Vancouver

I arrived into Vancouver on Saturday morning at 07:00 and visited Vancouver city during the day and spent Saturday night on the ship, Sunday the ship left for Seattle and i made my way up into town again to the Hosteling International Downtown Hostel.
I checked in and was given room 214 on entering the room at 12:30 pm the curtains were closed and a lad was sleeping in one of the lower bunks of a four bed dorm the room smelt like the windows hadn’t been opened in ages, i woke him up making my bed and putting my stuff away and he was complaining of a headache, he decided to get up and he said “Dude” this dorm is full of bugs, he showed me bites on him and he had some blood spots on his mattress. I agreed with him that it looks like bed bugs and this was confirmed when he showed me a sample bug that he surprisingly had in a mug of water next to his bed,, mmh interesting i thought “have you told the staff” “Not yet man” I stopped unpacking and started to repack while he went down stairs to complain, on his return he told me that the dorm had been shut down and we had to move to another dormitory and i didn’t see him again, whilst i was i reception a cleaner came down to say that dorm 158 was a code “B” and i asked if this was the same problem as my room and the receptionist said yep thats the same.
Now I'm in another untidy stinking room that is really noisy next to the street and with the amount of drunks on the streets late at night yelling its not easy to get a good night’s sleep.
I sound like Victor Meldrew, how ever i must say that arriving in Vancouver was a anti climax after the beautiful countryside around Prince Rupert. People in Prince Rupert were more friendly but this may be because Vancouver is a city and people tend to be less open and more guarded in city’s as in rural towns you have to engage more with your neighbors.
Vancouver is set in a lovely location but i was surprised by the amount of litter and thought cafes and community amenities would be cleaner, i have been spoilt after being in Japan
People openly smoke weed whist walking around the streets and homeless will ask you for a Quarter to get some marijuana, you can tell their is a huge drug and homeless problem in this town in makes “Dumfries” look clean.
I will be looking forward to leaving for the rural parts of the country.
Ok I'm going to bore you or enlighten you again for hopefully the last time in a while into “Tim’s world of Red tape” The last few weeks except being on the ship have been stressful and I'm glad that now I'm in Canada i will not be shipping anywhere for a while, so hopefully i can relax. Apart from being very expensive “Shipping” the process is starting to wear me down and i am not enjoying where i am because i have to think about legal issues all the time, on arrival i felt a bit low and adding to this the rain and the constant selling attitude in shops retail greed people walking along the pavements with cups of coffee looking like lost sheep its not how i expected i would feel in Vancouver.
Things will get better i know that and Canada has to be one of the most beautiful place for mountains and scenery, so let me tell you where i am as of today importing the car into the country.
TransGlobal Logistics of Canada are handling my import into Canada and the contact has been Richard Moore and i spoke to Richard on Saturday and he assured me he would get things moving as quickly as possible he sounded positive and that pleased me.
On Monday morning and around 07:30 am i had a call from a lady in Quebec a Maria Luisa Cabanne she has been assigned to my import from Richard Moore at Transglobal, she told me that she had sent me an email giving me instructions how to clear customs myself and as to who to contact to get my container moved from the shipping terminal to a transport warehouse for unpacking, i thanked her and shot up out of bed and got a shower some breakfast and was out on the street walking to a print shop to get a shipping manifest/advice note printed out, i arrived at Canada Custom’s Border agency at 333 Dunsmuir street with all of my papers not knowing what to expect.
A lovely friendly lady by the name of Catherine greeted me and as it wasn’t too busy she took an interest in what i was doing and we chatted about Japan as she had gone their too about 20 years ago, when she went for a break to my surprise she got me a Cola drink, wow this is government customs! Second to the also helpful Prince Rupert immigration she is the nicest person to help me all trip she is a people person like me and likes to help others, it shows in people when you know they just do a job for money or some other negative motive.
Catherine told me that before we could start a soil examination would have to be completed on my car, she made a phone call to the ministry of agriculture at the port and to her and my surprise the container had been opened and the inspection had been competed and passed so i had the Soil Cert completed already, she told me that they are told in advance of any arriving cars and just get to work checking containers when they arrive.
Great what luck, she asked them to fax this certificate to here so she could start filling in my Carne de Passage as she said it would be easier to import the car via the carne, the other form i had to bring was the original Bill Of Lading which i was sent from Japan DGX and had printed of in Prince Rupert so with these items my passport the car was cleared into Canada. The carne is all stamped up and correct, secondly this means that the Hanjin shipping Advice note/Manifest had a stamp and an entry code D2-1-1
I called Maria in Quebec and she gave me the details of a company in Vancouver called Mannix Freight service, contact Bob O’Connell. I phoned Bob to tell him i was in Customs and had cleared the car, he asked me to fax the manifest to him and to send him a letter authorizing Mannix fright to work on my behalf and these documents were all drafted up and signed and faxed over to Bob within 10 minutes with the help of Catherine who now deserves a medal, I will take her a card tomorrow to thank her for her kindness.
I called Bob back who was surprised how fast i had managed to get this done and the ball was now on his court, he told me that he will fax the port control to ask for a collection slot for one of his Trucks to collect the container and transfer it to his warehouse near to the airport, he would call me on wednesday to give me an update.
I hope that the customs in the port re sealed the container. It seems to be going smoothly at the moment,, except i have just forgotten one thing Catherine gave me another form that we had to fill in called a Vehicle Import Form1 and this enables me to acquire the government vehicle insurance needed to put a foreign registered car legally onto Canadian roads.
I thanked her for all here work told her she was an angel and made my way ICBC insurance head office in North Vancouver you have to get on a short passenger ferry, the ICBC offices are not far from the North side and within the hour of arriving i was informed that i had to complete an Overseas Tourist Certificate APV272 the price for this insurance is fixed at just under $6.00 canadian dollar a day which is over double what i pay in the Uk and Triple and more the triple Japan and Russia but for some of the younger folk it may seem cheap, i decided not to do any more paper work as if i took the insurance out it had to start on that day and not when my car would be on the road so i told them i would return in a few days time.
I have had enough of writing now so I'm going to go.
I want to thank: The Canada Border Services Agency, especially Catherine you are great!!!