After much hanging around and waiting bored at school without the kids, we finally finished our school year and got to leave for Canada. The route from Bangkok to Calgary isn't one of the easiest or cheapest to do, but where there's a will there's a way and all that. Because of the fact that we were going through 5 different time zones and crossing the date line, and because our airline failed to state how long any of the flights took, we decided to set a stop-watch going when we left the apartment at 11.00am on Friday the 21st as we had no idea actually how long we'd be travelling for. Our first flight took us to Hong Kong with a brief stop of one hour. We then flew to Taipei for another short stop. From here we had the long flight on to Seattle before a very quick and harassed shuttle through the airport (stupid American immigration process...) to catch the final flight. By the time we reached our hostel in Calgary we had been travelling for nearly 27 hours and awake for 37, and it was still only Friday the 21st. It really was the never ending day.Waking up early in Calgary and dressing again in our lightweight travelling clothes, we thought we'd be alright to walk the two blocks to the car hire place. Now the blowing below zero degree winds that whistle through Calgary must feel bad to just about every visitor, but having come from Bangkok's 36 degree humidity, it was rather a shock to our systems. This is just one of the many extremes of Canada. It is definitely a country of huge and dramatic proportions in every sense.
The drive from Calgary to Lake Louise is quite spectacular. Endless flat parched brown plains stretch as far as you can see before the mountains suddenly loom huge and white in contrast along the horizon. Once into the mountains the massive 18 wheeler 'muscle' trucks seem dwarfed by the 'awesome' scenery (sorry hate that word, but you find yourself using it a lot driving around Canada). Lake Louise, the first resort area we were staying in, is really just a small collection of hotels set back from the main road, 5 minutes drive away from the slopes in one direction, and 20 minutes away from the actual lake and the famous chateau that is perched at its edge and is surrounded by more mountains and a glacier. Once settled in we headed up to the slopes to meet up with Nick's dad and the rest of his family, and to be laughed at by them as we attempted to get the hang of snowboarding again. Now I had really hoped that as this was now my third holiday snowboarding that I would find it all really easy to get the hang of again and I would get on to tackling bigger and better things this time. Wrong. As always, we had to start with the humiliating experience of going up and down the nursery slopes with us sliding and falling as a battalion of 3 and 4 year olds cut us up and whizzed past. This was probably more humiliating for Nick than for me, he's a very able skier and it must be quite hard to cope with doing face plants in the snow again.
While Nick soon got the hang of it and although I started well, my Lake Louise snowboarding experience wasn't the best. I have huge issues with pointing myself downhill and picking up speed. Bit too much of a control freak I think. It's one of those things that if you don't fully commit yourself to the direction you're going then you're gonna wipe out and hurt yourself. As the days went on I had more falls and less confidence which of course equals more falls. It got to the stage where I thought I should just give up. I felt like I was spending most of the time feeling half terrified. I'd watch kids being towed up and down the slopes by their parents with the kids crying "I don't wanna/don't like it/can't do it" and that's exactly how I felt. Only it's alright to do that when you're under 10, it's not so acceptable for a 28 year old to do it. You just have to keep quiet and kick your own butt back up the mountain.
My experience improved quite dramatically when we move on from Lake Louise to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. This small scale resort with quiet slopes was absolutely amazing. Considering the fact that everyone I had met had told me it wasn't a place for beginners and was 'such a big mountain', I think it's a pretty fantastic place. The busiest slopes will only have a handful of people on and there is so much space. I was also fortunate to have an instructor who with one simple change of stance completely changed my way of boarding. Managed to do so much more as a result.
The main reason for our trip to Canada was so that Nick's dad could celebrate his birthday in style with his whole family. It was kind of cool for me to be away with such a large and close family group. There were 11 of us in total. This could be a bit overwhelming at times, and often an organizational or logistical nightmare. However, it meant that there was always someone new to chat to and everyone was really good fun. We had some great nights out and went to some amazing restaurants, the best being for Eric's birthday at 3777m in the stunning Eagle's Eye restaurant. Log fires and 360 degree mountain top views make for a pretty unique dining experience, and the pitch black gondola ride back down the mountain at the end of the night was not something I'll get to do too often.
All in all, what with the setting, the company, and all the fun and games, the whole experience was one I'll never forget.
The drive from Calgary to Lake Louise is quite spectacular. Endless flat parched brown plains stretch as far as you can see before the mountains suddenly loom huge and white in contrast along the horizon. Once into the mountains the massive 18 wheeler 'muscle' trucks seem dwarfed by the 'awesome' scenery (sorry hate that word, but you find yourself using it a lot driving around Canada). Lake Louise, the first resort area we were staying in, is really just a small collection of hotels set back from the main road, 5 minutes drive away from the slopes in one direction, and 20 minutes away from the actual lake and the famous chateau that is perched at its edge and is surrounded by more mountains and a glacier. Once settled in we headed up to the slopes to meet up with Nick's dad and the rest of his family, and to be laughed at by them as we attempted to get the hang of snowboarding again. Now I had really hoped that as this was now my third holiday snowboarding that I would find it all really easy to get the hang of again and I would get on to tackling bigger and better things this time. Wrong. As always, we had to start with the humiliating experience of going up and down the nursery slopes with us sliding and falling as a battalion of 3 and 4 year olds cut us up and whizzed past. This was probably more humiliating for Nick than for me, he's a very able skier and it must be quite hard to cope with doing face plants in the snow again.
While Nick soon got the hang of it and although I started well, my Lake Louise snowboarding experience wasn't the best. I have huge issues with pointing myself downhill and picking up speed. Bit too much of a control freak I think. It's one of those things that if you don't fully commit yourself to the direction you're going then you're gonna wipe out and hurt yourself. As the days went on I had more falls and less confidence which of course equals more falls. It got to the stage where I thought I should just give up. I felt like I was spending most of the time feeling half terrified. I'd watch kids being towed up and down the slopes by their parents with the kids crying "I don't wanna/don't like it/can't do it" and that's exactly how I felt. Only it's alright to do that when you're under 10, it's not so acceptable for a 28 year old to do it. You just have to keep quiet and kick your own butt back up the mountain.
My experience improved quite dramatically when we move on from Lake Louise to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. This small scale resort with quiet slopes was absolutely amazing. Considering the fact that everyone I had met had told me it wasn't a place for beginners and was 'such a big mountain', I think it's a pretty fantastic place. The busiest slopes will only have a handful of people on and there is so much space. I was also fortunate to have an instructor who with one simple change of stance completely changed my way of boarding. Managed to do so much more as a result.
The main reason for our trip to Canada was so that Nick's dad could celebrate his birthday in style with his whole family. It was kind of cool for me to be away with such a large and close family group. There were 11 of us in total. This could be a bit overwhelming at times, and often an organizational or logistical nightmare. However, it meant that there was always someone new to chat to and everyone was really good fun. We had some great nights out and went to some amazing restaurants, the best being for Eric's birthday at 3777m in the stunning Eagle's Eye restaurant. Log fires and 360 degree mountain top views make for a pretty unique dining experience, and the pitch black gondola ride back down the mountain at the end of the night was not something I'll get to do too often.
All in all, what with the setting, the company, and all the fun and games, the whole experience was one I'll never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment