Vancouver Whistler trip 3-5 Aug 2015

Exchange rate was S$1.08 to CAD$1

Monday 3 Aug 2015

Alarm rang at 0510hr. rise and shine! like real lo. I was so zombie … think i only slept like 4 hrs the night before. Had my breakies of donut and we are on the way! Took the bus to arrive at Pacific Centre and a beautiful day!

This is the depot for all Greyhound buses. Greyhound buses go like Whistler, Seattle etc. PL told me to sit on driver side for better view and she is right!

First i get to see why Lion’s bridge is called Lion’s bridge. Really got a lion.

This Lion’s bridge has lanes that can change direction depending on the hours. I saw on the news that there was a car accident on this bridge and the driver was driving in the opp direction so caused the opposite direction’s car’s passengers to miscarry. The driver was only fined CAD$500. There is no price for a human’s life but….. shldnt the punishment be heavier? 😦

Anyway, back to my trip. Driver’s side really got good view. These 2 pics are taken during the bus ride before I KO. 

The bus got zzz monster bug lo. I fell asleep after 1 hr haha even tho the view is so fantastic. Ard 10am, we reached Whistler village. This village and nearby Blackcomb Village and a few others house the Winter Olympic athletes. 

Such a nice, quaint place to be housed in tho I wonder if its v crowded then haha…. cuz its not exactly big.

As our room is only ready for check in from 4pm onwards, we went to book…. our zipline and hav breakies. Breakies is at Elements Urban Tapas Parlour, housed at Summit Lodge Hotel.

PL told me Vancouver have this drink named London Fog which is earl grey brewed in milk. So I tried it this time and…. its really fragrant but….. i m not a fan of milk haha Makes me bloated.

Nxt the mains! Hehehe the scrambled egg looks like chinese 炒蛋 and it was just too salty! I didnt finish it and toast was abit burnt. Redeeming point was the Canadian back bacon which was quite juicy.

The earliest available Zipline is at 1pm so we tuang ard abit after breakies. Summer now so alot of outdoor fixtures.

PL got such a nice pose.  Very very fast it’s time for our Zipline with Superfly le! OK… this zipline thingy got backgrd wan. I saw PL doing zipline on her fb then I was tinking wah the view must b awesome! So when I come Vancouver, I told her I wanna go do zipline too! But I forgot that…. i m a scaredy cat :p Now that things r starting to sink in….. I asked PL whether I can back out anot hahah She just rolled her eyes at me haha… Why did I pay CAD$156 to scare myself?!?! :S

So we were herded onto this bus with a very nice n chatty female driver.

After a 15 min drive or so, we reach Cougar Mountain where we met Steph and Ned who demo and told us some rules and regulations. We were also taught how to put on our harness here.

Steph was funny. After the demo she was like “that was intense!” and went ard hi-5ing all of us haha…. Note the metal part hung on the wire. Thats a trolley. We all hav to carry it on our own. Cuz as Ned says “there is no way i can carry 16 of this on my own”

Then we took a jeep to go up the mountains! Selfie time with Ned as photobomb!

Its very dry up there now so as the jeep in front drive, we can see this dust trailing behind it.

The ride was rather bumpy tho haha like ATV like that and we really saw ATV ppl driving down this slope haha… Ok la also another short 10 min or so ride. Here is where we alight and the view is fantastic! As usual…. i regret not taking more pics haha

Cool pic of me right? w the harness and the trolley haha.. I tink i look quite pro…. except that I was really scared by then le la!

So this is e platform where we will be “launched”.

 I got the deja vu feeling of back to cliff diving that time and I wanna be the last hahah .. so…. i dragged PL for selfie hahah

Saw Steph talking to this little girl of mayb around 10? Girl’s name is Rachel. Steph really hav a way with kids. She kept talking and asking her if she is nervous or excited. She also warned her cuz she is light, she may not reach the end 😐 Tat sounded like damn scary to me la! But Steph reassured her tat there is nothing to worry about cuz someone on the opposite will come get her. Before “launch”, Steph also got everyone clapped for the little girl. Then she pushed the little girl off! hehe… Someone frm our grp shouted “No pushing” Steph then explained its to give Rachel extra force as she is too light and wind is strong that day.

Rachel really need someone to retrieve her. I overheard Steph saying that there are 6 retrievals today le cuz of the strong winds. Anyway, I decided not to be the last! hahhaha… i decided to be…. 2nd last. We went after 2 ladies who screamed during launch. I told PL “can u go to the station further away? I dun tink I can walk so far. Legs v soft.” :p

And off we go!! I really screamed during launch but after a while stop liao cuz actually…. not so scary hahah…. PL v cool; she helped took pic from her iPhone!

The harness has a super strong velcro pocket at the back which is to allow u put the phone. They said… so far…. they have no incidents of ppl losing their phone haha… There is no phone retrieval services tho haha…

I really like this pic cuz it shows the view (and me) very well!

Heavier ppl will go faster… thats why i so in front of her. And hor…. by right no need to hang on to the bars wan. u can like spread ur hands out as if u r flying. But erm cuz I too scared so i just keep grabbing it. haha… And u can close and point ur legs forward to go faster.

During landing, the staff will do this pose and u r supposed to spread ur leg wide and hang on to the bar. 

For the first line, within 2 min, we r done liao. Really v fast. After I got over my shock, i managed to capture a few pics. Here is 1 of them with my shoes.

Heheh… The landing was not as strong impact as i tot it to be. There is a spring thingy to buffer ur landing. Once I landed, I feel exhilarated! I did it!! woo hoo! so its selfie time!!

And I forgot my trolley despite repeated reminders during the briefing hahahh too happy. We then carry the trolley to walk to next station. 

In total, there are 4 lines. First 2 lines are the sightseeing kind. This is the 2nd station!

There is supposedly a clown on the left side but both PL and I cant see it. At this station, the guy asked me “are u ready?” I replied “no” and everyone laughed haha… lol…. (he still released me anyway >.<)

2nd time I not so scared liao so can … take video!

Tho i must say the 2nd line feels as if my leg can touch the trees.

At every station, there is this rack to put our trolleys.

This is the landing point of the 2nd station hehe…

The camera was mounted on a water stand! haha All stations come equipped with a water point. Very impt cuz air very dry there. U will get dehydrated without knowing.

Ok…. 3rd one is…. named… Godzilla! Of all names!! They choose one that is so scary can! And the “walk” up to the platform not easy also! -.-||

its very steep and we carrying the trolleys so 1 hand need to stable the trolley then 1 hand pull the railing. The staff even told us…. “dun walk too near the next person in case the trolley fall down and hit ur toes.” hahah I quite weak so walked up abit slow. The flooring of the place but ok la near grd not scary.

When they r securing me, they said into their walkie “Right on Godzilla secured” Really xyz hahah 

Once again, its release time and I really yelled my head off and i tink for majority of the trip cuz very fast! Ok la so it ended v fast too hahah… This time no pics or video cuz the staff advised us not to take pics for this line cuz too fast.

I tink i prefer the first 2 lines haha can see scenery at least :p Finally its e walk to the last station lo!

Last station is just among the trees so the height frm the grd dun feel so high hahhaha….. So this time we were the first!

At the last station, the 2 lines r v closed so u can actually hold hands w ur fren to fly down together! hahah… As demonstrated by the 2 staff clowning ard haha

PL and I hold hands until a photo point then we part le. hahah Cant find our pics frm their photo point lei. Sad 😦 I tried to take pic of PL and…. fail terribly hahahah

Cuz too near to landing le and I also need to get into landing position le hahahah…. And hor our landing area is at the base where all the ppl will gather to take e jeep up. Our staff actually told us to scream when coming down to scare away as many ppl as possible hahah and i forgot! Darn! Cuz I kenna lei! When we first arrived, I was wondering is it that scary? Why ppl keep screaming?? After being through it, the last one is the most mild one lo! Totally not scary! KNS haha

Yeah! I completed the whole course of zipline!! hahahah and PL did it a 2nd time! haha no kick to her

Behind us is the base where the newcomers will gather.

After zipline, finally is check in and our room is…. v interesting!

Now… where is e bed? heheh 

Tadah!

Have to fold up the table. Instructions is pasted at the table there hehe…. Our hotel is like CAD$140 per night. PL actually brought a watermelon along! hahah She super effort!

We changed and hurry go Lost Lake before the sun sets BUT it started raining! so we u-turn 😦

Ok la but we got to nua in the hotel’s hot tub. Its like 40 degrees! I have to slowly go in cuz I not used to hot bath.

hehe hot tub a while then we go back room nua. Our room v good to nua cuz the sofa so big so each of us can take 1 end haha… Nua until hungry liao then we went out to Whistler village for dinner. The fries with toppings is called poutine. I find it quite nice but PL just said its normal hahha I dunno why this trip i v hooked on fries haha

Then we ordered 2 sliders… 1 is pork and 1 is beef. Both plates look same same so i shall just put 1 pic here.

I prefer pork cuz… got cucumber hehehe…

Since its our first night, we must have….. beer! Cheers!

Though the beer so so only…. not creamy de. OK! End of first night in whistler!

Tuesday 4 Aug 2015

Rise and shine to a wonderful day! We grabbed a puff and went to take our Greyhound bus to Squamish.

Squamish is in the direction to Vancouver hence the bus tag. The journey from Whistler to Squamish cost us CAD$17 each.

Its really a beautiful day….. and here is beautiful us!

PL say our face v big… i tot ok lei :p Anyway, its PL 3rd time to Whistler and she told me to sit on driver’s side for a better view! And its true! 

Upon alighting in Squamish, we had to grab a cab. Our Greyhound bus driver is soooo frenly! He chatted with us and found out that we going to Sea2Sky. He also chatted with another 2 guys who is going to start their hike at Shannon Falls. So he told us that we can share cab with them! Super value add can!

Anyway, these 2 guys are mountain bikers. They came Whistler to do the bike trails cuz supposedly Whistler got the best bike trails in the world. They are from UK and are here for 12 days. They done their bike trails till their hands have blister so they decided to have 1 day of rest. For their rest day, they decided to do some 2,3 hr trekking on trails which you require chains to hoist urself up. hahah… And they target 3 peaks! My fren said she only managed to do 1 peak cuz just too tiring and not enough time too. 

So anyway we shared cab. The cab dropped them off first. And the meter showed CAD$13 and they wanted to give us 13 so we told them just 10 will do. I actually abit dun geddit; so whats e sharing for them? haha… oh wells… save $$ for me hahah

Tadah! Sea2sky gondola ie cabin car. Cuz my idea of gondola is always… bigger haha…

Me with my Hello Kitty and the free sunglass from Honda Festival of Lights hahah… I tot they match real well :p

This is 1 of the view from the cable car and we saw ppl rock climbing on it!

We reached the top close to 12 noon and there are not so many ppl ard so we hurry take some pics of the suspension bridge haha….

See! i got the bridge to myself!

Hahah we just pose on this bridge but didnt cross the bridge. Instead we head the opposite way and start on the Panorama trail. Its quite a easy to walk trail; see the floor is nicely paved.

And yeap i walked rather slow so i m always behind PL hahah… I really like this trail cuz there are lookout points along the way like this.

I tink its totally cool to sit here and have picnic since its quite cooling and the view is so good! Got this jovial guy to help us take this pic and he is quite funny. He turn the camera to the scenery and look at us “oh i m supposed to take pics of u 2?” lol

Along the way, we met many “photo” points, to me anyway haha PL is a v obliging model hahah

This is THE viewpoint on the Panorama Trail. 

 

Its quite sturdy; not scary but just beware of the fall of devices. Gravity works….

Yeap. its a long rocky fall down.

This is taken from the tip of the viewpoint hehe….

The other side of the view point. The 3 peaks are the one the cycling guys are trying to scale within half a day. Also known as Stawamus Chief Trail.

Another nice viewpoint along Panorama Trail. And cuz we r early, quite abit of the trails we are alone so quite good for taking pics.

Then we came upon this Lookback trail which is supposedly more difficult and PL nvr do before too.

OK la… it is abit more difficult due to the uneven ground. For me, because i m noob i need some tree to stable me.

and the ground is the woody kind; no longer the stony pavements kind

And the more difficult trail did pay off hhehe…

Then as I was happily snapping away, i turn ard and see…

I tio stunned I tell u. Am I supposed to climb the rocks? haha ok…. PL asked me dun b silly; there is a trail next to the stones :p phew hahaha… Actually the trails here are very well marked with such tags along the pt, so that u will not veer off course.

The Lookback trail was pretty fast; soon we are back near the gondola centre. It was a very hot and dry summer so there r warnings on the possibility of fire.

Everything is so dry that if there is fire, it will burn non stop. Every step on the ground will float up a layer of dust. Its that bad. Nxt trail is Spirit Trail. See the entrance still got those lights … I supposed at night time they will b light up to make the whole place look romantic?

But who will come at night? Wun it be very scary? hmmmm…

Spirit Trail has 1 or 2 viewpoints too. This one comes w a seat.

Upon exiting Spirit Trail, we will see the suspension bridge!

 

Finally my turn on it!

See how strong the wind is… My hair is like flllyyyyyinnnng

After the Zipline, naturally this shld feel no kick but hor still will be abit scared. Scared that the wind might blow me away (haha like that will ever happen)

The gap is actually quite big. Wonder if anyone’s feet was stuck in there before anot. I saw ppl pushing prams onto this suspension bridge. Amazing… how they hold on

At the end of the bridge, another photo point!

They even have those photo fun booths stuff. Hahah I saw a bunch of old ppl having more expressions than us holding the placards :p

And then its lunch time! The only place to eat up there is this cafeteria place.

This is also where the gondola dropped us. And our lunch with a great view.

This cost ard CAD$15. We also ordered beer which cost CAD$7 each glass but it tastes abit watery. Not very nice. We slowly ate our lunch and admire the view and finally w great reluctance (at least for me), we took the gondola to descend le 😦

During our descend, saw this long windy road which looks quite nice haha… #random

PL called a cab before we descend so there is a cab waiting for us when we touch down. The cab ride from Sea2Sky to Squamish depot costs us CAD$20. And the 2 bikers made it in time for the 3.50pm bus! hehe they only scaled 1 peak in the end cuz no time. hahah

PL said if they did not make it for the bus, the cab ride back to Whistler will cost them CAD$100. Highly possible since we took a less than 15 min ride and it cost us CAD$20.

When we reach back Whistler, we hurriedly go back change into swim wear to go… Lost Lake before it rains haha

There r a few bikers ard too. Think deep in there are some bike trails too. We met this old Asian couple who is going to the Lost Lake. PL directed them. This is quite a nice walk too and I tink there are some…. toads ard!

PL told me that she got lost once when going to the Lost Lake. Heng ah this time she no lost le! Yippeee~~~ Think the walk took us ard 15-20min. And i do feel a few awkward walking the trails cuz there are ppl in their hiking gear while i m in…. shorts and slippers and holding a mat hahah v picnic like.

And here we are!!! So cool right…. ppl picnic with such a gorgeous view.

Went round taking some photos hehe…. Tried for some reflection photos. Really liked this pic tho it only reflect the clouds but not the mountains. My colleagues said cuz mountain too far….

Nxt up is…. leaf cuz some leaves r turning red le…. v soon, summer will b over….

And then…. finally I tried the waters!

Its weee bit cold but still ok. Water is pretty clear too.

I didnt soak in tho i cant rem why. Mayb cuz i wanna tan hahah… Our tanning spot!

So 诗情画意 can!! haha… There was a cool breeze and i tink i doze off a bit hehe… Saw these 2 kids sharing a towel. V cute.

We nua there for 40 min or so and its time to go….. 

Nooooo…. i dun wanna go…… Can I stay here longer? 😦 Ok… we r hungry liao…. so we walked back to village.

This is Whistler village with the very quaint Alps hut kind of feel. Our dinner is at this place named W’s which PL ate before n said v nice. 

It’s pretty empty as compared to the place opposite where we were at the previous night.

But the beer is better than last night! Its thicker n creamier and … just more shiok! hehe… Of course…. nothing beats Belgian beer. Just to make things clear. But this is almost as good.

Drumlets! yums~

Alot of American food here so we had burger again. I dunno whats wrong w me but when I come here, I find the fries totally awesome la! hahah PL just gave me weird look; mayb the feeling is not the same? haha…

After dinner we walked back to hotel and its v cold la! hahah ppl in their windbreaker n all then we 2 in cardigans and shorts haha… super off

Wednesday 5 Aug 2015

We woke up to…. rain and fog liao 😦 Tho I must say PL’s getup is very cool cowboy like haha

Breakfast is at Ingrid Village Cafe where we grab our pie the day before. The breakies look v shiok we came here for a sit down breakies. hehe…

My bagel with egg and ham is very yummy tho the chocolate not chocolatey enuff but ok la…. for a cold morning.

This morn’s plan is to take the ski lift up Whistler and do the peak to peak gondola with Blackcomb but ….

I tink with this fog and all…. no point in going up too cuz we wun get to see anything. So we just hang ard the village to ….

eat Cows! since i didnt eat it yet. I had some chocolate with honeycomb or something. Quite good. This Cows is super long queue when its not raining. Since its raining, no queue haha oops. But cold weather eat ice cream is quite nice too.

Even though its raining, there are still many ppl walking ard the village haha Guess everyone hoping for the rain to stop. Took a pic of our hotel front cuz I forgot during check in. Too excited :p

Our bus is for 4+pm then due to the rain, we went to try our luck to switch the bus earlier to the 1.30pm bus.

The bus driver told us we can take our chances. This is because if subsequent stops there are passengers and not enough seats, we gotta stand all the way to Vancouver le. Before this we had checked with the counter, there is around 20 seats not sold yet. So we decided to just take our chances lo. And heng ah! We get to sit throughout heheh… 

Bye bye Whistler~~ I m sad to part with you too~~ I really like the relaxed vibe ard the place and the great scenery too!

P.S. This post is completed during the morning of my Alaskan cruise! Woo hoo~~