First of all, Happy April Fools.
Had a good sleep last night, even though stayed up to blog about the trip so far. Seems like my body is taking the jet lag well. Really love the motel we stayed, sorta good for its price; cozy and warm pity we had to leave the sleepy town after a night here.
Slightly peeved that I had to wait for the rest to checkout, my mum very loh soh and insisted to boil water for the trip northwards. Took a full 45 mins to get her out of the room to check out.
Before we left the town, we did savor a Canadian breakfast at Darrell’s diner/resturaunt round the corner from the motel. I ordered this gi-normous breakfast platter christened “the loggers breakfast”. It was like the cloverfield of morning meals! It consisted of 3 eggs (your choice of style), 6 pork sausages/ham/bacon, hash browns (which curiously looked more like rossi from marche; sans the sour cream), 2 slices of bread (pick from white, brown or rye bread) and top it off with local brewed coffee or tea. Phew! Thats a mouthful both eating and mentioning it!
We couldn’t finish the whole meal so we doggied the remnants so we could munch on the road. Still, we did leave the diner with alot of food in our hands.
Our next destination of the day was a place mystifyingly call Kamloops, it was a major town and business center unlike Hope, however not in the scale of a city like Vancouver.
We travelled northwards along Highway 5, stopping along the way at the side roads to take a couple of snapshots of the scenery. This is the first time we did come across actual snow up close during the trip, before it was just viewing them sitting on the mountains. The snow was white as snow, I guess, for the lack of a better metaphor.
In fact, highway 5 is one of the few highways you get to see different shades of the climate in Canada. One moment you’re travassing along the winter wonderland of snow, about an hour later you segue into sleepy oaklands sporting muted colors of red and green.
For the first time during the trip, we managed to arrive at our destination before our estimated time; possibly due to the trafficless roads of the highway. Kamloops was a typical Canadian town, with shopping malls (not to the size of the ones in Singapore though) and the like. The houses here look great and potentially a nice place to settle into if you prefer a slower pace of life without being far from society.
We initially got lost due to the confusing roads, but managed to secure rooms at the Dream Lodge near the entrance to the town.
Our accommodation at our present place wasn’t up to par to our expectations though. Many of the facilities promised to us weren’t working or missing. I remember the management mentioning that he was shorthanded; probably the reason why some of the stuff don’t work around here.
After dropping our luggage off into the rooms, we scoured the town as we wanted to save cash on dinner and cook for ourselves in the night.
First stop, Walmart; which contrary to our expectations didn’t carry much fresh foods and vegetables for Chinese cuisine. We did buy a couple of items there, like a set of pots and pans (my mum’s paranoid about the cleaniness of the ones loaned to us by the motel) but we needed proper ingredients to cook up something closer to home.
Kindly, the curiously effeminate male cashier that served us directed us to a place called “Superstore”, which isn’t too far off from where we were. This place was far larger than Walmart, and proudly Canadian, flags and all. I guess these guys like them thick!
We completed our groceries and personally I went to further explore a place nearby called Aberdeen Mall, which housed Sears and other stores. Most of the stores were for teenage fashion, I wanted to buy some for people back home, if not for the prices and the lack of space in our vehicle I would have. Oh well, I could make up for it when we get back in Vancouver then.
After my mini walkabout, I arrived back at the lodge for a good hot shower; a hot one does wonders in this climate, a therapudic effect even I must add.
Dinner was okay, it was neither Singaporean or Canadian, it was more cooked out of necessity than anything else. We found a jar of sambal back at the Superstore and it was quite shiok to excite our tastebuds to an otherwise bland cuisine. The sambal tasted more Thai though…
Thankfully, one of the things that did work in this place was wireless Internet; managed to interface with some of the chaps back home using MSN.
Even managed to con someone that I’m staying here for good (don’t say its not April Fools cause I’m one day behind you!).
That wraps day 2 of the journey, tomorrow we’ll try to stretch it by attempting to reach Jasper National Park within the day. My Google Maps says it like 5 hrs drive from these parts, but who knows what the road will bring?
