bicrom abroad

the first world as a holiday destination was a step into the unknown for us. the main negatives were the disappointments of uncooperative canadian wildlife and the ease of haemorrhaging cash. more generally, in the first world you tend to go from sight to tour to attraction, with the time in between being dead space; you simply do not get all the random sights and sounds that you would see in asia or south america, the smoking monks, barking dogs or propositioning hookers.
the major positives would be the ability to rent and drive cars without running the risk of careering into auto rickshaws/cows and the corresponding road trip opportunities. some of the drives we did were experiences in their own right and it is comforting to be able to toss your bags into the trunk of a car rather than some dusty train or coach luggage rack.it's also an unusual, and not unpleasant, sensation to finish a holiday not feeling like you immediately need another one, and we will be going back to work more refreshed than usual.
as such, this will not be our last trip to the first world: having said that, i'm not ready to hang up my backpack quite yet...

best sight: the picture postcard view from the top of the empire state building as dusk turned into night.

most disappointing sight: ground zero was plain odd, with grinning camera snapping tourists morbidly rendering what should be a place of sombre reflection into just another visitor attraction. has to be niagara though, nowhere near as impressive as its reputation suggests.

best journey: toss up between the drive up vancouver island and the sea to sky highway between vancouver and whistler, the latter wins because of the mode of transport.

best car: marvin the mustang (of course...)

biggest rush: should have been watching a bear snapping at salmon right in front of us but, as that is not an option, easing down on marvin's accelerator, hearing the growl of the V8 and watching the trees on either side morph into a blur.

biggest disappointment: only one bear was disappointing but no orcas at all was heartbreaking. damn you wildlife.

best food: a surprisingly great holiday for eating. scaramouche in toronto for some fancy anniversary dining, hot kati rolls in new york for a taste of home but my favourite was probably japanese tapas in hapa izakaya in vancouver. i didn't even know what an izakaya was before this holiday but i'll definitely be looking out for them going forward.

best city: new york, up there with the londons, paris' and rios of the world.


most expensive place: new york, unadulterated temptation on every corner.

most expensive purchase: vicki knows. woof.

new york is a city that carries the burden of impossibly high expectations but does a surprisingly good job of not disappointing. various visual cliches come to life in front of your eyes; gaudy yellow cabs staffed by surly drivers with tenuous grasp of the english language, joggers pounding the dusty tracks traversing the vast green expanses of central park, the swooping curves of the guggenheim, park, madison, scenes from the small and the silver screens constantly pierce through the membrane into reality as you meander through the city.
we marvelled at manhattan reflected in the waters of the east river flowing under the brooklyn bridge, went one hundred floors up the empire state building, circumnavigated the statue of liberty and generally saw all the attractions that we felt obliged to see. what made new york particularly satisfying however was the enjoyment to be garnered between the sights, the unexpected surprises that would never make a guide book but lurked around every corner.
from wandering around the meatpacking district to having a late lunch in chelsea and watching the out of work models and hipsters flounce by, new york had the intangible quality that you want a city to have and that you want to be a part of; much like london and paris, it is a city that would be great to live in so as to allow you to feel a smug superiority over all the gawping tourists. add to that three hot kati roll outlets and it is hard to imagine that we will not be back soon.

it may be because it's the first stop if you're heading east from japan but, for whatever reason, vancouver has a strongly oriental vibe, with japanese and chinese culture and faces everywhere. we had amazing food at the local izakaya on our first night, an izakaya being a japanese pub which, when transplanted to oh so cool vancouver, meant chilled out background beats over storming japanese tapas. monday was spent pottering around in the sunlight and cycling around stanley park, finishing off with some grimy but tasty mongolian barbeque action.
on a tip from one of the secretaries at work we hired a car to drive to whistler on tuesday. and what a car; marvin the mustang was a 5 litre v8 convertible which growled when you touched the accelerator and saw off all challengers on the roads with ease (and with seat warmers to keep your behind toasty when the top was down which, the first time you feel them in action, might make you feel like you may have accidentally soiled yourself). the sea to sky highway connecting vancouver to whistler is an attraction in itself, as you begin winding along roads hugging cliffsides perched over the pacific waters before the sea gives way to the rockies, mountains still tipped with snow even in the height of summer beginning to dominate the landscape after 100 or so clicks.
whistler is most famously a winter destination but at this time of year the young folk leave their snowboards at home and bring their mountain bikes instead to bump and jostle down the dusty trails peppering the mountainsides. we did some rather more sedate wandering, hiking around to catch the views in the crisp air, negotiating a collective of 300 indian conference goers rampaging through the mountaintop restaurant and leaving the staff scratching their heads and finishing off with a hot chocolate back down in whistler village. perhaps not the world class destination it is in winter whistler still provided enough by way of views and amusement for us, even in the predictable absence of any bears.
and that, bar a two hour sojourn getting lost on the way back (how do you miss vancouver?!) and some amazing cured meat and cheese at a pretentious but cool little winebar amongst the designer boutiques and crackheads in gastown was it for vancouver, and indeed canada. a good place to visit, a great place to live and blessed with some amazing natural beauty; if only the wildlife had been a bit more willing to play ball...

after a slightly underwhelming initial few days on the east coast of canadia our first impressions of british columbia gave us some more cause for concern. from the socially incapable woman at the hertz counter to the tacky neon clonetown lights of the victoria strip, vancouver island by night did not appear to offer much by way of charm. within half an hour of setting off in flic the focus on wednesday morning however the island began to come into its own, as we swooped northwards down tree flanked roads. after a few pleasant hours on the road we passed campbell river, the gateway to the north of the island, to find the three lane highways and starbucks' replaced by narrow single tracks ensconced in all year round christmas trees. having passed numerous signs warning us of impending elk, yet sadly no actual elk, we arrived in the tiny oceanside community of port mcneill and took stock. vancouver island was beginning to impress, the clear pacific waters prefacing still snowcapped peaks in the distance.
our main motivation for heading to the north of the island was to try and glimpse some of its less domesticated residents, namely grizzly bears rooting for salmon and killer whales menacing the coastlines. we knew we were due a bit of bad luck with wildlife watching, given that we had been so fortunate with the leatherback turtle in french guyana and the orangutangs in sumatra. seeing bears in the wilds of british columbia however appeared to be something we could feel relatively confident about. when i had mentioned to some of my canadian colleagues that we were going on a bear watching tour they had openly scoffed at me and told me to save my money, pack a lunch and sit in the car by the side of any of the roads for a couple of hours. undeterred, and filled with silent hope of watching a grizzly munch down on salmon, we had paid the (exorbitant) fee and as such set off in our small boat at 7am full of hope.
the journey to glendale cove was incredibly beautiful, chugging through the still, iridiscent waters of knight inlet reflecting the small mountainous islands dotted throughout the strait whilst thin shafts of bright sunlight illuminated the gentle mist settling atop the peaks. having transferred to a small skiff we bobbed down an alarmingly shallow river and waited for bear o'clock. and waited. and then waited some more. the setting was stunning and we saw a few massive eagles flying around, including getting within metres of one gnawing at a salmon in the stream, but bears were conspicuous by their absence. it was particularly frustrating because, having paid so much for the tour, the guides seemed to have absolutely zero idea as to what to do in the absence of bears. yes wildlife watching is fraught with uncertainty but it really felt that we would have had just as much luck under our own steam, loitering in hopeful expectation by some roadside.
when all hope looked like it was lost vicki made a pact with a higher being in which she did not think she believed and, absurdly, her aethist prayers were answered. one grizzly came strolling along the river bank, had a sniff in the water, acknowledged us with an inquisitive shake of the muzzle as it passed within 20 metres of our skiff and ambled along the river. and that was it. an amazing creature but, sadly, a slightly disappointing first day of animal watching (and what price for vicki that momentary glimpse?)
everything would surely be redeemed the next morning, as we clambered aboard another boat to go and see killer whales. we had actually briefly seen a pod of these leviathans on the way back from our bear encounter (albeit had not stopped to have a proper look as the bear tour company clearly did not want to step on the toes of their whale watching neigbours) and knew that there was a large group hanging around off one of the nearby beaches, a collective so reliably local that they were officially titled resident orcas. such titles are of course meant to be crushingly deceiving and, sure enough, this was the one day they decided to take a little day trip south and, consequently, went outside of our range. we saw a couple of lazy humpbacks not interested in showing their size or their tails and, as always, sea lions and dolphins but the trip had been all about the killer whales and not seeing them battered our traveller souls a little.
all in all then vancouver island proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. visually absolutely stunning, we loved the road trip angle of our visit, speeding down windy roads with glorious mountain and lake vistas on either side. if we had no plans to see wildlife the trip would have been an unmitigated success in its own right, with the natural beauty on display more than  sufficient to render our time there a success. but we went with animals on the mind and, having failed to see them and consequently wasted a lot of time and money in our efforts, our time on island has to go down as a bit of a flush, albeit an incredibly scenic one. vancouver and new york to follow; very different but big cities are typically consistent at least.