowers

Memorial plaque

Poster with picture of salmon drying racks built by the Stó:lō people along Fraser River, the greatest salmon river on earth.

Ancient Past of the Stó:lō people, the story of living creatures turned to stone reminds me of Brunei's legend of Pilong Rocks and Lumut Lunting.

Another mural and this is interesting.

Road signs in Hope

A bit of history about Simon Fraser

Fraser River

Town centre of Hope

This is the first time I come across the term sister cities, and Hope's sister city is Izu in Japan.

Canada Trip Day 23: Enjoying the final moments of Lac Le Jeune and Kamloops

5 July 2010 - Sleep was like heaven at Lac Le Jeune Resort, on a bed so big and all to myself, the bed so soft and the sheets and pillows fluffy, and the magnificent view from the window right in front of the bed sending me a constant reminder of this beautiful tuft of nature.


Just before we left, we took our last stroll at this hidden wonderland. It somewhat reminded me of the Kuala Belalong Field Research Centre, also hidden away from the rest of the world but the comfort was much modest. Animals and wilderness were just a few steps out the front door.


We were now heading southwards to Vancouver where the coach will drop some people off before we head back to Whistler, the second time. We passed some distinctive Kamloops scrubs before we head on.




Mist over Lac Le Jeune in the early morning


The resort was teeming with bird activities. Bird perched on a bird house.

Brown birds on the dried branches of tree

Sun on Lac Le Jeune

Bed of Lac Le Jeune

Bird houses on tree stumps

Passing by a lake

View of a valley

View of a lake, Lake Kamloops

Advertisement for ranch land

Grassland with round hay bales

Kamloop; sparse tall trees and more shrubs vegetation

Scrubs covering slopes by the road side

Highway in Kamloops

Back to more coniferous trees vegetation

Slippery slope caution road sign

Caravan on a highway in the rain

Going through a highway tunnel