It wasn’t long after disembarking from the Victoria ferry that we got ourselves into the thick of Vancouver’s rush hour traffic – and a dense mist that had descended on the city. Movement was steady as we made our way to check in at the Opus Hotel Vancouver. However the change in pace from the peaceful Kelowna and laid back Victoria was quite jarring to us, as we fought with traffic on Davie Street in order to double back to be on the right side of the road.
This momentary stress quickly faded away as we were each offered a glass of Champaign while checking in at the front desk. It was hard to resist peering around at the highly modern and trendy décor in the hotel lobby as we brought in our luggage. The valet took our car, and we were shown up to our room.
There were surprises around every turn for us. Even the trip up to the 5th floor on the elevator wowed us, what with the near night-club atmosphere therein: low lighting with colour-shifting LEDs and energetic music. Then, in the hallway there was an intoxicatingly good smell of men’s cologne (which we later found out to be piped-in scents of vanilla and...sage?).
The room itself was as much of a spectacle too, with its bright orange walls, modern furniture, a gorgeous bathroom, and a glass wall between the bathtub and the bed! Sure, it has curtains that you can close...but they were on the bedroom side. Steve and I immediately had some naughty thoughts, which we had to put on hold because we were due elsewhere for dinner.
We arrived at Maenam restaurant somewhat on time for our 7pm dinner – delayed mostly by our difficulty finding parking in the area. This was understandable as the popular Thai restaurant is located along a fairly busy strip.
I have never actually eaten true Thai food. Before you recoil in shock at how bad this sounds, in my defense, I’ve had an aversion to cilantro since childhood that played a big part in that. So while Steve was looking forward to returning to cuisine that he hasn’t eaten since he met me, I was a little bit wary about confronting this spice that is very central to Thai cooking. I resolved to keep an open mind. I’m glad I did, because the food was delicious, and very different from the sorts of flavours I’m familiar with. Though I could taste the airy hint of cilantro in the mix, it tasted like it belonged, like it complimented the other flavours. Maenam definitely expanded my comfort zone with Thai food by giving me a very positive experience, and in fact, I wouldn’t mind trying it again sometime.
With the rest of the evening at our disposal we returned to our hotel for some brief downtime, then headed out for a walk along Davie Street to see what has changed in the LGBT night club scene since we were last in town. We ended up hanging around for a bit at 1181 after bumping into someone we knew but, after the long busy day we had, we turned in not long after midnight.
The next morning we woke up bright and early for a delicious breakfast at La Pentola della Quercia, the restaurant located on the main level of the Opus Hotel. The General Manager of Opus Vancouver joined us, and afterwards took us on a tour through the hotel to see some of the other suites. Each class of suite is painted a different colour – while ours was orange, we saw other suites with red, green, and purple walls. The artwork in some of the rooms was of the pixelated faces of characters I recognized from Nintendo games like Punch-Out that I played during my childhood. Certainly this was intended to tickle the men who are are still kids at heart.
With the morning still young, we took some time to strategically plan out our day from the roster of attractions covered by the Tourism Vancouver 2013 Experience Passes provided to us. We planned for our first stop to be the Vancouver Art Gallery, but unfortunately the gallery wasn’t clear on their policy published on the Experience Pass and as media, we weren’t able to get security clearance in time to take photos for this article. With no other major attractions in walking range of our lunch appointment, we simply filled the allotted hour wandering and taking photos around downtown Vancouver – which is unfortunate, because had we known, that time could have been spent covering one of the many tourism attractions we had to skip due to our tight timeline in Vancouver.
Despite this setback, our visit to Homer St. Café and Bar brought our moods up again. This café is famous for their rotisserie menu of many different meats – particularly their chicken. We sampled some of their appetizers and sides, including their particularly naughty delight: crispy chicken skins!
Refreshed, we went on to visit the Vancouver Lookout, which was much like the Calgary Tower in that it offers a 360 degree view out over the city. We got a strangely beautiful mix of sun and mist as we took pictures of the buildings below us.
The Vancouver Aquarium in world-famous Stanley Park was our next stop. We arrived in time for their last hour of operation, and did something of a whirlwind tour of the large facility. To our delight, they had a large exhibit on Jellyfish. Seeing the many different shapes and sizes of the creature was both beautiful and fascinating. Another impressive exhibit was the giant Amazon arapaima fish that loomed motionless in its tank until it suddenly snapped its jaw at something in the water, causing all the other smaller fish in the tank to scatter. All in all, the Vancouver Aquarium is chock-full of interesting and colorful sea life, not to mention their large outdoor exhibits – it’s worth a visit!
With some time to kill before dinner, and already in Stanley Park, we decided to explore for a bit. We walked down some forested paths until we reached the shore, where several seals were playing in the water, and we witnessed a seagull catch a small crab in its beak. Despite the gray mist casting a gloom over the otherwise beautiful green fields and colorful autumn leaves, it wasn’t hard to imagine what a popular spot this vast park must be in the summer time. Even at this time of year, there seemed to be a lot going on. We stumbled across a busy family Halloween celebration, and many other people who were just out for a walk. In a city as big and busy as Vancouver, I imagine this park is a way to find some solitude and reconnect with nature.
As daylight began to fade and the fog started rolling in thicker, we made our way back to Opus to rest for a while before heading out to our dinner destination, which was conveniently only a 10 minute walk away, right on the shore of False Creek. It was hard not to notice the live DJ spinning dance music in the lobby of the hotel as we made our way out – what a neat idea for a Friday night!
I was very excited at the prospect of eating at what was described to us as a world class seafood restaurant. Indeed, C Restaurant lived up to that expectation with dishes that were as stunning visually as they were to the palate, employing ingredients like octopus ink to add unique color and flavour. Our personal favorite was the Lobster Bisque – so rich and delicious, we did our best to savour it slowly but nonetheless we were sad when our plates were empty.
Thoroughly stuffed and satisfied, we returned to our hotel to give our stomachs a chance to catch up. As 10pm rolled around, we decided it would be a shame to waste our last night in Vancouver, so we made our way out to visit the clubs. We arranged to meet up with a friend at Pumpjack Pub, which we found out is a very popular spot on Fridays by the fact that we had to wait in line outside for a good 15 minutes. It was understandable though, for how busy the place was – and the bouncer was friendly enough, so we didn’t mind chatting with him. We hung out for a while, feeling a sense of nostalgia for the Calgary Eagle, but we did the responsible thing and turned in not long after midnight - we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Kamloops the next morning.