20 April, 2006 (Thursday)
To Whistler
The drive to Whistler is supposed to be only one and a half hours, but somehow it took us half a day.
It's a scenic drive though - wooded valleys and open waterways framed by snowcapped mountains. Pure British Columbia. We stopped briefly in Squamish (NOT Squeemish) for Tim Hortons and finally found ourselves booking into the Coast Whistler Hotel. (Picture: Roadside views to Whistler)
The Coast Whistler is an older establishment with bad 70s wallpaper and dingy lit corridors. It's not the prettiest of places, but it's at least located in the main village.
Less walking can only be good. While the room was officially booked for only 2 people, we ended up squeezing 6 of us in - myself, Emily, Sean, Lauren, Precious and her friend Jules. Tight fit, but our home for the next 3 days. (Picture: Dungeon halls - Coast Whistler lighting)
Whistler village wasn't quite what I expected. It is more of a a sprawling resort town than an alpine village, all t-shirt shops and Starbucks (in my last day I counted 3, along with a MacDonalds and Save-on-Foods). There are a lot of big hotels and luxury condos for the rich, famous and overly moneyed. It's pretty, but it's also a little too organised. Intrawest must run a tight ship. Definitely not family-owned resort standard.
J5
We made it up to the main stage for Jurassic 5, an internationally acclaimed hip-hop act that managed to arrive 4 hours late. I didn't hear anything official, but somebody said something about customs complications(?). Big White staff were out in force, every way I turned I got
yelled greetings and fist bashing - there was ski school and tickets and rentals and a few other randoms. Heck, I even sighted ex-Sam's Sarah who promised to catch me later in the evening. (Picture: More views on the way to Whistler)
Anyway, the crowd was packed by the time they got on stage. Lots of cheering and cat calling and clouds of green smoke blowing every which way. I found myself gasping for fresh alpine air at times because the smoke clouds were so thick. It probably didn't help when the band started yelling something about 4/20. Half the audience lit up doobies, I coughed my way through, finally finding refuge at a hot dog stand behind the crowd. $5 for hot chips. My stomach hurt.
Jurassic 5 did a great set - good voices and old favourites.
The crowd got right into it, lots of dancing and miming, even a few die-hard crowd surfers. I got kicked in the head by one. Managed to dodge the others. (Picture: J5 on stage)
Afterwards I managed to find some of the others. We were cold and wet and tired, but they still wanted to go out. Sean and I decided to head in for a bit, but didn't end up heading back out. Precious and Jules weren't far behind us, Precious ordering room service chips "Hey, can I order some chips for room 263... are they too expensive?" before they passed out. Welcome to Whistler.
The drive to Whistler is supposed to be only one and a half hours, but somehow it took us half a day.
It's a scenic drive though - wooded valleys and open waterways framed by snowcapped mountains. Pure British Columbia. We stopped briefly in Squamish (NOT Squeemish) for Tim Hortons and finally found ourselves booking into the Coast Whistler Hotel. (Picture: Roadside views to Whistler)The Coast Whistler is an older establishment with bad 70s wallpaper and dingy lit corridors. It's not the prettiest of places, but it's at least located in the main village.
Less walking can only be good. While the room was officially booked for only 2 people, we ended up squeezing 6 of us in - myself, Emily, Sean, Lauren, Precious and her friend Jules. Tight fit, but our home for the next 3 days. (Picture: Dungeon halls - Coast Whistler lighting)Whistler village wasn't quite what I expected. It is more of a a sprawling resort town than an alpine village, all t-shirt shops and Starbucks (in my last day I counted 3, along with a MacDonalds and Save-on-Foods). There are a lot of big hotels and luxury condos for the rich, famous and overly moneyed. It's pretty, but it's also a little too organised. Intrawest must run a tight ship. Definitely not family-owned resort standard.
J5
We made it up to the main stage for Jurassic 5, an internationally acclaimed hip-hop act that managed to arrive 4 hours late. I didn't hear anything official, but somebody said something about customs complications(?). Big White staff were out in force, every way I turned I got
yelled greetings and fist bashing - there was ski school and tickets and rentals and a few other randoms. Heck, I even sighted ex-Sam's Sarah who promised to catch me later in the evening. (Picture: More views on the way to Whistler)Anyway, the crowd was packed by the time they got on stage. Lots of cheering and cat calling and clouds of green smoke blowing every which way. I found myself gasping for fresh alpine air at times because the smoke clouds were so thick. It probably didn't help when the band started yelling something about 4/20. Half the audience lit up doobies, I coughed my way through, finally finding refuge at a hot dog stand behind the crowd. $5 for hot chips. My stomach hurt.
Jurassic 5 did a great set - good voices and old favourites.
The crowd got right into it, lots of dancing and miming, even a few die-hard crowd surfers. I got kicked in the head by one. Managed to dodge the others. (Picture: J5 on stage)Afterwards I managed to find some of the others. We were cold and wet and tired, but they still wanted to go out. Sean and I decided to head in for a bit, but didn't end up heading back out. Precious and Jules weren't far behind us, Precious ordering room service chips "Hey, can I order some chips for room 263... are they too expensive?" before they passed out. Welcome to Whistler.
posted by the wastrel @ 1:40 AM
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