Left Hand Drive

The sun had set about an hour before we picked up our luggage from the Ramada. We taxied it from downtown Vancouver to the International Airport in silence. No radio. Passing over the Granville Bridge one last time brought the sense of loss I was expecting but hadn't experienced yet. It's only a twenty minute ride past the glowing hi-rise apartment buildings that seem to float on the harbor, the neon of the city only fading for a few minutes before you arrive at the airport. Blessedly we were not charged for excess baggage even though we were way over the ridiculous twenty kilogram limit China Air places on its cattle class passengers.

Kat decided to contest security's decision at the X-ray about our 113ml container of moisturizer they removed from us on the grounds that the limit for carry-on liquids is 100ml. I think she was peeved after they took her shoes, made her sit down and waved the beeping paddle over her feet. She called their decision ridiculous and the workers incompetent, tearing open the container to prove that we had used some of the creme and that it was obvious it was now under 100g, spilling it over her jacket in the process. My attempts to get her to calm down and just give them the moisturiser were cut short, glared at and brushed aside in the wake of her rage. Blessedly they took the container and did not lead us to a holding cell. Kat stormed off towards the gate, I followed a wise four paces behind.


The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Taipei thirteen hours later, just after dawn. We located a hotel in the transit lounge that offered rooms by the hour and we took one for three. After showers and a few hours of prone sleep we were yanked upright by a wake up call. We were allowed to leave our unwieldy amount of carry-on baggage and instruments in the storeroom to avoid having to drag them around for the next sixteen hours. We found a place on a free half day tour to Taipei which left at one pm. We went through immigration and a fancy infrared fever detector where I had to remove my hat on passing. Clear of the airport we were loaded onto a white minivan that had seen better days. Our tour operator's stories were hilarious, his broken English delicately displaying his pride of Taiwan's democracy.
"In China, Communist, no freehalfdaytour"
"If Japan beat us in the war, no freehalfdaytour"
He wore a blue hat and held an umbrella high, instructing us not to get lost as we pressed through thongs of people worshipping at temples. We were awarded visits to the Longshan Temple, Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, The Martyr's Shrine where we saw a changing of the guards ceremony and Taipei 101, the worlds tallest building. Back at the airport we waited an additional five hours before boarding the flight to sydney.



Nine hours later after passing customs and quarantine and through an automatic tour, we walked the corridor to the arrival hall and Sydney International with our luggage piled on two trolleys. Gail and Jeanette were waiting for us, pressed up against the railing, Kat's mum waiving and mine wielding a camera. Dad was at the Arncliffe RSL saving on parking and brought the car round to the airport in a matter of minutes. I was back on the left side of the road.

Farewell Canada

We have spent our last few days in downtown Vancouver. In a slightly surreal ending to our trip we are staying at the Ramada, the first hotel the Re-Mains crashed five months ago. It's colder this time though. We've been wandering Gastown and 4th Av, Granville and Robson streets, sniffing out vegan restaurants at night. Yesterday we hired a pair of bikes and rode around Stanly Park, Vancouver's answer to NY Central Park. Typically Canadian, the park is larger and more rugged than its south-eastern relative. We leave tonight for the long haul back to Australia, including an eighteen hour layover in Taipei. Could be fun.

Green Oil

We spent a day in Cranbrook, saying goodbye to more of my family before heading off to Nelson. Situated on Kootenay lake Nelson has a bustling heritage style downtown with many hippies wandering around. I found out later that most of the BC bud in grown in the area, figures. From Nelson we travelled to Vernon, via the scenic route. We passed a few dormant cows on the side of the road crossed Arrow lake by ferry. Arriving in Vernon early evening unannounced we found Barb and Andre (family) more than happy to let us crash for a few days.

We returned Parker to the rental agency and paid the bill. He did us proud over the 11,500 k's we put on him. Apart from needed a new alternator, tyres and feeling the need to mark his territory with pretty major oil leak he was no trouble at all.

Retrace

The Buick must have been a marvel back in 1993 for its Christmas tree dashboard instrument lights and power everythings. Unfortunately the red light that warns me the park brake has been left on has been malfunctioning of late, occasionally misreporting that the brake was still engaged after taking off. Recently this little red light adorned with an exclamation mark has become hypochondriacal , remaining lit even after I release the park brake a good twenty times in a row. This in itself wouldn't present a major problem except for the fact that once you travel a few hundred meters the little red light is accompanied by a warning bell, which has been a-ring-a-ding-dinging in my ears. So our four hundred k journey to Cranbook was punctuated by periods of Parker's harmony joining in with the music.

Half an hour out of Calgary Kat had me searching for Hutterites (think Amish with tractors) in Caylie County. After driving a fair ways into the prairies on a dirt road I suggested we turn around as the Hutterites were unlikely to have a sign reading, Hutterite colony this way. We backtracked and joined the highway and low an behold, just down the road was a sign saying, Caylie Hutterite Conoly 10k (left pointing arrow). Kat made me drive down the private road to the residence so she could see the men in overalls, hooded women and washing on the line. Thank god Hutterites are Anabaptists who practice absolute pacifism, we left withought stopping and went on our way.

Under The Radar

We've been taking it easy in Calgary with my relatives, Sue and Brian for the past week. Cooking good vegan food and sleeping late has been fun. Sorry about the lack of posts but I'll try to catch up.

Last week, before leaving Idaho Falls Kat made us visit the visitor centre at the Temple of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kat has an unexpected and profound interest in Mormons after driving through their country and reading The 19th Wife, a novel. The visitors centre welcomed us and an elder in a suit with blizzard dandruff on his shoulders proceeded to testify. He sat us in front of a larger than life sized statue of Jesus with arms outstretched and a painted celestial backdrop behind him. The elder pushed a button on a nearby column and the presentation begun. The voice of Jesus came through the overhead speakers, quoting the gospel. After this he led us to a touch screen monitor surrounded by The Book of Mormon in every language it has been translated in. Here we leaned the story of how the Book of Mormon came into being. Frank Smith translated 'another testament to Jesus Christ' from plates of gold in 1830 after the angel Moroni directed him to where it was buried near his house. Following this presentation we were lead into a type of mini theater where we watched a few other short videos, recordings of lectures from some of the Apostles of the LDS Church. It was here that Kat started asking logical questions like "why are all the apostles and prophets in the Mormon church are all male?" I made the fastest exit politely possible but we were not allowed leave before we had been given a book of Mormon, guides to the LDS Church, bookmarks, a promise that I had received the most wonderful gift and a convenient picture of Jesus with children that I stuck above my head in the car.

Once we were finally out of the temple we hit the road to Grand Falls, Montana. An otherwise uneventful drive culminated in us sleeping in an overpriced Motel 6, reading until early morning and waking with only just enough time to check out. After a delay at the border we arrived to Calgary in the evening.

Sue and Brian gave us tickets to see an ice hockey game between rivals the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. We had an awesome time, the seats were great, Calgary won 4-3 in overtime and one of the many fights culminated in a puddle of blood on the ice. I don't think I've ever seen Kat so exited.