'SHOPPING? I'VE DRIVEN 300 kilometres across the prairies to Canada's fifth largest city, and you're telling me the main attraction here is a mall?' I couldn't believe my ears.
The bartender wasn't joking. 'Believe me, it's an experience you'll not forget. Just make sure you take your credit card.' My wife's eyes lit up, I tried to change the subject, but I knew that tomorrow I would be spending (and spending, and spending) a day in the West Edmonton Mall.
I would leave Canada with overweight luggage and an underweight bank account, but I have to admit, the West Edmonton Mall will blow your mind.
It's the biggest shopping and entertainment complex in the world, covering more than 478,000 square metres (5.2 million sq. ft), and is so popular that it draws more than nine million tourists a year.
They fly into Edmonton in Alberta from all over Canada and the United States on package tours, just to shop. Many never even leave the mall during their visit to Edmonton. It has two hotels, one a theme hotel called Fantasyland, which lives up to its name.
The two-storey complex is so big that it is almost overpowering. You could explore it for days. Some 1.6 kilometres from end to end, it spans the equivalent of 48 city blocks, employs more than 23,000 people and has covered parking for 20,000 vehicles.