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Canada high for F-1 fans
Canada is going all out to make its maple leaf fly everywhere. If you love to ski, you will do well to visit the country in winter.
Canada is going all out to make its maple leaf fly everywhere. Thanks to the efforts of Canadian Tourism Commission, you are now armed with such details as “70 per cent of visitor visa applications are approved” or that “if you love to ski, you will do well to visit the country in winter”. And how about cheese from Quebec? And of course, there is the Montreal Jazz festival and the World’s largest Dinosaur Dino 2000 at a place called Drumheller.
So far so good. But how can you miss the Canadian Grand Prix 2004? And that is exactly why we were there at the F Bar and Lounge on a Sunday evening taking a pit stop with cocktails, even as we tried to enjoy track side view of the race on pocket-sized TVs as well as on a giant screen, live from Montreal.
Not that there were many Formula One fans around. More than the cars it was Foster’s beer that guests were enthusiastic about – distributed liberally across the bar counter. “We have invited people from the travel trade with whom we interact daily,” said Marketing Executive Neha Mehta Chib from the Commission.
Accordingly, we had Vijay Chadda, COO of BTI Sita sharing trade secrets with his counterpart from Blue Moon Travels Vijay Dadhich. “The appeal of Canada is unmatched. It is not only your usual tourist destination, but has so much more in terms of festivals and car races,” said Chadda who came with daughter Bhawana. Also spotted: Ratindra S. Jang, G.M. of Air Canada in India and Samina Munshi, Director, N. Chirag Travels. Travel talk prevailed, and when finally Michael Schumachar won the race, it was just incidental.
