These women were slowly walking down the street in the middle of the afternoon with their babies on their backs. Somewhere in Malawi we had stopped and were trying to find diesel fuel for the truck we were riding in.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006. I also have an article about Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls.
There were a group of young boys playing around outside the petrol station where we were refuelling in Malawi. One was holding a live chicken and this one thought he'd pose for a photo.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006.
I was lucky enough to represent my company at a career fair in Vancouver, British Columbia the first week of October. The venue was the University of British Columbia. It was my first time to really spend time in this city as I normally just pass through on my way to Vancouver Island. I was able to see a few things while I was there.
I stayed in the West Coast Suites at UBC (University of British Columbia). It is right across from the Student's Union Building (SUB) and is not really advertised on the outside. I am assuming it is more for conferences and guests of the university to use since it is on campus and not really advertised on the outside.
The place was absolutely fantastic. The rooms have been redone recently and have linoleum that looks like hardwood floors, leather furniture, LCD televisions, kitchenettes, king size beds with sliding French doors between the bedroom and the living area, and it is located not far from SUB and other eating areas on campus. They even included an ironing board, iron, and an umbrella for the rain you will most likely see in the winter season.
I had an excellent sleep all 3 nights I was there and the people at the front desk were very informative.
I used taxis and the bus system. The taxis are fantastic in Vancouver. Being the environmental city that it is, I ended up riding in the hybrid Toyota Prius. When someone flags a taxi and the taxi is already full, they immediately radio in and another cab is on its way. Very slick.
The bus system worked well too. I used it to get from UBC (bus stop right outside of SUB) to go down Broadway (a main street in Vancouver) and I later took it to the Tsawassen Ferry Terminal (it is a $4.50 fare).
Visit the BC Transit's website.
I am not expert. This is just a recap of where I ate while I was there. I ate in a couple restaurants along Robson Street and one on Broadway. Robson is definitely a good choice if you don't know what you want and would like to walk around and people watch a bit.
TropikaThis was a nice place. Thai food and reasonable prices. A good place where a group can go and everyone can pick a dish and share. A dish will be anywhere from $8 to $15 if I remember right. It is located on the second level.
I forgot the name already. It is directly across from the Tropika on the other side of the street and you have to go upstairs to get in. A nice sit down restaurant with traditional western cuisine on the menu. Various fish, steak, and a few pasta entrees. This restaurants will be around $20 a plate an up.
B.C. SushiThis is located on the south side of Broadway between Yew and Vine in Vancouver. They have all you can eat sushi for $12.99 after 9:30PM. A great late night sushi place if you want to get filled up on decent sushi. Includes dessert choices as well.
Lugz CoffeeThis is located just south of Broadway and Main. Cool little coffee shop with eats, internet, and nice soft leather furniture. You can sit outside as well.
Since I was working, I only ended up seeing a few things while I was there. There is a variety of outdoor activities and indoor depending on what you want. I really would have liked to have seen the Canucks play at GM Place, but I left town on the day of the first home game.
Vancouver Aquarium
Located in Stanley Park, it is one of Vancouver's bigger attractions. There are 3 main exhibits. Tropical fish, fish of the B.C. coast, and then the outdoor exhibits. The outdoor exhibits contain dolphins, otters, sea lions, seals, beluga whales, and a few other neat creatures.
They have an impressive exhibit of jellyfish and my favorite exhibit there was the archer fish. They feed them periodically by dumping live crickets on branches above the water in their aquarium. The archer fish then spit water at the branches, knocking the crickets off and into the water so they can eat them.
The cost was $20 per adult with the usual discounts for other groups (students, seniors, children), but the price was worth it. You only need a couple hours to see this place. Parking is a dollar per half hour and $4 max for the day. We ran into a bum who collects parking stubs of people leaving and sells them for less to the newcomers.
Here are a few more pictures from the Vancouver Aquarium.
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Vancouver Aquarium is also located here, so you can kill two birds with one stone. This is basically a big park with lots of walking trails, flower gardens, and an insane amount of trees. It is surround by water on 3 of the 4 sides. We were able to watch a giant cruise ship as it left the bay and headed out to sea (Alaskan Cruises for the most part).
Check out the Vancouver Aquarium's Official Page or Stanley Park's Offical Page.
Like I said above, a good place to eat. It is also a place to shop. Just go down there during the day or night, park, and walk around. We found some underground parking for $6 all night along Burrard Street just a couple blocks west of Robson Street. The parkade was under the ScotiaBank Movie Theatre.
UBC SportsThere are the university sports clubs. Thunderbirds are the team names and you can go watch hockey, basketball, football, volleyball, and whatever else you can think of.
Vancouver CanucksI did not do this, but would like to. The local hockey team. They place at GM Place. Check Ticketmaster for tickets.
B.C. LionsThe football club. Part of the Canadian Football League. They place at B.C. Place. Should be no problem to get a ticket whenever you want as I don't think they regularly sell out, but the team is currently quite good.
This was the lovely men's washroom in a campground in Zambia. The campgrounds there have guards armed with rifles and limited resources. This night shot showed the eeriness of this particular restroom. Occasionally you would see a cockroach or some other large bug scurrying across the floor in the dim light.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006.
This Cheetah had just killed something in the late afternoon. He was slowly ripping pieces off of it as the safari trucks parked nearby to watch. The dry, arid Serengeti stretches for miles and miles in every direction from here.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006.
During a dinner cruise along the Zambezi river just outside of Livingstone, Zambia, this elephant could be seen on an island in the river. Sundown was fast approaching and it cast nice hard shadows on him as he looked back out at our boat.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006.
I have recently stumbled on a new site that I really like for finding cheap flights. The site is called FareCompare.
I had read an article on them (that I now cannot find the link for) that discussed the owners and the amount of data they have collected to find flight pricing concerning thousands of flights everyday. I have used Expedia, Travelocity, and a number of other sites in the past, but I am definitely going to turn to this one as well.
The interface on the site is fantastic. You can put in your search criteria for the flights you are looking for and it pulls up the cheapest flights it can find. It does not only pull cheap flight prices up for departure and arrival dates, but it shows the cheapest prices for a range of months and you can go into each month and see the cheapest prices for each day of the month.
You can enter your email address and receive email alerts for seat sales based on a couple different criteria. You can receive alerts for flights from a city to a city or for a city to a region (like Europe).
There is great reading material that you can use as well. They have a few pages to check out. Here are a few of them.
Definitely check out this site and let me know if you have found any other tricks on using it. I will let you know if I book a ticket from here in the future.
This family was walking along the road in a small city in Malawi. We were standing by a petrol station on the other side of the road watching people come and go.
This was part of my trip to East Africa in 2006.
I recently purchased Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror. This is an excellent game for the PSP. It reminds me of Metal Gear Solid back in the day. The stealthy agent working his way into various situations and trying to take out the enemy.
The game has been out for a little while and still remains one of the top ranked games for the PSP. I have never played this series before and will definitely check out any sequels that come along for it. There is a new one called Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow that has just come out for the Playstation Portable this fall as well.
There is a whole range of weapons. You can carry up to 4 at a time. The graphics and sound are pretty good and the story line so far has been awesome.
I have not finished the game yet, but apparently the campaign is pretty short. Fortunately there is an online multiplayer server that you can try out. I logged on for the first time and it was relatively simple. I joined 1 of about 12 deathmatch games going on and gave it a try. Got my butt handed to me, but it was a good experience.
Do not bother running out and buying this game brand new. It has been around for awhile and I found this game used for under US$15 including shipping on eBay. Check it out, I'm sure you can find it for around the same price. Brand new is around US$30 and up.
Here is a video review I found on YouTube, but I include links below to a number of reviews and some other videos.
There are a number of good links for this game. Check them out.
There is a good review here and a number of videos you can watch.
Another good review with other coverage of this game.
This is from a wedding I attended in February of 2007. I was shooting some of the tables where the banquet was at in the afternoon. This was completely natural light that was coming in through the windows.
The wedding was in Nordegg, Alberta. I wrote a brief article about Nordegg and what is in the area. This photo was taken in the banquet room of the GoldEye Centre.
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