This is a typical bus in downtown Vancouver. Recently they upgraded their fleet to include these new Europe-vogue buses. They are completely electric and are powered by the electric grid above them through their tail appendages. These electric buses break down very often but are repaired very easily. The old ones break down at an average of 1-2 per hour. They break down when their connectors get disconnected, which happens very easily. However, I haven't seen any of the new buses break down. They are definitely much more resilient than their predecessors. These buses are also very quiet, which is good. They do not have much seats inside, giving way instead to ample standing room, which is good as these buses run only in downtown, which is a small place and thus passengers do not spend too much time on their downtown bus journeys.

In Vancouver, all petrol stations have a mechanism in the price display stand that allows for the automatic manipulation of gas price displays. Some newer stations feature digital LCD displays. This mechanism exists because of the constant price changes of consumer petrol in Vancouver, to the extent of hourly changes. Here is a picture of a Shell display stand, and the same stand 2 minutes later.

Here are some pictures I took in Richmond. Richmond is a neighbouring city of Vancouver, but don't let the "city" term fool you, because in North America cities sometimes sit side by side, and the distance from Vancouver downtown to Richmond downtown is just around 20-30 km. Vancouver has lots of immigrant Chinese from Hong Kong who still have a deep Hong Kong root. Richmond should not be confused with Chinatown, as Chinatown is just a small two-block locality in Vancouver downtown, whereas Richmond is a whole city. In the centre of Richmond, probably 1 in 2 people is Chinese. Also, one generally refers to "downtown" as the Vancouver downtown, not any other city downtowns.

This, is Flaming Wok. It is a Chinese fast food chain along the lines of McDonald's in terms of business concept, but it serves Chinese food! It is run by Chinese and patronised by Caucasians and all other races alike. It is quite original Chinese food too. This branch is located on Robson St downtown and my 2-serving combo cost me around C$5++. The vegetable beef stir fry was not too bad, but the spicy pork was horrible. I don't know if it was an authentic taste as it tasted a little sweet, probably a Westernisation attempt.

Hello everybody!! Welcome to my brand new blog for the brand new me! This blog will be mainly about my experiences and feelings in Vancouver, and reports of some local news. As you can see, it has started raining in Vancouver, and once it starts it doesn't stop! The rain is also very cold.. Like 10°C. It can go on raining for 28 days straight without a pause! Isn't that something? And the rain here isn't like a tropical thunderstorm; it's much lighter. It's quite annoying indeed, like sleeping next to a radiator.

This blog will feature lots of pictures! It's for anyone who is interested in Vancouver and what goes on here! The pictures you see in the left are taken from my bedroom window! Isn't my room big and nice? I'm so pleased with it! The best thing is that it's right in downtown, next to a wedding chapel, next to a super nice and big park with lots of free tennis courts, and I'm just paying C$295 for a private room! Wow! Now that's something to be shitting about. Yay. All right, I will go grab some more fascinating news to keep your attention! In the meantime, ciao!