A long way from home

A little about where we are and where we are going. We arrived at Vancouver International Airport on the west coast of Canada. It is one of the largest cities in Canada with very diverse mixtures of different people. There are a very large population of Chinese and Vietnamese. Many feel the city in one of the most beautiful in the country, and they might well be right. On one side is the ocean, with mountains to the north to the east are orchards, and farms. We will not spend any time there. My parents are meeting us with a vehicle and we will head straight out of the city towards Edmonton which is our final destination. It is going to be an exhausting trip. We will be coming of a 30 hour flight and straight into a 1100 km drive. The drive will take us through the foot hills of British Columbia and through the world famous Rocky Mountains.  we will pass through Jasper national park and enter Alberta to cross the plains into Edmonton, the city I was born and raised. So there you have it. That is what I plan and unlike Vietnam, that is probably what is precisely to happen. Where is the adventure in that? We still have 4 out of the 10 hour layover left. We have gone the night with almost no sleep and on the next flight I will be taking the magical Zopiclone sleeping pill which will give me a good sleep and adjust my body clock for the 12 hour time difference. No jet lag for this boy… 

Hello!!! I am awake after a bit of sleep due to the little blue pill. I am very saddened to say that the sleep of this drug can be interrupted by hours of non stop screaming babies, however, I slept enough to try the attempt of the long drive home. My Mother and Father met us at the airpord and delivered us their vehicle. I saw them for perhaps all of ten munutes before we were headed for Edmonton, and my parents were taking a train to visit with Grandma. I cannot express to you how loving and supporting my parents are. They are never out of my thoughts and I wear on my right hand, a ring they bought for me at 14 years old. I never remove it and it is a constant reminder of my love and devotion to them. It is my most important possession. Anyway……So far the drive has been nice. So far you ask?… Yes… even though I took the magical pill, I was not able to get the solid sleep I normally do. Had I used earplugs which are my habit now, everything would have been fine.  As it urns out, I am now writing from a motel in a very small town close to the Rocky Mountains. The drive was nice. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but no rain. The leaves have sprouted on the trees, and the BC landscape was nice. Tomorrow morning I will drive through Jasper and then to Edmonton.  The following was cut from another site. 

The Rockies are a region of Canada that more or less form the border between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The roads and railroad routes here are amongst the most beautiful in the world. Much of the Rocky mountains of Canada lie within various national and provincial parks. The Canadian Rockies continue southward into the U.S. states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

The Alberta half of the Canadian Rockies includes two national parks:

                   Banff National Park, including the towns of Banff and Lake Louise

                   Jasper National Park, including the town of Jasper

It also includes Kananaskis Country, to the south-east of Banff National Park, including the town of Canmore.

The British Columbian half of the Canadian Rockies also includes the eastern subregions of the Kootenays region:

                   Columbia-Rockies

                   East Kootenays, including Yoho National Park and Kootenay National Park 

Some of my Vietnamese readers might be curious at the price differences between here and there. Here is a very good example. The hotel I stay in tonight is in a town that is not for tourist. In Vietnam this room would cost me 120000 dong or around 6 dollars..  Ok my Vietnamese readers.. here is the first time I talk about price difference and maybe I will need to do so in the future, This room is costing my 80 dollars or 1,600,000 dong and the bottle of beer I am drinking now  (same saigon trang) costs 3 dollars, or 60,000 dong