Have YOU been to China?

We managed to get a lie in today. Hurrah! We’d decided to get out and do some outdoor activities as that’s what Vancouvians do best, so firstly we got a one day travel pass and got the ferry bus across to the North shore and then a connecting bus to go to Capilano suspension bridge, the highest suspension bridge in North America. However, when we got there the park entrance fee was $27 each (before tax remember). Just to walk across a bridge! There may have been more in the park but we weren’t interested in other activities so we turned right around and waited for the next bus back.

Back in downtown Vancouver we got the bus to Chinatown to go to the only authentic Chinese garden outside of China. We’d been warned that Chinatown was a bit rough, but when never expected that when we got off the bus in the middle of the day that we’d see addicts doing drug deals in shop doorways. Trying hard to hide our camera we made a quick pace the couple of streets to the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Chinese gardens. Our guide round the gardens was an elderly Chinese lady. It is fair to say that she wasn’t the best tour guide as she quickly forgot what she’d said and repeated herself constantly. The gardens are about half the size of a football pitch and it took her two and half hours to guide us round because she repeated herself so much. A particular favourite of hers was to ask if we’d been to China. After telling three times that we had not been to China, I thought maybe I was just giving the wrong answer and thought if she asked again I’d say yes. Instead she changed her questioning and constantly asked us whether we thought something she had just pointed out was beautiful. I countered by asking her if she’d been to China. By this time Sarah was fighting back the tears of laughter at the crazy commentary and had to wander off on her own to compose herself.

After the Chinese garden we got another bus across town to Stanley Park, the forest within the city limits. We hired a tandem and biked around the seawall for an hour or so and then cut through the middle of the park to find Beaver Lake and Lost Lagoon. It wasn’t hard to find.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for afternoon hot chocolate in Mr Bojangles café and walked along Robson Street, Vancouver’s main shopping street. We had a really nice Thai meal at the Thai House. Having watched Paul Burrell down a kangaroo's testicle on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, I thought I'd give it a go (see photo album 7). Back at the hotel we watched Desperate Housewives, our favourite show and Grey’s Anatomy a new US medical drama about interns.