After two days on the Rocky Mountineeer, we were in Vancouver. It is a great, thriving vibrant city with active outdoor and arts scenes. We saw some of that but not nearly enough. It's also a very very diverse city. Walk down any block and you may hear a dozen or more different languages. The neighborhood where our little rental was located boasted Vietnamese, Chinese, Ceylonese, Indian, Thai, Italian, Cambodian, North American pubs, coffee shops and more that I can't even remember.
Getting around is pretty easy. Public transportation = both buses and light rail - is good and can get you just about anywhere. We used it for the first two days. We rented our car for the final day and promptly got a parking ticket at a city meter that didn't work.
Vancouver has one of the largest "Chinatowns" in the world and that was our first stop and one of our final stops. The food!!!! The steamed buns at New Town Bakery are to die for. I'd say just stay away from their sweets case but you have to pass it to get in.
We went back to Chinatown for lunch our last day, to Phnom Penh.
Two of their specialties - Butter Beef and their fried chicken wings - earned this restaurant top picks on a number of travel sites. Seriously, the wings have spoiled me for any other wings. The batter is light, almost but not quite tempura. Not hot sauces needed here, just an amazing garlic-ginger dipping sauce.
The street markets were amazing.
We spent parts of two days in beautiful Stanley Park. And, we went to the aquarium in Stanley Park.
I'm not a big fan of zoos and aquaria but since this is a rescue and teaching facility I agreed to go. It's probably the only chance I'll have to see a beluga whale since they live in the Arctic Ocean
and the moon jellyfish tanks was cool. We see these guys here sometimes. Not so many at once though.
From Stanley Park we walked around the part of the waterfront
to get to Canada Place for Fly Over Canada.
"FlyOver Canada is an amazing virtual flight ride in which you will “take off” into a huge domed screen to enjoy a breathtaking flight across the country. The motion seating and special effects including wind, scents and mist combine to make you feel as if you truly are flying!" --from www.flyovercanada.com
Here as a taste of the video in a early promo from the website:
FlyOver Canada Taking Off Spring 2013 from FlyOver Canada on Vimeo.
I don't know how they do it in the "motion machine," but when you go up over that ridge and drop down the other side, you really feel the gravity change.
There's more Vancouver to come. Stay tuned.
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