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Published: November 28th 2005
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Last week, I decided to make a trip to USA during the weekends because my visa waiver record was expiring soon and I needed to return it to the Canadian Immigration. Since I would be spending more than 2 hours to travel all the way to the border, it would be a waste if I just went there to return the visa waiver record and did nothing else. Hence, I decided to visit Lynden, a small town north of Bellingham. (I could settle my visa waiver stuffs on my way back to Vancouver after the trip.) I wanted to visit Lynden because it's famous for its Dutch heritage and Dutch architecture.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, the sky was clear and blue (unlike the previous few days, when the whole place was covered with fog). Since the weather was so nice, and it was still early, I decided to make a detour to Crescent Beach first, before going into USA. One of my friends recommended Crescent Beach as a peaceful and beautiful beach with a spectacular view of the sea and mountains. After listening to her recommendation, I had a desire to visit Crescent Beach and see the
place myself. From Downtown, I took bus 351 all the way to the bus terminus at Crescent Beach. On the way, something funny happened. The bus driver was new and he was not very familiar with the route. He made a wrong turn after exiting Highway 99. Many passengers were gasping in horror and they kept shouting "Wrong way! Wrong way!". Luckily, the bus driver found an alternative road and he returned to the correct route. For the rest of the trip, when the bus was approaching a junction, the passengers shouted "Go left!", "Go right!" or "Go straight!"... I intended to take a good sleep on the bus. However, after the "wrong way" incident, the passengers kept shouting the directions and I couldn't sleep.
The bus finally reached Crescent Beach safely in one piece, to the relief of the driver and the passengers. After alighting the bus, I walked towards the beach. Soon, I reached a nice seaside park - Blackie Spit Park. The park itself is rather plain, but one thing in the park that awes visitors is the spectacular view of the sea and the mountains. From the beach, I could see the sea in the
foreground, and looming snow-capped mountains in the background. Below the mountains, I could see gleaming skyscrapers, but the skyscrapers appeared dwarfed and insignificant, when compared with the massiveness of the mountains. From Blackie Spit Park, I walked along the coastline to Crescent Beach, where joggers, families and dog-owners were leisurely spending their weekend.
After exploring Crescent Beach, I took bus 351 to White Rock Centre, where I explored the Semiahmoo Shopping Centre. Later, I took bus 321 to White Rock South, where I took a 1km walk to the USA/Canada border. As I was walking towards the USA immigrations, I saw a long line of vehicles going towards USA. The vehicles hardly moved, and I was giggling in my heart when I walked past hundreds of vehicles stuck in the traffic jam. However, when I reached the immigration building, I had the shock of my life. The human queue in the immigration building was as long as the vehicle queue!!! I had entered USA twice, and I didn't need to queue for the past 2 times because I crossed the border in the early morning. However, when I crossed the border this time, it was a sunny Saturday afternoon,
and many people were making their way into USA for sightseeing and shopping... (The post-Thanksgiving sales in USA was a crucial factor.) I was feeling very worried, because I reached the immigration at 12 noon and I needed to catch the bus from Blaine at 12:40pm. If I missed the bus from Blaine, I could bid farewell to the trip to Lynden... To add to my anxiety, the queue in the immigration building hardly moved. As seconds and minutes went past, I felt more and more anxious. At 12:20pm, I was still stuck at the back of the queue... (The queue only managed to move 50cm during that 20 minutes...) As I was feeling desperate and helpless, an immigration officer suddenly came and checked the passports of several people in front of me. Then he asked some of the people to follow him. I couldn't hear what he said, but I saw a lady with a Singapore passport following him, so I quickly followed the lady. (I'm also holding a Singapore passport.) It turned out that the immigration officer was asking people without visa requirements to follow him. People with visa requirements generally need several minutes to clear the immigration,
but people without visa requirements only need less than a minute. For my case, the process took less than 30 seconds, because I already had a visa waiver record in my passport... (Having a Singapore passport is really convenient, as Singapore is one of the 27 countries under USA's Visa Waiver scheme. Citizens from these 27 visa waiver countries can enter USA without a visa, while citizens from other countries require a visa.)
To my relief, I managed to reach Blaine City Hall at 12:35pm, 5 minutes before the bus arrived. From Blaine, I took the bus to Bellis Fair (a large shopping mall in Bellingham), where I transferred to another bus to Lynden. Once I reached Lynden, I was enchanted with the Dutch atmosphere. I felt like stepping into a town in Holland, as I saw Dutch buildings, Dutch signs, and even a giant Dutch windmill! Only after I saw the licence plates of the cars, I realized that I was actually in USA and not Holland. As I walked along the streets of the historic district, I could see and feel a strong presence of Dutch heritage. The main attraction of the town is of course the
Beecher Street
The main artery of the Crescent Beach district gigantic windmill, which is modelled after the famous windmills in Holland. (The windmill has become a symbol of Holland. Whenever someone see a windmill, he/she will think of Holland.)
After exploring the streets and several shops in Lynden, I started to make my way back to Vancouver. (It's a pity that I only managed to have a very short stay in Lynden, because a large amount of time was spent on the bus ride...) According to the bus schedule booklet, the bus would depart Lynden at 3:34pm. However, when I reached the bus stop, the timetable on the bus stop indicated that the bus would depart at 3:44pm! Somehow, I chose to trust the timetable at the bus stop, and I decided to take a stroll around the area for 10 more minutes... However, 2 minutes after I walked away from the bus stop, the bus came!!! I immediately ran to the next bus stop, and luckily I managed to catch the bus. (If I failed to catch the bus from Lynden to Bellis Fair, I would miss the last bus from Bellis Fair to Blaine... If I missed the last bus to Blaine, I would be stuck in
Bellingham!) This showed that the timetables at bus stops are not always reliable...
After a long bus ride to Bellis Fair and another long bus ride to Blaine, I finally reached the border again. To my surprise, the Canadian custom and immigration had shifted to a brand new building. The new building is much better than the old one, as the customs and immigration are located in a single room, instead of 2 separate rooms in the old building... Also, the interior and exterior of the new building look so much nicer. Luckily, the queue in the Canadian customs and immigration is much much shorter than the one I saw in the USA immigration. I took me less than 2 minutes to get everything settled (clearing customs, clearing immigration, and returning the USA visa waiver record). From the border, I took a walk to White Rock Beach, where I took a bus to White Rock Centre and transferred to another bus back to Vancouver...
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