Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Day 1 in Canada: Vancouver and Chinatown

Day 1
Arrived at 1230pm on Sat, 7 June. Surprisingly, the 18-hr flight wasn't too bad. As we flew via Seoul, the in-flight menu had a Korean meal option, which I eagerly took, hoping to get some kimchi. I looooooooove kimchi. But no such luck. It was just plain rice and beef stuff.

After we landed, we picked up our hired car for our two weeks here - a Ford Mustang convertible! I've never ridden around in a convertible before, so I was pretty excited to have one. It's a fiery red with a black soft-top and I thought, Hey this is what I've always seen in the movies and finally I'm in one!

Our friends live in N. Vancouver and it was a straightforward drive to their house up on the hills, over the Lions Gate Bridge and over the Burrard inlet. Weather was bright and sunny. In fact, it was so sunny my arms hurt from the heat while we were in the car. My first impression of Vancouver - why so many Asian shops ah? I'd always known Vancouver has a large Asian community but only after seeing for myself the amount of Asian shops and signs around did I realise the community was that big.

When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by excited yips. Uh-oh. Dogs. I'm not a dog person at all. Especially if they're small, yippy dogs. Turns out our friends have have three dogs (two Pommie mix and a collie mix with a deep woof) plus two cats. Once they'd settled down and got used to us, the yips stopped. But these Pommies have short memories. I mean, like goldfish short. I'd go to the bathroom and when I re-appear, they would look at me in surprise and burst into yips again. Get over it, doggie.

That night, we all took a drive down to downtown Vancouver to check out Chinatown. It wasn't my idea actually. It was Dear Hubby's idea actually. I don't know why an Englishman would come all the way to Canada and want to visit Chinatown when all his in-laws are Chinese but there you go. It was about half the size of Petaling St back home with the same assortment of odd stalls. We sampled the local chow mein and pork dumplings. The dumplings were superb, hot and juicy. Yum-yum.

By 9pm, we were all out, dead to the world. Tomorrow we'll be going to check out the town. Dear Hubby used to live in Canada about ten years ago, so he's eager to show me his old stomping grounds and to make me fall in love with Vancouver the same way he did.

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