Vancouver

The most beautiful and also the most expensive city I have ever stayed.

This time, because of the illness of my colleague, I have to attend the boring Wimax Forum FtF meeting again. This is really an unexpected trip. My boss just informed me one week ago before departure. Everything including visa, hotel reservation, meeting registration, job relocation etc. must be completed in just one week.

This time, the venue is at Hyatt Regency, and I stayed there for 4 days. The service and bed of Hyatt is quite good. While sleeping outside my house, the only thing I care the most is the bed. Last time in Peru, even the hotel is a 4-star, the bed is extremely soft and my back ached the whole week. That’s really a terrible experience.

The biggest problem of staying in Vancouver is the cost and tax. It costs 195 CAN for just one night in Hyatt and the tax totally is among unbelievable 16%....Fortunately my company pays for it. Although the meeting is quite boring, I still have to pay attention to their discussions and conclusions, well, if they have. Usually, there are lots of discussion but no conclusion. So if they do have a conclusion, never miss it.

I arrived late the day before the meeting and had to leave in the mid night after the closing of the meeting. Technically, I didn’t have enough time to look around the attractions of Vancouver. But I never give up the chance to explore a new city. So, every night, after the meeting, I walked around Vancouver downtown. In the beginning, I thought Vancouver is a peaceful city. Even the homeless say hello to me. One night, because of the jet lag, I woke up at 4:00AM and couldn’t sleep anymore. There is nothing I can do so I decided to have a short walk to Stanley Park. Well, not that short. It’s a 3 hours walking exercise. I walked alone with the coast, trying to take some good pictures with my tripod, and found one homeless searching for something into the crash can. He turned his head and said hello to me. I was a little bit stunned and could only hardly say hello back.

But when I told this story to my Spanish friends, they thought I am really brave and show me the newspaper. There was a series of street gunfight overnight that night in Vancouver downtown and at least 8 people was sent to hospital and one was found shot to death.
Well….God helps those who know nothing.

One of Vancouver’s attractions is the Steam clock in Gas Town. I have been there three times that week. One at dawn, two at night. This steam clock is very interesting, just like the one I saw in Hokkaido. It is powered almost entirely by steam. Gas town is a very lovely district with many interesting shops, gallery and restaurants. Blow is a sketch of Steam Clock on Hotel’s note. Next time, I shouldn’t think too much, just sketch. On the road of sketching, there is still a long way to go.……

Last Afternoon, Guillermo wanted to have a cycling in Stanley part. That’s a great idea. I had never rode a bicycle in other countries. This willt be a memorable experience. Julie said she is also interested in this and would like to join us. To be honest, I am a little bit sorry to her because I did'nt mention how long the route is and that is an up and down circle. Totally, the ride took 4 hours. Stanley Part is a well preserved park with lots of jogging, cycling, and in-line-skating route. Our whole route is shown below. From Robson Street, to Stanley Park, across the Lion Gate Bridge, turn right to North Vancouver and then take the sea bus back to Vancouver downtown. Riding in a foreign city is really interesting. You can have a closer look to the city and explore the places where were difficult to reach by walking.

Vancouver, the most clean and beautiful city I have seen. Wish I could have chance to be there again. If someone is willing to pay for me, it will be perfect. Tax is really high. Maybe this is the reason why Vancouver is so clean.