The thickness of the snow after just 1 night. Taken outside pau's home at Thunderbird.
Super tired after the walk from Thunderbird to the bus stop. See some kind of plastic container at the back? A father was pulling his cute lil kids in that plastic container like a sleigh. Super cute but it must be crazily tiring.
This day wasn't too exciting. Think we were too tired after all the adrenaline rushes at Whistler and preparing ourselves for Seattle to meet Jesmine the next day so it was a slack and relax R&R day! We were shopping a whole lot at downtown, followed by another tiring walk to Gastown. The ground was especially slushy and our boots were soaking wet.. Totally gross.
At ulu Gastown, the place close to the street where the hobos reside. At Guu, again! This Guu is quieter and darker and has a better Snow White drink. I think they had 2 each. Superb Guu, where I totally fell in love with salmon and tuna sashimi. I never liked sashimi this much, until I met Guu at Gastown. (wah I'm talking like Guu is the brave knight in shiny armour..)
DAY 8 Crazy Rush to Seattle
Okayyyy... The crazy rush to Seattle was really nothing but a crazy ride. We woke up late maybe after drinking too much Snow White and were trying to act like her best friend, Sleeping Beauty. We pulled our crazy trolley bags in the snow/slush and were almost giving up and forgetting about Seattle and Portland (which we eventually did) and Jesmine but we still made it only to see an angry and irritating old man behind the Greyhound counter mumbling behind the stupid glass panel. I couldn't quite hear him throughout and so from my memory, the conversation was something like this:
"Hi, I'm here to collect the 3 bus tickets to Seattle."
"There is no bus."
"Huh?"
"There is no bus."
"But it is only 830am now right? Our tickets are for the 845am bus."
"There is no bus."
"But.."
"The roads are blocked. All Greyhound bus services are cancelled. You could try taking a train over at Amtrak."
Then I finally got it.
"There is no bus."
"Huh?"
"There is no bus."
"But it is only 830am now right? Our tickets are for the 845am bus."
"There is no bus."
"But.."
"The roads are blocked. All Greyhound bus services are cancelled. You could try taking a train over at Amtrak."
Then I finally got it.
So I went to look for Chris and Char to tell them about this brilliant news. But before I could tell them that these is no bus, there told me that we were actually late for the bus because our tickets were for the 8:25am one. HAHA! Good game. Luckily (or not) there was snow, otherwise we would have missed the bus to Seattle. So we went over to Amtrak and booked our bus to Seattle! I have no idea why Amtrak can run but not Greyhound.
So we settled our tickets and had 8 hours to spare before the Amtrak bus comes. McDonald's for breakfast to satisfy the hungry stomachs!
After breakfast, we then decided to get out of that lousy station to go shop at a mega shopping mall called Metropolis but before we could get there, we had to pack our bags 'cause no way are we gonna pull that trolley bag in the slush again. And pictures below show the really glam self packing. The C-sisters were just laughing and giggling at me pack because I can vaguely remember I was cursing them for bringing so much useless stuff and not knowing how to pack their bags despite having travelled to one million places.
At Metrotown! We shopped like crazy and bought a lot of food like 3 bags of super cheap & good but emo chips at 99cents. The bag is as big as the Calbee Big Bag Potato Chips and costs only 99cents. What a good deal and so I just bought it thinking that I'll be able to bring it back home for the fam but heh. We ate it when we were stranded in Seattle after.
After all the time-wasting, we went back to the station to do brain exercises like Sudoku before setting off for Seattle, USA! (Erh, it wasn't all that exciting because the weather was bitter cold and we were how worried our bus would get cancelled last minute again.)
Day 9 Jesmine. Starbucks. Seattle
We started with the wonderful spread of food for breakfast at the hotel lobby accompanied by the sad news and nonsensical commercials on tv. Then off we shot for shopping again.
At Diesel where Char camwhored while I chose the BEST watch ever.
At some expensive shop where Chris shopped for the longest time while Char and I camwhored on some sofa until we decided to go disturb the pau so that she'll be a lil faster. Check out the big Old Navy bagAnd on the left is me sulking at her expensive dress.
Then finally, it was dinner time! To the famous Pike's Place public market! Dinner at some famous seafood place called Lowell's but ugh, the fish & chips we had cannot make it but okay the view was quite good. It was facing the sea just that we were behind the glass windows.
Then, we contacted and met up with Jesmine and yay yay! To celebrate the meeting up, we went to the first starbucks in the world to grab a cup of piping hot coffee!
Then we went to Jesmine's hostel to
Along the way, back to sleepover venue. Okay a lil' too much photos but it was the eve of Christmas Eve!
And we brought back cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Perfecto!
And that's them with the cakes while I was skyping home and even after Jesmine was too full with all that cheeese, I was still skyping.
Day 10 Christmas Eve to Portland, not.
We were supposed to be leaving for Portland on this day but because we were worried we would get stuck in there forever and become hobos, we decided to stay on in Seattle until the greyhound buses decide to run and bring us back to Vancouver to visit our pets (the rats) in Chris's Thunderbird.
Our meeting venue: Space Needle.
Agenda: To return Jesmine to her bro.
HAHA! We took one million years to get to the Space needle. It was a major detour because we couldn't find the entrance to that icon. Why is The Icon so hard to gain access, huh huh huh?
On the skytrain that runs through Seattle downtown and gives away free starbucks because it's the jolly Christmas season!
Because it's Christmas eve, we treated ourselves to mega good food at some atas french restaurant. Christmas eve lehhhhh!
Then we went crazy after and began collecting Nutcrackers. They were distributed around the mall and halfway through, it began
Then, we went on to collect Macy's wallpapers.
And also some shots of the Space Needle and our favourite Best Western Loyal Inn.
Come to think of it, it was really deserted and we looked like some crazy drunkards. Someone could have just come and robbed us.
Day 11 Christmas on the Greyhound
And it was Christmas on the greyhound. We managed to get on the bus to get us to Vancouver! Yay one million times because it means we're all very safe just that we were sad people to be spending it on the bus!
Because it's X'mas, it means that I can open the present from Tessa from Singapore! HAHA! Tessa, only I was excited about the cracker and Chris thought that the crown was some kind of paper shredding and threw it into the bin! Merry Christmas, indeed.
Day 12 Setting off the Alarm for the Second Time
Boxing Day was GREAT! I set off the smoke alarm at Chris's Thunderbird because I forgot to turn off the stove after frying the potato sticks. Her Chinese neighbour came down pretending to get a drink but please, we know she was kaypoh. HAHA! Then Karthik came along to laugh at us and we went for some boxing day shopping at downtown because the sale was really sale! Tommy Hilfiger for 30CAD! What's this!! Cheaper than Converse la, seriously!
I don't know why we didn't take a single photo on this day!
Day 13 Granville Islanddddd, I like
At UBC to show the level of snow we've been treading in.
At Granville Island, a beautiful place close to downtown but we had to take a boat that costs CAD5 but lasts for less than 5 minutes. Crazy money suckers. No complimentary Starbucks somemore. TSK! And the worst part was, no shop was opened there! We wanted to get a simple brunch! Oh before that, we wanted to have brunch at this museum but the chef was out shoveling snow because the kitchen was leaking. What's this! Post-boxing day syndrome?! Luckily there's a Rogers at Granville and I stocked up on Canadian chocolates that were a hit at home! Everyone loved it!
So, we had lunch, yes it became lunch, at The Keg. An expensive steakhouse. To compensate for the sad Christmas day, I psycho-ed myself...
Malaysian Dinner at Banana Leaf because it's a must-try! Actually, I still wonder why we ate there since we were going back in just a few days, but I guess it completes the whole YVR experience because YVR is very multicultural!
Day 14 Soaking up all that's left
Because it's the last day, we decided to take more UBC pictures because UBC is really a great place to be at! It is too scenic to be called a school actually. Throughout, you can see the pau sulking and pouting because someone does not want to leave! Honestly, I was missing home really badly already! Actually, it would have been better if we could stay on for a few more days because the weather was getting better and we could have gone to more places because all the roads were shoveled clear and more accessible with the public transport back in proper action!
Last sumptuous brunch at Avenue Grill. The place was homely and nice but we were eavedropping on the table behind because they were exceptionally demanding and sounded really cocky. BLEAGH! And that's Chris trying out her spanking new Boxing Day camera. 100% concentration, man!
Then, because I thought pau needed more space, Char & I went to Metrotown after brunch to get more 99cents chips & juice and do more shopping. It was crazily fun and there's a hilarious video of char laughing at me fall from the bus and my wet jeans but haha! I'm not going to upload it anywhere!
We then packed McDs for dinner and went back home to help with the packing and emo-ing. I thought that it was a rather emo day although nobody said anything...
Day 15 YVR - KOR - SIN
Pictures taken on the plane at Incheon. I took a few continuous shots of the sky and somehow the first few were orangey and the last few were dark blue. Strange.
I remember on the flight home, I was mega sleepy and greedy at the same time. Because the air tix were so expensive, I made sure I was awake for every meal, especially for the ultra delicious Strawberry Ice Cream. I remember falling asleep 10 times while eating that ice cream cone and then finally gave up when the it fell off my fingers onto the plate with a loud crash. HAHA! Greedy...
So this marks the end of my trip.
I don't know why and how I had the patience to upload and develop so many photos on the virtual and real world and even organised them so nicely. I'm guessing because this trip means quite a bit to me, not because it's my first time to Canada & the US , but because it subtly symbolises freedom and independence despite me missing home really badly and hoping to get teleported back to Sg towards the end, since it would take awfully long to fly back!
It wasn't massive travelling, just a simple getaway, albeit far. It also wasn't as though I was travelling alone but somehow I felt I grew a lil bit more independent and also a lot poorer. There's just so much to be thankful for and I must constantly remind myself of this whenever things seem to get just a lil bitter...
Less to go, more to come...
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