I guess when I exchange my free ticket last February (as a member of United Airline, I have to use the mileage within three year or it will expired), I intentionally arrange to spend the week of my birthday in another city. I just don't want to stay in Baltimore for my birthday and feel so alone (Of course, I can go to DC, where I have many more friends than in Baltimore, but I guess that city is overdone by me). That "another city" is Vancouver.
After visiting Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Toronto, I have to say I have better impression about Canadians than Americans. Even Toronto, looks like another copy of Chicago, is much cleaner and feel safer than most American city (I live in Baltimore, one of the "crime capitals of U.S., so you should know how I value a city that you can walk around and don't feel scared). And then, there is Vancouver, dubbed "Canadians' favorite city", "Asian's distant shore", " New immigration paradise for Taiwanese". Mmm....I should visit this city to say I have see ‘most' of Canada.
Finally, in summer 1997, after Hong Kong (home town for many current residents of Vancouver, also known as Hong-couver) becomes a territory of Communist China, I have chance to visit this West Coast city.
A little too expensive as a birthday gift? Round-trip ticket between Baltimore and Vancouver cost almost 700 dollars? C'mon, this is a free ticket!
And I deserve it.......
Just like Seattle, Vancouver is a city lying against mountains and surrounded by water (less so for San Francisco, itself lying on several hills). Just as Seattle and San Francisco, it has very large percentage of Asian population (that translates to: a lot of nice Chinese restaurants....yummy!). Of course, because the uncertain future of Hong Kong and Taiwan, there have been waves and waves of immigrants from these two countries (yes, Taiwan is a"country") flooding into great Vancouver area in the past few years. When New York Times reported three greatest cities for sublime Chinese cuisine: Hong Kong, Taipei, and Vancouver, I thought: I should go there to have a lot of Chinese food!
I experienced when the plane started to touch down. There are mountains just across Burrat Inlet, north of Vancouver city and Vancouver itself is surrounded by Burrat Inlet, False Creek (meant it looks like a 'creek' but not), English Bay, and Strait of Georgia. Downtown area is sandwiched by water on both city. And Vancouver's most famous Stanley Park is surrounded on three sides by water (I think it is also called ‘peninsula', but that word doesn't sound poetic enough). And on our way driving to my mother's friends' place (where I would stay for next few days and my mother would join me there), I found there are establishments with Chinese scripts everywhere. And the Vancouver SkyTrain looks sort of like Taipei's newly built rapid monorail system. It made me feel half way home already. Yes, more so than the feeling I have in L.A. and S.F.
The next day after I arrived, I arranged a very tight schedule. I try to check out Chinatown, downtown area, Granville Island, West End (sort of like Georgetwon of DC and Fifth Avenue of New York), and ends with a walk ‘around' Stanley Park (around means that I have to walk 10 kilometers!). And of course, I didn't finish even half of these.
Downtown area is not charming at all. West End area is interesting, sort of like San Juan of Puerto Rico, with more than a touch of tropical seaside resort. But I missed Robson Street part, which in fact is the most popular part of West End. Thinking 1.75 Canadian dollars for such a short ferry ride to Granville Island is too expensive, I gave up and stayed at this side of False Creek. So I had a lot of time to walk around Stanley Park, just blocks away from West End.
Stanley Park is surrounded by water and a "Seawall" has been built around the park. ‘Seawall' is in fact not "wall" but a walking path. People can walk, cycle, or skate along the seawall with water view at one side and various park attraction on the other side. I have to avoid to collide with clumsy skaters from both direction (some of them act like first-time skater) on the seawall. What an exciting exercise! People of all the different ethnicities and speaking different languages walk in the park and all enjoy the nice view of the sea and mountain. After living in Baltimore for a while, where there is hardly any charming park accessible by public transportation (and don't make you feel you will get mugged, robbed, or raped in the park), I finally can enjoy all the nice outdoor activities without leaving a city.
Many of these people around are in fact tourists from Asia, especially Japanese.
There are so many green places in Vancouver, right at its edge, from all sides.
Just digressing from "seawall', I entered an area full of all kinds of tall pine and fur trees. They stand on the both sides of this path and block all the noise from outside. Sometimes I almost forgot I in fact am not too far from the most prosperous district of downtown Vancouver. It's good that a big city can offer such a park for its citizen to escape to for soul searching, having a nice stroll. New York and San Francisco have their Central Park and Golden Gate Park, but Vancouver's Stanley Park is the one really caught my heart.
Across False Creek, all the way down the Vancouver Westside, it's the end of Point Grey area, a whole region belongs to University of British Columbia (UBC). They call it "Pacific Spirit Park" . What a nice name, but some maps still label it "UBC Endowment Land" since it's the property of UBC. Though famous for its anthropology and Asian research programs, UBC itself doesn't look very impressing at all. The building is not very characteristic and the campus layout monotonous. (I might be too picky about the campus building style, but I graduated from Harvard. You know what kind of picky person I become after going through that....)
Just outside UBC's Gate 6, it's Wreck Beach. Yes!! The unofficial nude beach of Vancouver (or even the whole British Columbia). "Clothing is optional at this beach" the sign reads. But they forgot to put on "Please bring a lot of sunscreen and a very good sunglasses". Oh, yes, the sunlight there is VERY strong, but that is not the ONLY thing stinging your eyes....
This beach gave me feeling of a "Hippie Heaven", sort of like what people describe about San Francisco in the late 1960s. People sell alcohol drink illegally (maybe even Marijuana!), and running around, playing volley ball, singing...naked.
It was a very strange scene to see a group of fully clothed Asian people walking around. They seemed just to come down to the beach for a "grand sightseeing". None of them even wore shorts or something casual. They dressed like they are attending a conference at Hyatt Hotel. When I heard them speaking Shang-hainese, I think: "Oh! Chinese from Shang-hai!". Though Canada is a free country and the sign does read "clothing is optional" (which means you can choose to be fully clothed), I think their behavior is sort of disrespectful for the people on the beach.
Okay, okay, I didn't take all my clothes off either when on the beach, but I DID wear shorts, and take my shirt...off.
It's full of fun to walk in the wild, especially when you feel you are a part of it.
My mom prepaid a trip for us to Whistler, a mountain resort town 150 km north of Vancouver. The trip is run by a Taiwanese Canadian company, and all the clients on that day's tour are Taiwanese. In fact, there were only 3 people joining the tour that day: me, my mother, and her high school classmate. And the driver/tour guide is from Taiwan originally, of course.
I did not hold too much interest about Whistler. I read that it is a very famous town for alpine skiing. But I don't really ski (even I use Nordic track for exercising every week, mimicking a skiing position like crazy) and this is summer, I couldn't figure out what's really fun about that place. And I expected, of course, again, a lot of Japanese tourists there.
I was impressed first by the view on our way to Whistler. They call it "Sea to Sky Highway" and it is just magnificent and marvelous. On the right side, there are mountain peaks lining up endlessly, many of them still have their tops covered by unmelted snow from last winter; on the left side, it's the Howe Sound formed by the disappeared glacier from last ice age. Several isles and the other shore are looming from the distance. It's stinging with the reflection of ever brightening sunshine. I've been driving or sailed through sounds/fjords in Norway and New Zealand, under the drizzling rain. This is the first time I can see it under the sunny sky.
Whistler is....what can I say, a very beautiful mountain town (use your imagination before I develop, scan, format them, and put my pictures on these pages). We took the cable car (it is called "gondola", the name for the boat plying in Venice; New Zealand Queenstown's cable car also has this name) up to the top of Whistler mountain. Because there is some unmelted snow around, it is not really easy to walk up to higher area but the scene has been delightful enough for us just to stay put at the area near the entrance. It did give me the stunned feeling I've ever experienced in New Zealand, Norway, Western U.S. and parts of Switzerland. It is sublime.
"No wonder they call it Little Switzerland" my mother exclaimed.
"What! Another Little Switzerland?" I'm surprised. I've heard there are "Little Switzerland" in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and even the one I ever visited - New Zealand. It seems every place with beautiful mountain scenery, they try to dub themselves "Little Switzerland."
So little imagination.
Down to the Whistler Village, I did discover many house decorated like the Swiss maintain cottage. They are colorful but just look......weird.
On the way back to Vancouver (this time the ocean is on my side- the right side), we chatted with our driver/tour guide. He kept saying how nice Vancouver is to live. Then we talked about Taiwan politics, DPP. Then we found he is a good friend of my brother.
Oh, What a small world!
And Vancouver is like a "Little Taipei"