This was a trip not to see the sights so much but to visit with friends and family. In some cases, I hadn’t seen in years.  It was filled with wonderful visits and guess what, I saw some incredible sights (sites), too. Personally, I recommend that you enlarge the pictures to really see the beauty of our country.

First, lucky me, I drove right on the ferry without booking a reservation, even though I left home later than I was planning on.  (One thing I resent is having to pay for a reservation. The ferries are part of the highway system).

First stop was Chilliwack (25th), then up the Fraser Canyon to Kamloops (26th and 27th)

Then to Prince George (28th,  29th and 30th).  Along the way between Kamloops and Pr. George, I had a visit from an RCMP officer…..Oops!

From there it was driving on Hwy 16 to Jasper, then hwy 93 and the Columbia Icefields, turning at the Saskatchewan River Crossing onto Hwy 40 to Lacombe, Alberta. 

Next, I spent a few days (July 1-4) visiting a friend in Lacombe and doing a little exploring.

Next it was driving through lots and lots more florescent yellow fields of canola on the flat prairie highways of Alberta and Saskatchewan.  I stopped at the airport in Saskatoon to pick up a friend coming from Victoria.  Together we travelled to see our friends that live in Prince Albert, Candle Lake and Waskesui Lake. We had first met them in Guayabitos, Mexico.  For a time it looked like we wouldn’t be travelling to those northern reaches because of forest fires but they managed to get them under control .  So much of our country has had wildfires, each year it seems, getting worse and worse.  We did experience some smoke but it was not too bad.  One thing I was expecting was that temperatures would be stinking hot.  Because of the smoke in the air, even though low, helped to keep the temperatures down.  We spent July 5-10 in Saskatchewan then I travelled back to Alberta  on the 11th, this time to visit friends in Red Deer.

I spent July 11-13 in Red Deer with friends, then to Carstairs (July 14) to visit another but with a detour down to the badlands of Drumheller and the amazing Tyrrell Museum of Dinosaurs. I had never been before so needed to go.

Next day (July 15th) I drove on through the Rockies again (Hwy 1), this time through Banff, Yoho National Park and Rogers Pass to Kamloops. 

July 16th I left Kamloops on Hwy 5 (the Coquihalla), dropping off to see a friend to pick up the jacket I left behind in Chilliwack.  Then it was onto the ferry (again no reservation and driving right on….yeah, and home.  

March 10- to finish out the day, the grounds area around the Gardens by the Bay and the Cloud Forest. After seeing the Marina Bay Sands…. it was beautiful but impossible to go to the top, we caught a taxi back to the hotel The pictures following leaving there, were very amazing buildings too. BTW…. Taxis in Singapore are very, very reasonable.

The following day…. March 11, we took the hop on hop off bus

Then March 12….. on the way to airport… that was an expensive taxi ride!!!

Singapore is very nice, clean, architecturally interesting. beautiful sites, seemed safe… I felt comfortable here.

Another beautiful place we saw on the first day in Singapore…the Cloud Forest. It has one of the tallest inside waterfalls in the world. Again, this is inside a glass dome building with no support beams. The flowers/plants in this dome, are predominantly orchids but with some other tropical plants.

Still playing catchup….

Coming into Singapore

These are all from the “Garden by the Bay”. Amazing…..It is totally without support beams!

At 10:45 we leave port in taxi van with Hari..

Population of Jakarta is 20-22 million  during day but only 12 million at night. Traffic is a nightmare.

He tells us they “have had as much as 1.5 to 4 metres rain in one day…. 26 hours that caused major flooding… a dam collapsed. Seems like every 5 years it happens. Government doesn’t seem to work on a solution.”

Trash goes to an area of 200 hectares and 5 metres deep out in country. No recycling is apparent by government. Some do recycle plastic and motorcycle oil but it is done by the private sector. There are drainage ditches that go to lake that is later pumped out into ocean.  Nice!!!

But….we drove through tree lined roads …. Golf course with nice housing. 12 billion rupiah for houses in new Chinatown (1 million CAD)…. So expensive 

What a waste of time visiting this city…. Nothing of interest and we are here for 2 days…

These are some pictures taken of the brunch the chefs put on for us.

And some more ships on the high seas.

These 9 are from the day before…..leaving the port and on route to and at the rice fields where we went ATVing.

Our guide today is Hartana. On the way …..the sights …..

Bali is 506 Sq Kms with a population of 4.2 million. It is 11 degrees south of equator. The rainy season Nov-March. Many people died in mud slides. It averages 125 inches of rain per year. 

The Hindu religion that is celebrated in Bali is different than in India. There are about 700 local languages in Indonesia but only one national language. 29 of March is day of silence when everything stops for 24 hours. It is a time for meditation, reflection, etc. The following day is celebrated as New Year’s Day.

Tourism is number one, outdoing agriculture as main income.  Arabica coffee beans as well as rustica coffee is grown and cocoa for chocolate. Did you know there are 4 types of rice…..ordinary white rice, sticky white, black and red. They do grow grapes for locally made wines 

The area was colonized by Dutch for 350 years…..and then by Japanese until the bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At that point the country became became a republic. Elections are held every 5 years. 

We are going to Lovina Beach Hotel for a day of sun and relaxation. Below are pictures of the “beach hotel”. The drounds were lovely but the beach……that left a whole lot to be desired.

Leaving the port……the waters were so full of garbage….