It may not have been a good time to find out that Greyhound bus stations (at least the one @ Pacific Railway) does not open 24hrs. Went there at 11pm with the intention of staying overnight for the 530am bus to Whistle next morning, but was abruptly informed (by the security guards) that I'm not to spread my butt and legs awkwardly all over the cubicled seats in the intention of sleeping, because the station was due to close in an hours time. Not a very pleasant thing to take note of at 12am.
After several bouts of panicking and pacing around the place thinking of some miraculous solutions, left my bag (and Serene's) in one of the station lockers, and went back home (with Serene) to sleep. Yup, I'm not the only one stuck with such bad planning of mine...
Had to wake up Eu and Zhiqing. But such thing was inevitable, since the inevitable had happened already.
Traversed back to the bus station @ 4.15am in the morning, and arrived there near 5am, not after having a most exciting walk down the sidewalk of East Hastings where all the nocturnal criminal activities had not the notion to subside yet.
What an eventful start to the Whistler ski trip. =)
Whistler was (and still is) beautiful. This was probably the first time I've seen the land covered in snow aplenty (not counting the glacier plains of the Rockies) and the structure of snow particles seems so distinctive and pronounced. Couldn't take much photos because of bad lighting in the morning, and also because I didn't bring my camera up the mountain (didn't want to bring a camera whilst skiing). This was (on hindsight) a bad deal, because the view from above Whistler Mountain were to die for. Stupid me.
How was skiing? Fun fun fun fun. Tons of fun. Notwithstanding the fact that skiing was unnatural to me and I spent most of my time in the lesson trying to get my steering right (I've had a terrible time trying to move right, though left was not a problem) and not skiing down the wrong slopes, it was tons of fun.
However, you might want to try snowboarding instead. It seems way cooler and way more fun, if you can handle it. The pricing for rentals are the same, but be prepared for worst falls. I leave my disclaimer here.
Ski lesson (everyone needs lessons!) was spent learning the 4 basic direction keys on the keyboard, and near the end of our lesson (Whistler starts closing @ 3pm. The sun sets early there) was when the most happening event happened. Estimating that we were a good deal capable of skiing down the slopes, we embarked on a treacherous (it's relatively easy to non-newbies) journey down quite some slopes (and not without frequent hiccups) before we were found wanting. The snow has not settled to a great depth yet, and the ice layer was simply too slippery for us imbeciles. We had to turn back, and it was not without much difficulty before we managed to grind our way up to our starting point.
Jiayun owes me 4 bananas and 2 strawberries for carrying her skis up more than half the way. I'm still suffering from muscle spasms now.
The journey home was another exciting event. Apparently an accident occured at Highway 99, blocking the way back home. There was, of course, much disagreement from the tourists wanting to make their way back to Vancouver. It seemed that Singaporean's favourite pasttime (complaining) was undertaken by many of them there and then. Some commotion ensued, and I vaguely remember a lady (but not ladylike) complaining to the much bothered bus driver that she 'has paid for her ticket', much to the amusement of the whole mob who were also impatient (but not complaining much) and also holding tickets in their hands. Mutters flew around silently as all of us shuddered in the 2 degrees weather, and it was only after some time that we gave up waiting and proceeded for dinner.
Finished a nice dinner at Citta's before heading back to the bus station, which by then was relatively cleared of angry people waiting for their rides home, as the highway was cleared sometime earlier during our dinner. Some did remain, and there was slight priority disagreement as to who should board the bus first. It was all settled without much physical activities, and we were soon on our way home.
T'was an eventful day spent at Whistle skiing indeed. Go again? I'm not sure. Did not purchase the Edge card, and am hardpressed for time. Still have my galloping trails and bus riding to contend with.
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