On the Road

Us three guys, Lyndon the Chinese fellow, and Xavier the blond Frenchman

In the museum, in front of a statue of some native, probably Nootka (if Age of Empires 3 got their facts right)

The reggae buskers performing, a bit blurry though

The Legislature building, kinda makes our own Parliament building look absolutely Soviet-ish

The company on the ferry, en route to Vancouver Island

For the past 2 weekends, I have sacrificed valuable study time (not that I would have used it anyway) to go on more trips with the International Club. This entry would be for the first trip- to Victoria, a historic city that is also the capital of British Columbia. I know not many Malaysians are aware of this, in fact very few are even aware of the capital of Canada. I still remember asking people what they think it was and I got answers ranging from Montreal to Toronto. Anyway, I made quite a last minute decision to go to Victoria, so last minute that I only called to confirm on the very day itself- at 7.45 am (we were supposed to meet at 8.30 am). It seemed fortunate that I called because the contact person for this trip had overslept and only woke up when I called her. As I had not informed anyone else that I was coming and with the contact person still in her bedroom, I decided to take a chance and head for the meeting point, hoping that the rest of the company would not have left yet. Despite arriving almost 45 minutes past the arranged time, I was relieved that they were still waiting. It turned out that the company consisted of only 4 people (myself included). We decided to wait at the SFU downtown campus for the contact person (Kelly) to arrive. Being a girl, we estimated that she would take quite some time to arrive. One of us, Xavier was really displeased with all this waiting, as he had arrived early- he was already at the meeting place at 8 am. By the time Kelly arrived, it was almost 11, so we wasted no time catching the bus to the ferry terminal.
The ferry ride was about 2 hours long. Fortunately for us, the weather report was wrong that day (they predicted stormy weather and it was quite sunny) and we spent quite some time on deck admiring the scenery and taking photographs. By the time we arrived at Victoria, it was already late evening. We spent some time taking photographs of some of the city’s famous attractions like the Legislature building and the Empress Hotel. While Vancouver was the more modern, bustling city, Victoria still had its colonial appeal. It really looked very British- indeed a fitting appearance for the capital of a province named British Columbia. We would have gone on a tour of the Legislature, but as ill luck would have it, it was closed on the very weekend that we were in Victoria. After we exhausted ourselves with pictures, we turned our attention to accommodation. We were supposed to stay at a hostel for the night and our coordinator, Lyndon had assured us that they would have room (that’s what they told him anyway over the phone, so he hadn’t bothered to make reservations). To our dismay, they did not have any rooms available for guys, only for girls. As Kelly was the only girl among us, she was able to secure a room at the hostel, while the three of us guys had to take a room in the nearby Strathcona Hotel. Although it was almost double the price of the hostel, it was fairly cheap (comparatively to other hotels) because the three of us shared a room and split the cost.
The next day, we began our tour of the city. Our first stop, or rather the first of the two stops that we only had time to make, was the Royal British Columbia Museum. Well, it was way better than our own Muzium Negara, but otherwise nothing that impressive. Just the usual natural history stuff and some Native American art displays. They did have a special exhibit of artifacts recovered from the Titanic (that cost us a little extra) but that wasn’t too impressive either. The only memorable part of this trip was when one of the museum people pretended he was a survivor of the Titanic and told us a really engaging story that kept us all mesmerized (now that’s how a museum should be run). After the museum, we explored Victoria’s Chinatown (yes it seems that Chinatowns are as abundant as Wall marts now). It was fairly small, not as fancy as Vancouver’s Chinatown. I did catch some reggae buskers performing, and they were good. After that, it was time to go back to the mainland. Although we were lucky to get a discount for ferry tickets for our journey to the island (for some unexplained reason), we didn’t get any for the return trip. This time, we stayed inside the ferry because it was cold and rainy outside. Although I spent quite a fair bit on this trip, I was glad that I went for it.