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Day 12: Victoria
We have a decent sleep and wake up, missed breakfast but get on the coach to go the Butchart Gardens. Some very nice gardens with some very nice flowers. We enjoyed our time here and it will give us inspiration to make our garden back home as pretty as this.
Butchart Gardens Pictures
We eventually get meet up back on the coach again, this time we get dropped of in Chinatown where we decided to have a dim sum lunch. The coach continue to drop people back at the hotel for the people that wanted to go on the whale watching excursion. Feedback from that excursion was that they saw many whales.
Anyway we head back to Don Mee for a dim sum lunch, it was packed out solid, and it wasn't even midday. We got a ticket and joined the queue, 20 minutes later we get a table. Dim sum is served on trolleys and you grab whichever dish you fancy. We scoffed ourselves and went shopping to walk it all off.
We found many places to go, we walked throught the market, and Kim bought a bracelet. We walked through some shops into some alleys that no one knew about. We ended up in the Bay Shopping Centre where Kim spent a lot of money on clothes for herself, for casual wear and work. We found the clothes to be about 40-60% cheaper than in the UK. Anyhow we didn't finish shopping until about 17:00.
Wonderful sights of Victoria
We head back to the hotel to put our feet up, chill a little then prepare to get ready for the forbidden city tour. A tour that Bryce setup which included a meal at a chinese restaurant followed by a lantern light walk in the night through hidden walkways and a history of Chinatown.
We get a brief history of the chinese settling in, how they used to smoke opium and have opium factories legitimately. The government had granted the chinese a licence in the early part of the century. The government building today seemed to have benefitted from this tax many many years ago.
We meet a herbalist that deals with chinese medicine with chinese herbs. Now in the Western World they are beginning to accept chinese medicine. The Doctor has a 100% success rate with the treatment of eczema. There are four universities in British Columbia that practice chinese medicine.
A quite well thought out tour by Bryce, which helped with his knowledge and passion about the subject and area. When that finished we decided to eat at Don Mee restaurant again for the final time as the meal at the restaurant earlier was not too great/appetising.
The parliament building is very pretty at night lit up by many bulbs. This would be our final night in Victoria and we headed back to the hotel, looking back at the fun and excitement we had over the past 12 days.
The next day
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