Lee and I stayed in the St. Clair Hostel on Richard and Dunsmuir in Vancouver. I am not sure what to call the neighborhood but I can say that it was an ideal location both for staying in the area of our room or traveling to the other places we intended to go. The room was $145US for three nights and the entire facility was clean, comfortable, and entirely professional. Hostels in Vancouver are easy to find when walking the streets, but I should say that they do not all advertise online or even have phone numbers. For people seeking inexpensive rooming, there are places around that advertise that they take in tenants yet for whatever reason they do no booking in advance or in any other way than in-person. At Richard and Dunsmuir, the same intersection where I stayed, there was also a place with a sign that said “International Student Housing.” The rooms were safe safe and simple but the front desk had no phone, no posted rates, no business card, or any way to communicate other than by talking directly to people at the check in counter. He said dorm rooms were something like $350 a month, which – given the location and security of the building – are prices that would have appeal for a certain type of traveler.
The first night I could not talk or eat because of my recent surgery, but I was in the mood to walk so we walked. Vancouver noticeably has more urban commercial and social infrastructure in place than Seattle. The public transit is more developed, the commercial districts are more easy to navigate, there are more permanent sights for wandering persons to find, and there is an established night scene. I could just say that there seems to be more money among more people in Vancouver than Seattle. We walked down Granville Street (where the nightclubs are) and people watched and hung out, but I was groggy so that is all we did.
On the second day we went to the tourist information center. We talked to the people there to decide an itinerary and look at maps, and the volunteers were entirely helpful. It was really nice to have such a resource. We went through Gastown on into Chinatown then down Main Street to a minor shopping district. One interesting place I found was Voltage, which is a dealer of pop-art and mass-produced Japanese and Japanese-styled toys. We chilled in the part and petted dogs that walked by. On the way back we stopped at Marc Emery’s office, which houses a store, the political party records, and a vapor lounge. It is in a downtown area facing a park and across the street from a community college, which is something that I would not have had a sense of without actually visiting the place.
That was in early afternoon, but gosh, I cannot remember what we did for the rest of the day.
The next day we went to the University of British Columbia campus. Classes had just restarted and there were kids everywhere. We visited their Museum of Anthropology and saw their large collection of totem poles gathered together in a high-ceiling display room. Then we went to the botanical garden and toured the grounds, especially the fruit and vegetable exhibition. Lots of things were ripe and it was nice to see some varieties of vegetables that we do not normally see in markets and also to see the plants from where our food comes.
Then we went to Wreck Beach. There is a freaking nude beach directly on the University of British Columbia campus, right between the Museum of Anthropology and the botanical garden. It was sunny and warm enough for us to go, and we had fun, but still it must be a blast to go here earlier in the summer when the weather is really hot.
The university is on the water so is not centrally located to the city, so in leaving there we could have gone anywhere. We went to the fun part of Davie Street, which is Vancouver’s gay district, and just wandered around. From there we walked to the public library because there was a lecture there that night by the founder of Playground Builders. This is a non-profit organization that builds playgrounds for kids in war zones. So far they have built about 50 in Israel / Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The founder is a former lumber industry manager and he goes to these places with plans on paper, then gets bids on contracts from local people to build a playground for about $5-7000. The playgrounds are supposed to consist of swings, a slide, some kind of play house, seesaws, a bench for parents, and a trashcan. Everything is supposed to be built to last with minimal maintenance. He was a good speaker and it seems like a good cause.
On Tuesday September 15, I had an appointment to visit the safe injection site. This is a place centrally located downtown where persons who inject illegal drugs can go to get clean equipment and inject themselves in a safe and legal environment under the supervision of nurses and social workers. The site serves about 800 clients a day. They have a process for keeping anonymized records of their clients, so they are able to provide supporting evidence that their site increases public health while saving public funds.
We went to Chinatown for food. It is amazing the difference in quality that can be found in Chinese restaurants in Chinese areas as compared to elsewhere. The food was extra good because I had hardly eaten during the trip before then, but it was a great way to finish the trip.
The only other thing I could note is that it was a hassle to get back to America. Canadian customs officials looked and acted like bureaucrats as they let us into Canada. The American customs checkpoint was militant, with the officers having both guns and batons, wearing combat boots, and speaking military jargon. I remember that going into Canada the officer asked for my purpose of visit, and I said it was to visit the university. The officer asked why I was visiting, and I said to tour the campus. The American officer asked the same thing, but then asked the closed-ended question of whether I was applying to be a student. When I said no, he asked why I went there and I told him to tour the campus. I could tell that this answer baffled him, but he let me through. There were just 16 of us on this big bus returning, and among us was this Persian couple. They kept them at the border for 45 minutes after letting everyone else through, and they kept saying they would just need a little longer so we all wanted to wait for them. We could see the Persians were not talking to anyone; they were just waiting to be let through, and there was no one else in the customs office as it was a slow day. In the end, the officers let them through with no explanation about the wait.
The bus driver made a special stop for us at our home, which conveniently was not too far outside the regular bus route. It was a nice service.