Vancouver, BC- Dawson City, Yukon (3059km, 16rides)

After I got out of Vancouver (thanks for dropping me off, Christa & David. David, I would not be in time till your departure. Sorry about that. Have a good trip in south America, anyway.), I stayed in the bush near Whistler, but the problem was happened. That was, my gas equipment I bought in NZ didn't fit to a gas can I bought in Canada. So the next day, I was heading to Prince George which is big enough town to buy some stuff and up north from there. Till there, hitching was too hard, though.

In Prince George, I stayed in the hostel, downtown (I usually don't like to stay in the hostel, but at that time had no choice to buy some stuff), which was very weird. I mean, except me, all customers were street people, what is called, homeless. At the reception, a guy told me,
"Don't leave all of your stuff in the room. otherwise, some people could take them all away, even your shoes. You should sleep with your shoes beside the pillow."
And some of them had disease, so he also told me to take care of my health by myself. This hostel has free breakfast, so in the morning lots of other homeless people were also coming there, which was very strange. Perhaps the government or something have this hostel, but I don't know exactly. The bed was too smelly. I wonder, they wouldn't take a shower, nevertheless we can get free soap and shampoo. I told some of them and figured out that they also had some problem of their bodies. They cannot work anymore, even if they wanna do that. I have no idea about that, I mean, whether they are lazy or the government which don't give them jobs is bad. I talked with some. They were friendly, though.

On the highway, Prince George, when I was standing as usual, a police car was coming suddenly. Although I was afraid of I would be arrested, he was very friendly and likes Japan very much, so he picked me up to good hitching point. And he also gave me his name card, like, when I come back here, please call him. I got very interesting ride.

In Dawson creek, an Irish guy, David, picked me up and he was also going to go to Dawson city, so we drove in turns and heading together (thanks, David. where are you now? You are still in Dawson city?). I was lucky.

In Whitehorse, we went to a couple of pubs, and one of them were only for native people (I don't know why). But they were not good, because they were begging anytime anywhere same as Aborigine in Australia. They were also drunken and hanging out on the street. How do you guys think about it? The other pubs were so-so. Especially in the pub of hotel, there were only white people. At the pub, a guy was coming to me and we were chatting, then he invited me to his house because I was looking for some place where I could pitch my tent. But I realized he was gay, so I refused his offer.

Dawson city was quite neat. I like there. Very cozy, quiet and pretty town anyway. I pitched the tent in the hostel, which was really great. No electric, no gas there. So we had to make fire by ourselves. The bathroom was my most favorite place. We gotta heat up creek water and mixed it with cold water, then this bathroom turned to such a sauna which was really comfortable. I miss it right now.

My purpose to come over there was, of course, betting in the casino. Actually I've been there two nights. I lost first night, then won second night, which were not interesting result, you know. It was even. This casino was not same as others. This casino has show time which are three times a day. Most people were just coming to see the show which was really funny, like 1900's dancing in a cabaret. Whenever the show was coming out, people stopped betting and kept watching it. Some dealers were as well. The customer, I mean, gambling at the table were almost beginners. Some dealers gotta tell how to play even if we were in the middle of playing. That's why, I was not serious, but just playing there. I told one dealer about blackjack, which were about the strategy and how to win, then he agreed with me, like,
"You are great (thank you, Kokoro san. your theory is perfect). You know how to play very well."

We were getting friendly.

In Dawson City, we climbed up the steep mountain at midnight. The sunset was around 1AM and the sun was coming up again around 2AM. It was very funny. So we didn't worry about the darkness. No problem without flash lights or candles. We saw sort of sunset which was going down behind Yukon river. It was great.Anyway Dawson City was wonderful especially right now. I miss there.