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Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Great Canadian Summer Part 2

The Great Canadian summer continueth...well being Canadian it is typically a pleasant admixture of sun and rain. Pleasant even when it is raining because I know the Sub Continent is either baking or flooding and with 95% humidity!

Well one of the great experiences as I mentioned in my last post was sea Kayaking with Howard Zatwarinski and Jeanne Zimmerman -kayak.bc.ca.

The other...has been a visit to Vancouver Island. Not an island you would get bored on if you were stranded on one..even with people you know!..Crossing the ferry (BC Ferries runs an excellent service of ships doing the shuttle) from Twassen, you reach Swarz Bay after a run of an hour and forty five minutes. The seat of Government, Victoria is where you then arrive. Victoria used to also have the Canadian Naval base and academy. The bases have shifted east since that is the more strategic I guess.

Victoria has streets named after SubContinental names...Sutlej (one of the five rivers of the land of five rivers -Punjab- punj- 5 and "ab- river" ) was one and the other, Trincomalee...where the English fought and overtook the native princes of Travancore (I think), in Southern India..or was it Tippu Sultan? Gotta check..and if you know it off the tip o yer fingers..let me know..eh? (Eh..is typical Canadian..)

Lush and verdant, slow and quaint, Vancouver Island has beautiful hamlets and inlets typical of the maritime culture...there are quite a few folk in the business of horses for kids to learn, therapy work and such.The mural artist Susanne Pink (who painted the leopard and fish mural on spashram rivermountain's liodge (see
http://www.spashram.info/ and http://www.rivermountain.in/ ) lives here . Her parents have built a beautiful heritage home replete with carvings of the Haida nation (one of the key ethnic groups indigenous to the region). Her sister Lis teaches riding and also therapy via miniature horses which seem to have some Falabella and some Shetland pony.....Liz was also a gold medallist who had represented Canadian overseas...

Mill Bay, Cowichan and other places are idyllic and the recreational boat and yacht community here is strong.

Like everywhere else, the Pink family laments the change brought on by big development.
Even so, the wilderness around homesteads is significant and wild rabbit, deer, bird life and the occasion bear will be seen..

I also met a healer..Karen Whitehouse. An accomplished reiki and sacro cranial healer she had helped many and I decided to undergo her treatment..She obviously wove a great spell for I was soon in the deepest of slumbers and felt the twists and pains sorted when I got back to my feet!

When I came back to the mainland..the computer techie said " they are sorta different out there are they not"... ? He had the impression of a laid back lot..
Thi was not far wrong but to me they were good people..who loved the outdoors and were all very hard working..But there was much more of the Island I was to discover...but that will keep for another Canadian summer..

Saturday, July 9, 2011

All at SEA! a Great Canadian Summer Experience

Howard Zatwarinski...Ive known Howard and Jeannie (Zimmerman) for 16 years and so am able to spell their last names ! run  Natural West Coast Adventures  (nwca.in) and have been running sea kayaking training and trips in the Pacific waters off Vancouver's sea side suburban resort of White Rock (near Crescent Beach).
One of the great experiences available to just about anyone ...venturing out into the big blue waters is a special experience..the American Bald eagle, the Cormorant both enjoy (I think!) fishing here..or I wonder if it it gets mundane for them? but provide humankind a grand spectacle.. crabs and jelly fish can be seen through the clear waters at low tide..

On a sunny day everyone is on the water or just off it..flat boards, tune inners, dinghies, yachts, motor boats, and other saild boats are all out there. Kids will even float on a log and one bloke wa trying to row his boat with a birch brach (!)

I had come back to White Rock after a decade away from Canada having brought my 8 year old (who a local Senior and musican named "Sunshine" for her smile..and she loved it and took to the kayak like a fish to water ..and did not tire during the two hour journey..I am aching still...!

Howard is now starting kayak fishing tours  and quoted a foreign visitor as saying " do people know just how lucky they are to have access to such quality waters?"..Fortunately not!

NWCA gives you orientation , safety gear and kayaks with great stability and even a land lubber like me managed to stay afloat and keep balance for two! The Kayaks have a rudder worked by a left foot and right foot paddle and one can take one the mighty ocean (when calm!) pretty well for the most part.

See some pics on FB groups TigerPaw Adventures...and contact www.kayak.bc.ca which is Howard's NWCA website

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Alaksa's Inside Passage

Soon after returning from Goa, I took the family off the Canada from where we boarded the cruise ship Celebrity. Close to a 1000 staff for the 2000 guests, round the clock dining and enternainment (almost)..with something for all ages.. However, I did not like being trapped on ship faced with a choice of eating plenty, or spending cash for shopping!

But I was in paradise when we went whale watching in a large motor boat. The breaches (groups) or pods or whale and their antics were incredible to watch..Nature at her best..the water spouts and the sounds they made..
were a sight to behold..my 8 year old was impressed finally. The sea otters then came before the ship and they cavorted non stop in the water..their antics too were childlike and cute to watch..the whales just majestic.

In Junneau  we boarded helicopters and flew low over the vast waters and glacier summits...like the boat, the chopper too was driven by a woman..all excellent at their jobs..photos on facebook...soon..Im still swaying after 7 days at sea even though Ive stepped off my boat!
..

Amritsar,Kashmir, Goa

After Mcleodganj we drove down to Amritsar, city of the Golden Temple. For all the crush and chaos of Amritsar and other towns in the Punjab, the Harmandir (God's house) was an island of beauty...many of our group were overwhelmed by the experience inspite of standing in the heat and que.
The free kitchen besides th Golden Temple was another special experience.In Amritsar we stayed at Mrs Bhandari's Guest House.  Set in the quiet of the cantonement, visitors did not want to leave the quiet surrounds and lawns. Mrs Bhandari is actually a Parsee, that rare Indian community and served the most delicious and wholesome food of the entire trip. A spinster who spend some of her time in Germany each year, she speaks fluent German putting our guests at ease. The 1940's architechture and fittings are still maintained. I loved it.

From Amritsar we drove up to the hills of Jammu. I was returning after 25 years! I had done this journey 27 years ago as well, by Vespa scooter! all of 900 kms.. In Jammu I was able to peel off to meet a friend of old from Kashmir days..Lali Broca..he and his family had to flee the Vale of Kashmir after the militants ousted minorities the Hindus and Sikhs. It is an injustice that the Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus), the older community of Kashmir (before it was converted to Islam) were still refugees and could not come back to Kashmir valley.
But then every other community in India has faced the same sort of injustice! Christian refugees in Orissa, Muslims targetted in Gujrat and Sikhs lynched in northern India. For every example of how communal harmony should be displayed, India has a corollary on how to negate it.Whoever thought 1947 was the last such..was sorely and surely mistaken.

Kashmir: flying from fortress Jammu to Fortress Srinagar was another experience. It was nevertheless great to come back to the Vale of Kashmir..Kashmir is good in small doses ..But barely a foreign tourist in sight apart from our Germans. Indian and local tourists abounded.  What was noticeable was the courtesy of Indian defence personell. Somethings hadnt changed however and the local CID staff a Kashmiri wanted his ounce of blood money for processing our exit forms from the airport!

I connected with Omar Nedou..again an old friend..he now runs the Nedou hotel in Gulmarg..a vintage piece of old..his Srinagar property is now a garrison for the Police. Omar was playing golf until past sundown everyday...

And then GOA. in a single day we flew from north to the south in a 17 hour journey. Goa was lush, wet, monsoonal..but not before allowing us to walk the length of the long quiet beach, and enjoy wading into the waves....and washed by a cool sea breeze as well...

the quiet villages, magnificent churches and old houses. and the laid back folk, had now.made Goa my national favourite..you will see TigerPaws operating here dynamically now..!