Welcome to Vancouver - Part 1

I had seen my friend Pedro leaving with his guitar numerous times over the years. I was not-so secretly jealous. It is my turn to experience it. I am now a backpacker on the loose.

Early March 2000. The plan was simple. You go to Vancouver, and get an internet marketing job at Intrawest, in any division. Grab that yearly ski pass, buy a Jeep and go to Whistler. Simple, right? They had about 6 divisions worth considering, but I had zero-clue on how I would achieve this. All I had was a name, Rob Morrow, his email and a relative business location. At the time, those guys from Tremblant Central Reservations were working out of an office on Lonsdale street in North Vancouver. I did not even know where that was or how to get there. It was the same for all the other Intrawest offices. Fortunately, they were all close to each other in the downtown area. That must have been the first thing I did upon arrival: get an understanding of where things are and start moving around a bit. I did not get into job-hunting mode right away. It would be coming soon enough though.

Discovering Vancouver

There is one thing that is undebatable about Vancouver: it is absolutely breathtaking. From the mountains, the sea, the city, the asian influences in the culture and the food. What city in the world has 3 (!) ski resorts within that short of a distance? Taking the North Vancouver city bus to go snowboarding at Grouse Mountain must have been one the coolest things I have ever done. Everything here is different than the rest of Canada, especially Montreal. It must be the proximity to the sea that creates such magic. I was not used to this. Let’s just say it was overwhelming to see Vancouver for the first time. It is so amazingly beautiful. There was also some beauty in having a dream and being young enough to have the luxury of time to explore a career idea that does not even exist yet, while you know for sure it will be, eventually.

I knew next to nothing when I arrived, so, since I was a blank slate, every day offered the excitement of trying something new. And, as a backpacker, this is amazing, even when it is not. I learned soon enough that it frequently rains in Vancouver! When you explore, by default, you have no expectations, and even if you do, it does not really matter because you don’t even know what you are getting yourself into. You are almost always outside your comfort zone. As a result, it does offer a certain level of anxiety, which is also laced with ongoing excitement. Overall, that was a startling contrast with the hospital life, or any life for that matter. I felt alive like never before. You can easily say that my interest for this lifestyle has not changed that much since then, as I am writing this from my Sprinter Van, a solid 1km away from where it all started at the Jericho Beach Hostel.

Jericho Beach Hostel

In order for me to keep being inspired about what I was doing, I decided that I was going to stay at the Jericho Beach Hostel in West Point Grey area, on Discovery road, near the ocean. Jericho beach offers spectacular views of downtown Vancouver. From a commute perspective, it is not ideal, but I figured it was a great place to start this journey. The minute I stepped in, I realized there were people there from all over the world and the reasons of their stay in Vancouver were as diverse as the characters themselves. There were people of all ages, not just hipsters looking to travel, smoke weed and have a good time, although these guys were my favourites. They portrayed the true backpackers spirit, something I had been missing throughout my twenties. Unlike them, I had work to do. I had been given a bed in a dorm, which was the cheapest option to choose from. I was on a budget. I had no idea how long it would take me to find some decent work. It was not the time to make any assumptions.

It is a fair assessment to say that making friends in an hostel is easier than breathing. Everyone is on the same wave length, more or less: travellers discovering places and giving each other tips on where to go & how to get there. Discussions were captivating. While travelling on the cheap, the ultimate hang out place ended up being the gigantic community kitchen in the basement where people shared travel stories, some of their food and exchange on daily activities. It did not take me long to make friends there and feel at home. I was scheduled to stay in the hostel until I find some work, so that may take awhile. It was important for me to keep a healthy social network because it would improve my english speaking skills as I was slowly settling in Vancouver.

Beach life

I figured one of the best ways to make some friends was also by organizing social events. The first one that came to mind was to make fires on the beach, bring some beers or wine, the guitar, maybe some weed and chat. So, I made a schedule and promoted these social events throughout the hostel. Oh oh. What now? That was so much fun. As the leader, we were doing this twice a week or so, depending on weather. I always tried to make sure the fire was small enough and as hidden as it can be, in a way that does not attract any attention. It did not always work.

There was this one time, from a distance an old lady approached one of our nightly gatherings on the beach. She was in her sixties and must have been a citizen of the nearby upper-class neighbourhood. She was clearly upset. She came to us and said the following: Do you know that what you are doing is illegal? I paused for a few seconds and I said: Well, I believe you will have to narrow it down a little bit better for us. Is it the fire that you are the most concerned with or the weed, the loudness of the music or the beers that we are drinking? It created the proper effect. She stormed off even more pissed than when she arrived while everyone was rolling around laughing.

In these nightly events on the beach, it was not uncommon to have a strong contingent of french-speaking Quebecers, some of which may be feeling home sick on various degrees. It happens frequently. As such, they would naturally ask me to play some songs in French, one of which had become an emblematic song that has been following me around since that time is called Terre Promise. That song has always been contextually relevant to us because it was composed by Eric Lapointe in Nanaimo, BC in the early 90s and it talks about travelling and missing home. It is a gut wrenching soulful comfort song that helps reuniting us in our culture and identity, in a nutshell. It will come back again and again in various chapters of my story. It was played extensively during that stay at the hostel and over the decades that followed.

Crab fishing

Another activity that was captivating to me around the hostel were the people on the pier, next to the Jericho sailing club, most of which originally from the Philippines from what I understood, and experts at doing something I had never seen before: Dungeness crab fishing. I was standing there for hours watching these guys, with their crab traps and various bait strategies. They had the folding circular crab trap, the rectangular & triangular shapes, some heavy ones and lighter, smaller formats. As for baits, it appeared chicken was the preferred choice but you could also use salmon heads. These guys were serious about it. They taught me how to identify male and female, measure them and decide which ones to keep and bring them home. It did not take me long to make a trip to Army & Navy in Downtown Vancouver to buy the crab fishing apparatus and give this a go for myself. That was so much fun and it was right next to the hostel. How convenient!

Food

As a foodie, I was quite impressed about the variety of new types of food in the grocery stores I have never tried before. One of the first things that attracted my attention was those smoked red BBQ salmon. This is unique. You don’t get that in Montreal. It is quite different than the typical smoked salmon, and cheaper too. I was intrigued. Discovering new food has always been a passion and Vancouver certainly has a lot to offer. You can spend months trying things out, from all the various asian influences, and never get bored. My introduction to Vancouver was filled with flavours and I was ecstatic.

Zoom out - Digital nomad life

Let’s just zoom out a tiny bit here for a moment. I am describing the backpacker lifestyle of any dude in his twenties and it is a hell of a lot of fun. Fast forward 25 years, I am now 53 years old and we live in a world post-pandemic where working remotely is the new normal. I have lived the emergence of technology and acceptability of this lifestyle over time. I have personally been waiting for this precise moment in history when everyone can easily become a digital nomad. We have the communication, project management tools & technology softwares including internet access, alongside decent data packages, from the most remote places all over the world at very reasonable cost. As such, over the last 2 years with the van, I had spent a lot of time near Spanish Banks, the beach right next to Jericho, and every day half a dozen random people would come and talk to me and asking me questions about my solar panels (portable and hard mounted), the portable Jackery lithium battery, the Starlink satellite internet access hardware and the nomadic lifestyle itself, with serious interest.

Whereas this lifestyle has historically been associated with younger folks, it is with a great level of enthusiasm that we see this trend extending to a more diverse population group. Last but certainly not least, it also offers the possibly of banking on the differential in the cost of living across various countries. As such, I found this website that compares cost of numerous day to day items, allowing people to decide which country to travel, as a digital nomad, depending on their budget. I had selected Tunisia because of its proximity to the Mediterranean sea, my love for sailing and merguez sausages, low cost of living, among other things. There are many other options to choose from. For Canadians specifically, it makes pre-retirement and retirement far more accessible. This is definitely an idea that should be contemplated as the cost of living in Canada is skyrocketing, let alone all the other economic uncertainties. We have to think outside the box to find innovative solutions to our modern problems, in my opinion.

Zoom back in

Life at the hostel was running smoothly. It was clean and safe and I enjoyed it. Up until that point, I was travelling by myself, even though I had a girlfriend back home, Chantal, who was curious about what I was doing. It was scheduled that she would come to Vancouver as well, at some point, as soon as I find some work. Her family was almost as enthusiastic as mine about the concept of SEO. Chantal received countless comments about how much of a nutcase I was to engage in such a lunatic career project. She was from a working class family, not the nerdy type curious about computers and where technology was headed. As such, they were adamant that I would NEVER make any money doing this work. Nevertheless, I think the adventure spoke to her as well. In any case, I needed to get serious about finding work, otherwise the project won’t fly. There is no way I would come back home with a failing outcome. That was not an option. I was determined to make this work.

MailBoxes Etc.

In order to mimic my permanent residence as a Vancouverite and for the benefit of the job-hunting process in Internet Marketing, I decided to get an address through a Mail Boxes Etc. located on West 10^th Avenue, in an area called West Point Grey, not too far from the hostel. I had a mailing address on West 10^th, with a suite number. That looked official and accomplished. Check.

Educacentre

Upon arrival, one of the few key tasks was to find a computer that I could use for as many hours as I needed to. In Vancouver, there are organizations offering job hunting services, including for French-speaking people. Much like a YMCA, Educacentre was one of those places that were offering these services including computer, internet access, fax and more, all for free. It was located 6km away from the Jericho Beach Hostel. I ended up walking that distance daily, for months. There were very kind people there, helping and asking me questions about what kind of work I was seeking. Unlike most people using those services, I was aiming relatively high. Staff at Educacentre wanted me to get a minimum-wage job anywhere, like everyone else, just to get the ball rolling, but I was not interested in any of those. I was already done with the naysayers trying to discourage me.

Over time, I had collected all the contact email addresses of every Intrawest-related businesses & points of contact. Besides Tremblant Central Reservations, there were a few other entry points to work for Intrawest, including Real Estate, Intrawest Corporate Office, Whistler Ski Resort and a few others. The idea was to communicate with them and present myself. The biggest issue I was facing is that the concept of SEO – Search Engine Optimization – did not even exist at the time. It was not part of the marketing lingo so it needed an introduction. So, I had to explain what it was, and then convince them that they need this in order to make progress online. Intrawest was managing the biggest websites in Tourism in Canada, so, it was just a matter of time that they would clue into this. As a final step, I had to recommend that I was obviously the best person for the job. It was a colossal task to achieve with a P.O. Box mailing address and a broken English. I did tell them about the cancer episode. That story helped me get a foot in the door. I used that story to gain some sympathy for the project I had in mind. So, as a starting point, I emailed Rob Morrow, ask him for a meeting and he agreed. I had to refresh his memory from our initial conversation though. He was quite cool and willing to listen. I will have my first meeting. It will be in 3 days. We will soon see how this turns out. Stay tuned.

Up Next: A deluge of rejections in Welcome to Vancouver - Part 2

There are more pages on the internet than people on this planet. If you want to be seen online, I recommend you keep on reading my resume.