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.