Ashley Chow dot Com

I actually don’t have a picture of the actual vehicle that I’m riding on, but this is the Big Bus, the supposed “best way to discover Vancouver”. The buses come in as a half-convertible or as a double-decker and stops at many of Vancouver’s attractions, including Stanley Park, Granville Island, and Gastown.

Another “bus” that is meant for tourists to Vancouver and that again I do not have a photo of is the Vancouver Trolley. These trolleys replicate San Francisco’s cable cars, only they run on gas and wheels, not tracks and electricity.

After having ridden on both of these meant-for-tourist buses (twice each), I have to say that the Vancouver Trolley does more justice than Big Bus. Both have commentary, but Big Bus has automated lady and man voices, which the drivers often get wrong (as in the automated voices are talking about something we’re not even passing, woohoo).

With the Trolley, the driver is usually the commentator, which just shows that not only does the driver know where to go, but knows what he’s talking about too. It makes the experience a bit more personal as well, and not constant “Welcome to Big Bus!” after every stop and start.

In any case, both of these buses have over 20 stops, with the Vancouver Trolley having even 2 lines depending on where you wish to go (Downtown core or all the way down to Granville Island) and tickets are valid for 2 days. Tickets are uberly expensive, which doesn’t come as quite a surprise, and visitors are allowed and encouraged to hop off the buses anywhere along the routes and simply hop back on after.

Following are photos of various places I passed while mainly on the Big Bus (as I was on the half-convertible, or “Cabriolet” as they call it).

The Olympic clock in front of the Art Gallery, counting down the days and hours and minutes and whatever else until the 2010 Olympic Games (and Paralympic Games I should add) in Vancouver.

This is the Art Gallery (the building with the pyramid stairs and Roman-looking columns). The Shangri-La (remember that?) can be seen in the background on the left and I believe the green roof building next to the Shangri-La is the Fairmont Hotel. I can’t be 100% about that though. I’ll need a few more staycations to see everything Vancouver has to offer.

This is while I was cruising along the Burrard Street Bridge, wind blowing in my hair, sitting in the Cabriolet, living the high life. Right. The bridge in the distance is the Granville Street Bridge and the buildings should be part of Yaletown (which is a part of Downtown if you didn’t already know).

And here’s the oh-so-famous-oldest-part-of-Vancouver Gastown. These streets are made of cobblestone (I love it) and the funky streetlights make it known that this is Gastown. I have absolutely no recollection of ever being in Gastown before doing the Tourism Challenge. Some Vancouverite I am, eh? (Although I do have New York relatives who’ve never been to the Statue of Liberty. Hm.)

Here the Harbour Centre is in view from Gastown’s Water Street (I still don’t really know what’s so special about this street). OH! You can see the Big Bus on the very bottom left corner of the photo. And the awesome streetlights that look like Lego pieces.

Ah, you just can’t get enough of Gastown. There’s something magical (and supposedly freaky at night) about the area. Here is the Gastown Steam Clock, which is indeed a steam-powered clock. It was actually built to cover a steam grate and is supposed to puff out steam although I didn’t see much steam coming out of its ears. Supposedly the clock still works even though I did not take that photo at 10:02am. More like 4:01pm. Here you can see another Lego-like streetlight.

A better-ish view of the streets of Gastown. The road there doesn’t look very cobblestone to me, but I know I’ve passed other roads made of cobblestone.

Upcoming…

This photo just shows a tiny portion of the entire place. What is it?

So this is the Telus World of Science, more commonly known as Science World. BC Place is shown to the left (the one with the white roof).

The only reason they added the “Telus” and flipped around the “Science” and “World” is because Telus donated a whole whack of money to them a whole bunch of years ago. The name of the building is now “Telus World of Science”, but everyone still calls it “Science World”.

Science World is actually a not-for-profit organization that features lots of displays and interactive exhibits. Oftentimes, there will be featured topics on random things. There was a supposedly really cool one last year or the year before called Body Worlds, which showed dead people’s internal organs and whatnot. I found it kinda boring.

In Science World, way up by the dome, there’s an OMNIMAX Theatre. It’s like a regular theatre except for the fact that what you see makes you feel like you’re actually there. The many speakers are behind the screen and the visuals extend way up to the ceiling, as if there’s no real end to the screen. The realistic feel can sometimes make people feel dizzy.

Now, before I answer the question from my last post, I’ll ramble about the different things I saw first. I have to say that I actually never expected to see any real animals at Science World. Granted, I don’t go there very much (maybe once in a blue moon), and all I really knew was that there were all kinds of puzzles and an OMNIMAX Theatre.

This is the entrance to one of the exhibits. Already, I’ve forgotten what was in there. Most likely puzzles and fun interactive games and such. Eureka!

No, it’s not a real beaver. At least, not a living one. I would’ve flipped out if it was. I believe the whole beaver topic was a feature as they were showing a film called “Beavers” in the OMNIMAX Theatre. Apparently, it was the first OMNIMAX film they ever showed, which was 20 years ago.

I actually didn’t see Beavers when I went to watch an OMNIMAX film. Instead, I saw one called “Roving Mars”, which talked about the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, going to Mars in search of water and dig into rocks and whatnot. It was really good to say the least.

An absolutely adorable guinea pig! The fluffy stuff in the foreground is the second guinea pig, all snuggled up in his little glass box of a home.

Hm. I saw a snake too. I do believe it was just the one, all curled up inside his precious hollow rock/cave.

And here’s Mr. Turtle, slowly making his way through his log tunnel.

Ah, and the tarantula. I just had to get a close-up of him. Except that he’s dead. I know this for a fact because he was in a little glass case that could only fit him and he didn’t move a millimetre the entire time I stared at him.

And here’s the skeleton. The frog skeleton. Cool much? My jaw dropped when I saw it because it looked so COOL!! So delicate, so fragile. I’ve never seen a skeleton like this before. Have you?

Upcoming…

Not a great picture (although perfect for the question), but do you know what I was riding on?

Of course, Benjamin Cip, the cutey white animal was a horse!

Meet Barry and Jack, the 2 lovely horses that led me on a 1-hour horse-drawn tour around Stanley Park.

The Stanley Park Horse-Drawn Tours go around Vancouver’s 1000-acre Stanley Park. A professional guide narrates and highlights places such as Deadman’s Island, the Lions Gate Bridge, the Girl in a Wetsuit Statue, and the Rose Garden.

You get to sit on a horse carriage (which kinda looks like a house) that can seat up to 20 people and mosey along the chilly park. Yes, even on gorgeous days, wandering around the park surrounded by trees, trees, and more trees can get pretty cold, which is why a nice lap blanket is provided for your warmth and well-being.

Ah, my front row seat on the carriage. Now, I’ll try my hand at educating you on what I know and/or learned from this exotic tour (granted, this tour was weeks ago, so my memory will be tested as well).

This is a not-so-great picture of Deadman’s Island on the left there, but that’s about the same as my knowledge of the island. There’s some sort of museum called the HMCS Discovery on the island. It’s the brown-ish building with white windows in the picture. This island was apparently a battleground where hundreds of people were killed. The only other thing I know is that there have been nighttime security guards that claim to have seen shadows of men who weren’t supposed to be there. Freaky.

The Lions Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects Vancouver with the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver (yes, they’re both different), and West Vancouver. I don’t remember ever being on the bridge, but the times that I’ve been close to it… well, it looks pretty scary. The bridge is like a hill for cars.

There have been times where I’ve seen seagulls on her head. This is the Girl in a Wetsuit Statue by the Stanley Park Seawall. People think the statue is a mermaid, but she’s actually just wearing flippers, thus “Girl in a Wetsuit” and not “The Mermaid”. She’s been sitting on a rock in the Burrard Inlet since June 9, 1972 (almost 37 years!).

Oh, the beautiful Rose Garden. It’ll most likely be even prettier in the next month. Most people pass the Garden when they enter and exit Stanley Park. I pass by this every week while going to and from the Aquarium. In full bloom, the Rose Garden showcases beautiful colours and flowers and makes for a great place for photo shoots and weddings among other things. I had a photo shoot here 2 months ago with a large group of my friends. Unfortunately, nothing had bloomed yet, but awesome pictures still turned out.

There were many other highlights during the tour, but those were the ones I actually had photos of, and photos enhance descriptions and explanations.

Canada Place, a hint of the Harbour Centre, and other skyscrapers make up the skyline of Vancouver beyond the Stanley Park trees. The sidewalk area just past the grass is the Stanley Park Seawall and stretches for 8.8km (5.5m), circling the park. Both Canada Place (somewhat) and the Harbour Centre will be featured in upcoming Exploring Vancouver posts.

Upcoming…

What kind of skeleton did I see at Science World? (No, not a human one.) Stay tuned to find out!

Contrary to what I said in my previous post, I won’t be doing my Tourism Challenge blogging mania in 3 days. There’s just too much to write about. Instead, I’ll be blogging about 1 or 2 (sometimes maybe a few more) attractions each time. Today, I’ll start with what I had left off with in the last post.

So what was that gleaming blue building soaring up into the sky from my previous post? Title kinda gives it away, eh? Well, Anny Chih was right; the building was indeed the Shangri-La!

The Living Shangri-La Hotel and Residences in Vancouver is the only Shangri-La in Canada as of now and was the first in North America. It is part hotel, part office space, part condominium. Opened in September 2008, the Shangri-La is currently the tallest building in the city at 659ft (201m) with 62 stories.

Personally, I find nothing spectacular at all about the Shangri-La. It’s overrated. It doesn’t even look like a hotel. Normally, you would find some sort of cul-de-sac looking half-roundabout for the taxis and cars and whatnot, yes? Well, the Shangri-La is on a big street (W Georgia) with cars zooming by (noted by the photo below), so there’s really no room for that. And unless there’s a secret side entrance that I don’t know about, the entrance I saw didn’t scream, “Look at me!”

The entrance was a mere revolving door which opened into what looked nothing like a hotel. I mean, sure, it’s only part hotel, but it’s still part hotel. Shouldn’t it at least look like one?

To add to the non-hotel look, it had some funky Chinese herbal or some kind of Chinese-y smell in there. Not all that pleasant. I mean, sure, I’m Chinese, but I’m whitewashed enough to not enjoy every last bit of Chinese goodness. (I have no idea if that made sense; I just put down whatever popped into mind.)

I dunno. I was disappointed. The Shangri-La just wasn’t as spectacular as I thought it would be.  It wasn’t as seemingly glamorous as people made it out to be. The rooms are supposedly awesome and modern, but if that’s the case, then the entrance just doesn’t do it justice. I mean, we all know that first impressions are important, right?

Upcoming…

Can you guess what this animal is? Shouldn’t be too hard.