We stayed at the UBC university students accommodation overnight and dropped the car off early in the morning. This gave us all day to spend in downtown Vancouver, so after brunch, curtesy of Costco we set off on a self guided tour!

This is our fourth time in Vancouver therefore we didn’t want to repeat things we had done before so decided on a bit of mystery. Directions were by doing ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’ and we went off in that direction. We made our way to China town which looks colourful and jammed full of character and soon found ourselves at the crossroads of W Pender and Carroll near the Vancouver China Town Millennium Gate. We headed along E Pender St. (which I now know takes you to towards Hastings, not the best area of Vancouver) the sites changed bit by bit. A couple of guys were digging out cigarette butts from cracks in the pavement by a bus stop, “ah well must just be a bit hard up, I’ve seen that before” usually after an bingo session interval around a smoking shelter. A little further along there’s a guy on the floor looks like he’s dead, I mean really Dead, sprawled over the pavement with his head at a right angle against the brick wall and he looks like someone’s hit him around the head with a tree 5 days earlier. We take it a bit slow as we pass him but no-one else who’s walking past bats an eyelid so we’re guessing he’s drunk or something. We leave him alone and walk on a little further past an alley way. Sarah gives my arm a sharp pull telling me to get a move on and stop gorping around. I look in the alley and there’s 4 guys with a little fire and a big sheet of tin foil and yep you know what they were doing! OK it’s time to get Sarah away from this.

We turn left to head down towards the docks and an ambulance screeches to a halt just past us. There’s another guy looks like he’s dead again on the pavement (he’s not just drugged up to high heavens) and a load of people gathered by another guy with blood gushing out of his leg. Police are now on the scene as well. OK let’s get a move on Sarah definitely doesn’t need to see this!

We cross over another road, I think we’re out of China town now. We are probably in Hastings now and passing a police station. One more guy unconscious half over the short height wall of the police station with his bum hanging out showing a topographical map of the moon! Sarah is now pretending she isn’t noticing what’s going on “just keep walking”.

Next turning again in the direction of the docks we go past the park “Oppenheimer Park” aptly name as it looked like a bomb had gone off. Another pair of police cars with officers dealing with some misunderstanding on the sidewalk? Sarah “Keep walking”.

So now everything gets quiet and we keep walking. Now you know you’re in the serious bit of town as even the down and outs and druggies don’t go here. “Keep walking, a bit faster”.

We kept walking and eventually the sun came out over the cobbled streets of Gastown. The steam clock was pumping out 3pm. Sarah “I Need a Coffee, NOW!”

We spent the previous few days before arriving in Vancouver City in the Kamloops area around Paul Lake and Monck Lake. Apart from the big lakes in the high country the other side of the mountains this area is very barren, a big difference to the land towards the coast the other side of the mountain range.