5 Days in Vancouver and Victoria

GTA: Vancouver

My hope to visit the big city of British Columbia finally came true when my friend Summer and I thought of taking a 5 days trip around Vancouver during the semester break. Not only did I have the opportunity to visit Vancouver but also the privilege to stop over the beautiful island of Victoria to experience the European side of Canada. My 5 days trip to Vancouver and Victoria Island was good.

The trip to Vancouver did not only consist of Summer and me but also Summer’s friends, John and Maya. We thought of getting more people to join in seeing that the more the merrier and the cheaper our expenses but unfortunately, we only managed to find 2 interested individuals to join. John is also a Malaysian like Summer and I, on the other hand Maya is from Japan. One thing all of us share in common is that we are studying in the same university. Although we managed to add two more people in our trip to the big city of British Columbia, nevertheless it was enough to reduce the burden of our expenses for the trip.

We left Kamloops for Vancouver on the 30^th of April via bus. The journey from Kamloops to Vancouver was approximately 6 hours. Our time of departure was six in the morning so the day before we left, I told myself not to sleep at all as I wanted to have a long sleep in the bus instead of a dead boring six hours journey to Vancouver. Although I managed to have a good sleep in the bus, it was just four hours of sleep. Realizing that I wouldn’t even survived the remaining 2 hours in the bus sitting still, I told myself to get occupied with something. Fortunately, I brought my Plays Station Portable ; therefore, the remaining two hours of the trip were filled with video games and my very own in house movie. Unfortunately, my source of entertainment was interrupted by John who sat next to me when he bugged me constantly to lend him the Play Station Portable. After reluctantly giving him my hand held video game, I began to wonder whether my trip to Vancouver and Victoria would be an unforgettable one. The next thing I knew, the bus driver announced that we have reached Vancouver. Feeling excited, I couldn’t wait any further to dismount from the bus with my university mates.

The first stop in Vancouver was the YWCA budget hotel. It was not far away from the bus station but since Maya brought a very huge suit case, walking to the hotel would take us days. Consequently, we had to take a cab to the hotel which I was slightly unpleased with seeing that the cabs in Canada are a bunch of cut throats judging by the cab fare they charge. After reaching the hotel, we checked into a room which cost us hundred dollars for a night. The room was big enough to fit all of us in. There were 2 single beds and a queen size bed together with a private toilet. I immediately “reserved” the single bed for myself after being persuaded by my selfishness. Nevertheless, I encountered hostility from Maya who desired the same thing as me. She desperately tried to pull me out from the bed I “reserved”, nevertheless her effort ended up in a failure when fatigue persuaded her to give up her fight for the single bed. After taking a short rest in the hotel, our stomachs were growling and we needed to grab lunch.

We ventured up and down the streets of Vancouver to look for a decent affordable restaurant to dine in. 25 minutes of walking aimlessly in the streets finally led us to a Japanese restaurant. Despite the restaurant looked grand, nevertheless the price was affordable. I had Chicken Teriyaki with rice for lunch and also a couple of sushi compliments of John.

After lunch we thought of visiting Simon Fraser University to find information regarding the university applications. In order to get there, we had to board the Sky Train then take a bus to the university. The problem was we didn’t know where the Sky Train Station was, therefore, we needed to do some searching. In the middle of our searching, Maya and I came across an arcade. Thinking of challenging each other in a game of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), we immediately rushed into the arcade. The search of a Sky Train Station then turned into a visit to the video arcade. Unfortunately for Maya and me, there was no Dance Dance Revolution but there were other fun games at our disposal. Instead of challenging each other in DDR, we battle each other in a game of Street Fighter 3. We also cooperated together in a game of House of the Dead. Teaching my friend Maya to play that zombie blasting game was very amusing as she was constantly terrified by the approaching undead with axes and chain saws. An hour later, we left the arcade and we continued our quest for the Sky Train Station.

We managed to find the station after asking the locals around. The train route to the university was very confusing. However that didn’t stop us from reaching our destination. We boarded the first few trains without having a clue on where the trains will be stopping and as predicted, we all went the wrong way. Fortunately, a couple of nice Canadian explained which train we should be taking and the next thing we knew, we were all on the right track to Simon Fraser University. Thirty minutes in the Sky Train finally got us to a bus station which had trips to the university. It was a 10 minutes bus ride from the bus station to Simon Fraser University. The moment we reached there, all of us were shocked as we were greeted by the view of the university the minute we dismount from the bus.

Simon Fraser University was not what we thought to be. The Burnaby campus of SFU looked very old and not well maintained. There were moss and tree stems covering the buildings which gave a gothic eerie setting. Maya described the university as something similar to the Alcatraz prison which I couldn’t agree more with her. What I saw on the SFU flyers was completely different from what I saw the other day when I was at the SFU Burnaby campus. I couldn’t really bother much about the university’s building as my main purpose was to check out the admission requirements into this so called “prestigious” university.

Summer and I were then brought to meet up with one of the staff from SFU who was responsible of the student recruitment department. After having a half an hour talk with the SFU staff, we felt so cheated. Before our trip to the university, Summer got an e-mail from the SFU staff which stated the Grade 12 requirements to enter the university. After comparing my grades with the admission requirements stated in her e-mail, I was over joy as I knew that I fulfilled every requirement. On the other hand, during our talk with the SFU staff in the university, the staff told us that our Grade 12 marks weren’t qualified and the e-mail she sends to Summer was inaccurate due to some technical mistake. I knew that there was something fishy behind that e-mail Summer got from the SFU staff. Feeling angered and disappointed, we left immediately. On my way out, I bumped into a scene where a lecturer was scolding a student. Feeling nosy, I tried to eavesdrop on the conversation. To my surprise, the issue between the student and the lecturer was all about plagiarism. I never thought that I would encounter misconduct like this in such a “prestigious” university. As we left the university, I thought back about the plagiarism incident back at the university. Come to think of it, I was grateful to be rejected by the university as I wouldn’t want to study in a higher learning institution where plagiarism is rampant.

After our disappointing visit to SFU, we went back to Vancouver city again. We decided to snap some photos around the concrete jungles of Vancouver. Summer mentioned about a park which was an ideal place to take some group photos. On our way to the park, we came across a police take down scene. We saw several police officers around a hand cuffed man who was on the ground. The scene looked very intense, so we immediately walked away instead of staying there. We finally reached the park. The park wasn’t that big but its landscape compensated its small size. There was a big fountain at the park which wasn’t really good for me as everyone was trying to get me thrown into it. As the day was getting late, we decided to have dinner; so, we went to look for a restaurant.

To my misery, it was Japanese food again. Having Japanese food again was John’s idea and I was furious about his damn obsession with Japanese cuisine. However, I gave in to his suggestion after being told there were cute waitresses in that restaurant he was about to bring us to. Lucky for John, his bones were spared after threatening him to give him my own “chiropractic” treatment if he was bull shitting me, as there were not only cute but also hot waitresses in the restaurant. Apart from the “delicious” looking waitresses, the restaurant also offered great Teppanyaki performance with its stylish onion slicing methods and its great fire display. The food was also good and all of us decided to not lay our hammers on John that night as he brought us to a good restaurant. However, when we saw the bill, we got our hammers ready telling ourselves to show no human side when punishing John later.

John and Maya decided to retire back to the hotel as they were awfully tired. As for Summer and me, we thought that the night was young, so we decided to venture around Vancouver to witness its beautiful night scenery. The scenery of Vancouver at night was indeed magnificent. With the sky scrapper’s lights illuminating the darkness of the night, Vancouver offered a breath taking scenery that will not be forgotten. Summer and I spend at least 2 hours in the city enjoying the night life and taking photos before calling it a day.

On the following day, Summer and I went down to China Town. John and Maya didn’t follow us as they were to tired to wake up. China Town was not far away from our hotel. It was only a 20 minutes walk so we thought about walking instead of taking a cab seeing that it would be a good exercise in the morning. I was really excited about visiting China Town in Vancouver as I haven’t visited places like these in foreign countries for ages. The moment we arrived, we were greeted by the tall Chinese gates which marked the entrance of China Town. Our first stop in China Town was Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s park. We took a couple of pictures over the small lake and the mini bamboo forest in the park. Later on, we went to look for Dim Sum and Chinese Egg Tarts in the nearby Chinese restaurants. The Dim Sum and Chinese Egg Tarts really reminded me of the food back in Malaysia. After feasting on the delicious Chinese food, we continued our roaming around China Town. Summer was then reminded to purchase tickets for our ferry ride to Victoria, so we had to end our tour around China Town.

We immediately went to Pacific Central Station. The Pacific Central Station was a bus station that does not only sell bus tickets but also ferry and train tickets. The ferry tickets were fairly expensive as they cost us $76 per person. After purchasing the tickets we met up with John and Maya. Clueless about what to do next, we all decided to roam aimlessly around Vancouver city.

Throughout this aimless venture around the city, we took group photos and traded jokes among each other. Despite we were wondering around aimlessly, we still enjoyed ourselves. A couple of hours later, the day was getting darker. Knowing that most restaurants would close very soon during such hour of the time, we immediately looked for a restaurant to dine in. Instead of having Japanese food again this time, we all had Mexican food. The food was very affordable and simply delicious. As we finished dinner, Summer decided to head for the book stores. On the other hand, the rest of us had other things in mind---gaming.

After departing with Summer, John, Maya and me headed for the arcade not far away from our hotel. To Maya and my relief, there was DDR. We immediately filled the game machine with coins and we started dancing for hours. At the end of our game, I managed to beat Maya which was slightly surprising as I never thought I could. We also played House of the Dead 4 and Time Crisis 4 together. Killing undead and dodging bullets could never be so fun with her. The moment I spotted the Silent Scope machine, I went into a deep state of excitement. I was so eager to play this sniper game and I practically spend $5 dollars on game tokens for this game. As the clock struck midnight, it was time for us to go back to the hotel as we were aware that we had to wake up early tomorrow to depart for Victoria.

On the third day, we all departed for Victoria by ferry. The journey from Vancouver to Victoria via ferry was an hour and a half. Upon reaching the ports of Victoria, we headed for a cheap affordable motel to check in. We stayed at the Traveler’s Inn during our stay in Victoria. The price was very affordable and the room was big enough to accommodate the four of us. After placing our luggage in the hotel, we went to Victoria’s China Town for lunch. Unlike the one in Vancouver, the China Town over here in Victoria was smaller. We continued walking around Victoria after lunch to enjoy the scenery. Victoria some how reminded me of Europe. We toured the entire downtown of Victoria by riding on a chariot. Victoria was also nice despite it isn’t as advance and modern as Vancouver. We only stayed in Victoria for a night and on the following day, we headed back to Vancouver again. Back at Vancouver, we didn’t do anything much as we have already covered most of the places during our earlier tours. We then went back to Kamloops on the 5^th day of that week.

Overall, the 5 days holiday in Vancouver and Victoria was good. I plan to visit Vancouver again at the end of June. Although, I enjoyed my vacation, somehow I was very relief to see the sight of my nice cozy bed when I reached home. I guess there’s no place better than home.

Saya dan Maya...Hey, it rhymes

A group photo in a Vancouver park

Hey hey I thought we were friends. Ahhhh....SPLASH

Not you too Maya! Ahhh......SPLASH

Got you little girls! You girls ain't going no where!Now scream for your mummy. Hahaha!

Having Teppanyaki for dinner with Summer

Vancouver city at night

My secret base where plans of world domination are sorted out. Hahahaha...well, actually its the Vancouver Science Center

Vancouver's China Town

Dr Sun Yat Sen's park.

Enjoying the tranquility of the Sun Yat Sen park with my buddy Summer.

( Chinese zodiac grounds at the park) Born to look like a rabbit...
( Mini bamboo forest at the park) but trained to hunt like a wolf

The monument to commemorate Chinese Canadians who fought in WW2. Salute!

My first public indecency in a foreign land...well you can't blame me. Just look at my load!

Hey Maya, not again! Ahhhhhhhhh.......SPLASH

HQ, I know that the President's life is in danger if I don't take out the guy aiming his pistol at him but in my sights, there's a hot nude girl showering...ahhh I mean being taken hostage. So I think I better save her first before helping the President out.

On our way to Victoria via ferry.

Victoria, the European side of Canada

Outside Victoria's parliament protesting for peace...I know it's hard to believe that a person like me advocate peace. Well, to tell you the truth, I'm hired as an undercover agent to pretend to be these people so that I can gather intel...NO MORE WAR! PEACE (Hahahaha...am I a good actor or what?)

Chariot riding in Victoria with a sweet lady. Summer! change place. I need to be next to our sweet driver. What!? No!? How mean!

The ghost of Victoria. Scary huh? Thought so