Today is my first day in the Canadian Rocky. I am typing this on a comfortable sofa in rampart creek hostel. Sitting in the kitchen, listening to folks playing cards excitedly. I hesitated to bring my laptop into the room. It is so much out of the place here. Everything else seems to be at least 100 years older technologywise. Well, that is not true, there is a refrigerator and a gas stove. I played chess with a girl from Israel. That was her sixth and seventh game, but she played very well and would not give up until the last defense. After another six games she would have beat me very easily. :) There is such a mix of people, mostly in their 20s. From Taiwan, Israel, Italy, Austria, Japan, USA, Canada and China.

Oh, forgot to describe the place where I am staying. It is a wood cabin. Like a typical youth hostel, it has a kitchen, some books, some games but no electricity. Propane lanterns light up the rooms. Water is from the creek, the manager will warn you to boil it before drink, although she drinks it unboiled herself.

I slept till 8:30 this morning. It was raining most of the day. Drove for about eight hours. Finished the last two tapes of Bill Gate's book. I was driving mostly along Trans Canadian highway 1. The part of drive from Lake Louis to rampart creek (Icefield Parkway) was really BREATHTAKING.

To end today's diary, here is a quote from the hostel's guestbook:

"the place: unearthly, the landscape: unforgiving, the creek: unwarm, the sauna: ubulubuwarm, the toilets: undeodorized, the dorms: uncold, the kitchen: unlonely, the snowboarding: UNREAL "

* I do not know what 'ubulubuwarm' means

next day (9/6)