Carpe Diem

I find it really amusing to find two Filipinos–who looked seafarers to me–trying to pose by the steam clock that night. We passed by them and they smiled back, even greeting me “Good evening, sir.” who surprisingly sought a middle-age, short-haired Canadian lady of tattered beige sweater and muddy shoes to take a picture of them. They had two shots taken then sincerely thanked the lady and walked away, who was muttering after having done that. She doesnt appear to be pleased with the two Filipino gentlemen. I brushed the whole scene aside, surely the guys took her for a commoner. Even I would admit, there was nothing wrong with it. We went inside a food joint which was frequented by many a Filipino to grab some food. We decided to stay there for a bit of chat. We were all facing the glass window, giving me a perfect view of the passersby. There was a couple who was pushing a big trolley cum house who tried to buy some food while gesturing their son wait outside with the dog. There also was a young pizza guy who had the pizza box on top of his car while checking out a map. And there was a middle-aged lady asking for pennies who kept cursing if she wasn’t given any. She wasn’t extra special, except that she was wearing a tattered beige sweater and muddy shoes.

Metro police wasn’t very visible in metro Vancouver. I just wonder how they intend to sweep the streets of plastic-bag ladies and a bunchful of reality-detached men. Like in Manila, do they stop working beyond 7 pm too?

I went to Richmond Centre a couple of days ago to meet a batchmate of the 4th Canadian Immigration Integration Program (CIIP). As always, I would consult Google Earth to give me a good visual of the place I’m heading to before checking out my map. The best option would have been checking out Translink (http://www.translink.bc.ca/). The site contains good information content on transit services, which I think is superior in content organisation and interface design in comparison to Metlink http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/. Vancouver would only have buses where Melbourne would have elegant trams within the central business district to get you from point to point. Although taxi fare tariff doesn’t stray too far amongst each other (50 cents for every 200 metres), I was surprised to pay less than 50 bucks from Vancouver International Airport to New Westminster. This was almost the same taxi fare I had from Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport to the South Gate, South Melbourne. 

I did more walking in Vancouver than in Melbourne, perhaps because there were very few cabs in here in Vancouver. Does it account for the population density of the metropolitan area?

With Vancouver’s metro area of 1,111.4 sq mi and a metro population of 2.6M (2006 est.), it approximately has 2,340 people per square mile. Whilst Melbourne has 8,831 sq mi with 1M more (3.6M) than Vancouver, it comfortably holds approximately 408 people per square mile. Laidback Melbourne could perhaps step aside for Sydney to beat lex talionis scenic Vancouver.

Getting around Vancouver gives a feeling of strolling along a cleaner Sydney. They do have the city clutters: unfinished roads, mis-aligned road islands, bottleneck highways and no bigger than 4 lane roads.

Having found my best route, I took the skytrain and got off at Granville station, the hub of all buses. I got the 98-B Line to take me to Richmond Centre. It was basically a 40-minute bus ride along Granville Street where bus stops are annoyingly just 2 blocks apart. It did give me a glance of the Richmond Aiport once more though, but the travel time consumed half of my 2-hour 2-zone ticket.

Not bad for adventure however, for who would complain, I was out from 2 pm through to half past 7 in the evening with spending only $3.25. Some people are just generous, while some are just lucky. Have to prepare for dinner. Later folks!