Re: Those Scary Foreign Countries

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Since you sound as if you're on a limited budget, I suggest (as long as you mean Vancouver, BC)

1. walking around the seawall in Stanley Park (and in genereal mooching around in Stanley Park)

2. Walking west on Kitsilano Beach from the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium (which are both worth visiting) till you get out to Jericho Beach. Watch the sunset from the patio of the Jericho Sailing Club, where you can get adequate bar food for dinner.

3. Go up to the top of Grouse Mountain.

4. Visit the anthropology museum out at the University of British Columbia. Maybe also the Japanese garden there, if you're into such.

5. Walk along Robson Stree down to Denman, then along Denman, south to the beach. A billion places to eat, like Hapa Izakaya.

6. You can get a 1-day bus pass and see lots of neighborhoods. Parts of Richmond are a lot like Hong Kong. Commercial is a lively mixed-culture street. The bus can take you all the way out to Deep Cove, if you like.

7. Have one really memorable meal, perhaps at Vij's. Most of the excellent restaurants in the city have moderatly priced tasting of pre-fixe or early bird menus (but not Vij's. The trick there is to get in.).

8 I almost forgot the Granville Island Public Market.

If you get through all that, you'll begin to have your own ideas about the city.


Posted by: Steve | Link to this comment | 07-23-05 11:23 PM
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Wow, thanks!

What if I weren't on a limited budget?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 07-23-05 11:25 PM
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My best memories of Vancouver are of some of the best Chinese restaurants ever... better than Frisco or NY.


Posted by: Brian Boru | Link to this comment | 07-23-05 11:25 PM
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I haven't spent much time in Vancouver, and I've been on a budget the couple times I've been there, so I can't add too much to the first comment, but I second the recommendation to go to the Anthropology museum. The whole UBC campus is beautiful, anyway. The art gallery is good too, though I suppose it's more interesting if you're interested in BC and the Northwest.

Depending on how long you're up there and what kind of transportation you arrange, you could also go to Victoria/Vancouver Island.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 12:36 AM
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No vacation in six years? Insanity!


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 8:02 AM
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Oh, it's so gorgeous there. I've been twice, although not entirely free to sightsee either time (wedding, accompanying mother to conference). Granville Island is great. I remember there being some great gardens (if you like that kind of thing).

Stanley Park is nice -- the Aquarium is there and is worth visiting.

I mostly enjoyed walking around, taking in the views, seeing UBC, etc. I think there are some cool day trips into the mountains (friends did that), but I can't remember exactly where ... could find out if you're interested.


Posted by: profgrrrrl | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 8:09 AM
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If you'll have transportation, strongly consider Whistler Blackcomb. It's a slightly under two hour drive, but so so beautiful.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 9:19 AM
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salmon house on the hill. I ate there almost 20 years ago as a kid, but it was fantastic. Can't personally vouch for it now. salmonhouse.com

Also, Mount Baker and surrounding area are amazing, but may be too far South from the city for you. Great hiking and climbing.


Posted by: phred | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 9:25 AM
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"Anyone been?"

A bunch of times, but not since 1982, so I can't offer many specifics by now. Lovely town, though. You can also make your way down to Victoria, have tea, and then on to Seattle, and perhaps Portland, if you want a more regional visit (visit Mt. St. Helens, and/or Mt. Rainier). :-)

Consider trying the dim sum in Vancouver. How do you feel about ferries? And mountains?


Posted by: Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 9:29 AM
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Just got back from a conference there in June, have been there bunches of times.

I think the mean junkie/deinstitutionalized lunatic/homeless population of the city has multiplied a bit over the years that I've been there, which was kind of a bit startling at times during this visit. Might be a side-effect of the terrifying increase in real estate prices in the area.

The thing about Vancouver, in my opinion, is the surroundings. The city itself is very nice, very interesting, but it's really the environs that make it shine.

I enjoy most going to:

1) Stanley Park. Walk the seawall as suggested. The Aquarium there is quite cool as well.

2) Kitsilano Beach from Vancouver Museum, as suggested. Though the Vancouver Museum itself is a dump, in my humble opinion.

3) If you can possibly swing it--e.g., car rental, ferries, the whole magilla--go up to the Sunshine Coast and spend a night somewhere up there. (It's an area on the mainland lee side of Vancouver Island, really amazingly beautiful area)

4) Granville Island is pretty cool--we stayed there this time. I thought the galleries weren't quite as cool as they could be, maybe. The Public Market is nice.

5) Go out to eat a lot. Many, many good restaurants. We went to a new area this time that I hadn't been before--I'll have to look up where it is, tons of just amazingly good new places.


Posted by: Timothy Burke | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 5:40 PM
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Maybe also the Japanese garden there, if you're into such.

I would also recommend the Japanese garden. In the summer of 1980, as a young lad of twelve, mom and dad and olderbrother and I drove in the family station wagon from Austin, TX all the way up to BC. My dad was attending his yearly algae conference, and that year it was a joint US-Canada algaestudiers meeting.

That was an incredible trip, with lots of wonderful sights and experiences along the way. But one of the things I still remember was how cool that Japanese garden was. Of course, that was about 25 years ago, and I was twelve . . .

I've been to Vancouver since, but never had the chance to revisit the garden, but it's a really nice city. The huge influx of Chinese, particularly Hong Kongers, in the period surrounding the handover of HK to China, does mean that there's some incredible, and damn authentic, Chinese food to be had. The immigrant mix, tilted towards Commonwealthesque countries, makes it a quite different experience than visiting other largish US cities. And the surrounding environs are indeed beautiful, so check out the city, but also get out of town.


Posted by: Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 6:15 PM
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I was gonna go to Vancouver for a couple of weeks, but didn't because tickets were so much more expensive than going to, say, Chicago. What did you find?


Posted by: Toadmonster | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 6:32 PM
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Well, it depends on where you are, of course, but you can find fares from NY for $300 and fares from DC for about $500. The NY fare is pretty reasonable.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 6:41 PM
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If you are on a moderate budget, stay at the Sylvia Hotel and pay the extra charge for a room on the view side, if you can get one. Have dinner at The Raincity Grill, just around the corner, where you'll discover NW food and British Columbia wines. (If you're beer only, go to Chambar, but reserve well in advance.)

If you want to splurge, stay at The Wedgewood or The Metropolitan. Have dinner at Lumiere or West and Tojo's.

Whatever the budget, walking around is in my view the best way to get the feel of a city, but you ought to take the Sea Bus over to North Vancouver and/or the AquaBus around False Creek (to the public market or Science World).

We do, as noted above, have a great variety of fine Chinese food, though right downtown is not the best area for it. If you go to Broadway and Main and walk south on Main, you'll pass through a mostly Chinese area but also an emerging young/hip/artist area, with the Sun Sui Wah at about 23rd, our flagship Chinese restaurant. If you walk north on Main instead, you'll go through fascinating industrial areas that will be developed for the 2010 winter olympics, and wind up in the awful mess known as the Downtown East Side but also at our Chinatown . If you stay put right around Broadway and Main, you can get perhaps our best Szechuan food at the Wing Wah (and their famous $6 lunch) or congee at The Congee Noodle House. Walk out Kingsway, and within a few blocks you'll think you're in Viet Nam. You can't lose and you'll see non-tourist Vancouver.


Posted by: Steve | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 6:42 PM
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I think the Raincity Grill has gone down a bit in quality but it's still very good. I would recommend avoiding Bishop's, which I used to enjoy very much but which now appears to have gone through a catastrophic meltdown in quality for some reason.


Posted by: Timothy Burke | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 7:09 PM
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wait... you don't live in ? Back to the drawing board...


Posted by: mike d | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 10:04 PM
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Check out the Chiang Kai-Shek Chinese Garden.


Posted by: theophylact | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 7:59 AM
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Whoops: My bad -- that's the Sun Yat-Sen Garden.


Posted by: theophylact | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 8:01 AM
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The Jazz Cellar's good enough to just turn up on spec.


Posted by: dave heasman | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 8:03 AM
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Chinatown? The whole city is Chinatown. Really, there should be a part called Whitetown.


Posted by: JP | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 9:39 AM
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16: That's why tickets were so damn cheap.


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:06 AM
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JP,

Really, there should be a part called Whitetown.

Whitetown is okay, but how about Roundeyeowa?


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:08 AM
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The "aren't any more expensive than tickets to Chicago" construction was clever, because no one reading that would make the leap to the conclusion that they're actually free. Technically true, yet still deceitful, that's our ogged.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:10 AM
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I assume my Supreme Court nomination is in the mail?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:12 AM
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That's not funny, Tripp. I have a cousin who went blind because his eyes were so round.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:12 AM
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I have a cousin who went blind because he feigned ignorance of a certain literary device found on his blog.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:19 AM
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Just because you found it on his blog, that doesn't mean he put it there, you know. Duh! If I were going to frame someone for murder I'd want you to be the detective.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:36 AM
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Nevertheless I'm sorry to hear about his blindness.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:37 AM
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So what facts could we learn that would resolve the question of who is trolling who?


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 10:57 AM
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If one could choose who was detecting their crimes there would be no need to go to the effort of framing. Unless you were George Lakoff.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 11:37 AM
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Just because you found it on his blog, that doesn't mean he put it there, you know.

Who else might have put it there? The blog is called "chaste" for a reason.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 11:38 AM
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You know, Matt and Standpipe, I once knew an otherwise talented Python programmer who was fired because he took the second item of the zen of Python far too seriously, giving his variables names like "this_is_the_nested_index_counter". I think he had a boner for Robert Brandom, too.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 12:15 PM
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Well, Ben, my blind cousin does not have a blog, nor is "my blind cousin" even denoting. I don't have a blind cousin. I was speaking figuratively, with lies.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 12:37 PM
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Thank you for making that explicit, SB.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 12:44 PM
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In a foreign language class I once answered a bunch of questions about my family by saying all sorts of mean things about my brother. After class one of my classmates commented on how my brother and I must really not get along at all.

I explained to her that I don't actually have a brother. I just wanted to practice by using those phrases.

Also, this.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 12:48 PM
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eb, that's awesome. The link, that is.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 07-25-05 12:52 PM
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http://www.monsiteadulte.com/lesbienne/atseka/gay/jinbex/gay_scat_webring.html garyhoodlumnow


Posted by: untied | Link to this comment | 01-20-06 4:22 PM
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