18th May 2007 - 25th May 2007
Well after spending 8 months living in Vietnam, We flew in to Vancouver from Saigon. The trip was quite long as we (Mel & I ) decided to fly with EVA Airlines through Taipei. The first flight was a quick 3.5 hours where we had exit row seating. After walking around Taipei airport for 4.5 hours we were on to the final leg with a horrible 10 hour flight ahead of us. We didn't get exit row seats this time around but everyone sitting around us was Asian so we had plenty of room.
We arrived into Vancouver at 7.30pm on Friday the 18th May 2007. After making our way in a taxi to the Hi hostel Vancouver Central, we decided to go and get a quick bite to eat before calling it a night. We sat in the little pizza shop on the corner of Granville & Nelson eating our $1.50 slice of pizza and then found ourselves just staring at everyone. I think we were having a little bit of reverse culture shock after entering a western country. The people just seemed so big. A lot of people including the girls seemed to tower above me. Their were fat people, tall people, white people, black people, Asians, Indian's, blond hair, red hair, pink hair & even green hair (we have this type of thing in Australia but I haven't seen it for quite some time). After sitting for about half an hour just watching we decided to head up stairs to our room. As we settled into bed all we could hear was the night club down stairs. The music vibrated it's way up through our pillows which unfortunately kept waking us up for most of the night.
Vancouver seems to have it all. It has beautiful parks, beaches, hikes, trails, snowy mountains, skiing, glitzy shopping, cool pubs & lastly it’s a nice size city that’s really not too busy. One of the major things that just seemed to shock us was the amount of cars on the road or lack there of. After coming from Hanoi where all it's 3 million residents are on the road at the same time, it's quite a shock to walk across a street & not see a single car, bike or buffalo on the road.
On the first couple of days we went to check out the biggest tourist attractions that Vancouver has to offer. Some of the places we went to were Capilano Suspension Bridge which is exactly what it sounds like. A big suspension bridge suspended 70 feet above a raging river with jagged rocks. Grouse Mountain was the next stop which is only another 15 minute bus ride up the hill. This is the place that you can go skiing in Vancouver & also check out a couple if the local Grizzly bears. Stanley Park is another must see. It's famous for it's totem poles for each Indigenous tribe of Canada except funnily enough there is no totem pole for the tribe that use to inhabit Stanley Park. When boredom hits in Vancouver you must pay a visit to Science World ( I know that may sound a bit gay but it was pretty interesting). You get to play around with a few cool things. It was pretty much like the Exploratorium in San Francisco I went to. Lastly on our visited list was Crack Town which isn’t really a tourist attraction it’s more of a step across the wrong side of the tracks where there is a crystal meth epidemic at the moment. We thought we were heading back to the hostel but shortly realized we were in the wrong spot with our wallets full of cash & our nice new video camera's & digital stills in hand. We also did a little Red Trolley Tour which takes you around to all the historical sights that Vancouver has to offer.
One thing that Vancouver has a lot of is convertible cars & nice cars. When you’re walking around you could be mistaken to think you’re in the mid life crises capital of the world. But it just so happens like any other big city there is a big divide between the rich & poor. And the rich definitely like to show it off as they get around in the Mustang, Porsche, Bentley, Hummer, Corvette, Ferrari & of course Lamborghini’s.
Whilst in Vancouver Mel was a little put off by the amount of homeless people. Coming from Vietnam I think it was just a shock for her to see western people begging especially if you compare it to Asia where every western person is considered rich & can afford the every day items like food & shelter. One person we met said Vancouver has the highest number of homelessness in Canada because it has the warmest weather year round. It never seems to hit the –30C like a lot of the other places do so it makes a lot of sense that the homeless flock there.
On a few days we got up & out of the hostel by 8.00am to have a look around. Now this would be a normal time in Australia, but in Vancouver it’s not. No shops seem to open in Canada before 10.00am & because of this there was not a lot of people on the streets in except for the large numbers of homeless people. It was quite strange one day when we were walking along the waterfront at about 8.30am looking at the North Vancouver skyline & a man was walking next to us. He began making the usual chitchat & said he was here from the US, where are we from, do we like Vancouver & can he have some money? It was not expected by either of us. He was dressed quite reasonably & by no means looked homeless. It came as quite a shock as we had already passed ten other people who had no shoes, holes in their pants & looked like they had been deprived a shower for quite a few days.
Despite all the downfalls Vancouver has, for me it’s definitely small in comparison to the great things, great people & great times you can have. Mel also likes it besides the things mentioned earlier but at the moment it’s not on her number one “place to live” list.