A trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada !

When I was in India studying in BE, it had always been my dream to visit Canada ! Even after going to US, I never actually saw myself fulfilling that dream. But guess what, I realized that I might have a chance after joining Microsoft. I had to get my H1 Visa stamped and what better opportunity than this one to go to Canada was I gonna get ! right ? So I took care of all the paperwork etc ... took the canadian visa (btw, that was my second visa .. for those who have travelled to many countries, its no big deal ! but I was so damn happy to get a second visa on my passport ! its silly I know but still I was happy :) )

Me with my Z in Vacouver Downtown -
parked right in front of this pathetic (from experience) Indian restaurant called 'Taste of India' ...

My friend Kumar (who also had a stamping appointment on the same day as mine) and I decided to go to Vancouver together .. its just 3 hour drive from here so going there wasnt a big deal ... We left on Sunday evening and reached there at about 8pm Sunday night. Hotel stay was already taken care of so no issues on that front. Monday morning we went to the embassy and applied for the visa. It was approved and we were gonna get our passports back on Tuesday at 3 pm. So what that meant was we were free for the next 27 - 30 hrs !

Vancouver Downtown !

At a heliport (not helipad) close to downtown marina ..

Stanley Park ..

So we started our 'Vancouver Darshan' ... Stanley park was first ... and boy ! was it amazing or what ! thankfully it was a bright sunny day and we could enjoy the fall colors to our content ! It was a treat to the eyes ...

Fall colours !

More fall colors !

Next we went to the acquarium right inside the stanley park ... nice one .. we met a few other friends there as well ...

saw the dolphin show and I am going to post this picture here ! Its the best pic I have ever taken .. have a look !

See the dolphin on the top ? It jumped out of the water even higher than 25 feet ! I clicked when it was at the peak of it !! Dont I deserve an award for this snap ? ;)

Octopus !

Apart from that we saw sharks, white whales, octopus and many more ... But we had to call it a day after that since It got dark pretty early ... so we came back home and later for dinner went to the 'House of Dosas' - a well known place in Vancouver for all different types of dosas ... dosa with chicken filling, brinjal sabji etc ... it was pretty neat & pretty cheap ... Vancouver is known for very good Indian food and sweets ...

Next day, we got up by 9 and went to the Grouse mountain. two attractions - 'Capilano Suspension Bridge' and ' ropeway @ Grouse Mountain' ... we went for the ropeway first and it was damnnnn cold ! they took us to the 3700 odd feet ... and it was foggy everywhere - reminded me of that sexy song by Vikas Bhalla - 'Hai Dhuan Dhuan - Har Taraf Hai Dhuan' .. on top there were a number of statues carved out of wood - huge ones ... two live grizley bears ... the view from the top was just great ! snaps tell you more ...

View from the ropeway cabin - going up ...

One more ...

With Wood Carved Grisley bear ...

With real grisley bear ...

After that went to the suspension bridge (btw, if you go to vancouver anytime, make sure you go for the ropeway first like we did as you get $2 off for the suspension bridge ticket - vice versa, you get only $1 off - just a tip ;) ) it was just like the Laxman Jhoola ... really nice .. the big difference between such attractions in US/Canada and India is that in US/Canada, they are well maintained .. even a small attraction is made to look really big and tourism itself earns a hell lot of money for them ... I wish Indian govt learns a bit from them ...

Capilano Suspension Bridge !

Canopy of trees ...

Then we went to this Indian chinese place called 'Chilli Pepper House' - after a long had time I had indian chinese food - Amrican Chop Suey , Chicken Manchurian ... felt good ! after that we got our passports back from embassy and drove back ... on our way back, stopped over at this place called 'Surrey' for some Punjabi homemade sweets ... and then another immgiration check at the border ... we were pretty damn tired by the time we were back ... but looking back, both the days were very well spent ...


A few funny things about Vancouver:

1. Green signals there are almost always blinking ! yellow and red are constant but the green arrows, or just normal green signal blink ! why would you blink green signal ??? Coming from US, took a little time to adjust ..

2. Its just like any other Indian city. Driving there is a mess ... signals are not visible .. Drivers dont listen to the signals ... in fact its a very poor country so not many cops around. in 3 day stay, we saw only 3 -4 cops and it very well could have been the same cop going around the city ...

3. Its very rare to have a dedicated left turning lane. So the leftmost lane is always throttled if there is one guy who wants to turn left. The rightmost lane has a number of cars parked ! You will driving nicely in the rightmost lane and then suddenly out of nowhere you will see a number of cars parked on the road !!! reminds me of india totally !!

4. We were at this McDonalds ... when you go close to the dustbin, it opens up automatically and after you throw the trash, it says 'thank you' and closes ... isnt it funny ? A dustbin saying 'Thank you' to you ? & more than that .. for such a poor country, why do they need such hitech dust bins ?

5. We were at the suspension bridge and there was this place named 'Thinking spot' with just a bench and dustbin there ... Americans really know how to market a place man ! Here is a snap... I am trying to think what to think at the thinking spot ;)



6. The hotel we were staying at, had so much security even for the garage ... the parking garage was in the basement 2 levels down with automatic gates (whose remote keys are given to residents only) and still the doors of the garage had this huge locks so that no one can break in .. it was pretty unnecessary I felt ...


Do go to Vancouver if you get a chance (visit the links I gave above and you will realize the beauty ... the tickets are a little costly but what the heck ! Here is what all you can do) I will make another trip there soon ... have to cover a lot more stuff that I missed in this trip !