Well here we go, the first leg of the trip to Bali, first stop Dubai (along with water wings for the arrival), then onto Singapore for a few days.
This morning we had a chauffeur collect us and whisk us all the way over the the airport.
Hello Britain we want you to move from dirty nasty orrible fossil fuels to clean sustainable electric. So where does the electric come from eh?
Buy an electric car, get screwed by the fact if you want to charge it at home you need to pay over £1k to get an over priced plug installed.
Charge it remotely and hello £0.85 per KWh to charge a car that does 220 miles (so 66.6Kw x £0.85 = £56).
Insurance, oh right sorry we don’t insure electric cars so bugga off and pay more.
Basically, maybe in 30 years the UK may be ready, just not today
Mrs Fogg dragged me to Manchester to the Discover the world Holiday Show and oh dear, how dull about 12 stands with companies offering “holidays”, one even offered a cut price hotel in Madeira where you had to sit through at least 90 minute “time share” when you arrived. One stand was so bored she was knitting for goodness sake!
Anyway 32 minutes later we left (after finding our 2025 holiday on a luxury South African train journey).
Food then, Teppanyaki oh yes!
With the flu!! After almost a month in December of colds, laryngitis, hacking cough and tiredness I was relieved to be feeling fab by 23rd Dec. Sadly it was not to last!
By Boxing Day evening both Dad and I had come down with the dreaded flu! Mr Fogg and I had to cancel New Years Eve out (no 6 course taster menu, boo) and we had a quiet night in complete with a heady dose of paracetamol, lemsip and more paracetamol, washed down with ibuprofen and endless tea. Although I was determined to have champagne, which we did, and we managed to watch the fireworks.
After a shockingly bad night. Think zombie roaming the house with a hacking cough, I really really needed to go get some fresh air. I managed a slow short walk down the lane and a picture of a tree. Whoop. back to sofa again though and more paracetamol and more hot tea.
It’s been a pants start to 2024 but things can only improve!
What a trip! It’s been lovely to do another road trip although it’s been a short one with only 663 miles covered since many of the accommodations only offer a minimum 2 night stay and distances between stuff is pretty huge if you want to do a big circuit.
Visiting Vancouver Island was the highlight for me, esp Port Renfrew and Tofino. I love the views of the Pacific Ocean and the Whale watching tour. Squamish had something about it that we really liked but Whistler was disappointing and could just as well have been located at Downtown Disney. High price tourist shops in a twee (and big) pedestrianised area.
We cycled an impressive 18 miles around Stanley Park -THE best fun and better than doing the usual big city shops, and finally we did two big cable cars, one up the Sky Goldola and one up Grouse Mountain. Miles of walking, a stack of yummy waffles for breakfast most mornings and oodles of seafood.
They are not kidding when they say nature on a grand scale, but sadly (or could be positive) the only bears we saw were in an enclosure.
Time to give our waistlines time to rest now and back to that there Blighty and back to work. Boo.
Need to plan the next trip now
Did we mention how EXPENSIVE Canada is!!! Food is very expensive and access to attractions steep, but all in all fab fab fab
That’s it road trip over and one of the least amount we have travelled (in the car) of 663 miles (not counting the two ferries.
This morning up and out from the “NOT Shangri-La”. Since this “hotel“ is closer to the airport, even though we ended up actually driving back past the actual Shangri-La (how does that work Mrs?). Just putting it out there that the Shangri-La was closer, cheaper, nicer, with better food, you can swim in the pool with Mr Doobie and you don’t get woken at 01.30am when the next door occupant spends 40 minutes shouting at the top of her voice to her partner stood next to her in the hall way!.
So what have we seen, a fraction of Canada, but so much more to plan and see, and next time it’s an RV trip around (especially since Mrs Fogg now has a Bear Bell to carry).
Next stop Gatwick (dirty ans chaotic in comparison to Cancouver airport).
Well our last full day in that there Canada before starting the journey home. A fantastic 2 nights in the Vancouver Shangr-La with our monster cycle round Stanley Park, before the monumental 10 minute drive to Capilano and a suspension bridge.
Tonight we are slumming it in a Best Western literally 5 miles from the Shangri-La, to keep costs down, except the hotel costs the same! Has no breakfast included and is not anpatch on the Shangri-La (you can tell by the clientele who go to the parking lot swimming pool (yes a pool in the parking lot) swim whilst puffing a doobie and then starts to BBQ in parking lot.
We were kept in suspension HERE
Onward then to Grouse Mountain with a cable car and a ski lift, through grizzly bears and into the blue yonder
Rather than do the usual visit in a big city of streets and shops we opted to hire cycles and tour around Stanley Park for the day. It was awesome!
The hotel gave us a voucher and we were a 14 min walk from the cycle hire place where we picked up bikes with baskets. We followed the cycle paths around the Sea wall and it was great fun.
We cycled 17.87 miles in total starting at 11:15 and dropping the bikes of at 16:15 – so 5 hours exactly. Stanley park is huge and we got lost a couple of times but the cycle paths are just fantastic and really easy to ride on. What a great and different day.
We’ve stayed in the Island Shangri-La Hong Kong Island, Shangri-La Singapore and now at the Shangri-La Vancouver and we have to say this one is just awesome. With a massive hallway, entertainment room, bedroom, bathroom (with the biggest shower ever) and balcony, this hotel is something else to round off our Canada trip.
Food this evening was at the Keg just opposite the hotel, with a fantastic surf n turf, before a late night trip to the 24 hour gym (to work off those calories).
Shangri-La is HERE
Greetings from Whistler, apparently they did the olympics here once
Whistler is HERE
On the way up here we got burned by a crappy little car as well
Breakfast of champions and healthy to boot
Next stop Whistler to Vancouver and the Hotel Shangri-La via a Harley store of course
