I Love Louise

Lake Louise, wow.. what a place. Its a bit of a trek from Calgary, about 2 hrs drive, but boy is it worth it. The night before it snowed a few cms and that made the trip worthwhile, once we got up the mountain I was to be there.

This fella working in a snowboard shop in Norwich said it was his favorite, the guy was a bit of an idiot, but he was right this has been the best place I have ever been. (Gareth - better than Chamonix - we'll have to make this our next boarding destination!!)

Loads of fresh snow = loads of pow pow (powder for the uninitiated) and so much terrain. Lake Louise has more runs than any of the other resorts in Alberta and is going to be expanding too. Plus there was loads of car parking as well, its a bit steep at $70 for a day pass but well worth it provided you get up there early!

Anyway here is a photo (LINK peeps - the glass is still proving to be indestructable!)

Good day Sunshine

Well we hit Sunshine which is a few kms from Banff and an amazing resort. After a bit of a nightmare with parking we got ourselves up the mountain to some amazing views and snow!

The first thing you realise about Sunshine is that pretty much everyone is australian... or english...

The runs were pretty amazing, especially a nice leisurely green off the mountain express lift (turn right at the top). On this run there are some nice kickers and allsorts of banks to ollie out of, further down you can go a little off the run and hit a load of hips.

Finally make sure you do the run back to the village, a little icy in places but a lot of fun! Just one other tip get there early so you dont have to walk 2 miles back to your truck... like we did!

Enough talking ...

Xmas in Canada

Well.. so Xmas away from home is a little strange, but Jaimes folks have made it much better than I thought it would be... that and Lauren adopted a polar bear for my xmas present.

So for Xmas eve, Jaime, Shaun (Jaimes bro) and I travelled to Calgary to meet Jaime's mums side and see a bit of Calgary. To be honest I didn't see much of Calgary apart from the airport and a poker table. I played about 6 hrs of poker on Xmas eve and it was great fun. Met Jaimes grandparents, again called Baba and Gitou, her aunt, Georgina and cousins Britney and Kim, as well as a demon poker player Brad and Kim's boyfriend Jason (who gave me a load of information on Japan - thanks!).

After the fourth game, being beaten by either Brad or Jaime's Grandma (who suspiously kept pulling aces from nowhere) I finally broke even with 2 all ins. (I apologise to those who don't know what an All In is. ) I think all should know how to play poker and poker table and chips will be one of my first purchases when I get back to the UK!

Anyway the night was great fun and the 3hr journey to Calgary was well worth it!

Xmas day started off a little early as we drove back to Edmonton at 7am to arrive back at Jaimes with enough time to get showered before the troops arrived.

Included are some photos of Patricia and Jerry's family. They were a good laugh though they did take the pi$$ out of my accent quite a bit but then hey I understand the english accent is much classier than the canadian! (vicky pollard being a prime example!).

Quickly before I forget I must mention Ukrainian food:-

• Pyrohy or varenyky or perogies are dough pockets filled with potato, or potato and cheddar cheese,or kapusta (sauerkraut), or cottage cheese, or blueberries, orcherries, or ... They are boiled and vaguely resemble Italianravioli, or Polish pierogi, or Jewish kreplach, or Chinese wonton.They are often served with onions and sour cream. Mmmmm.The term "varenyky" is currently the standard throughout Ukraine.However, descendents of pre World War I settlers to Canada from WestUkraine, use the term "pyrohy." The Canadianized version isusually labeled "perogies."

• Holubtsi are Ukrainian cabbage rolls. The filling is mainly ricewith a tiny amount of hamburger (unlike other East European cabbagerolls which are mainly hamburger). Cabbage leaves are steamed tomake them soft and then the filling is added. The holubtsi areplaced in a large pot, covered with tomato soup (or sauce) and baked.

They are all very nice!

Anyway time to go -- merry xmas!

Merry Xmas 2005 and Happy New Year 2006!!

Well ahem.. yes its a little late .. but Merry Xmas to all and Happy New Year 2006...

This post is a little late for most and I apologise, I was having too much fun and the thought of using dial-up to update my blog just seemed, well it seemed like a bad idea... Sorry!

Anyway I have however made it before NYE, so I hope you all have a crackin' year and if you get bored of the job or whatever your doing, your welcome to join me on part of my tour (just let us know!).

I am off to a house party at Jamie and Sabrinas, the couple who got married on my last post. Let us know what your up to!

Damn Edmonton is Cold

Well its been a while since my last post, I'll explain why later. Anyway for those that know me I have a 'small' grivance with 4x4 drivers. Now, if your reading and you own a 4x4 because you need to then - I don't have a problem with that. Its just all the city slickers/wives who drive around like they own the place and bully others on the road, plus the fuel economy etc etc... anyway you see I have gone off topic...

What I was trying to say was that Jaime picked me up in a 4x4 which I found really funny... though in Edmongton or should I say 100km North of Edmonton you need a 4x4. Anyway I laughed at took a photo, btw it canes 80 litres of fuel in 300km which works out at about 9mpg. Nuff said.



The first thing that you notice about Edmonton is how blinkin' "freezing" it is, yeah, yeah the UK is cool but Edmonton is freezing, -20C... I had been told by Christie (in Vancouver) that it was cold and oh how she laughed as I just didn't get it. Walking 50m from the warm airport to the truck, I got it!!

Anyway we drove out to Jaime's folks (Jerry and Patricia) and met Jaimes Grandparents, Baba and Gitou (Ukraine for Grandma and Grandpa). I was then introduced to Ukraine cuisine with salted pickles and various cooked meats it was pretty good.

We then left to pick up Jaime's friend Candice and off to a wedding reception decoration party. I'd been invited as Jaimes friend to Jamie and Sabrina's wedding reception however Jaime and Candice are such good friends that they said they would help out with the decorating.... superb!

When I get married (sure it'll happen one day!) I am definately going to do it the way that Jamie and Sabrina have done it, get everyone over to Jamaica for a week have the wedding and then come back and have a wedding reception for those who couldn't make it. The most important part being that you get everyone to help setup and clean up... genius!

Needless to say everyone there was sound, Jamie and Sabrina - superb couple and made me feel very welcome, hey I even got a mention in their wedding speech (the bit where they thank everyone for coming and especially to Jaime and Simon who have come from the UK!).

Anyway the wedding was great, there are a few pictures posted ... there was one of me but I looked so far gone that I'm gonna leave it out.

So the day after the wedding and I have been in Canada for a week and I think the Canadian diet really started to take its toll on me, sick as a dog for 2 days.... (Gareth you'd be disapointed in my diet regime.)

Anyway feeling better I was introduced into the world of Ice Hockey, the Canadians are as mad about Hockey as the Chinese are about Tai Chi and the British about football. Everyone (pretty much) watches the game and I have to say its pretty exciting. We watched Edmonton Oilers vs Calgary Flames (local derby like Man U vs Leeds) and there were 14 goals!! The game went back and forth, back and forth. Make sure you watch a game during the Winter Olympics as its great, plenty of skill, loads of goals, fast and a bit of fighting for good measure!

Next was the West Edmonton Mall, now I heard before about this place as apparently its the largest Mall in the world, this I thought was because I thought (I stress, thought) the Canadians were like the Americans and everything in America is the world's biggest. But yep its pretty massive they are still building it but according to Jaime its 30 blocks in length, which is hugh. We went there and they have everything. Of course lots of fast food, shops (Syed - theres a huge Zara!) but also a water and an amusement park, 3 or was it 4 cinemas including a couple of IMAX screens too.. theres even a dragon which puffs fire in the reception of one of the cinemas (how they got that okayed by the fire safety lot - no idea.) Anyway I was pretty impressed... and bought a camera case and a postcard (lol - it'll be waiting for you when you get back ;))

Anyway Edmonton is a good laugh, I don't know how it would be if Jaime and her friends weren't there to show me around and you must have a car... but all in all nice place with nice people.

..... anyway bring on xmas ....

Vancouver is here...

Well so its all begun and as I sit foggy Kitsilano, VC in Pete/Christie's lounge I feel quite at home! Must be the weather!
Using a TomTom Sat Nav device we got to Heathrow via the most conviluted route (so much for the fastest route option!). Anyway got the plane from Heathrow in VC after watching a couple of movies (Goal is a must see for all Newcastle fans (Dave you'll love it!), it even stars David Beckham who has an amazing acting debut!). Anyway landed in VC and after a bit of a wait for my snowboard bag started to walk out of the airport and heard "Si!" and Pete (friend Mark's Bro) was stood there and invited me to stay with him and his girlfriend..
Next thing I know we are cruising down the highway to Kitsilano.. and am made to feel very welcome by Pete and his missus, Christie. Get dragged down to the pub to watch the VC Canucks beat Ottawa somethings - pretty good vibe in the pub and everyone seems pretty friendly. Why is that when your British you end up putting on your best Hugh Grant isque accent when speaking to any foreigners??

Really impressed with VC - very pretty, the first day I stayed there was glorious sunshine, and yesterday .. well .. it was foggy all day. Went to the Museum of Anthropology which is on the grounds of the University of British Columbia (must be the niciest uni grounds ever!) looked at a few totem poles and some amazing sculptures (see the pic.).

Right then time to post this ... and go out for a beer or two... hope those at work aren't have too much of a harsh time ;)

Welcome

Welcome to Doyboy Travels, firstly let me introduce myself, I am Simon Doy a 20 something (fast nearing thirtysomething) who's doing a bit of a world tour.

The main theme to this tour is Snowboarding, I am hitting some amazing terrain including :-

• Canada
• Japan
• China
• Tibet
• Thailand
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Australia
• New Zealand
• South Africa

The aim of this site is to document my travel and hopefully put up some useful information about travelling and also entertaining snippets.

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