Welcome to Metrotown and Downtown Vancouver

April 17, Sunday

Finally, after about three months, I got to go out again on my own. After lunch, with a knapsack on my back, I was on my way to Metrotown Centre in Burnaby – the largest mall complex in British Columbia. I would also proceed to downtown Vancouver, where lots of specialty boutiques and shops are located.

The nearest bus stop from the house is about ten-minute-walk. From there I'd be boarding a bus and then alighting at the B.C. SkyTrain's King George Station. After nine stops and approximately twenty minutes, I'd be reaching Metrotown.

Hungry and craving for my favorite food, I had a second lunch at the food court—double kebab with rice and rootbeer soda at Nando's Portuguese Flame-Grilled Chicken. C$9. As usual, while eating there in a corner, I couldn't help noticing the milieu of obviously gleeful multi-cultural people—Caucasian, Indian, Chinese, Filipino families, friends, and couples who were all there at the mall with a perhaps universal purpose—to spend the Sunday in delight among one another—while I, a solitary soul exploring an unfamiliar world on his own.

How I miss my weekend strolls at Glorietta with my friends or with my family.

Every time I'm at the mall, I usually go only to the bookstores and toy shops. At Toys 'R Us, I marveled again at the new Star Wars action figures; I could feel the itch to buy a figure or two, but fortunately the Force to resist was strong...I no longer have money to spare. I decided to stop torturing myself and proceeded to Chapters bookstore, which I realized was after all another place of torture; and there, fail I did—I gave in to the call of spending. I stumbled upon a gem in a SALE bin: a poetry anthology, The Erotic Spirit, edited by Sam Hamill (2003, Shambhala), which I got for only C$6.

I'd forever be beholden to bookstores, where three hours could pass by like a blink of an eye or a snap of the fingers. There were also inbetween moments of clarity when I'd thought I was inside the Power Books or National Bookstore at Ayala Center in Makati City, Philippines.

Around five, I went back to the SkyTrain station and boarded a train going to Vancouver; nine stations and I was at Burrard, where downtown Vancouver is nearest.

If I wanted to feel that I was really in Canada—the busy Canada I usually see in movies—then downtown Vancouver is the best place to go.

Let me continue by way of describing the pictures below. I hope you'll spare a bit of your precious time and join me in my rare adventure...