Nanaimo

Dear Sugeng,
Nanaimo is located in Vancouver Island, about 2 1/2 hours away from Vancouver: 45 minutes drive to Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal and 1 hour 45 minutes ferry ride to Departure Bay, Nanaimo. Vancouver Island itself is about 40 km west of Lower Mainland across the water, and it's size is about 1/4 of Java Island. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and is the largest city in the Island, and Nanaimo with 80 000 population is the distant second largest city. There are 3 ferries to service Nanaimo - Horseshoe Bay route, the "Queen of Coquitlam", "Queen of Cowichan" and the "Queen of Oak Bay". They are large ferries that each can carry 360 cars and 1500 passengers. It consists of 7 decks, that is the height of a 7 storey tall building. Deck 1 is for engine room, decks 2,3 and 4 are for cars and trucks, decks 5 and 6 are for passengers, and deck 7 for navigational room. The Nanaimo - Horseshoe Bay service runs 8 times daily during winter, but more sailings in summer starting in June to accommodate with the influx of tourists. Tourism is one of the largest industry in British Columbia together with forestry, fishing and mining. The top photo shown is the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. The ship that is further away is the "Queen of Oak Bay" on it's way to Departure Bay, Nanaimo. The one that is still on dock is a smaller ferry, a 100 cars and 500 passengers capacity to service the 40 minutes shorter route to Langdale, Sunshine Coast.

Last July 2006, I went for a week to visit a very good friend Tan in Nanaimo, and boarded the "Queen of Oak Bay". Tan and his family immigrated to Canada some 20 odd years ago and opened a restaurant in North Nanaimo. They started the restaurant business in Vancouver a few months after their arrival in Canada. But soon they discovered that there were too many cutthroat competitions around. It was very hard to survive, let alone making a profit, and they were losing money big time. So they looked around for a better alternative and moved to Nanaimo and opened a restaurant there instead. Like most immigrants they work very hard. Essentially it is a family run restaurant business, and everybody has to pitch in, husband, wife, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and other relatives that happen to come for a visit, have to help and work at the restaurant. I am happy to be treated as one of the family. It is hard work, low profit margins, and therefore the long hours of work to get a decent income. Start at 10 am, and most of the time finish at 2 am next mornings, 7 days a week. They have to, because they need to support their children to go to University, one daughter is attending Dentistry College and one son is in College of Music. They hope that their children will have better jobs than what they now have. They know perfectly well that this is not the best way to make a decent living in Canada, but the only way they know. Having a good education is the best way to go. From time to time they also "have to" send some money to many relatives from both sides in the Old Country, that seems always in need of "emergency" financial helps. Everybody they know in Canada send money back to the Old Country, and they have to send too, and it became a "tradition". The Tan's are very hard workers and very generous too. I admire their spirits. I help them around during lunch time to 3 pm wherever help is needed, sometimes as kitchen help sometimes as a waiter. They did enough help during dinner time. Besides they said they did not want me to work too hard. But I did help them with their paperwork at night time though. They let me stay in their spare bedroom during my one week duration with them.
Here at bottom photo you see me in the kitchen making spring rolls.

I always enjoy the ferry ride during the 1 hour 45 minutes ride to and from Nanaimo. I have been to Vancouver Island a few times in the past. The views of the waterways around Gulf Islands are gorgeous, one of the best in the world. There are probably a dozen populated islands between Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, and all are always crowded with tourists in summer. I visited one of them 3 years ago, the Saltspring Island for R&R (rest and recreation), and played a couple of rounds of golf. In Nanaimo, in my spare time I visited and explored neighbouring towns: Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Ladysmith and Chemainus. These areas are rich with histories, how the early day pioneers like Robert Dunsmuir who became very rich after discovered coal in 1869 in Nanaimo. Then expanded his empire into logging, shipping and transportation businesses. Nanaimo and Ladysmith were the centre of his operation, and where the first original immigrant settlements developed. People at Chemainus are proud to promote their "town of murals", where the whole communities work together to create large mural paintings that averages 8m x 2m in sizes painted on the outside of building walls across town, and became tourists' attractions. Yes, tourists are really coming to see the hundreds of murals at Chemainus, and help promote the town and the local economy. The murals depicting the history of the areas, about people working in coal, logging, fishing and transportation in the early days. All murals were drawn by local artists and students.

Crocuses

Dear Elizabeth br Ginting,
These are crocuses, another early plants that start growing in mid winter February. They have a biological alarm clock that wakes them up around this time of year, with flash of beautiful bright color flowers. Their colors vary enormously, but the most common are yellow, mauve, lilac and white. Crocuses are perennial, bulb type flowers called "corms", and belong to the family of irises. They are easy to grow, but require a well drain soil. In winter, squirrels and rodents when their foods are scarce, love to dig the corms from the ground to eat. So the crocuses are planted deeper to deter pests. Crocuses are not natives to the Netherlands, but it was first recorded there in 1560's about crocuses being cultivated. The beauty of crocuses inspired a well known Dutch painter Ambrosius Bosschaert to paint a crocus in 1620, and the original painting is displayed in Louvre Museum. Vancouver avid gardeners generally are having a break between November to January due to the cold winter, and the plants being in dormant state. But in early February gardeners can start enjoying the early blooms of tear drops and crocuses again. And spring time is just around the corner. Before tear drops and crocuses are done, there will be a lot of other flowering plants to start growing and showing their blooms. Everywhere looks alive again. New plants sprouting, replacing the dying olds.

Queen Elizabeth Park

Dear Elizabeth br Ginting,
Yesterday I went to Queen Elizabeth Park (just like your first name), which is about 30 minutes drive from where I live. The Park is actually sitting on a hill which is the highest point in Vancouver, 500 feet above sea level, and has a panoramic view of Vancouver skyline and the North Shore mountains. It was used to be a stone quarry that was turned into a 130 acres of majestic park in 1950's. The construction was overseen by then Vancouver Chief Horticulturalist William Livingstone. It is one of the best parks in the Lower Mainland, and appears in many tourist's brochures. The Park is visited by nearly 6 million visitors each year to marvel at the exceptional garden plantings and to enjoy the recreational facilities. On top of the hill you will find Bloedel Conservatory for tropical plants and birds (behind me on bottom photo), a restaurant and a parking lot. There are many recreational facilities on the lower area of the park: a pitch&putt golf, 2 duck ponds, a dogs off-leash area, 17 tennis courts, a frisbee park, a lawn bowling, a rose garden, 2 beautiful sunken gardens and a forested arboretum area with trails for strollers.
For the last year there has been a major reconstruction on the parking lot on top of the hill. There is a large crater underneath the parking lot that is used for holding Lower Mainland drinking water reservoir. Because of population growth, it needs to be expanded to hold more water and strengthening it to withstand a major earthquake. It is now completed and open for business as usual: the new parking lot, a new water fountain, a new Celebration Pavilion for weddings or meetings and an open area for sitting and exercising. There were used to be many Tai Chi diehards and Falon Gong groups doing their routines every mornings. But not today. It will probably be very soon, after they found out that the reconstruction is completed. Well 99% completed.
It is still winter in Vancouver, which is officially right up to March 21. The weather is cold, and the deciduous trees are still sleeping, just like the leafless birch and Japanese maple trees shown here with me. But some early plants are already started sprouting, like the "tear drop" white flowers shown on top photo. They have a built in biological alarm clock that set-off and start blooming in early February every year. A sight to behold in an otherwise cold, wet, windy and sometimes snowy Vancouver winter.

Totem Poles

Dear Hasan Basri,
In Vancouver Stanley Park near Brockton Point there are a group of Totem Poles made by Native Indians. A lot of people come to see them and attracted tourists from all over the world. The Totem Poles are sculptured from big trees, usually red cedar. The Totem Poles are storytelling, the carvings tell story about legends. Or it can be just as an artistic presentations. Europeans in 1700's misunderstood them as frightening statues that the natives are worshipping. But the Totem Poles are never object of worship. Construction of a totem pole never done in a modern method, but always in a traditional methods and with ceremonies, from getting the log from the forest, carving it and erecting it on site. Totem Poles are also used in building their traditional long houses as supporting beams. The traditional long houses are large houses that are occupied by many families. That reminded me of the traditional Batak's long houses in Sumatra, where some of the beams are carved and also occupied by many families. But Batak's traditional long houses are not desirable as living quarters in today's standard anymore, although many are still kept as monument to generation past, and also good for tourist attractions. There are many Native Indians tribe in British Columbia. The Totem Poles that are shown on photo are from the tribes of Kwakwaka'wakw, Hesquiat and Ditidaht. Mouthful aren't they.