Canada calling - From Fuel Guzzlers to Frozen Trails and Everything in Between - Part 5

This is the 5th post in our series. So far, we've had some interesting moments, including a backstory, a frustrating IVR experience, and the fuel mystery. We've also enjoyed spectacular sights like the majestic Niagara Falls and the Rideau Canal. This time, we continue our journey westward to explore the arguably more scenic part of Canada.

• The Back Story
• East Canada - Toronto
• East Canada - Niagara and 1000 Islands
• Rest of East Canada
• From Fuel Guzzlers to Frozen Trails and Everything in Between ← This post
• Ice, Bears, and Fuel Scares: A Rocky Mountain Adventure
• When we Lost Rishabh for 45 Minutes
• The Final Few Days

Lost in Translation: Hidden Cards & Costly Bags

Alright, so now we were at the Montreal airport, checking in and dropping off our bags. An airline attendant approached me and asked if I could relay a message in Hindi to a fellow passenger who didn’t understand English. The passenger, a young Punjabi fellow, hadn't completed his web check-in and needed to pay $28 to check in. I was surprised by this charge and asked if he could complete the web check-in now, but she refused. I conveyed the message to him, and he didn’t object, wanting to get on the plane quickly. He took out cash, but the attendant said only cards were accepted. I thought he would just pull out his wallet and hand over a card, but he did something unexpected:

• He sat down.
• Took off his backpack.
• Pulled out a file folder from it, the kind used for keeping certificates.
• Retrieved a card from the folder and handed it to the attendant.

She swiped the card, it went through, and he then reversed all those steps. I suggested he keep his card in his wallet, as in Canada, you can't get very far without easy access to your card!

The flight from Montreal to Calgary is about 4.5 hours long—Canada is a huge country. The ticket was reasonably priced at around 4500 Rs or $55, but the cost of baggage was another story. Checking in one bag cost an additional 8300 Rs or $100! Believe it or not, the cost of bags was almost double the cost of the human passengers!

Meet the Fuel Guzzler

We arrived in Calgary and were warmly greeted by my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We were especially excited to see our very young nephew for the first time!

The next morning, we headed to a car rental place and rented a 7-8 seater Dodge Durango.

Don't be fooled by its looks—this car is massive. Inside, it feels like you're driving a mini-bus. It has other mini-bus-like characteristics, too, including a huge fuel tank. At one point, I filled it with about 95 liter of petrol! Its fuel consumption is equally impressive, making it feel like I was driving from one fuel station to the next with barely any stops in between. On a full tank, it barely goes 700 km!

House of Cardboard

One striking difference in Canada is the building materials used for houses. In India, we are accustomed to steel and concrete houses with brick walls. If you bang your head against these walls, it's usually the head that breaks, not the wall.

In Canada, however, houses are made predominantly of wood and a thick cardboard-like material. The frame is solid wood, but the walls are made of this thick cardboard-like material.

I’m sure there are numerous advantages to this, but it doesn’t feel solid. If you bang your head against the wall, or even bump into it with some force, the wall might break, and you could end up in the neighbor's living room!

Dinos & Hoodoos

One of the days, we visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum, a dinosaur museum. If you remember, the ROM in Toronto had dinosaur exhibits, but this museum has two main differences:

It is dedicated exclusively to the study of ancient life, particularly dinosaurs.

It is located where dinosaur fossils were actually discovered.

The museum features actual dinosaur fossils, some of them displayed in full-scale, life-like forms. It's incredible to walk among the giant creatures that once dominated the planet!

If you look carefully, you'll notice people in some of these pictures, highlighting the humongous scale of these creatures. Just one limb measures 12 feet tall—more than twice my height! I'm glad I wasn’t around when these giants roamed the Earth.

Here’s the skeleton of a fully grown mammoth, smaller than a dinosaur but much bigger than an elephant!

Next, we visited the Hoodoos. These natural formations typically consist of a hard rock on top and relatively soft rock below it. The hard rock protects each column from erosion, resulting in beautiful, naturally formed structures. It feels like nature was in the mood to create a masterpiece!

Some of the hills are so beautifully eroded that it looks like a giant is sleeping beneath them, covered by a satin blanket. The blanket is the hill!

The Dog Park

Calgary has numerous parks, each offering a unique charm. One such park, located next to a river, had a beautiful walkway. What made it interesting was that it was a dog park where pet parents could let their pets roam off-leash.

We met a super friendly dog that was almost half as tall as me!

I'm not sure if my son was trying to do some acrobatics or if he got stuck on the fence while trying to cross it.

Johnston Canyon

It was finally time to visit Banff and, specifically, Johnston Canyon. Banff and Jasper are enormous national parks that host the Canadian Rockies mountain ranges, among the most beautiful sights in the world!

Johnston Canyon offers a 6 km long trail (12 km round trip) through the canyon, featuring stunning waterfalls along the way. Even more picturesque are the scenes you pass by while on the trek.

The water is incredibly clean, with turquoise pools all around us. The trails are well-marked and easy to follow.

The last 500 meters of the trail were really icy and slippery. One wrong step, and we could have gone sliding down. We had to tread carefully and slowly.

The final spot on the trail was the Ink Pots! These are gorgeous blue and green pools of water. They differ in color because of their fill rate—how fast or slow they fill up. The milky-green pools fill more slowly compared to the clear, deep-blue pools.

On our way back, two kids—my 19-year-old nephew and my 11 yr old son—went quite ahead of us. At one point, the trail splits into two. To make sure we knew they went the right way, they decided to leave us a sign "Neel Went" (Neel is my Nephew) with twigs. It was quite thoughtful and resourceful!

Next Time

We'll continue our adventure through the stunning Canadian Rockies and share the unforgettable moment when everyone in the car panicked upon realizing we had only 300 km of fuel left while needing to cover over 450 km—with most of it through areas with no gas stations! This was especially nerve-wracking given that we were driving the notorious fuel guzzler!