Op-Ed: Travelling to Whistler worked well at Vancouver Winter Olympics Special

Vancouver - There has been a lot of negative publicity regarding the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but a day visit to Whistler went very well.

After all the negative publicity regarding the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics - most of it totally justified - my recent trip to Whistler to see the last two rounds of the Men's Luge competition went almost like clockwork. I arrived at the BCIT Burnaby campus really early to get the bus to Whistler, expecting there to be huge queues of cars, but I just drove straight in and parked. I had booked the 9 a.m bus but was early, so I thought I'd have to wait. However, my round-trip ticket was taken from me and I was shown on to the next bus that arrived, which left at 8:40 a.m. First lesson - even if you have a ticket for a later bus, you can still take an earlier one. Second lesson: On the way to Whistler, sit on the left hand side of the coach to get the views of Howe Sound, the Sunshine Coast, and the Coastal Mountains. The trip to Whistler took two hours. The bus stops about 3 minutes walk from the Upper Village. Visitors can easily get some supplies before heading to, in my case, The Whistler Sliding Centre is around 15 minutes walk up the road or 4 minutes in one of the frequent shuttle buses that leave from the same place where the buses from BCIT arrive. There are long queues to get into the event, as most people have bags which are X-rayed. Food can be taken in, purchased bottled water can be taken in, but water and other beverages in thermoses and other containers has to be emptied. The staff are apologetic and embarrassed as they know this is the price visitors have to pay for Coca Cola's sponsorship. The track is ugly but the view at turn 16 is spectacular, the speed electrifying, and a wooden wall can't quite hide the place where Nodar Kumaritashvili died. Third lesson - further up the hill towards the start, the inside of turn 7 is a great place to watch too. When everyone left after Felix Loch deservedly won, there weren't enough shuttle buses to take people back to the Upper Village, but the 10-minute wait was considerably less than than the time people spent queuing for the Excalibur gondola. After the shuttle bus arrived at the car park, it took barely five minutes before the coach to BCIT arrived. Visitors should note that no tickets are required for the shuttle buses and for the return coach trip to Vancouver. Speaking of Nodar Kumaritashvili, I was nauseated to see Canadian tourists trampling on some of the flowers laid as a memorial to his passing under the Olympic rings in the Upper Village. They were wanting their Olympic ring picture taken and had already forgotten about the Georgian luger.