The True North: Travels in the second largest country

What comes first to your mind when you hear Canada? A couple of decades back, for a lot of my Indian friends, I am sure it would have been the most interesting and funny pronunciation itself "Kaneda".  (Yes, in early grades of elementary school, my conscience used to debate on how it was pronounced because my exposure of the world was limited to Doordarshan and old Indian cinema. The word sounded like Canada but the authoritative Punjabi characters on the TV insisted on Kaneda)

But now we live in the era of Connected Cows and Connected World, hence people know something about a lot of things these days, thanks to the ubiquitous articles and snippets on social media. However, the best way to find more about a country is by reading books (notice I did not say magazines or articles), traveling to and the best of all, "living" in that country.

Hence, after a decade of living in the United States, we decided to visit Canada for a week for our ninth wedding anniversary, with an eight year old Freyjaa and a year old Nirvanh in the tow.

Beautiful Trails in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

The trip started with an unexpected twist. We wanted to visit British Columbia and hence I was looking for tickets to Vancouver. However, mistakenly I had bought our onward tickets to Victoria (an island not too far away from Vancouver) . I realized about the mistake only after the pleasant lady at the Delta counter announced that she was feeling sorry to let us know that the flight to Victoria has been delayed and they were willing to put us on other flights going to Victoria or "Vancouver". I pounced on this opportunity and booked us on the flight flying into Vancouver, leaving an hour later.

Canada is a very pleasant country and you gauge that as soon as you disembark at the airport. Most Canadians in British Columbia have accents similar to Americans on the West Coast. However, people seemed to be in less rush than folks back home in California.

View From The Top After Taking The Sea To Sky Gondola Ride in Squamish

We covered White Rock, Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and Lillooet on this trip and the vast lands with very little population density enamored us.

I highly recommend Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler as an excellent place to station yourself and explore The Pacific Province. It is on the expensive side during peak seasons, however they make your stay very interesting by offering free kayak, boat and bike rentals. It is situated on the Nita Lake where you can paddle and offers beautiful trails in the mountains nearby. Another outdoor adventure spot is Squamish, with its famous Sea to Sky Gondola ride, where you walk on a Suspension Bridge when you reach the top. For a sleepover, I recommend the sleepy town of White Rock, very close to the US Border if you are driving up from the US Border. It has excellent Oceanside accommodations where you can enjoy the vistas if you are in a mood to relax. If you want to go very rural, check out the aboriginal history and lifestyle in Lillooet; stopping at a ranch for a horse ride in Pemberton. Last but not the least, Stanley Park in Vancouver is an urban jungle and is highly recommended. I particularly liked walking on the waterfront in downtown Vancouver.

There are more fun things you can do which I have not recommended in this trip report. Hit me up if you need more info. One interesting fact for my Australian friends and their neighbor Kiwis- Canada has bilateral agreements with you guys and you guys can get easy work permits to work in Canada for the summers. Sounds like a fun idea to spend your idyllic summer in the wonderful outdoorsy British Columbia. Go figure!

Notes From Almost An Island

Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico – Day 1

Baja California Sur captures you instantly with its tropical charm. It puts you under a spell of nostalgia; childhood memories of a tropical upbringing resurface. The place feels like India in the Western Hemisphere.

We disembark the sexy virgin we rode on from San Francisco (I meant the Virgin America flight, perverts!!!) and proceed towards immigration. The nice “Mujer” at the immigration counter called herself Viktoria and refrained from giving us much trouble. The next step was customs, which was very customary, but highly unnecessary; given what it involves is denying a series of alleging questions and pressing a red button which ironically means that you are green to go.

As soon as you exit the airport, you get into a party mood. The weather is captivating and loud celebratory music is playing. There is a bar right there outside the gate and we indulge with a tropical mango drink for Shweta and a banana to alleviate Freyjaa’s untimely hunger. The waiter is a good looking young guy nomenclatured Diego. I confirm with him if he is the honorable Diego from San Diego and he blushes, giving me the assurance that I made his day. He is a product of a French father and a Mexican mother and lives in Brussels, Belgium. He has come to Cabo for a visit and by sheer happenstance, landed this job at the airport bar and somehow finds it too enticing to leave. This gives me a reassurance that I might see a familiar face in this strange land next time I visit its shores. I hand him seven USDs, five for the drink, one for the paltry banana and one for keeping him even more interested in his job; purely for aforementioned selfish self-soothing reasons.

The Fox Rental Company has a shuttle waiting outside, which we obligingly board and reach a Master bathroom sized company office. Cabo, like any other tourism hub, is a highly commercial place. Everyone is competing for the tourist’s dollars and sometimes ethics take a backseat in the due process. I had booked a rental car to drive to my hotel in Cabo San Lucas and had decided to buy Mexican Liability Insurance upon my arrival there. However, I had inquired over the phone about the rates and was told it was going to be $14/day. Not surprisingly, the decent looking poker faced Roberto decided to offer me $22/day for the same level of coverage. I reassured him that I might not be a rocket scientist but I knew my numbers; upon which; he decided to take $16/day. And that was the sign that Cabo will be a place where haggling will encompass a good portion of human affairs. It also shows that if humans are not bound by rules and regulations, they are very likely to cheat, given no consequences of faltering.  A human mind is wild and unless you tame it a little bit, societies become interesting but very unpredictable. Author Taleb, a big proponent of antifragility suggests that we should seek out unpredictable chaotic living if we desire to keep ourselves from breaking with fragility but I beg to stay fragile. I would like to live in a somewhat predictable society and don’t mind adventuring into unpredictable lands only for short durations. All of us know that life itself is highly unpredictable and there is value in embracing its nasty yet interesting turns and twists. I am all up for embracing but not convinced about living that way for eternity by seeking out such long term opportunities on purpose.

After this initial education, we reached the next step of looking at the car I was getting. It was a Volkswagen Gol and had a Manual Transmission. Here was my opportunity to show off my fancy folder with all travel related papers filed away in almost an obsessive compulsive way. The paperwork clearly reflected my conviction and my lack of audacity about reserving a stick shift car on my maiden visit to a new country. He tried convincing me unconvincingly and with lack of evidence in abundance that his system shows my enthusiasm for using a clutch again in my life. The conversation turned almost into a brawl since he demanded more money for automatic and I refused to budge and raised my voice far beyond my usual equilibrium levels. He budged and gave me a FIAT convertible. The earlier education has already helped.

The convertible had a horribly small trunk space but the family got together and pulled a “BRR73”. BRR73 was the number of my grandfather’s 1958 Ambassador which our joint family used for many unthinkable number of years. Our grandfather loved to take us to wedding parties and the party of seven would load up in the average sized car for five on several occasions. Hence, I was good at the art of loading up and into a small car. The car was fun to drive and the road and scenery induced a feeling that I was driving from Delhi to Faridabad. We pulled over at Dominos for a late lunch and ordered a medium pizza and two drinks for a paltry sum of 237 Pesos ($13). Post the late lunch, we headed to our Hotel (#1 Bread and Breakfast according to Lonely Planet) in the downtown Cabo San Lucas area and we were charmed yet again. It is an enchanting B&B, tucked away from the all inclusives and has a wonderful welcoming feel. The manager incentivized me to pay in cash (Pesos) by reducing the boarding charges by hundred dollars. I obliged and promised him the sum once I withdrew it from a local ATM.

We had booked a Honeymoon suite, honey being our sweet Nirvanh and moon being our beautiful Freyjaa. Both of them make this honeymoon of sorts complete. It was time to get fresh, grab dinner, relax and call it a day. I got some fresh, same day caught fish from Neptunos after withdrawing cash from the Santander bank and came back to my honeymoon suite, where I lay down on my hammock, swinging back and forth; while my mind swung back and forth between progress and nostalgia, risk and security, love and fear and all other such mesmerizing dualities of life which make this truly non-dualistic life worth living in the worldly way.