The final blog?

Maybe the best part of our trip is staring us in the face and needs saying? Tess and I have just spent five months in each other's company, 24/7 rarely being apart for more than the very occasional hour or two. In those five months we never had more than a muttered cross word, or a sulk or bad mood that lasted more than a few minutes. And we went through a few bad times of course and still came out friends.

I found the picture above on my phone, I had forgotten all about it. It was taken from my bed in St Augustine's Hospital in Kumily in the hills of Kerela, it must have been one of the less painful interludes of my stay. Tess is fast asleep on her 'by standers' bed - barely justifying the name bed, it was a narrow and extremely hard board. And the other picture is I think of breakfast, two milky sweet teas in a holder for carrying across the yard from the hospital kitchen and a large nan bread. One of the lowest points in our travels - but you know we were always OK even in the bad times, we had each other!

* * * * *

And a final word of thanks to our blog readers, we have enjoyed writing the blog and it has been very pleasing to be told that many of you have enjoyed reading it. If you haven't been following it then I don't suggest you start now - reading through five months backwards would take some stamina! But maybe if you want to dip in here are four blogs that might interest you (and we have added a few photos that we could not originally post):

'Valentines Day', 15 Feb
'Things are different here', 18 Feb

and if you want to read about some bad experiences then (among several) try:

'Crossing the Red Sea', 18 Jan
'Cursing Kurseong', 10 March

Brian

I have just read Brian's last entry and feel I must add that not only did we have very few cross, grumpy or combative words we have in fact laughed a lot, sometimes at ourselves and sometimes at the oddities of our fellow travelers and other members of the human race.

Tess

Blog #85 - Home

I know this is really contrary but since we are home here is a photo of us back in January, finally on our way at Kings Cross station. And confidence in our first flight, BMI to Amman, was not high when we realised that the flight deck had to clean their own windows!

We really ought to do a blog saying we have reached home - so here it is. We arrived at Heathrow early morning on the 1st June to the most glorious weather we had seen in a long time - Tess said she felt warm for the first time since Tokyo (and our Canadian readers can justifiably claim that as an exaggeration - although not too much of one!).

Our last flight was fine although one passenger some rows behind us was taken seriously ill and we had a lot of rushing about and that call went out 'Is there a doctor on board?'. One duly appeared and we assume he stabilised the patient as we were not diverted to Iceland. We had a final kerfuffle on arrival, we were down to one debit card (mine stopped in Canada following a claimed fraudulent use which proved incorrect) and with only a handful of unspent Canadian dollars. Relying on Tessa's card for cash proved a trifle optimistic - it had expired the day before! We managed to buy coach tickets with a credit card and reached Cambridge (and our awaiting replacement cards).

Cambridge looked absolutely lovely in the June sunshine and the house was fine - cleaner and tidier following the departure of our German and Dutch students than when we live in it and with very few indications that they had been here at all, and our temporary gardener had kept the garden tidy. But we stumbled around wondering where anything was. Sophie had left a note that bread and other food was in stock - but where did we keep the bread?

We faced dealing with five months of unopened post (including Premium Bond prize cheques which had expired - don't get excited they were for £50 and the new lower amount of £25) but Tess faces a larger challenge - how on earth to find a summary of what had happened in the Archers over the past five months? A google search found a Nancy Banks Smith article from early March and its seems that Matt Crawford has gone bust - reflecting the general economic condition of the country. She continues to seek out vital plot information (Archer fans please email).

The cats have been returned by my sister and brother in law - there was some psychological adjustments to be made to the situation of course, and the cats have accepted the position as well.

We have downloaded the 3,500 photographs from the 10 countries we visited. Why so few you ask? Well the loss of two cameras somewhat cramped our style (yes, yes you knew about the loss of my camera in Eqypt but I felt too foolish to admit that I then lost Tessa's camera at the Indian wedding). My aim is to get that lot down to about 350 that we can show people and still retain friends and family who will visit us. We will buy one of those digital picture frame things which can spin through our trip and sit quietly in a corner somewhere.

Its still too early to say what we felt about the whole process, we are just two jet-lagged and slightly bemused seniors who have finally put down the backpacks and are wondering - What Now?

Brian

I am sitting here in Brian's office surrounded by the stacked furniture and crockery that we packed away before we left (things that we might have been upset about if broken) and wondering if there are some things we can get rid of. My sister in law Cath and I already have a car boot sale date booked, this was after I unpacked and hung up clothes and decided that after five months of having two sets of clothes I didnt need the number I was putting back in the wardrobe.

It is good to be home, but its also quite strange. The last five months has been exiting, tiring, varied and very very interesting and I must admit to feeling a little deflated at the moment. This may be partly due to jet lag and being a bit weary after two broken nights and I am sure my mood will improve as the house gets back to normal and I have met up with some of my old friends. I did my first food shop today and that seemed very odd, cooking and shopping are something else to get used to again.

As Brian said, Cambridge looks lovely in June and our garden is looking suprisingly good, the allotment too is burgeoning, thanks to Caths hard work, so there are lots of nice things to do and lots to look forward to. It is also wonderful to see Sophie, Douglas, Laurence and all the other members of our family who are here in Cambridge after so long.

So, onwards and upwards, perhaps planning our next (shorter) travels in 2010.

Tess

Leaving Montreal - Soon!

We have spent a wonderfully relaxing two weeks with Tessa's sister Susan and brother in law Paul at their home in Cambridge (rd or rue), Baie D'Urfe just outside Montreal. After the rigors of world travel, trains, buses, taxis, hotel rooms, not speaking the same language as everyone else or indeed not being able to read signs, Montreal and Canada as a whole has been very relaxing. All we have suffered is a few sharp looks from French speaking Quebeckers and a bit of a problem with a video about an interesting artist in the Museum of Arts. The film was all in French too complicated for us to follow and we really would have liked to know more about him if the language police had allowed some sub-titling.

What have we done? Well not a great deal really, learned how to play a domino game called 'Mexican Train', watched the Stanley Cup round of ice hockey matches which currently grip N America, eaten lots of nice food and drunk quite a lot of wine and beer. We have been shopping, visted Duane and Carol in Ontario, been to local sites of interest and had a few shortish walks and cycle rides and been into Montreal three times, twice to museums and once today to the wonderful Botanic Gardens and Insectarium. On the whole the weather has not been kind, though today is lovely, bright sun and a gentle breeze blowing away the rain clouds.

We have visited a few museums including the Musee de Beaux Arts which had a special exhibition 'Imagine' on John Lennon and Yoko Ono - the most famous 'bed-in' having been held in a Montreal hotel. The exhibition had attracted large crowds of course but really suggested to us that here were a pair of rather shallow self-indulgent celebs posturing, but hey that sounds a really up to date thing to do does it not? Much better was a more local exhibition just along the lake shore which included an artist potraying West End Kids (that's the West end of the island) in 360 degree portrait series.

Hard to believe we pack up and catch our final flight tomorrow evening - but we are looking forward to seeing family and friends even if we have to admit that we have never been homesick.

Brian and Tessa

Best and worst of - journeys

The Vypeen Ferry - the women's section in the bow. And some photos from the boat trip to Baku.

So what were the best and worst of our journeys? We both probably vote for one of the worst being the taxi ride up the mountain to Kurseong in West Bengal (and we have told you about that already) although Brian might suggest that discovering just how painful kidney stones are whilst traveling on a rough mountain road in a tuk tuk is also best avoided. Mind you the road journey from Delhi to Agra was in some ways worse, several hours of dust, delay, noise and downright danger and stress. Our advice to any future travellers is do anything and pay anything to avoid travelling this route by road.

For Tessa however the worst might have to be the trip from the centre of Kolkata to the airport. We had had a great day before finally leaving India for Singapore but Tessa had managed to drink something inadvisable. We walked to the underground station and the next hour was absolutely horrible, not only for Tessa but the people traveling in the carriage with us. Fortunately Tessa had a supply of carrier bags with her and after the metro journey, a search for taxis and an uncomfortable ride to the airport she was grateful to reach ladies loos with washing facilities. Tessa had spare clothes of course - just as well as none of those she was wearing could be worn again!. The saddest thing was that for our overnight flight wonderful Singapore Airlines offered the best food we had seen (on a plane) and Tess could have had a free Singapore Sling, all she could manage was water and apple juice!

Better to focus on the best journey. This is harder, journeys were great for all kinds of reasons; comfort (rare), scenery, people etc. A short journey could be great, for example one tuk tuk ride in Udaipur where we got caught up in a noisy wedding procession in a very narrow street was a riot of colour, noise and exhuberance literally right in our faces.

But for Brian - one of the best might be the journey from Fort Kochi in Kerala to Vypeen Island and the bus ride that was part of it. We had decided to spend just a few hours at one of Kerela's beaches and set off first on the short ferry hop across to Vypeen Island itself - in a large open wooden boat with space for men standing in the stern, a middle compartment for the two crew and engine, and a bow section for the women.

We were soon onto one of the many buses that draw up at the ferry terminal. It was crowded but we got seats right at the back for the 20km drive to the other end of the island. The road was village all the way, with endless small shops, temples and churches sitting among the palm trees - typical South Indian and very attractive. But the road was also crowded, so the three man bus crew had to work hard to keep us going at a good speed. The driver worked the horn in usual Indian fashion getting people, carts, bicycles out of the way or swerving around them if they didn't. The conductor at the rear sold the tickets and helped hurry people on and off the bus at the rear exit.

But the vital member of the crew was the whistle guy at the front entrance. He hurried people on an off that exit and controlled the bus movement, one blast on the whistle for stop and two for go. At the front of the bus was a picture of a god, illuminated by flashing lights. Everyone seemed to know everyone and exchanged greetings, and jokes were played on the conductor with one guy tapping the conductor's 'wrong' shoulder so he kept turning to see who wanted him. The easy going nature of South India was very much on display.

So we bowled along at a good lick with the whistle man blowing his one or two blasts, loud popular Indian music playing and people rushing on and off. We were already smiling at the happy scene but then the music changed to a particularly frantic version of 'Jingle Bells' - this seemed totally incongrous given the location, the humid heat and the date but we sang or hummed along. But then the whistle man also got caught up in the tune and was soon blowing along to Jingle Bells as loud as he could - and we could not stop laughing. A nice start to the day.

But Tessa enjoyed the boat trip out to Baku National Park in Sarawak best. Riding out to the ferry terminal in William and Becky's car, William being greeted like an old friend by all the guys at the terminal, the wobbly feeling of getting into a small boat and squeezing into the life jacket. Speeding through the brown, muddy water as we passed by houses on stilts and creeping mangroves, the possibility that we might see a crocodile and then moving out into more open waters and round the headland to Baku. It was so exiting and the anticipation of a walk in the rain forest and the animals we might see, Tessa really liked that.

Brian and Tessa

If I'd known you were comin.....

A few photos of the people we met - the children in the Al Khaili household, Tessa and Sujata Shah at the Shah's house, and pictures of us and the Singapore 'Good Morning Yesterday' bloggers.

Now that we are nearing the end of our trip we thought we might take the opportunity in the last few blogs to reflect on some aspects of our experience . More than anything it is perhaps the personal contacts we have had in some of the countries we have visited that have made the trip so special for us. Each day may have presented new and sometimes extraordinary and exotic sights and experiences, but it was the chance to meet old and new friends that made our trip so special for us and gave us the richest and most enjoyable insights into life in other places.

Our first family visit was to the Al Khaili family in the United Arab Emirates. Ahmed Al Khaili had lived with us in Cambridge for about 12 weeks during 2008 and had become in that short time a valued friend. When he heard of our travel plans he asked us to visit his family home in Abu Samra near the Oman border. Without our friendship with Ahmed we would never have visited the UAE and experienced the hospitality and home life of an extended Arab family. We would not have been taken to the desert to see family farms, be nuzzled by Ahmed's camels, visit racing camel training and breeding places, take part in a demonstration from one family member in her Beduouin tent of how life was lived 'before the petrol', nor experienced the thrill as Ahmed turned his SUV off the track and across the desert sand dunes. We began to find the desert a rather suprisingly peaceful and attractive place. We will be eternally grateful for the privileged insight we were offered into a very different way of life and will always welcome Ahmed and family members back to his other 'home' in Cambridge.

In India we spent over a week with the Snehal and Sujata Shah in Ahmedabad. The Shahs have been friends of Tessa's cousin Martin and his partner Richard for many, many years, since Snehal Shah was a student at RIBA. In the summer of 2008 their daughter, Sunaina, came to stay with us while she went to a summer school at Cambridge University and though we didn't know Snehal and Sujata very well, they offered us hospitality in India whenever we wanted to come - and graciously dismissed our need to apologise for arriving a week later than expected! Staying with the Shah's was just fantastic, Sujata is the most wonderful cook of vegan food so tasty, varied and utterly delicious. We never sat down to the same dish twice! Our days were filled with trips to fascinating historical sites, shopping trips and family visits. We received essential help with the very complicated booking and purchase of Indian Railway tickets and - the absolute icing on the cake - were invited to two functions that were part of a family wedding including the actual wedding ceremony. An Indian wedding is a feast for all the senses, an opportunity absolutely not to be missed.

After six weeks in India we headed for Singapore, a place with family memories for both of us and made more special when we met up with a new but also 'old friend' made through blogging on the internet - Lam Chun See. Chun See and some of the 'family' of bloggers who contribute to his blog site 'Good moring Yesterday' dropped everything to accompany us to places associated with Brian's youth or Tessa's grandparents. Brian saw the house he had lived in as a teenager and the RAF School he attended. Tessa saw the house her Grandfather lived in (which must simply have the best position on the island overlooking the harbour) and where her father lived as a small boy when Grandpa Williams was involved in the building of the Causeway. We had lunch with some of the bloggers (one of whom 'YG', Chun See himself had only 'met' online before) and visited Chun See's home, met his wife and admired his son's collection of pitcher plants. Amongst the household we were introduced to the oldest rooster on the block - sadly just deceased we read from Good Morning Yesterday. It was a great experience to have such fun with people who have only been names and stories on a screen before. As he bade farewell Chun See said we felt like old friends and we certainly felt the same.

When we reached Kuching in Sarawak we were delighted to meet up with Diana Cook (friend from Cambridge) who was visiting her son William Beavitt and his partner Becky. Becky is teaching at an English mediun school in Kuching and William is studying Proboscis monkeys in the wetlands around Kuching. Though we only knew William slightly before (he is a little older than Sophie and went to a different school so we didn't know him as a teenager) he and Becky advised us on where to stay (the quirky, but fun, 'Fairview') took us to the Baku National Park and were very gracious as we puffed along the mere 800 metres path through the jungle. Full of interesting information and advice on what to see, eat, how to deal with dehydration, who to hire as a taxi driver, William and Becky were spot on with everything including expert advice on seeing lots of wonderful wildlife sights. They helped to make our two weeks in Sarawak a wonderfully interesting and restful interlude - including finding our luxury hideaway 'The Village House' in Santubong.

We flew from Bangkok to Japan where we were able to stay with Junko Koshinaga, her husband Morimichi and daughter Michiru. About ten years ago Junko lived with us for a year while she studied Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University. We had kept in touch with Christmas cards and on arrival in Tokyo, Junko and Morimichi put us up for three days, enabling us to get to know the delightful two and a half year old Michiru, do a little sight seeing in Tokyo, meet up with Mr and Mrs Yoshida again (Junko's parents who also visited us in Cambridge), enjoy some lovely Japanese home cooking and the most amazing meal at a resturaunt that we would never have found on our own. Junko advised on taking the trip to Hakone and on the special dish to try when we were in Hiroshima. It was such fun to see Junko again, to see her so happy with her lovely husband and daughter and making headway with music therapy which is relatively unknown in Japan.

And of course we have ended our trip with visits to Canadian relatives we have recently told you about. A great mixture of new places and people and renewing old friendships.

Tessa and Brian

The Land

We have spent the weekend at 'The Land' - a small piece of forest on Charleston Lake in Ontario which Sue and Paul have owned for many years and on which they have erected a small bedroom plus screened 'bug house' for



sitting in. I don't think there are any facilities yet - you do what the bears do. The rigours of winter have also separated the bedroom from the bughouse - somehow ground movement has shifted one about a foot from the other!

We stayed in rather more comfortable surroundings - the log house that is the permanent residence of their neighbours Carol and Duane Dillman who we visited many years ago when the children were small and so was the log house. Their now extended house is built on rock and is rather more stable' has a lovely position among the trees and is surrounded by gambolling charming chipmunks. It was also good to see their son Jeffrey - he stayed a couple of weeks with us in Cambridge some years ago.

By very happy coincidence Saturday was Duane's 72nd birthday and we all went off to celebrate at a restaurant overlooking the St Laurence - this is the 1,000 island area, you can see New York State just across the river which is however full of tiny islands, actually over 2,000 of them. We spent the rest of the time taking a short walk in the adjoining Charleston Lake Provincial Park (sighting of a hairy woodpecker), walking the dogs Winnie and Rufus, and consuming enormous amounts of food at a BBQ attended by their friends Sue and Rick.

By the way we discovered the whereabouts of Leonard -performing at the nearby town of Kingston.

Brian

Not only did we see a Hairy Woodpecker but also a very large, green and brown frog in the Provincial Park. On the way to the restaurant we saw three Turkey vultures, one was ripping something apart on the side of the road and the other two were watching intently from a nearby fence. They are really big and a mixture of black and tan with a red wattle on their heads.

We also stopped on the way to make the acquaintance of a beautiful foal who was only a few days old and while waiting for our dinner to arrive we saw several eagles, one swooping to catch a fish and numbers of herons flapping of to their heron home.

At Duane and Carol's house we saw a Humming bird, no bigger than a big hornet taking sugar water from their Humming bird feeder on several occasions and also watched a Robin feeding it four young in their nest, built in the glass lampshade of one of the lights on the porch. What a weekend for wild life!!

Tess

Where's Leonard?

The weather suddenly got hot yesterday, in the upper 20s, so we took a bus downtown. It takes about an hour from Baie D'Urfe which is near the far western end of the island, beside the lake and full of large houses on extensively wooded plots - you would all love to live here!* Sue and Paul's place is back from the lake but they have a lovely house and garden - the latter full of colourful birds attracted to Paul's many bird feeders; grackles, red cardinals, finches, chickadees and large American robins being among the regular visitors.

Good to be in downtown Montreal, its a fashionable place, the women have a city chic which is unlike Vancouver where practical cold weather gear is the order of the day - that or running/cycling or other activity gear. We took the metro to the Place des Arts to visit the contemporary art museum, paid our senior rate of three dollars for several exhibitions - the first artist was described as 'deliberately insolent' which I thought a good way of covering your own back and true enough he was of least interest - particularly as we were bowled over by much of the rest of what we saw, notably the large paintings and mixed media work of Betty Goodwin, who died last year and was a major figure on the Montreal arts scene and the extraordinary photographs of Robert Polidori from abandoned or ruined places like Beirut, Chernobyl and New Orleans after the floods. Talking of major figures we did not see Leonard walking the streets...

Its only in Montreal that you see virtually no English signage. The language police have done a thorough job since we were last here many years ago in getting rid of all English words. Sue and Paul's road has changed from Cambridge Road, to Upper Cambridge, to Rue Cambridge to settle on just Cambridge. Everywhere else in Canada the two languages get equal billing, here in Quebec Province its French only - with the odd private sign with a word or two in English or on interpretation board at sites but always in much smaller size. This is an odd sensation because one feature around the world is the use (and abuse) of English on advertising and signage everywhere - Cambodia for example was full of English signs on everything. But here you dust off that limited French to read the signs, not a lot of trouble of course.

Brian

* you would all love to live here in the few weeks of the year in the short spring and autumn when the weather is habitable!


We went into 'Baie' ( used to be Hudson's Bay Company) and I got a great bargain, a silk, long sleeved vest (undershirt) for $19.99 reduced from $70.00, even the lady on the till went "hmm" as she rang it in. I know it may seem a little unseasonable but I can tell you I can clearly recall the biting cold of my winter Thursday stints on the Country Markets stall on Cambridge market.

It was quite a funny shopping experience because there were two non french speaking women at one of the two tills doing something that seemed terribly complicated, things were exchanged, receipts examined, changes made and things returned. I don't know what was going on but it took the most incredibly long time and the ever lengthening line wanting to pay for goods was getting extremely restive. Then the lady on the remaining till had a problem with a ticket and her till stopped working, so things got even worse. The consensus was that the reason it was all going wrong was that these two women DID NOT SPEAK FRENCH!. The woman next to me said something to this effect to me, prety pointless as my French is just about non existent (I am good at body language though) I said 'sorry, but I don't speak French' but perhaps I was forgiven because I was a tourist and my shopping was mercifully uncomplicated.

We now know where the francophone cabin attendant from Air Canada go when they are deemed to mature to fly, they get retirement jobs at the 'Baie'. The three ladies I saw in the underwear department were very stately, well made up, beautifully dressed but of a very mature vintage and very disaproving of any one who made mistakes with the very complicated Baie offers, or who could not speak French.

All three photos by me!

Tess

The Canadian family

We probably dashed away east from Vancouver without sufficiently acknowledging or blogging our Vancouver family - indeed an expanding family - first Tessa's neice Rachelle and her new partner Sheldon and his two children, Emma and Bremyn (sorry that's almost certainly misspelt). In Maple Ridge, just outside Vancouver proper, we stayed with Tessa's nephew Andre, wife Nicole and their two children who we met for the first time, two year old Daniel and the very new arrival, two week old Madeleine. Good of them to spare us so much time when they were barely getting any time to sleep!

And we are ending our trip with Tessa's sister Sue and husband Paul here in Baie D'Urfe in Montreal where the weather may be a little cool but the food is great and the hospitality is warm!
Brian

Oh Canada!

Well here I am in the comfort of my sisters home in Baie D' Urfe, Montreal, where women cook and men watch sport on TV and I have time to think about our short interlude in the Rockies.

We travelled by Greyhound bus, how iconic is that? They are very comfortable and have really big windows, stop every 2 hours or so and sweep quietly along the excellent Canadian highways. The views from the bus were interesting from the start (7 am Tuesday 12th May) so we were both gazing out of the window the whole time and I dind'nt doze at all, even though it had been an early start.

The Rockies are so craggy and there are so many fir trees on them and great deep ravines with rushing water, waterfalls tumble down mountain sides and so much snow and icy fingers of small glaciers creeping down towards the ribbon of road. Sometimes a valley floor will open out and there is either wonderful alpine meadow type terrain or boggy wetland stuff, sometimes there are broad river beds covered in rocks, fallen trees and gravel beds with a small rushing stream meandering around. It is obvious that come snow melt that little stream becomes a rushing mighty torrent hurling rocks, debris and whole huge trees before its foaming waters. There are also huge lakes of a curious icy blue and the endless trees, taller and closer together than anything you would ever see in Britain.

Because of being on the highway we didn't really pass through towns, but stopped on the outskirts to drop and pick up passengers, we had a nice soup and sandwich in one place and were able to earwig on a Pinteresque, one sided conversation where an older man was loudly alternately harranging or plaintively asking a younger woman why she was going away, she didn't answer and just got up to go and board her bus so I guess she had her reasons!

Our trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday, stopping one night in the tiny and workaday Revelstoke and two nights in the more resort-like Banff. Both towns are laid out on a grid system with huge wide roads and low, mainly two storey buildings. Some of the buildings date from the 1880's and some are more modern. Revelstoke was a goldrush town and they both grew up about the time the railroad was built across Canada. Revelstoke boasts four museums and loads of eating places as well as hardware shops, shops selling snowmobiles and chainsaws and a very small mall. It also has a main street that looks like something out of a wild west film, even more so at the moment because they are digging it up to pedestrianise and so the road is just mud. It was cold on the evening of the 12th and we were glad of our borrowed gloves and I of my thrift store hat and jumper.

We woke up to a sunny morning and were actually quite hot as we waited on the steps of the "Same Sun Backpackers Hostel" for the taxi to take us to the bus stop. Imagine the deep quiet of a small town in the rockies, very few people about and a car passes you about every 5 minutes (cars stop at cross roads for pedestrians to cross, even when the pedestrians are quite a long way from reaching the corner), the view of snow covered mountains all around you and the crisp, clean air faintly scented with pine.

On to Banff, a funny journey, we crossed a time zone line and the driver didn't notice so there was a good deal of confusion about the lenght of time at a stop, he thought we had an hour and some of us knew that we did'nt. At the front of the bus is a notice that instructs not to talk to the driver when the bus is in motion. The very front seat was taken by a very senior lady who was a bit blind, this meant that she couldn't read the notice and she talked to the driver all the way from Revelstoke to Banff, about 4 plus hours, we knew all about her whole history by the time we reached our destination.

The journey took us through more breathtaking scenery, snow storms, clouds, past notices that said "Avelanche Area, no stopping", through tunels and over high bridges . We arrived in Banff on a lovely sunny, but cold afternoon and walked to the YWCA, where we had a very comfortable room and a great place to eat.

Banff is smarter looking than Revelstone and has developed as a resort almost since its foundation. It has lots of mountain equipment stores, jewelry stores, smart boutiques and very expensive places to eat (hence the Y cafeteria being our resturant of choice). It had a powerful advocate in a man called Luxton who moved to Banff in the 1900's to recover from an ill advised 2 man canoe trip across the Pacific. He recovered and never left and became a 'Booster' for the town, married a local and ended up with all sorts of bussiness enterprises and has a whole museum dedicated to him.

We walked about the town, had short walks along trails, went to the museums, ate and drank and had a fantastic ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain on a cable car. The weather was horrible on Thursday, snow and the mountainds hidden by cloud that played a sort of hide and reveal game with us, one minute you would get a glimpse of a snowy slope or peak and the next it would be obscured and another peak or rocky outcrop would slip into view. It was a bit grey too so though wonderful the veiws did'nt sparkle in the way they do on post cards.

The next day was different, sun out, snow overnight and the sparkle was there, on trees covered with snow and the peaks glistened and all the rocky ourcrops had their strata picked out in gleaming white. It was so bright and the trip up the mountain was breath taking with views that went on for ever.

We went up in the gondolas with crowds of other people, some really dressed up, some in suits, a Mounty in full dress uniform, all sorts of people with Canadian flags, while waiting in line for our gondola we were all serenaded by the high school jazz band. We asked the very statuesque blond dressed in National Parks uniform, whose name was Larie Schwartz, who shared our gondola what was going on and she told us it was a citizenship ceremony for 51 new Canadians, she also told us she was the anthem singer of 'O Canada'. At the top we goggled at the fantasic views, had a coffee and goggled some more and then joined in at the back of the ceremony. It was really quite wonderful, we were'nt there for the whole of it, but we listened to the heartfelt oration of the Judge who had taken the oath from all of the new citizens and then some speaches from local politicians and then Lorrie Schwatz sang the anthem, acappello - well it brought a tear to my eye, all these people from about 30 or so countries all starting new lives. It was a real priveledge to be present.

We went back down the mountain after an hour or two on the top and Brian went for a dip in the acclaimed Banff hot springs bath, I watched because I have a horrible cold (no colds for 2 years at home and this is my 3rd in 4.5 months). He was in the water or lounging on the edge of the pool for about an hour with the occasional snow flurry drifting around him and the other bathers. We spent the rest of the afternoon on a walk by the river to the museum that is on the sight of the origional hot springs pool 'The Cave and Basin Museum'. It is the place where some prospecters found a hole in the ground with steam coming out of it. The water is very sulphurus and the cave really pongs. You can't bathe there any more because it is the home of the tiny and endangered Banff Hot Spring Snail (about the size of a grain of rice). There is a good exhibition of old photos and the story of the development of the national parks, Banff was the first one in 1880 something.

Some funny things happened on our trip, we flooded our room at the YWCA, well it wasn't really our fault. The loo started making funny noises and wouldn't flush properly. We reported it as we went off to breakfast and came back about half an hour later to find them vac sucking about 2 inches of water out of the whole carpeted room. It had also ruined the ceiling of the room below. Two rooms ruined! Goodness knows what had happened but the water must have started flowing again after we had left the room. We had to gather up all our stuff and were moved to a different room. I saw the janitor the next morning and he said 'no leaks today eh?'.

Also I nearly broke the ticket machine on a local bus by feeding my $2.00 piece into the slot made for smartcards, the bus driver was very nice about it, but it was a bit embarrasing as we all sat and waited while he fished it out - all the other passengers looking at me!

Off now to take another decongestant and watch the last of an ice hockey match on the high definition T.V.
Tess

Kamloops - Revelstoke - Banff

Its snowing outside so hard we can't get out for the fudge ice-cream we had promised ourselves. We are back on the road by Greyhound bus. First to Kamloops then a change for Revelstoke where we stayed the night and then yesterday another bus through the most spectacular mountain scenery to here in Banff. We are staying in hostels, the Samesun Backpackers Hostel in Revelstoke and the Y Mountain Ridge here in Banff (actually the YWCA in disguise). Mind you this might mark the end of our hostel stays - our room flooded this morning and ruined the room underneath as well. We had reported a problem with the toilet which suddenly turned into a very serious problem as we had breakfast. Fortunately the hostel handyman was on the case immediately.

Revelstoke and Banff are both mountain places, a small grid of streets by a river but there the similarity ends. Revelstoke looked like one of those places you see in cowboy films and was full of really useful hardware, working clothes, marine and other shops. Banff is one of those resort places full of high priced knick knacks and clothing - for those with loose minds and wallets.

And the weather? Well I had thought that mid May might constitute Spring in these parts but here in Banff which is at about 1350 metres the temperature is not much above freezing and its snowing hard at the moment. Just as well we borrowed those hats, gloves and extra fleeces from Andre and Nicole back in Maple Ridge - they are getting well used. Mind you our treking sandles which have got us around the world and are our only footwear may not be entirely appropriate!

Brian

I am wearing my sandals with my DVT socks, plus another pair of socks, so my feet will stay warm as long as I dont go wading in snow and get wet.
In 1972 I came over to Canada for an extended stay with my sister, Rachelle and Andre were very small and it was lovely just outside Montreal in May. I traveled across to Vancouver by train, three days there and three days back and longed to get off at intervals, particularly in the majestic rockies. Now a chance to see a bit more of these odd, modern yet far from anywhere towns is really great though I wasnt expecting snowfall and mountain views hidden behind cloud again (a bit of a theme in our travels).
Tess

ps hope to add some photos later