about Vancouver (III)

by oBelIX

The good thing about Vancouver is that it is just around the river bend. Us people from India do not get the whole “Canada” thing that goes on around here. Evidently, there are many jokes about Canada. Anyway, having been there a few times now, and not having anything urgent to do I thought to myself, lets talk about Vancouver with the few dozen people who read this blog.

crossing the border

There are two types of people:

  1. People who go “oh my god, I’m crossing an international border” or the theatrically inclined, prone to histrionics
  2. People who go “meh, border”, or the generally lazy kind

For both sets of people, the first thing to note is that you need to get to the border. While driving up you will see electronic noticeboards that mention the wait times. I’ve compiled a table below of what the notice board said and how long it took to cross. I shall leave you to draw your own conclusions on the accuracy of these notices:

Direction Crossing location Time of day Expected time Actual Time
US –> Canada I5 ~11AM 10 mins 15 mins
US –> Canada I5 ~1PM 20 mins 40 mins
Canada –> US SR 543 ~1AM 5 mins 1 mins
Canada –> US I5 ~2:30PM 40 mins 20 mins

As for the actual crossing, the customs/immigration people have been most polite. It has usually been a cursory check – they ask where you’re from, where you’re going, why you’re going there – mostly routine.

(Of course, you could be unlucky, catch the official on a bad day, be pulled over to the side and stuck there for a long time. Such is life).

Friendly reminder of things that you must have with you:

  1. Passport

Friendly reminder of things that you should have with you:

  1. Driver’s License
  2. Registration of the car
  3. Insurance and what not

This post stops here. Abruptly.

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