Ballroom Dancing

Dear Dave Jones,

I started ballroom dancing seriously in 2000 kind of my resolution for the new millennium. I met an Englishman through a running club, and asked me whether I was interested in ballroom dancing. I said yes, so I joined him in a ballroom dancing class one day in the afternoon. It was at "Danny's Dance Studio" at E.Pender, Vancouver. I was very surprised when I found out that the lesson was given in Chinese, that both of us did not understand. I asked why in Chinese, he just chuckled and said that he could not find other place taught in English. Since I already paid must as well do it. There were 10 students, and we were the only male students. I thought this was my first and my last lesson in ballroom dancing.

The next time I met him again he said that he found a place where they teach ballroom dancing in English, and there were social dancing afterwards. So he suggested to try there at "Astorino" dancing hall at Venables and Commercial. They give free lessons every Sunday evenings, follow by social dancing after the lesson. The lesson was in English, easier to follow because the lady teacher and her lady partner taught beginner class only as to attract new dancers to the club.
From there on every time I was free on Sunday evenings I went there and learnt ballroom dancing. And the Englishman was always there, a very enthusiastic student dancer. He worked days and free in the evenings, so he joined other dancing lessons in many other dancing clubs. Evidently there were quite a number of dancing halls around Lower Mainland. At the beginning, we stayed only for the lesson and then went home, because we were not confident enough to ask a woman to dance.

There are 2 types of International Ballroom Dancing, Standards and Latins.
There are 5 that are categorized as Standards: Slow Waltz, Tango, Quickstep, Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz. And there are also 5 that are categorized as Latins: Rumba, Cha-cha, Jive, Samba and Paso-Doble. They are enjoyed by people around the world both as socially as recreational activities and competitively as a sport. International Organizing Committee of the Olympic, has recognized ballroom dancing as a competitive sport. But the inclusion of it to the Olympic seemed unlikely, because they decided that the Olympic is becoming too large, and is going to reduce the number of sports instead.
I joined ballroom dancing for the recreational activities only. I usually manage to dance 3 Sundays a month. Each of the above dances Standards and Latins, have many variations in movement choreographed by the teacher depending on the levels. There are levels of Beginner, Bronze I & II, Silver and Gold. To be able to dance, one has to master at least the Beginner level. And at "Astorino" which give Beginner lesson 1 per month, it took me 10 months to learn all the Beginner level of the Ballroom Dancing. From then on, we were not afraid anymore to ask a woman to dance, especially that we knew already some of them during lessons. It is a good idea to have a regular dance partner, probably in the same level of skill too.

Not long after I finished my Beginner level, I met a partner of the same level with me. Needles to say that I enjoyed ballroom dancing more than ever. We partnered for more than a year. But because of her work schedules and mine many times hard to adjust we kind of met less and less until she said that she found someone else as a dancing partner, and that was that. The last time I heard from her that she was getting married. But I still go dancing with some friends, and I am in the Bronze II level now, kind of my maximum level.

Photo shown are me and my partner, a version of "Hockneyizer" photos, which creates a unique photo collage in the style of the artist David Hockney. (See my collections of photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/van8)

Nanaimo 3

Dear Jimmy Tarigan,

I went to Nanaimo recently and boarded the "Queen of Cowichan" from Horseshoe Bay similar to this "Queen of Surrey" that departed a few minutes earlier to Langdale, Sunshine Coast.






Many smaller islands between Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. It was a pleasant 1 hour 45 minutes ferry ride to Nanaimo with beautiful views of the Strait of Georgia.






Small boats like this one often seen along the way, taking advantage of good sunny day for sailings.







Sunset at North Nanaimo where I was staying.








I stayed at my good friends Mr & Mrs Li's.








Nanaimo was also busy building the terminal for super ferry the "Coastal Renaissance" that was forthcoming.







On my way back to Vancouver, I boarded the "Queen of Coquitlam" shown here just arrived at Nanaimo from Horseshoe Bay.







The back thrust of the propeller for braking system of the ferry creating a turbulent water around the terminal.







Then cars and foot passengers were ready to board for Vancouver.






Evidently the "Queen of Cowichan" that I boarded from Horseshoe Bay was not sailing and under repair in Nanaimo.









And so was the "Queen of Esquimalt" under repair. No wonder the ferry schedules were out of whack.







Life buoy at the entrance to the Nanaimo terminal, and the many islands in the Strait of Georgia in the distance.







"Queen of Capilano" was leaving for Bowen Island. That meant the Horseshoe Bay terminal was near.







"Queen of Coquitlam" arrived at Horseshoe Bay terminal. The water there churning again due to braking system of the ferry.







Arrived at Downtown Vancouver, corner of Burrard and Georgia.

Victoria, B.C.

Dear Rosminta br Saragih,

Recently I went to visit Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and is located in Vancouver Island, about 1 1/2 hours driving and 1 1/2 hours ferry ride from where I live. I boarded the "Queen of Saanich", a large ferry that can carry 360 cars and 1700 passengers. With 300 000 population it is the second largest city in B.C.

In April 1778 Captain James Cook, a British explorer, landed on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Subsequent to that in March 1843 James Douglas of the Hudson Bay's company set up a trading post in "Camosack" which then changed .
name to "Victoria" after the name of Queen of England. Victoria is a tourist place, more than 3.6 million visitors per year. Because of its temperate climate many retired Canadians settled in Victoria. A lot of things you can do and see there. Since I came only for a short visit, I can only do a few things. I walked along the sea wall of the inner harbor, checking all the activities there. There was a whale watching boat tour just departing, fishermen mending their netting, restaurants crowded with patrons, street musicians playing their beats and people looking at all the vendors selling arts and other paraphernalia. There were a lot of visitors
coming in from the U.S.A.
There was a statue made of some kind of reinforced plastic standing near the water. I was quite impressed with the detail of construction, and in the process of taking a picture. But the statue moving ever slowly toward my lady friend and hold her shoulder to pose. We had a big startled laughter. The statue was a real living person inside, and he was called a "performance artist", that can stay motionless in uncomfortable position for extended period. The container on the feet asking for your donations probably giving him away unnoticed.

I also visited the BC Parliament building, and it
has quite a story. It
was designed by a young 25 year old Architect Francis Rattenbury with no experience, but got help a lot from his Architect uncle. It was completed in 1897 after 5 years construction, and 100% over budget. He also designed many Victorian style building after that: The Empress Hotel, The Government House and The Crystal Garden all in Victoria. And also Vancouver Art Gallery, and courthouses in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Nelson. Most of them not on time and over budget, a common practice in that time. I went to a 30 minutes tour to the inside of the Parliament building. A guide explained the working areas of the Politicians from the ruling Liberal government and the NDP oppositions.
I went to see "Fisherman's Wharf" by riding a small ferry and checked the inner harbor from the water. It is the place where fisherman tied their boats during off season.
I also went to see "Craighdarroch Castle", a historic Victoria-era mansion built in 1890 by a coal and shipping baron Robert Dunsmuir. He was the first millionaire in BC history or could be a multi billionaires in today's comparison. the 39 rooms castle occupied 20,000 square feet of floor space. But he never moved in to occupy the castle because he died in 1889 a year before the castle was completed.

I also stopped at "mile 0" the starting point of the Trans Canada Highway, the Federal-Provincial Highway system that joins all the 10 provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Foundland. The construction of the Highway was started in 1950 and was opened in 1962, a 7820 km long starting from Victoria in the west and ending to St.John in the east.

Photo (top): Performance Artist at "Inner Harbour", Victoria.
Middle1: BC Parliament Building, Victoria.
Middle2: Craighdarroch Castle, Victoria.
Bottom: "Mile 0" of the Trans Canada Highway, Victoria.

Butchart Gardens

Dear Jimmy Tarigan,
Butchart Gardens is located in Vancouver Island, about 22 km north of Victoria. It is a 55 acres of floral display. In 1904 Mr & Mrs Butchart with the help of landscape consultant and landscape artist produced the Gardens as it is today. And in 2004 when it was celebrating in bloom for 100 years was also designated National Historic Site of Canada. Last June 10,2007 I and 2 of Tan's family from Nanaimo went to visit the Gardens, about 2 1/2 hour drive away. The entry fee was $23/person including parking. We brought some lunch from home and had lunch first before we started our tour. There are 7 main important of
features of the Gardens worth visiting: The Piazza, Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Star Pond, Italian Garden and the Mediterranean Garden. You can see flowers and flowers everywhere, and they were all beautifully arranged. The Piazza is the entrance area, kind of a lobby of a hotel. There are cafe and restaurant, souvenir store, washrooms, water wheel and the lucky "wild boar" bronze statue. Of the 7 features we liked the most 5 of them:
The Sunken Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden and the Italian Garden. Because we spent most of our times there and took lots of pictures. That day was a Sunday, and there
were so many people come to visit, and many come by buses too.
The Sunken Garden is the starting point, the biggest and the largest from all of them. There is a mound, a small hill in the centre of the Sunken Garden and at the far end is the large fountain in the centre of a large pond.
The Rose Garden was very popular. The Rose Garden "is home to 2500 roses in 250 varieties", and was the only part of Butchart Gardens that in which the plants were labelled. There were too many people that it was hard to take close up pictures of the roses. I should think that they should make the footpath much wider.
The Japanese Garden is full of greenery creates a feel of tranquil, with creeks, ponds and bridges.
The Italian Garden is very open, wide pathways with pond and fountain.
We finished the tour in about 3 hours.

Photo(top): The Piazza, main entrance area with the "wild boar" statue.
Middle1: Sunken Garden with the Fountain.
Middle2: Rose Garden.
Middle3: Japanese Garden.
Bottom: Italian Garden.

Hell's Gate

Dear Dany Tarigan,
Hell's Gate is located near Boston Bar on Trans Canada Highway #1, about 250 km from Vancouver. When British Explorer Simon Fraser reached here in 1808 he called "awesome gorge", but at the same time was his "greatest challenge" because of the difficulty in passing through during his expedition. Here the mighty Fraser River has to pass a 35 m narrow gorge, and creates a very strong rapid that is too fast for salmon to go upstream to spawn. Fraser River is best known as the North America's greatest salmon stream. Five species of salmon run the Fraser to spawn: chinook, chum, coho,
pink and sockeye. But with joint effort between USA and Canada, the "International Fishways" were constructed and opened in 1945. The salmon survival rates was much improved since then.

In 1971 the Hell's Gate Airtram was built for public transportation to the Fishways, as it was set for tourist destination. There are 2 trams in operation, and they both move at the same time, one from the top end and the other from the lower end, as both are connected to the same cable. It is open for public between April - October. Access to the Fishways is only by the
Airtram. It takes about 3 minutes tram ride each way for a distance of 345 m, and a vertical drop of 160 m. These are the things you can do and see: fisheries exhibit, suspension bridge and observation decks, interpretive signage, Salmon House Restaurant, a fudge factory, a cafe, a souvenir shop, gold panning and watching the fishways and the rapids.

I have visited Hell's Gate a few times in the past. The last time I went there was in 2003. It took about 3 hours drive from Vancouver to get there, following Highway #1 past Hope going along the deep and treacherous Fraser Canyon. Highway #1 that traverses along the Canyon was built basically along the Gold Rush trail of 1860's from Fort Langley to Cache Creek. It was an engineering feat in road constructions, and necessitated building tunnels in 5 places because of the steep mountain cliffs. At Hell's Gate, half way down from the level of Highway #1 and the Fishway there are 2 railway tracks, one on the east side of the river belongs to the Canadian Nationals (CN), and one on the west side belongs to the Canadian Pacific Railways (CPR). Both tracks are also engineering feats in construction, because the railroads cling precariously to both sides of the steep cliffs of the Canyon. British Columbia joined the Confederation in 1871 with a promise of railroad being built to join with Eastern Canada within 10 years. But because of difficult terrain of Fraser Canyon, the last spike for the CPR line was driven in November 7, 1885, 4 years late. It was considered as one of the most remarkable engineering epic of Canadian achievement. CN railway tracks were completed much later in 1913.

Top photo: Observation Deck and the Airtram. Suspension Bridge on the background.
Middle: The "Fishways" on the left bank of the Fraser River, and the Rapid.
Bottom: Suspension Bridge looking across to the Observation Deck. It is used for emergency only, if airtram is malfunction for example. The CN tracks is just 10 m away. There is a steep trail going up to Highway #1 above.

Tallest Building

Dear Mustakim Abdurrauf,
The tallest building in Vancouver is the "Sheraton Wall Centre" at 1088 Burrard Street, with 48 floors and a height of 150 m. The first 27 floors of the building are a 4.5 star "Sheraton" hotel. The next 3 floors from 28-30 are the "Club Intrawest Resort", and the remaining 17 floors are residential condominiums. As shown on photo, the tallest building is the tall building just behind the white domed roof of the BC Place stadium. Second tallest building in Vancouver is the "Shaw Tower", hidden behind tall buildings at centre, because it was built on the lower elevation at Coal Harbour with 41 floors and 149 m high. And still under construction is the "Living Shangri-La" at 1120 West Georgia, with scheduled completion in 2008, with 62 storeys and a height of 197 m, will be the newest tallest building in Vancouver.

But these are insignificant if compared with other tallest building in the world. According to the "Council of Tall Building and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)", an international organization based in Chicago, USA, in their last "World Congress" meeting in 2006 determined that the tallest building in the world today are:
1."Taipei 101" in Taiwan. Completed in 2004, with 101 floors and a height of 508 m.
2."Petronas Tower" in Malaysia. Completed in 1998, with 88 floors and a height of 452 m.
3."Sears Tower" in Chicago. Completed in 1974, with 108 floors and a height of 442 m.
4."Jin Mao Tower" in Shanghai. Completed in 1998, with 88 floors and a height of 421 m.
5."Two International Finance Centre" in Hongkong. Completed in 2003, with 88 floors and 415 m.
The former "World Trade Centre (WTC)" in New York, with 110 floors and a height of 417 m, was used to be the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1973. As we all know, that the WTC was destroyed by terrorist attack in September 11, 2001.
The "Jakarta Tower" which is still under construction with scheduled completion in 2009 with a height of 558 m will be the tallest building in the world. But hang in there for a minute, the "Center of India Tower" in Katangi, India with scheduled completion in 2008, with a height of 677 m, will surpass Jakarta Tower by a big margin. And not only that "Burj Dubai" tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with scheduled completion in 2009, with a height of 808 m, will surpass all of the above and will become the tallest building in the world. But the race for the tallest building in the world doesn't stop there and still more to come.

There are plans to build "Marjan Tower" in Bahrain with 200 floors and a staggering height of 1022 m, with a plan designed by a company from Denmark, and "Mubarak al-Kabir Tower" in Kuwait with a height of 1001 m. It sounds crazy and incredibly mind boggling. With the collapsed of WTC by terrorist attack I wonder whether it is really worth the risk to live and congregate large numbers of people in a single tall building. And also it will come down to huge amount of money available and the strain to the engineering technology to design such task. But they think they figured them all, so we have to just wait and see.

Meanwhile here in Vancouver, where real estate is so plentiful, there is no reason why they should build ever higher and higher.
Photo: "Sheraton Wall Centre", the tallest building in Vancouver. A view from my jogging route.

Chestnut Trees

Dear Harry Hutapea,
This is East 10th Avenue in Vancouver East. Both sides of the street are lined up with mature chestnut trees, tall and majestic to 15 m high. They are deciduous trees, which mean that they are leafless during winter as shown on top photo. I pass by this street every time I do jogging. The trees form a canopy or an umbrella, and feel pleasant whenever I jog by. I took these photos at 2 different times in the last few months:

Top photo was taken last March 2,2007. The trees were without leaves.
-
Middle photo was taken from the same spot 2 1/2 months later in May 25,2007. The trees were full of leaves and blooms.
-
Bottom photo shows the chestnut tree with it's white blooms.

The blooms will turn into spiny fruits and fall to the ground around November. I picked some of them last year, and inside each fruit there were 2-3 chestnuts. You can boil the chestnuts and eat, or you can also have the "chestnuts roasting on an open fire....." like it says in a Christmas song. But I gave them away to my neighbour.

Nanaimo 2

Dear Sugeng,
I wrote you last February 25,2007 about Nanaimo. Well this is kind of the sequel. I went there again last May 1,2007 for 2 weeks to visit Tan's family and their restaurant in North Nanaimo. This time I boarded the "Queen of Cowichan" from Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. It is a large ferry that can carry 360 cars and 1500 passengers.

There was a lot of activities going on at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. It was due primarily by the transportation requirements for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler.
There was road expansion of the sea to sky highway at the Horseshoe Bay, better access for cars & passengers to the ferry terminal, and the expansion to the terminal "A" pier for the new Super-C class ferry that is forthcoming.
The road expansion to Whistler at Horseshoe Bay would be the building of overhead pass to by pass the congestion from ferry line up that on long weekends sometimes could stretched up to 3 km long on the Trans Canada #1. For that purpose they needed to cut the hills and trees on the hills. But some people did not take kindly on that idea, resulting in the sit in protest by local residents and environmentalist groups. There were also complaints about the noises and dusts generated from the constructions. But after some considerations and assurances from authorities, the constructions started again full steam ahead.

Cars access to the ferry terminal was also needed upgrading, because the bottlenecks that were created by the long line up prevented smooth flows of traffics to go to Squamish and Whistler. Toll booths and the waiting rooms for cars going to the ferry needed to be expanded too. With 2 scheduled ferry delays for example, and it is not uncommon, about 2000 cars would be waiting on the line up. That is a lot of cars. So they are creating up to 24 lanes over 1 km distance space for cars lining up for the ferry. It would be a huge parking lot for sure. And the construction on the hilly rocky granite of Horseshoe Bay also posed some challenges. So far they were making progress.

There are 3 terminals at Horseshoe Bay, they call them terminals A,B and C. The A was needed to be upgraded, to be made stronger and wider. Work was underway at terminal A and at Departure Bay terminal, to prepare for the berths of the new Super-C class that are currently under construction in West Germany. There was a controversy that the tender for the ferry construction was not awarded to B.C. company. But because the local company was quoting much higher price, and the previous experience of "way over budget and way not on time delivery", the construction was given to foreign company. So far the news on the new ferry is "on time and on budget". The first ferry would be called "Coastal Renaissance" and expected the operation start in November 2007 for the Horseshoe Bay - Departure Bay route. The 2 other ferries, "Coastal Inspiration" and "Coastal Celebration" would come in stages for the next 2 years. They would be used for the Tsawwassen - Swartz Bay route. Evidently the Super-C class ferry is 160 metres long, can carry 370 cars and 1650 passengers with a speed of 21 knots.
Top photo shows the activities at terminal A, where piles were being readied to be driven deep down to the ocean floors, reportedly up to 22 piles. A project of 2 1/2 years and would be summer 2007 completion.

I was helping the Tan's in the restaurant again this time mostly as waiter. But something unusual happened. The Canucks hockey team making the play off. Good news for hockey fans but bad news for Tan's restaurant. Because every time Canucks shown on TV, few customers coming in for dinner, most customers prefer to stay home and watch hockey on the tube instead. The Tan's quietly wished that the Canucks would loose and out of the play off. But lunch time was always busy anyway to offset for the slow evenings.

When I stopped at Chemainus to check at the murals again, I stopped at the Waterwheel Park at town centre and saw this red bark tree shown on bottom photo. It was the Arbutus tree. The Arbutus trees are natives to B.C., evergreen trees that can grow up to 25 metres tall. Apparently the Native people using the bark and the leaves for medicinal purposes. That reminded me of my grandparents in Seribudolok, Sumatra. That they were very good at using some bark and leaves for medicinal purposes to cure many ills. Arbutus trees bear fruits with lot of seeds. Birds and other animals like to eat the fruits and spread the seeds everywhere at the same time. Arbutus trees are very hardy and can grow in any location where the seeds happened to drop, even on the rocks, hills near the beach, on the windswept areas. Because the roots are very invasive, deep and strong, can grow even if the soil is minimal. I was beginning to notice that Arbutus trees were growing every where in and around Nanaimo. With the distinct red or brown bark, they looked strong and beautiful trees, especially the ones that grow on the rocky hilly windswept areas.

(Top photo): Terminal "A" construction at Horseshoe Bay.
(Middle): On top deck of the "Queen of Cowichan".
(Bottom): Arbutus tree at Waterwheel Park, Chemainus.

Coal Harbour

Dear Ngurus br Tarigan,
Last Easter (April 2007) Debra and I went for a walk to "Coal Harbour" in Vancouver. We had not seen each other for quite sometime. She lives in Port Coquitlam and commutes to Vancouver to work everyday by "West Coast Express" train. But that day she came in by car, and we went straight to Second Beach in Stanley Park. It was a lovely day.

We went for a long walk to "Canada Place" by way of "Lost Lagoon" and "Coal Harbour". Lost Lagoon is a man made lake, and was used to be part of Burrard Inlet. It was severed when the Causeway was built to connect to Lions Gate Bridge. So the name of "lost" lagoon. Lost Lagoon is now a bird sanctuary for ducks, loons, swans, the endangered blue herons and many other waterfowl creatures. We can also see some Canadian Geese here that are not flying south for the winter. They usually go south for the winter to the States and as far away as to Mexico. I took this photo of the blue heron with telelens, and use the bush as cover. There were used to be raccoons in the bush around the lagoon, but we could not see them anymore. Apparently they have been moved to a safer place. Because there were visitors got bitten by the raccoons. The raccoons look friendly and cute, but can be very dangerous with their sharp claws and teeth. I have seen people fed the raccoons with food whilst others took pictures of them.
Coal Harbour had been busy with high rise condominium constructions for a number of years. But it was the seawall that was constructed first, the promenade for pedestrians and cyclists. Actually it was done so for marketing purposes. People can stroll and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the seawall, and at the same time people could see the attractiveness of the location and would become buyers of the residential condominiums being built. Coal Harbour is a very popular place for strollers now. There are spacious lanes for pedestrians and for cyclists separated by garden beds. There are a lot of benches for people to sit down and enjoy the views. People as well as cyclists were all out in numbers that day to enjoy the good weather. Vancouver has a very good bike routes, starting from Coal Harbour, to Stanley Park, English Bay, Science Centre, Granville Public Market, Kitsilano and right up to UBC, about 40 km long. I do ride my bike a few times in summer to Coal Harbour and Stanley Park. And I plan to do it again this summer, starting from June 22 to September 21.
Many boats tied at the piers at Coal Harbour, privately owned and as well as for rent to visitors to Vancouver. There are also piers reserved specifically for harbour cruises and for ferry to Squamish and Victoria, foot passengers only and no cars.
The seaplane "West Coast Air" is also stationed at Coal Harbour for destinations to Nanaimo, Victoria and other British Columbia coastal regions. You can hear the roar of the seaplanes departures and arrivals every so often. The fleet is using a 6 and 18 passengers DeHavilland twin otter air crafts. Debra and I had a leisure walk and took some pictures along the way.

There are a lot of high rise residential condominiums now completed at Coal Harbour, and the construction activities seemed to be slowing down. Except at the far east end near Canada Place still busy with construction. There is this new Vancouver Convention Centre expansion project not far from the existing one. It is being built over land and water, so foundation need to be built on piles, reportedly up to 1000 of them driven deep into the ground. Those are a lot of piles. Evidently it will cost $700M to built including a cruise terminal, and will triple the convention centre's existing capacity. It will be completed in the spring 2009. And will serve as international broadcast centre for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Next to this project is the construction of hotels and residential "Fairmont Pacific Rim", 48 floors high, consisting of 415 room hotels, and 175 residences. Apparently the cost of the residences are very expensive from $2.2M-5.9M per unit.
We stopped at Waterfront Centre Mall and had Greek food for lunch. The mall is underground next to Fairmont Waterfront Hotel and Pan Pacific Hotel at Canada Place.
On the way back to the Second Beach, we went for a detour and passed by the West End area where we used to live for the first 6 months upon our arrivals in Canada. It was a penthouse, fancy that, at Haro Street near Cardero. The building was still there, after all these years. It seemed well maintained, because it looked not a day older. We continued to walk to English Bay and checked all the activities on the beach. We probably walked about 15 km altogether that day.
(Top photo): The endangered blue heron.
(Middle): "West Coast Air" sea planes.
(Bottom): The new convention centre, one block away behind us.

Me

Dear Douglas Campbell,
The following is a poem by Chairil Anwar, paraphrasing it into English:

Me
When my time comes
No one's going to cry for me
And you won't, either
The hell with all those tears!
I'm a wild beast
Driven out of the herd
Bullets may pierce my skin
But I'll keep coming,
Carrying forward my wounds and my pain
Attacking
Until suffering disappears
And I won't give a damn
I want to live another thousand years
By Chairil Anwar, March 1943
-----------------------------------------
(Original poem in Indonesian Language):

Aku
Kalau sampai waktuku
'Ku mau tak seorang kan merayu
Tidak juga kau
Tak perlu sedu sedan itu
Aku ini binatang jalang
Dari kumpulannya terbuang
Biar peluru menembus kulitku
Aku tetap meradang menerjang
Luka dan bisa kubawa berlari
Berlari
Hingga hilang pedih peri
Dan aku akan lebih tidak perduli
Aku mau hidup seribu tahun lagi
Chairil Anwar, March 1943

Chairil Anwar was born in Medan, Sumatra in July 22,1922 and was probably one of the most famous Indonesian poets. He died in April 28,1949 at the young age of 27. His works convey a powerful, vitalistic individualism. "Aku" is a cry for freedom and life, and was interpreted as a call to arms during Indonesian Revolution against Dutch occupation in 1945-1950.
During my High School, our Indonesian Language teacher at drama lesson, asked students to perform in front of the class on some of Indonesian selected poems. A few of us including me selected "Aku" by Chairil Anwar. Trying to remember the lines was easy, but dramatizing them was the tricky part, because it was very subjective and depended on our imagination. I did not have a chance to perform, but I was captivated by the performance of a fellow female student. She started "Aku" with a normal voice, progressing to yelling and screaming which included raising fist and stomping of the ground, then concluded with a voice of determination.
Many students giggled and smiled watching at her performance. But I was very impressed. I was preparing to similar line of interpretation, without the raising fist and stomping bits, although it certainly added some drama to the rebellious tone described in the poem.

Going Overseas

Dear Ricardo Morales,
When it was announced that I had won the scholarship to study in Australia, I leaped with pride and joy, and felt like I was in seventh heaven. But then before departing, I had a lot of trepidation, apprehension and nervousness of going there. I was only a "kampong" boy, suddenly going to a strange foreign big city. I did not know what to expect. I had never met a "white man" before, and now I would be expected to live amongst them. It was a scary thought. It would be a gargantuan cultural shock when I arrived there. To top all of my anxieties, I had only 5% mastery of English language. I would be totally lost when I arrived in Australia.

Armed with only a pair of tailored made suites and a small briefcase containing my documents, I boarded the "Qantas" airplane from Jakarta to Sydney, where I would be undergoing a 6 months training in English language. After a brief stop over in Perth, the plane approaching Sydney around 11 night time. It was a scene that I had never seen before, glowing lights everywhere, it was like in seventh heaven alright, with stars twinkling from horizon to horizon. It was just sheer beautiful.
Checking at the customs, I was very grateful that a representative from Indonesian Consulate came to greet me when I arrived. He said that I would be taken to a hotel and picked up in the morning to go to the office. True enough that I was taken to a hotel and picked up in the morning to be brought to the office at downtown Sydney. There were 4 other new students there. And this beautiful Australian woman from the office took us for the tour of the city. Something like she showed us how and where to catch transportation, shopping, gave us a few telephone numbers and addresses and treated us to lunch.
It was with great relieve when I met these 2 Indonesian students at the English class. Apparently they started a month earlier: Wahban Wibisono from Jogjakarta and Sugeng from Banyumas, both from Java Island in Indonesia. It was an enjoyable situation for me ever since, "no more worries". We were placed in separate accommodations in Sydney, so that to learn English and Australian way of life quicker. Luckily we were not too far apart from each others. I stayed furthest away at Lennox St in Newton with Mrs Blauw, a room and board accommodation. My place was not far from railway station, so I took the train everyday to class at downtown Sydney. Whilst they stayed in separate places in the Darlington area near to The University of Sydney and had to come to class by bus. There were 6-12 students in the class coming from different part of Asia: Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Langka and India. The student numbers kept changing, as some students graduated and later on some more coming in to join. We learnt mostly about conversation English from 9 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday.

I was so much impressed about the city of Sydney, that everything seemed to be very orderly. The houses and buildings were all nice and beautiful. All the streets were wide and smooth. The traffics were very orderly including the pedestrians. There were a lot of luxurious cars on the roads, and surprisingly very few honking noises I could hear, unlike back home. And most of all about the people, they were all very polite. The women were all very beautiful, and the men were all very handsome and all of them wore nice clothes. I could not help but admired all the things I saw and experienced. After a few months in Sydney, I met more Indonesian students, and got informed that 9 students altogether including me would go to Perth Western Australia to study. I felt more and more at home, and felt confident to go around by myself, getting to know and learnt about the beauties and intricacies of Sydney.
The three of us most of the time went for lunch at Hyde Park just next from the classroom building. It was a shock for us when we saw for the first time young people at the park kissing and necking during their lunch break. So many of them, oblivious to everything in their surroundings. Many passers by seemed to be ignoring them too. But for us it was just incredulous amazement.
We also got to know what "fair dinkum" Australians doing during the weekends. That they liked to watch their Australian football rules, went to the racecourses and bet, stopped at the pub and drink lagers. And most of all they liked to go to the beaches. They were sun worshippers, and all the beaches were always crowded. The smell of suntan lotions were everywhere. We went to Bondi and Manly, the most popular beaches a few times with fully clothed, because the weather was still too cold for us and we felt more decent and comfortable. We saw these swim suits these Australian girls wearing, like wearing nothing. Another incredulous amazement. But it was with awed and admiration when we watched the surfers for the first time, on how they managed to stand on the tiny surfboard and glide on top of the waves with such skills. It was like a dance, displayed in wonderful beauty and grace. It looked like a lot of fun and excitement.
We went sightseeing every weekend, particularly we liked the ferry ride to Luna Park and to Taronga Park Zoo from Circular Quay ferry terminal. We also liked to go for a walk at Royal Botanic Gardens just next to the Sydney Opera House. One thing I was beginning to notice that most of the young people carried portable radios with them and I could hear the same song played over and over again. Later I learnt that it was "The Beatles" that was played over the radio day and night. It was not really my type of song, but got the hang of it later and like it a lot.
There were many Dutch population in Sydney, mostly evacuees from Indonesia during the second war and becoming permanent residents. There was and Australian-Indonesian Association (AIA) in Sydney that really good for new students to join. We could meet some Australians and practise our limited English without too embarrassed about it. I found it that English was the hardest language to learn, compared to the 3 local dialects I learnt back home. Sometimes I wondered out loud how these Australians managed to understand each other when they talked so fast. We met this nice lady Helen at one AIA meeting one time. She invited us to go for a picnic one day to Lyne Park at Rose Bay about 40 minutes drive from my place. She picked all 3 of us up, and we brought along some lunch. There she showed us on how to play cricket, a very popular sport in Australia.
There was an Indonesian language lecturer at The University of Sydney who gave an open invitations to Indonesian students one weekend to come to his residence in Katoomba near Blue Mountains National Park. We hitched a ride with an Indonesian student who already had a car to go there. It was about 1 1/2 hours drive away, and we met quite a number of students there. After lunch we went for a hike to the National Park and saw "The Three Sisters", a three peak rock formations that had legend in them.

As the time for the conclusion of English language was nearing, Helen invited us to come to her place in Ashfield for a farewell party. She said that it was not far from railway station. We came by the train and sure enough that we found her place quite easy. She stayed with her parents that were also members of AIA and were there to greet us. Helen was a divorcee and had one daughter that stayed with her too. They were very friendly toward us. They were the Dutch evacuees that now called Australia home. We cooked Indonesian food with the ingredients she already bought. We made a mess of everything there as most of Indonesian way of cooking, but we cleaned them after lunch. We probably put too much chilly in the food, but they said it was lovely. They also had a swimming pool at the back, so every body except the parents went for a swim. We entertained them with Indonesian songs later in the afternoon, and also sang the Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda" together. To close the day off Wahban sang his favourite song "Santa Lucia" solo with his booming tenor voice, that I am pretty sure Luciano Pavarotti would be envious to hear. I was. The six months in Sydney passed by very quickly.
Top lr: Me, Wahban, Sugeng near Hyde Park.
Bottom: Helen's place in Ashfield. Me on left holding guitar. Standing lr: Hasan Basri, Bachtiar Abbas, Helen, Basita Ginting, Ryantho, Wahban Wibisono and Sugeng.
Sitting lr: Mustakim Abdurrauf and Sunoro.

The Vancouver Sun Run

Dear Dianne Garrett,
Another Vancouver Sun Run has come and gone. This year's 54,317 participants was breaking new record, exceeding last year's 50,746. As usual it was a wave starts, 5 all together. Each wave was marked by coloured balloons high above their starting lines. Yellow balloons for fastest runners, followed by greens, whites, purples and reds. The fastest runners starting first then the slower ones. It was done to prevent collisions and accidents. The starting gate was marked by the noisy chip sensors to detect individual numbers on the chip placed on runners' shoes, and recorded the starting times. Similar sensors were placed at the finish line to record finish times. The race started from West Georgia at Burrard heading west to Stanley Park, continued to Beach Avenue, Burrard bridge, West 6th, Cambie bridge and finished at BC Place Stadium. The route was dotted with big numbers from 1-9 indicating the distance in km to the finish line.

The winner this year for the men section was Soloman Tsige from Ethiopia with time of 29:23 and the prize $3000. Dylan Wykes won $1000 for 2nd place + $2000 for top Canadian, Ryan Hayden won $500 for 3rd place + $1000 for 2nd top Canadian. The women section was won by Teyiba Erkesso Wako also from Ethiopia with time of 32:05 and receive the prize of $3000. Lioudmila Kortchaguina won $1000 for 2nd place + $2000 for top Canadian, and Lisa Harvey won $500 for 3rd place + $1000 for 2nd top Canadian. The Kenyans that dominated the event 11 times in the last 13, did not participate, so the Ethiopians took over. People from East Africa seem to be very good at distance running.

And what was my time? It was a "decent" 154:15, about 2 1/2 hours. I was keeping my neighbour company participating for the first time. It was a very nice day, and we had a leisure walk. We visited nearly all of the water stations, and stopped at nearly all of the pit stops. If you had to go you had to go, I guess. A day later, she called me to complain about not being able to get up because of sore body, even after taking Tylenol 3. And added that this would be her first and her last. I just laughed and said that first time Sun Runners always said that, and next year they will be back again. I also pointed out to her that the Sun Run is all about participation, exercises and healthy living. No pain no gain.

Let's play Chess

Dear Inna Suvorov,
I have not played in any chess tournament for a very long time now. I used to play chess with a co-worker of varying shift over the phone, or met occasionally over coffee. We both had magnetic chess sets, and left messages on the answering machine for the moves. We kind of on the same level of skill, with him winning 60% of the time. We completed a game in one week, sometimes longer. Then I lost interest and stopped playing. And after we moved on in different jobs later on in life, we lost track of each others, and that was that. The last time I heard from him, was that he was joining an Internet chess club with opponents from all over the world with equal or higher ratings. He suggested me to join, but declined.

A few weeks ago I read this article in the newspaper about a chess tournament in Mexico the "Morelia / Linares Super GM Tournament". It was Grandmasters only tournament that participated by the top 8 Grandmasters in the world, so the "Super GM" name. Each player played each other twice, 14 rounds in all. Evidently they played in 2 countries, the first 7 rounds they played in Morelia, Mexico and the last 7 rounds played in Linares, Andalusia, Spain. The tournament was amazingly won by Indian chess Grandmaster Vishy Anand. And because of his win, he became the highest rank grandmaster in the world with FIDE rating of 2816. This is better by 15 points over 2 grandmasters with same ratings of 2801: Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, both participated in that event. This is the first time ever that the best player in the world hold by a "non white", and people in India took a very great pride and joy because of his achievement.
And that piece of news, all of a sudden sparked some interest in me to play chess again. So I did some inquiries and located a chess club near my place, a 10 minutes drive away. They meet 3 times/week from 7-11 pm. I also inquired the British Columbia Chess Federation (BCCF) and got some website addresses about chess in BC and Canada in general. And to my surprise they still have my name on their players list with my old rating of 1875. But that is way too high now, probably my rating now is 1600 or less because of inactivity for a very long time. Although my highest rating was 1985 when I was a member of "Perth Chess Club" in Western Australia.
In Canada, I used to be a member of "Port Coquitlam Chess Club", and competing in regular tournaments there with mixed results. But my best result was second place at "New Westminster Open" awhile back. I joined chess tournaments at "British Columbia Institute of Technology" a few times in the past with also mixed results, no prizes to show for. You need to be in top 3 from 25-35 players competing to have a prize. I played a couple of times at the prestigious "Keres Memorial" chess tournament which is conducted every year in May at the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Vancouver. I had a very strong results from the 2 tournaments I entered that gave me the good rating of 1875. Although still no award or prize to show for, I managed to beat some very good players and felt that I accomplished something. Now come to think of it, I definitely will be going to see this year's "Keres Memorial" tournament in May 18-21,2007. But not playing in it, just watching it, because of lack of preparation I will be just embarrassing myself if I play. Check mated in 5 moves or something. It is a very strong tournament using 7 round Swiss system over 4 days during Victoria day long weekends. Many players from all over Canada and United States come to play.

In the past I had good results from playing chess. I received a few trophies and cash to show for. In Australia I won once the "Fremantle Open". Came in 1st and 3rd in "Western Australian Open" Reserve Division 2 years in a row in a strong fields. My rating then shot to 1985. There was an Indonesian Obstetrician from Jakarta participating with me in those 2 years. He was an avid chess player doing specialized Obstetrics training in Perth, and a very good player himself. I also joined the prestigious "Perth Chess Club" and played a few tournaments there with mixed results. I won the "Perth Muslim Students Association Chess Tournament" once with strong fields. In Indonesia I won 2 years in a row at "Rumbai Chess Club" tournaments in Sumatra with moderate fields. In Canada I came in 1st and 2nd at the "Indonesian Independence Day Chess Tournament" in Vancouver organized by the Indonesian Consulate with moderate fields from Indonesian students at UBC and SFU 2 years in a row. So I have some credentials in playing good chess. I used to play Ruy Lopez variations for playing white pieces and Sicilian Defence for playing blacks. But I am kind of blurred now how to play them effectively.
By the way the most Grandmasters in the world are from Russia with 164, highest rank is Vladimir Kramnik (2801 rating). I do not know why the Russians are so good in playing chess, maybe something to do with their harsh winter. At one time they had more Grandmasters than the rest of the world combined twice over. Imagine that. Canada has 5 Grandmasters, with highest rank Kevin Spraggett (2611), followed by Alexandre Lesiege, Mark Bluvshtein, Dmitri Tyomlin and Pascal Charbonneau. And Indonesia has 4 Grandmasters, with highest rank Utut Adianto (2587) followed by Susanto Megaranto, Cerdas Barus and Edhi Handoko.

(Photo): "Final" at Rumbai Chess Club, Sumatra, Indonesia. This photo was supposed to be in color, but our Rumbai Photography Club of which I was a member, could only process in B&W print.

Training time

Dear Hilary Trotman,
The 10 km Vancouver Sun Run will take place on Sunday April 15, 2007 at 9 am. The results of the race will be published on the daily newspaper "Vancouver Sun". I am doing my training every other day around my neighbourhoods. I have a few routes for my practise run that I do alternately each time. It is about 6 km distance that takes me 45-50 minutes to complete, mostly by running and walking. I am passing by 3 neighbourhood parks on all the routes and do stretching exercises in 1 or 2 of those parks. I try to choose the routes through residential and avoid the car's fumes from the main road. But unfortunately for 5 minutes back and forth I have to run beside the main road. I am really all set to Go!
Here I attached a couple of photos of locations that I pass each time on my run.

(Bottom photo) Going out of residential neighbourhoods into main road. This one with Vancouver city skylines at the background.

(Top photo) Coming back on the home stretch, I will pass a parking lot of a Community College that now has been turned into a construction zone. The parking lot is slated for expansion to the Community College with a 6 story tall building. The existing College are the 2 buildings shown at the back. I usually stop at the site and do stretching exercises on the pedestrian look-out provided, whilst watching all the activities there. I am always fascinated by construction activities.

Simon Fraser University

Dear Dr Tomas Tarigan,
There are 2 universities in the Greater Vancouver area, University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU). A few years back I took a very good friend of mine Mintayu br Sembiring visiting from Jakarta (bottom photo), I am sure that you have met her before, to tour SFU main campus in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver.

SFU is located on top of Burnaby Mountain, about 45 minutes drive from where I live. It is the highest point in Burnaby, 1100 feet above sea level and has a commanding view of the surrounding areas, including the Fraser River and Vancouver City skyline in the distance. It is the best and most expensive property location reserved for higher learning to keep students inspired and motivated. SFU was designed by Arthur Erickson a UBC architecture professor and his partner Geoffrey Massey with design for growth in mind. The growth was to be incremental and continuous, and to date is still growing and expanding depending on future programs need. SFU was named after a British explorer, Simon Fraser that could be called the founding father of British Columbia, who explored land west of Rocky Mountains and the Fraser River from 1805-1818.
The SFU was opened in September 9, 1965 with 2500 students. Now there are about 25 000 students across 3 campuses: Burnaby as the main campus and the extensions in Vancouver and Surrey. Simon Fraser University offered students in undergraduate and post graduate studies in 6 faculties:

Faculty of Applied Sciences with 5 programs.
Faculty of Arts&Social Sciences: 27 programs.
Faculty of Business Administration: 9.
Faculty of Education: 11 programs.
Faculty of Health Sciences: 2 programs.
Faculty of Science with 11 programs ranging from Biological Sciences to Statistic&Actuarial Sciences.
Counting the specialized and minor programs, there are close to 100 programs in total from the 6 faculties with the 25 000 students enrolled in.

As you might have noticed that Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Dentistry are not offered at SFU. Nor programs in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from Faculty of Applied Sciences among other things not offered at SFU. What you can not get at SFU, you probably can get it at University of British Columbia, because the 2 universities are complementing each other. There are close to 4000 students now are doing post graduate studies from various programs in the 6 faculties. A High School graduate with an average of 75% will meet most of the admission requirements to undergraduate programs at SFU.
SFU also has a program in International Development partnership, to assist developing countries in strengthening their knowledge infrastructure, by offering graduate studies to their professionals in the fields of research and development. I have met a few of students in that respect: one Indonesian lecturer from University in Menado doing post graduate studies leading to his MSc in Statistics, another Indonesian lecturer from University in Medan doing his MSc in Resource Management, one student from China doing his MSc and continue to do his PhD in Mathematics and one student from Peru doing his MSc in Physics.
The library is one of the best looking architecture at SFU, and matched with good reference books that are available there. It is an active learning place in itself. Every summer SFU is conducting a lecture series by inviting prominent scholars giving lecture that is open to general public. The prominent Scientist and Conservationist Dr Birute Galdikas an expert in primatologist giving such lecture a few times in the past. She has been over 25 years involved in research and preservation of endangered "orang utan" in Tanjung Puting National Park, Kalimantan, Indonesia.

SFU also has a very good sport programs available to students ranging from basketball, cross-country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, track&field, volley ball and wrestling. A pity that they don't have badminton, my favourite. But they do have regular competition with other universities across Canada in many of the sports above, which organized by CIS (Canadian Inter universities Sport) and NAIA (National Association Intercollegiate Athletics). It is important to have a sound body to have a sound mind by exercising regularly.

(Top photo): Academic Quadrangle, contains major lecture halls, classrooms, offices, corridors and large outdoor gardens. Convocation takes place twice a year one in June and another in October. The parades of Graduates begin at the AQ gardens.
(Bottom photo): Convocation Mall, has a glass roof that covers the entire area. It is used for graduation ceremony, rain snow or shine.

Get Set

Dear Tatang Hermawan,
Every year since 2001, I have been participating in the "Vancouver Sun Run", a 10 km run sponsored by newspaper Vancouver Sun and the HSBC bank. The Vancouver Sun Run was started in 1985, and now well into it's 22nd year is the largest 10 km event in Canada, and only second in North America. No doubt with over 50 000 participants in 2006 was the largest ever. The route begins at downtown core at the corner of Georgia and Burrard Streets, continues through Stanley Park, then follows the shoreline of English Bay and finishes outside BC Place Stadium. This year will take place on Sunday April 15, 2007. As usual in the morning the whole blocks of downtown Vancouver and part of Stanley Park where the run is conducted will be closed to traffic except only to emergency vehicles.

I joined the North Vancouver Running Club (NVRC) when I started running in September 2000. There are many running clubs in Vancouver, but I chose NVRC because they are better organized. They practise 3 times a week, but I usually join the Sunday morning practise, because it suits me better. I practise my run during the week on every other day around my neighbourhoods for 45-50 minutes. We are not all runners though, depending on the skill and endurance of individuals, from walkers only, walkers and runners only, and runners only. I usually join the walkers and runners only, it means we walk and run alternately, each week progressing to become full runners by April, a 3 1/2 months training. First week in January starting with run 1 minute and walk 5 minutes, repeating that run/walk ratio 1/5 for 50-60 minutes practise time 3x a week. It keeps progressing to the following weeks from run/walk ratio of 1/5 to next stage of 1/4, 2/3, 3/2, 4/2, 5/2, 7/2, 10/1, 20/1, 22/1, 25/1, 40/1 and 50/1 by April. At ratio of 50/1, run 50 minutes and walk 1 minute, we will be able to beat the magic number of 1 hour time for the 10 km distance. But I could not keep up with the progressions, by the time 25/1 run/walk ratio, my legs and lungs start complaining, so 25/1 kind of my maximum. I often join the runners only group, but only as stragglers always behind with 1 or 2 others. There will be stretching up exercises before and after the run to prevent muscle injuries. The total practise time will be about 1 1/2 hours. My best time for the Vancouver Sun Run was 62 minutes for the 10 km distance, that was when I ran for 54 minutes (actually 2x27 minutes), and fast walked 2x4 minutes. We usually practise our run in different location each time to make it more interesting. So everybody meet at the scheduled time and location. We practise in these locations regularly: Lynn Headwaters Regional Park, Capilano River Regional Park, Ambleside Park, Seymour Demonstration Forest, Bridgman Park, Mosquito Creek Park and Kirkstone Park. Every year after the Run my legs felt sore without fail. The first year I have to take off sick from work for a couple of days, and took me 1 week in total to have my legs back to normal. But now I am used to it, even though after the Run I still feel sore, after 1 day my legs will be back to normal again.

There are many other races other than The Vancouver Sun Run. Some of the members went to Victoria to join the 10 km race there, or to Kelowna, or to Seattle in the States, to Los Angeles, or even to Hawaii. They combine it with their vacation times for sure. I join mostly the one in Vancouver at least one other race a year. I like the "Pacific Spirit Run" in mid May, "Coho Run" in mid September, "Turkey Trot Run" mid October and "CIBC Run for Cancer" in mid October. I follow very closely with great interest the "Vancouver International Marathon" at the beginning of May each year. It is a 42 km marathon that attracted runners from all over the world. No it is not for me.