We later found out that this district is favored by the upper echelons of Chinese society. They like to keep most of their money overseas, in case of major social upheaval in their country. It’s apparently a pretty common practice among Chinese business people, but it sure makes it tough to find a meal that doesn’t require a second mortgage.
We wandered all over town to find some lunch. I had asked Andrew the hotel clerk for his recommendations, but he usually talks with a whole different kind of person. His meal suggestions were absolutely useless to anyone who doesn’t have at least two airplanes.
We always had the Thai place from last night to fall back on, but we knew that there had to be at least two places in Vancouver to find a sub-$20 meal.
We eventually stumbled on a hostel that had a pub attached to it. Our kind of place. We stayed there for what must have been two hours. We were really enjoying ourselves, but I think that deep down inside, we both knew that there wasn’t anything else in this town that we could afford. Another round, please.
But Aimee had an excellent idea. “You know what’s free? The library.” It was a pretty brilliant plan, even if the library didn’t look like this.
This is a library, people. Pay your taxes. We could have this.
On our way back the hotel, we stopped in a liquor store and grabbed an emergency bottle of wine. Not going out for drinks that night was an easy way to save $50. Not getting a drink wasn’t an option. We were on vacation.
We walked all over Vancouver that day. Partly because it's the best way to see a new city, but mostly because it's free.
We got back to the hotel just before dinner time (aka the granola bars we packed from home time). Our activity for the evening was hanging out at the hotel pool. But don’t worry, we put the wine in a water bottle. After all, this isn’t the Patricia Hotel, Pub, and Brewhouse.
