Vancouver, Canada

No blog post for the past few days because I was up in Vancouver, BC, Canada (fyi, there is also a Vancouver city in Washington state). Why did I go there? It was for my cousin's wedding (on Friday) and decided to spend a few extra days over there to enjoy the place since I haven't been there for a while now.

Vancouver is pretty close to Seattle - it's only about 2.5hr drive (excluding border wait time). So if anyone of you decide to come to Seattle (and visit me), we can totally visit Vancouver (of course, you need your passport). When people talk about Vancouver, they usually refer to the Greater Vancouver area, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, and maybe a few other cities that I have never been to. Some of you may have heard that there are a lot of Cantonese-speaking folks in Vancouver. Well, that can't be more true; according to my cousin, 40% of the BC population is Chinese and they are mostly concentrated in a few spots. Seriously, you only need Cantonese to get around, especially in Richmond.

One of my favorite activities in Vancouver is to EAT (what else. haha...) as the food is pretty awesome. You can pretty much get all kind of cuisines (actually, other than Denny's, I don't remember seeing any other American restaurants...) and most of them are of pretty high quality. On this trip, I only had a catering meal, a formal Chinese dinner (for the wedding), dim sum, and Japanese all-you-can-eat. By the way, the Japanese all-you-can-eat place is of pretty good quality. A lot of sashimi & sushi selections and the fish was very fresh. I think my cousin and I had our fair share of food. haha...

Other than food, you can also find hiking spots in Vancouver, much like in Seattle. This site will give you a lot of information about trails around Vancouver. I have actually never hiked in Vancouver until this trip. Where did we go? Since my aunt and uncle want to join us, we picked a rather easy one at Capilano Regional Park in North Vancouver. It was a very good and easy hike and I recommend it for those who can't really hike.

Overall, I like the trip and really wish I could spend a week over there to visit the outdoor more up there. If you are coming here and want to visit Vancouver, let me know. I may join you :). By the way, when you plan your trip, you should allocate time for border crossing as it could take forever! On my way back to Seattle on Sunday morning, I thought I was early and got to border at 9:50am. Well, I was wrong; It took me 80mins to get passed the border! I think the best is to pass the border at night on a non-weekend day. You can check this site for traffic status.

Enjoy.