Vagabond Tales: Why you might not be allowed into Canada

by Kyle Ellison on

The border between Canada and the United States is the longest undefended border in the world, yet, of the 60 countries I have wandered through, it’s the one in which I have had the hardest time gaining entry.

At 5,525 miles long, there are over 120 official places where a traveler can cross the Canada border in a manner which is consistent with that of virtually any other border crossing in the world: Speak with a customs or immigration agent, display passport, visa, and proper documentation for onward travel or proof of funds, answer some background questions, and more likely than not you’re on your way.

For some, however, it isn’t always that easy.

In looking at the fine print, Canada has a trump card in their back pocket when it comes to admitting people into the country, and it all has to do with a condition of entry officially known as criminal inadmissibility. Go ahead. Look it up. It really isn’t that strange. The United States has one too.

According to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website, “If you have committed or been convicted of a criminal offence, you may not be allowed to enter Canada.” Such offenses listed include examples such as manslaughter, assault, theft, human rights violations, involvement in organized crime, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Ok, fair enough. If you’re a convicted criminal we won’t allow you into the country. I can agree with that. Murder, manslaughter, trafficking. I wouldn’t want that in my country either.

If you read more closely, however, according to the Wikipedia entry regarding American entry into Canada, “a single criminal conviction, no matter how minor or long ago, is grounds for exclusion from Canada.”

I mention this because it’s this fine print which provides the background for a rather curious sequence of events which took place in the spruce forests of the Yukon Territory.When driving from the Alaska into the Yukon there are only two main border crossings for the traveler to choose from. Neither of them, as you might imagine, are remotely close to anything at all. As far as the eye can see the border territory is a sea of spruce trees and uninhabited woodland, a scene which is unsurprising considering the Yukon is the size of Sweden and has a population of only 34,000 people.

Seeing as this comprises a measly .1% of the entire Canadian population, you would figure that crossing the border into Canada via the Yukon would be easy.

Wrong.

The first indication that something was amiss was when I encountered a forlorn man on a bicycle, his rig completely laden with saddlebags and long-distance gear, with the heaviest piece of equipment being the sense of despair worn across his face.

“Good luck in there”, he caustically growled. “That border guard’s having a bad day.”

“Did he not let you through or something?” I sincerely questioned.

“Nope. Making me turn around. Fifteen years ago I got in a fight. He’s calling it assault. It’s the only thing I’ve had on my record ever.”

This, you see, was problematic to the biker for a number of reasons: The nearest building, much less town, was nearly an hour away. By car. He was on a bike, and was already 800 miles into a two-year bike ride from the Bering Sea to Patagonia at the bottom of Argentina.

“I can’t believe he actually made you turn around, on a bicycle, out here in the middle of nowhere, while you’re fulfilling a life dream of biking to Argentina.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So what are you going to do now?” I wondered aloud.

“I don’t know. Maybe skip that whole Canada section.” With an exasperated wave of his hand he pedaled a lonely road back into the spruce forest.

Given this curious interaction I was hesitant to approach the border, even knowing that I was clean. Still, the process didn’t exactly go swimmingly.

“Good morning”, I nervously offered the border patrol agent, shocks of brown hair poking from beneath the gray beanie covering my head.

“You got anything in the car I should know about?”, countered the visibly perturbed officer.

“Um, no sir. I’m pretty sure we’re all good.”

Meanwhile, our passports had been run into the office for scanning, thereby leaving us at the officer’s whim until their eventual return.

He looked at my gray beanie. He looked at my haggard green truck I’d been camping in for the past 3 months. He looked at the bed in the back, the curtain on the campertop window, and my youthful, twenty-something appearance.

“So I’m not going to find any marijuana in here?” he pulled out of left-field.

“Nope” I replied with a smile, a little taken aback but confident in my response seeing as I’ve never touched a drug in my life.

“So no pipes, no papers, no bongs, no residue, no plastic baggies?”

This was starting to get weird.

“Ugh…no, you won’t” I matter-of-factly replied, slightly irked at the obvious profiling.

“You mind if I have a look?”

“Not at all”

Which is how I ended up waiting on wooden bench in the Yukon for nearly 30 minutes as a border patrol officer searched completely through my vehicle for some sort of illegal substance. This man didn’t just expect to something, it was almost as if he wanted to find something.

I came to find out later that when the officer inside ran my passport an alert was raised that I had previously been involved in a “drug-related arrest”, a charge I vehemently denied and later tracked to a disturbing computer error that nearly cost me entry into the country. Regardless, this error had never shown itself at the 30 or 40 border crossings previous to it, so why here in the middle of nowhere?

After an hour long saga amongst the spruce trees, the agent finally relinquished our vehicle amongst an uncomfortable feeling he was disappointed he couldn’t find anything on us.

Shaken, my wife and I crawled back into our forest green Toyota and made an unsettling drive to our campground in the Kluane National Park.

So what’s the lesson here?

If you’re considering traveling to Canada, think long and hard about if there’s anything which may preclude you from entering the country. DUI, fighting, that “stupid mistake you made in college.” Anything.

Why?

Because one day you might want to ride a bike to Argentina and find yourself pedaling backwards.

Want more stories? Read the rest of the Vagabond Tales here.

Round-the-world bicycle race begins tomorrow

by Kraig Becker on

The World Cycling Racing Grand Tour, the first round-the-world bike competition, gets underway tomorrow. From Greenwich Park in London, ten competitors have signed up for the event which will send them on a month’s long odyssey that will cover more than 18,000 miles and span multiple continents — just before returning to where they started in time for the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

The competitors in the event are given quite a bit of leeway in terms of determining their route and strategy for the race. They are required to cover a minimum of 18,000 miles, and GPS devices will be used to track their progress and ensure that they are adhering to that rule. But they can cover that mileage on a route of their own choosing, and can even decide if they prefer to pedal east or west along the way. Additionally, they must also visit antipodal points on the planet – which is to say, two points that are on the opposite side of the globe from one another. They are also allowed to use scheduled public transportation to cross impassable barriers, which simply means they can use ferries or aircraft to get across large bodies of water.

The current record for a circumnavigation of the planet by bike is held by Brit Alan Bate, who managed to accomplish that feat in just 96 days, 10 hours, and 33 minutes. In order to beat that record, one of the riders will have to average more than 190 miles per day. That will be a challenging and grueling pace for any rider to maintain throughout an event that if five times longer than the Tour de France.

Once the race starts, we’ll be able to follow the progress of the riders on the WCR website and track the routes they take around the globe. It should be interesting to see which way they elect to go and how long it takes for them to get back to London.

[Photo credit: Douglas Whitehead]

An off-the-beaten path itinerary for southern China

by Jessica Festa on

When planning my trip through China one summer, I decided that I wanted to stay out of the well-known cities and explore smaller villages and lesser known areas where I could find less tourist traps and more cultural fare. While Beijing and Shanghai are both excellent cities to visit, here is an itinerary that will take you off the radar and help you discover nature, minority villages, Chinese traditions, and more. To make planning easier for myself I did this trip through Intrepid Travel, but you can also recreate it for yourself.

First stop: Hua Shan, Ning Ming County

Before coming to China I had been traveling through Vietnam and had entered the country from the Lang Son Province into Guangxi, China. From there you can catch a train or bus via Pingxiang to the mountainous village of Hua Shan, which is located in Guangxi. The journey takes about 2-3 hours.

There is a lot to be experienced in peaceful Hua Shan, which is miles away from civilization, located in the heart of mountains, valleys, forests, and near the Dong and Zhuang minority village. I stayed at a family-run guesthouse called Butterfly Valley, which felt more like a homestay than a hotel, as the family would cook for my group, take us on hikes, and end each night playing Mahjong and singing kareoke with us. It also helps to learn a bit of Chinese as not everyone in the area speaks English.

Take a walk through the countryside and notice the myriad plants and crops, like the gum leaves that locals use to cure a stuffy nose and the various edibles like corn, pumpkin, potatoes, and rice fields. Make sure to visit the minority village, which is dominated by wooden and thatched houses and livestock running around. It’s interesting to hear and see the music, dance, and art of the people of the community who are, for the most part, quite friendly and were happy to talk to me via my translator. In fact, the people in Hua Shan in general were very friendly and excited to talk to me. Many of the young girls knew basic English and even asked me to hangout with them to help them practice their language skills. Hiking in the area is also a fun activity, and there are many trails that allow you to explore the various flora and fauna of the area. As the region is completely rural you can literally just wander towards the trees and mountains to find your own paths. If you’d like to see indigenous art, boat trips go out to Mount Huashan where a vivid rock painting of various types of people, animals, and symbols is located. The painting is about 725 wide and 131 feet high, making it a bit of a mystery how it was created.On to Liuzhou

From Ning Ming we took a bus to Liuzhou via Nanning. While Liuzhou is a city, I still did not see many tourists and it makes for a nice break after spending time in the middle of nowhere. I stayed at the Nanjiang Hotel, which was actually like an everyday hotel (unlike many of the other accommodations on this itinerary). My favorite part about the property was their on-site tea room, where I spent a lot of time ordering authentic Chinese teas and playing Mahjong with anyone who would play, which is really easy in China. One guy even saw me sitting with tea and cards through the hotel window and came in to see if I would play with him.

My favorite part about this city was the YuFeng Shan (Fish Peak Mountain), which looks like an upright fish, and the park it’s located in, YuFeng Gongyuan (Fish Peak Park). There is also Ma’an Shan (Horse Saddle Mountain) adjacent. Walking through the park, you’ll see interesting architecture (shown above), lakes, gardens, and locals enjoying various leisure activities like dancing, Tai Chi, smoking, playing Mahjong, and chess. I spent hours just strolling around the different park paths, people watching and interacting with locals (one woman even tried to get me to join in on her dance group!). I hiked to the top of Fish Peak Mountain which is a great way to get a view of the entire city. There’s also Sanjie Rock Cave on the way up, which is interesting to visit to see the carvings, statues, and lifelike figures that tell the tale of Liu Sanjie, a popular Chinese love story.

Next stop: Chengyang Village

From Liuzhhou, we boarded a train to Sanjiang and then caught a bus to Chengyang Village. I stayed at the Long Feng Hotel in the Bridge Scenic District, which was a cozy, wooden guesthouse run by a friendly family. They have a bar and restaurant with picnic tables on the main floor, and you can order delicious fruit shakes and Asian specialties. The Chengyang Village is extremely scenic, and it can be worth it to hire a guide to help you translate what people are saying as well as give you historical and cultural information. I would recommend doing a tour of the village and checking out the Wind-and-Rain Bridge, which has 5 pavilions, 19 verandas, 4 spans, 3 piers, and 3 floors constructed without the use of nails. You can buy handicrafts from locals, view art and sculpture, and even have your name inscribed on the bridge for Y10 (less than $2). Moreover, if you’re with a guide who can translate make sure to visit the village Drum Room, which is where the local men hangout to smoke, talk, and play cards. When I visited they were really excited to meet me, and through a translator asked me a lot of questions about where I was from. There is also a Dong Minority Cultural Show (shown above) everyday in the center of the village near the outdoor stage at 10:30AM and 3:30PM. It was really interesting to see the bright and ornate costumes and literally be a part of traditional songs and dances, as you will get called up to take part. Hiking up the nearby mountains is also a great way to spend time and will give you breathtaking views of the entire village and countryside.

Continuing to Ping’an and the Longji Rice Terraces

From Chengyang, you’ll be able to take a bus to Longsheng and then a local bus to Ping’an. While the bus drops you off right outside the village, you’ll need to hike passed a row of handicraft and food market stalls before making your ascent up a steep rock quarry-like mountain to get to where the accommodations are. We stayed at the Li Qing Guesthouse, a traditional wooden guesthouse run by two sisters, Yuan Li and Yuan Qing, and their husbands. The hotel had a western toilet, as well as a menu that consisted of Western favorites and Asian fare. My favorite part about the accommodation, however, was the view from my bedroom window of the unique terraced countryside. Through the hotel the group was able to hire a guide to take us on a tour of the Longji Rice Terraces as well carry our backpacks (only Y100 for 3 bags, about $16), as we were hiking for five hours to the next town we would be staying in, Dazhai. “Longji” literally means “Dragon’s Backbone” as the rice terraces appear to be dragon’s scales with the summit resembling the backbone. The effect is almost unworldly as hills and mountains swirl about in a natural kind of staircase in order to preserve water, which rice needs a lot of to grow. Along the way you’ll see get to see traditional homes as well as the Yao and Zhuang minority women working in the fields. When it got to be around lunch time, our group actually got the chance to stop at one of the homes and have a home cooked meal which was picked for us from the on-site crops when we got there. Once we got to Dazhai, we stayed in the Yue Bing Guesthouse.

Last stop: Yangshuo

From Dazhai you’ll have to walk about 45 minutes to the bus station to catch a bus to Yangshuo via Guilin. Yangshuo is a lot more touristy then the small villages discussed previously, but still has a lot to offer the traveler looking for a unique Chinese experience. My group stayed at the Morning Sun Hotel, which puts you in the center of town, equal distance from the Western-inspired streets and the more authentic Chinese area. One activity I highly recommend is a bike tour with Roy, who also runs a language school. Roy can take you to visit the school and will even allow you to teach a class if you’re interested. If not, you can simply enjoy being lead on a scenic bike tour through the city as well as the countryside and rice fields. He’s also a really down to Earth guy and I found myself having really honest and open discussions with him about life in China vs. life in the United States. Moreover, rafting down the River Li, which you can do with Roy or on your own, is a relaxing way to see the scenery while also viewing wildlife. The hotel can also set you up with an instructor who will take you down to the local park and give you private Tai Chi lessons. It took me a little while to get comfortable with doing the moves out in the open, but in China people seem to do everything in outdoor spaces from practicing martial arts to dancing and singing, so it didn’t take long.

For more information on doing this itinerary with Intrepid Travel, click here.

The Teva Winter Mountain Games begin today

by Kraig Becker on

The first-ever Teva Winter Mountain Games get underway today in Vail, Colorado, where some of the top pro and amateur outdoor athletes have gathered to compete in a variety of sports. The event, which lasts through the weekend, will also feature a number of concerts, gear giveaways, clinics, and more.

Some of the sports that the athletes will be competing in including ice climbing, Nordic and telemark skiing, snowshoeing, and on-snow cycling. Even man’s best friend can get in on the action, as there are several events for dogs to compete too. But the biggest event of the weekend is the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, which features three different sports spread out over three days. In order to be crowned the King or Queen of the Mountain, a single athlete will have to fend off all the competition in a Nordic Freestyle race today, than follow it up with an up-hill cross country skiing competition tomorrow. On Sunday, those same competitors will then square off in the toughest stage of all – a skiing race up, over, and back down, Vail Mountain.

A large group of spectators are expected to be hand over the three-day event, cheering on their favorite athletes. That crowd won’t have to sit on the sidelines without getting the opportunity to join in on the fun however, as they’ll get the chance to take part in photo competitions and clinics, test out some gear, and hone their own winter outdoor skills. They can also enjoy an adventure film festival, listen to some live bands, and join the celebration at several parties.

The inaugural Teva Winter Mountain Games is a natural extension of the summer Mountain Games, which will be taking place later this year. If you’re an outdoor enthusiast who loves to run, ride, or climb, you’ll certainly find a lot to love at both events.


New York City bike share program coming in Summer 2012

by Jessica Marati on

At last, an urban bike share program is coming to New York City, and planners are involving city residents through community workshops, bike demos, and an online map system for suggesting station locations.

Organized by the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) and Alta Bicycle Share, the program will be funded by private sponsorship and user fees. Though a fee schedule has not yet been released, organizers say that membership will cost less than a monthly public transportation Metrocard.

Coming off the success of networks like the Vélib in Paris and Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC, the New York City bike share program also hopes to capitalize on the popularity of alternative transportation methods among the city’s active and socially conscious communities. According to NYC DOT, commuter cycling more than doubled between 2005 and 2009, and it continues to grow each year. To cope with the demand, NYC DOT doubled the mileage of on-street bike lanes between 2007 and 2011. By 2017, they hope to triple it.

The new system will include more than 10,000 bikes at over 600 stations, and is part of a larger effort to make New York a more cycle-friendly city. The program is scheduled to kick off in Summer 2012.

In the meantime, check out this video celebrating the joys of New York City biking from my friends over at Holstee… and start shopping for a helmet.

[via NYC DOT, Flickr image via nycstreets]