The drive from Banff to Jasper was quite interesting. We left on a cloudy morning and after a few hours along the Icefield Parkway it was snowing! I wasn’t expecting to see blowing snow but fortunately it was only at the higher elevation. Before long the road was dry again and the sun was shining. It was the classic Canadian scene – fall colours, snow-capped mountains, turquoise lakes and the rushing river. (At this point in our trip, the biggest animal we’ve seen is the moose.. still no bear, mountain goat or wolf…)
We drove by Columbia Icefield and it was sad to see that the glacier has receded so much. Both Jeff and I have been there when we were much younger and again about 5 years ago with the kids.. Sadly you’ll see more glacial erratic (rocks and stones that were transported by a glacier and then left behind after the glacier melted) than ice as the time goes by. Climate change is real.
In Jasper, we kicked into high gear again for hiking. We hiked to the summit of Bald Hills by Maligne Lake. It was a 2.5-hour uphill hike to a phenomenal 360 view of the area. At the summit we sat on the rocks and had our peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch – best lunch stop ever!
Another 30mins before we get to the summit of Bald Hills
Maligne Lake in the distance
Bald Hills
The next day we hiked along the Malign river to the canyon. It was an easy hike and perhaps would be more exciting if the water level was higher. Someday I’ll like to return to the Malign Canyon in the wintertime as you can walk on the frozen canyon floor and waterfalls. Speaking of waterfalls, we also went to Athabasca Falls. When we arrived, we saw that there was a wedding photoshoot and the crew was also flying a drone. The couple had crossed the railings to get on the rocks, close to the rushing water. Definitely a quick way to lose a spouse.
Maligne River
Athabasca Falls
One of the five lakes
We also completed the “valley of the five lakes” hike, where in just over 4km you’ll hike past 5 crystal clear turquoise lakes. Next, we drove to the Mt Edith Cavell area to see the glaciers and hiked a little more. The Edith Cavell area is very interesting. You get to see the hanging glaciers over a tarn (glacial lake) where there are chunks of ice in the water. There is a warning not to go to the lake shore because of the risk of a flash flood due to ice calving, but you know people… they have to be cool (or more likely stupid) and risk their lives to see the ice up close. Again, climate change has affected the size of the glaciers… Sadly it’s a matter of time before glaciers disappear.
Tomorrow is our last day in Jasper. We will get another hike in and then end our stay with Jamaican food… there is a highly recommended Jamaican restaurant in Jasper and we love our spicy food! On Friday morning we will leave for Merritt and boondock again at the Walmart to break our journey. Overall this has been a relaxing and much needed break for both Jeff and myself. Looking forward to be back home…
It’s been a while since we’ve been away.. spring break ski vacation did not quite happen, Whistler closed the day we arrived and then COVID-19 became our focus at work for the next little while. We were also busy at home as we moved to another place, albeit 75m around the corner but still just as much work to make it feel like home.
Now that things have more or less settled, Jeff and I decided to take a short trip.. too bad for the kids, they are back at school. We started our vacation at Mount Revelstoke National Park at the brand new campground called Snowforest. Since the weather was still not too bad, we decided to backpack to Eva Lake for the night. When we arrived at Eva Lake, a snowshow hare greeted us. The weather that day was a mix bag of sun, rain and clouds but with that we were rewarded with a rainbow across the lake. Our plan was to hike to Jade Lake to spend the 2nd night but that changed as we had the most uncomfortable night – the highly rated uberlight sleeping mattress was noisy as heck. Think of the amplified sound of a bag of chips, each time either one of us moved it made such a loud sound that would wake the other up. Not wanting to spend another night in the tent and also not wanting to miss seeing Miller Lake and Jade Lake, we made a detour to see the lakes before heading back to the start of the trail. So glad we made the detour as it was a beautiful hike and both Miller and Jade Lakes were spetacular. We saw pikas scurrying among the rocks and even a hoary marmot.
Snowshoe hare
Rainbow at Eva Lake
Miller Lake
On the trail to Miller and Jade Lakes
Hoary Marmot
Hiking up Jade Pass
Upper Jade Lake
Since Revelstoke was expecting heavy rain the next few days, we decided to cut short our stay and headed off to Banff. We hiked up Tunnel Mountain the next day – it is the most climbed mountain in Banff. After a heart-pounding 2.4km incline we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of Banff. Today we went to Lake Louise to hike up to the Lake Agnes teahouse and Little Beehive. Lake Louise is as beautiful as ever and it’s nice to arrive before the crowds. At 8am we set off on the trail and overtook 3 other groups to arrive at the teahouse in an hour. That’s 3.5km with a 400m elevation gain.. pretty much uphill all the way. We stopped at the teahouse and had the company of a Whisky Jack (aka as Canada Jay, grey jay, camp robber) that was very interested in our chocolate chip cookie. After our break we hiked to Little Beehive and it was a very scenic – it is peak season for the fall colours and the Golden Larch trees did not disappoint. Tomorrow we are off to Jasper National Park.. maybe it won’t be as windy there..
Lake Louise
Lake Agnes teahouse
Lake Agnes
Whisky Jack
Fall colours along the Lake Agnes trail (Little Beehive trail)
We arrived in Bangkok and hired a “limo” to the hotel for 1050 baht. Sounds like a lot of money, but it was only $45. Once we settled in our room, we wandered around the neighbourhood looking for sustenance. Hmm… massage parlours after massage parlours.. how many massage parlours do they need in Bangkok? Are we in the wrong part of town? Nope, that’s Bangkok city for you, like my brother said, Bangkok is one big massage parlour. Not wanting to go too far from the hotel, we settled on mediocre food at some Thai chain fast-food restaurant. (In hindsight, A&W would have been better.)
On Tuesday, we caught a Grab (which is the local Uber) to the Grand Palace. As we were walking towards the entrance, we encountered our first scam. This guy told us that the Grand Palace is closed and is only opened to the Thai people. Sure buddy, we read about this scam on the internet. I told him I checked the website and it is open, that shut him up. The Grand Palace was very busy, we had to line up to enter one of the temples, everyone was carrying their shoes in plastic bags as we worked our way into the temple. It was very busy and everyone was pushing their way to move forward in the line up. Seemed so rude but it is something you need to do otherwise you get left behind. Every once in a while I did a subtle hip check to prevent someone from budging.
Entrance way a tad low..
After the Grand Palace we went to the malls – apparently it is one of the popular activities here in Bangkok. Well, a mall is a mall, is a mall. We had a good lunch and then made our way back to the hotel by foot. The walk was a “meet the locals” experience for the kids. They saw beggars on the street where many were blind, one had no legs, another had no hands… We also saw many of the street food vendors.. It sure would be nice to have a ice cold juice or some fresh fruit but…… we know better, not interested in visiting the porcelain throne more than we need to.
After experiencing the crowd at the Grand Palace and walking along the streets of Bangkok, Jeff and I were in no mood to join in the new year countdown that is just a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Besides we saw that the army and police were getting organized for the celebration – that made us feel a bit uncomfortable about our safety. At midnight, I was awoken by the sound of fireworks. I could see it from the balcony of our room that is on the 30th floor. Can’t complain about getting woken up to see the fireworks.
On New Year’s Day, we went to Lumpini Park. It was created in the 1920s by King Rama VI on royal land. The 142 acre park in the city has an artificial lake and is popular with both tourists and locals. The local wildlife include many birds, tortoises, snakes and monitor lizards. Fortunately I did not see any snakes but we saw a number of monitor lizards. They also have outdoor gyms in the park with equipment that is way past its prime. We saw the trainer at one of the outdoor gyms – he was well defined and put on a show for us tourists – he launched himself off the chin up bar, clapped his hands, grab the bar and up he went into another handclap, he did this a few times. (Sure felt guilty about indulging on this trip!)
Outdoor gym
Marcus posing with a monitor lizard
After the park we went to MBK – a popular mall with both tourists and locals. Well, lots of fake goods there… but that’s not our style. Anyway, nothing to buy, onwards to a restaurant for lunch which was quite good again.
An interesting point to note is that all the shopping malls have metal detectors as you enter it. This came in place after the many bombings in Thailand. But you know what, the guards don’t even care when the metal detectors go beep beep beep… Many of the articles I read said it is more for show.
We also took a day trip to Ayutthaya which is an UNESCO heritage site.The Historic City of Ayutthaya, founded in 1350, was the second capital of the Siamese Kingdom. It flourished from the 14th to the 18th centuries, during which time it grew to be one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan urban areas and a center of global diplomacy and commerce. Enroute to Ayutthaya, we stopped by Bang Pa-In which is the summer residence of the King of Thailand. Amidst vast gardens and landscaping, there are many buildings of European and Chinese influence.
Onwards to Ayutthaya. The ruins in Ayutthaya cover a large area but most tourists head over to the star attraction – the Buddha head in the banyan tree. As it is deemed unrespectful to be at a higher level when taking pictures with Buddha statues, selfies are not allowed and you must be sitted when posing. There is even a security person stationed at the tree to ensure that the rules are followed.
After the tour we headed back to Bangkok via the Chao Phraya river on one of those dinner cruise boat – except that it was a lunch cruise for us. The weather was too hot to go out on the deck so we stayed in the lower deck most of the time. The view was nothing spectacular and it took us just over two hours to return.
On our last night in Bangkok, we decided that we wanted a good dinner and so we grabbed a Grab (Uber) to the restaurant for 85 baht. After dinner, we had to do the tourist thing – ride a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. So… here comes the negotiation where our acceptable price is based on our earlier Grab ride. We were quoted anywhere from 150-200 baht but was only willing to pay 100 baht for the experience. We finally found a driver that agreed to our price. Boy oh boy, that CAD$4.50 ride was definitely an experience. This is the Bangkok traffic experience – heat and exhaust. Our slow start quickly turned into an amusement ride – the tuk-tuk driver went down the middle of the road towards oncoming traffic at full speed with his little engine revving. He sped past the road leading to our hotel only to make a u-turn further down the busy road. Yup, that was fun alright, we got a thrilling ride for just over a buck each…
Today is a long travel day, we fly to Hong Kong to catch our return flight to Vancouver. Marcus is looking forward to the new movie selection and Jeff is dreading the bad food. I can’t wait to get home and start my new weight-loss and exercise program!
We spent Christmas in Singapore and celebrated with a BBQ with family and my sister-in-law’s family. It felt different not having turkey and ham for Christmas. Also – missing the cold, or maybe not. Anyways, what’s there not to like about having chicken wings and satay. We also had our fruitcake – yummy, both my brother and I love fruitcake.
Boxing Day in Singapore is just like any other day – if you’re looking for big discounts, you’re better off shopping online back home, which is exactly what I did. I also spent some time at the doctor’s office for what I suspected was an ear infection and heat rash. Well, long story short, I had to see the doctor again two days to confirm his suspicion… so, $400 poorer and a rash on my neck that gives me the goosebumps while cleaning it, I have shingles. Yup, shingles. Fortunately I have a couple insurances to cover this expense.
With the shingles, we spent a lot of time at home and the kids finally bonded with their cousin.
On our last day in Singapore, we went back to my favourite restaurant again – which I can confidently say is Jeff’s favourite too. Read more about the restaurant here. We ordered the chilli crab, pepper crab and the crispy baby squid. So good. Each time I return to Singapore, I learn a bit more about my family’s history. Apparently the famous Chilli Crab was started by my family.. my dad’s cousin used to serve it at our family restaurant along East Coast Road which was also where the family lived. East Coast Road was where all the seafood restaurants used to be back in the days. Eventually we sold the recipe to Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant and before long every restaurant had their version of this dish. You can’t exactly copyright the recipe. Now I know why my dad prepared the best chilli crab dish. However, when I googled the history of chilli crabs, it did not quite line up with what my brother said – so, I’m awaiting for some clarification.
We left for Bangkok on the 30th. While at the airport, the kids discovered something really fun – Street Fighter game, arcade style. Yes, that’s what kids did back in the days, before social media.
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