Day 3 Vancouver, Canada

statue in chinatown

vancouver city

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden

Yet another sleepless night and I take friday night back as the noise and new scottish roommates made this the night from hell. I woke up at 1am and was promptly woken up again at 4am and again at 4.30am.The hostel being bang in the middle of town was not helping at all.Vancouver is certainly very busy and lively at the weekends.Police sirens seemed to be going off every 30 minutes.Mind you after drinking to much the previous night that didn’t help and I had a banging headache.After breakfast the plan was to look around Gastown and Chinatown which putting it mildly was certainly an experience.It was certainly the dodgy and rough part of Vancouver and made certain areas of London look posh.The rundown buildings in Gastown were a complete mess and the people didn’t look like the kind to mix with.We even saw a guy in a wheelchair going backwards yelling at people (you fucking parasites) at anyone walking by.Chinatown though did have some some very nice parts especially the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden which was modelled after the gardens of the Ming Dynasty Suzhou.It was very peaceful and tranquil and I could have been very happy to sit there with a book all day.But the highlight of the day was was a trip across the water in a small boat to Granville Island where there was a festival with boats that had pirate flags and people dressed as pirates and everyone including us throwing water bombs at them as they passed.We found a restaurant overlooking the water and had yet another very nice meal.After a walk around the market simon wanted to find the car hire place where we are collecting the car from on Tuesday and after what seemed like a 20 mile hike in the heat we found it.Somehow he then managed to get us a free upgrade on the car and a lift back to the hostel ‘the guy could talk his way out of a prison sentence’.Later that night simon and I went to the hostel bar for a couple of beers and some food while watching Mike Tyson take a beating in the boxing match.It ended up being a fairly early night and I got in around 10.30pm praying some sleep of a good few hours was on its way.