Swords, hair removal and firemen – City Chase 2010 recap!

Another year down, another day of fun and mayhem on the streets of Vancouver, and now we have 365 days to recover for next year’s City Chase!   My legs have that kinda sore “you had a good workout” buzz, my feet are tired, I have turf burns on my knees and am missing a patch of hair from my right arm, and it was totally worthit.  It always is.  For those of you who didn’t read my blog from last year, shame on you.  Because of that I now have to explain again what the City Chase is (everyone always asks), so here’s the reader’s digest version: you and a teammate join 300-plus other teams, are given a clue sheet with a whole bunch of locations/tasks on it, and you have a maximum of 6 hours to get to and complete 10 of these challenges before racing back to the finish line.  How you do this and what order you do these challenges in is totally up to you, the only rule really is that you can only travel by foot or public transportation. Now that’s out of the way, here’s the annual awesome blow-by-blow recap of how we, Team Llamaface! completed the 2010 Vancouver City Chase.

If you saw a whole bunch of people in red jerseys, some with capes and one guy in a banana costume running around on Saturday, particularly around the start/finish line at Granville Square, that was us.  As one tourist commented, “I don’t think it’s the Gay Pride parade, but I’m not sure” which, of course, made us all cheer and high five her as we ran past.  It started right at 10am, when they told us to run to the Olympic torch.  We were off!  Adrenaline was pumping, excitement was swelling, and we still had no idea what the hell we were going to have to do.  At the torch we finally got our clue sheets and set about deciphering where we needed to go.  From advanced hints sent out via Facebook and Twitter on Friday night we knew that there was going to be something at Portside Park, so we decided to hop a bus right there and figure everything else out on the way.

Chasepoint #1 – 8 Legs or None

One team member had to reach into a big bowl of mealworms and wood chips and find a marble.  The colour of the marble determined what your teammate had to do.  I’m better with creepy crawly things than my teammate Eric, so we figured he would draw the marble, because whatever I had to do was undoubtedly going to be worse.  Yep, it was.  We drew the “mystery box”, which meant that I had to draw a number from a bowl and whatever number I drew was the number of Madagasgar hissing cockroaches I had to dig out of a box and put into a bowl.  I’ve actually held one of these things before (long story) and knew they were dry and harmless, so I just jumped in and was done before Eric had the chance to take my photo.  Nine to go.

Chasepoint #2 – Chasepoint #1

This isn’t as confusing as it looks, the Chasepoint was actually titled “Chasepoint #1″ but it was the second one we did that day, so it was our Chasepoint #2.  A clue we had received via Facebook a few days before the race (but we expected this, because this is the only Chasepoint they actually have every year) said that if we raised CAD$50.00 for Right to Play we would get a Chasepoint stamp that we could pick up at one of two places on the course.  Portside park was one of those two places, so fifteen minutes after the race started we had two of ten checked off.  Sweet.  Eight to go.

Chasepoint #3 – BOWLERAMA

The course this year was probably the most logically laid out of all seven years they have had a Vancouver City Chase, as 90% of the points followed the Canada Line Skytrain line, which is exactly what I had hoped for.  The plan was to hop on the train, go to the farthest away point and work our way back, since the finish line was right beside Waterfront Station. This also gave us more time in transit to plan the rest of our route, so we headed to Richmond.  The idea was to find the Richmond Lawn Bowling Club, which we, thanks to our phone-a-friend online at home, had the exact address to.  Well, we get there, are standing at that exact spot, and find… nothing.  It was a housing development.  After wandering around for twenty frustrating minutes, including asking a whole bunch of people, including other lost Chase teams, we decided to cut our losses and abort.  So we hopped back onto the train, pissed that we had spent all that time on the train for nothing.  Damn.

Chasepoint #3 (revised) Fling it Good

I work at Oakridge Mall, so when the clue said to get to the frisbee golf course at Queen Elizabeth Park, I was on my home turf.  We got off at the Oakridge stop (it was hard, but I resisted the urge to run into my office and say hi to my co-workers) and were soon there.  One team member had to try to get a frisbee into the goal in under four shots.  If they succeeded it was all good, but if it was four shots that meant the non-throwing team member had to have a strip of their arm hair waxed off.  Six or more shots they would loose an eyebrow.  Eric is a much better frisbee-er than I am, not to mention he’s go the arm hair of a shetland, so it was very clear right from the start he was going to throw.  The feeling of helplessly watching the fate of your body hair fly through the air was nerve, wracking let me tell you!  But a good first shot got him close and he was nearly done in three, but a missed “put” meant I was getting my arm waxed.  Poop.  That hurt.  How invented this process?  Medieval torturers?  Thankfully you still can’t really see the missing patch of hair, but the wax didn’t all come off my arm, and when I tried to peel it off all it did was make my hands sticky, so I had to complete the rest of the race with a two-inch square of orange wax on my arm. Seven to go.

Chasepoint #4 – The Wanderers

This one was conveniently located right beside the frisbee golf, so for once we didn’t have to worry about bus schedules or how far we had to walk.  Using high-tech orienteering gear (little beeper tags) and a map we had to navigate a portion of the park and clock in at 12 hidden checkpoints in order.  If we got the order wrong there was a penalty.  This one we made up some good time on, even passing some teams who were already on the course ahead of us.  I might not know my left from my right most days, but I can sure read a map   Four down, six to go.

Chasepoint #5 – Barefoot

This one required about 20 minutes of walking to go from Queen Elizabeth Park to Douglas Park, and we didn’t succeed in finding a bus, so our only option was to hoof it all the way.  By now we were tired, but our successes at Queen ElizabethPark had us invigorated.  We were in good shape.  This challenge was to be tied to your partner, three-legged-race style, and dribble a ball with your foot in a slalom pattern between wine bottles.  At each bottle you had to stop and pick up a glass of water and carry on a waiter’s tray, eventually making a pyramid 6 glasses high.  This was frustrating, damp, and my waxy arm kept sticking to Eric, but we did it, no worries.  As we were putting our shoes back on afterwards the announcement went out on the crew’s walkie-talkies that the first place team had crossed the finish line already.  Damn.  We were only half way there.  I don’t know how they did it… they must have run the whole thing or something.  Damn those uber athletic people!  But we were still in pretty good shape compared to most of the other teams we encountered along the way.  Five to go.

Chasepoint #6 – Blind Grams

Once again, this point was only a block away from the last, so we were there before we knew it and ready to rock.  One of us had to be blindfolded and go out into a field and retrieve seven puzzle pieces, directed by their partner’s voice, and then once all pieces were gathered we could remove the blindfold and both put it together in the shape of a swan.  We learned last year that Eric gives good directions (he actually does know his left from right, go figure), so I was blindfolded.  Besides, nobody would believe us if we said he was the better listener ;P !!! Retrieving the pieces was cake, and putting it together only took a bit longer.  Six down, four to go.

Chasepoint #7  Thumb-athalon

A quick five block walk brought us to the Rogers store at the corner of Oak adn 15th, where we both picked up blackberry smartphones.  We sere seperated, and Eric got a clue sheet with 6 questions on it, which he texted to me.  I had to run around the neighbourhood and find the answers, like what the cost of a shwarma plate was at the nearby flafal joint, or how much the transaction fee was at the ATM inside Esquires Coffee.  The questions were the easy part, but for a tech newbie like me, figuring out how to text/send pics back to Eric took 90% of the time!  All told, though, we powered through this and were soon on our way again.  Three to go.

Chasepoint #8  Local Heroes

Another short five minute walk got us to the plaza behind City Square mall, and a whole bunch of firemen.  Insert happy dance here.  When I wasn’t staring at the firemen we had to don firemen’s hats and jackets, drag a weighted dummy around a course, knock over a cone by spraying a firehose, unroll a full-length firehose and then roll it back up and carry it over a marked line.  This is actually the identaical chasepoint they had in East Vancouver last year, so Eric and I powered through this, already knowing exactly what to do.  Which was good, because it gave me more time to stare at the firemen.  Mmmm, firemen…. Two to go!

Chasepoint #9 – National Defense

This is where reading what the challenges are, not just if their location is convenient, is a good thing.  We didn’t do this.  I have a tendancy to never do this.  Hence the fact that last year Eric had to eat canned smoked oysters adn make this awesome gag/puke sound.  Still apologizing for that one.  A few blocks’ walk got us to Jonathan Rogers Park, just off Broadway, and it was only when we rounded the corner that we realized this was a military obsticle course.  Crap.  This is the type of chasepoint that the really athletic people do.  Like the Olympic Triatheletethat won in Montreal.  He would have been all over this.  We, on the other hand, actually went so far as to pull out the clue sheet, determine there really was nothing else remotely close to us and this fit so perfectly in our master plan, and resign ourselves to the fact that we had to do the freaking thing.   At this point in the day anything more than a strong walk took effort, so, like prisoners walking the green mile, we reluctantly reported for duty, Sir.  They smeared war paint on our faces and fitted us with 20-lb tactical vests and helmets, then our (incredibly nice – we lucked out) drill seargenthad us run up and down the embankment four times, then do 15 push ups and 15 sit ups.  Then came the belly crawl, which tore up the insides of my knees and got a really big wad of dead grass stuck to the wax blob on my arm.  Eric, exhausted and the last in line, cried “but I make video games!” as he put what effort he had left into the crawl.  Hilarious.  But we weren’t done.  That would have been too easy.  Run ten feet, drop to your belly, jump up and repeat the pattern 5 times.  Then, holding hands withanother team, run the lengthof the football field and back, ending with a scramble over a picnic table.  Suddenly I felt like a Survivor contestant, the slow one who gets dragged along by their teammates when they’re all tied together for a challenge.  Not good, but we were done.   One to go!

Chasepoint #10 – En Garde

After a few minutes to recover, it was back onto the Canada Line to Waterfront station and our last challenge of the day.  We had specifically worked it so that this point was our last: it was close to the finish line, we knew where it was without assistance, and I was not going home until I’d done the swordfighting chasepoint.  This is the third year they have had fencing/swordplay, and the first two I had missed because it just wasn’t logical to go all the way there on the route I was running.  This year, however, they had given us the clue the night before (in the form of a facebook-posted crossword I was frantically filling in at 11:30 pm) of Academie Duello, the fencing academy right downtown.  Perfect.  We could make our route specifically so this one was included.   So we crawled in, were fitted withfencing helmets, and I got on a wooden horse (can’t help but insert the Old Spice parody here: we now smell like the team you want your team to smell like, and I’m on a horse) holding a shield and six foot wooden spear.  Eric pushed the horse along a course and I had to spear 3 rings as we went.  Then off the horse, he had to do 15 diamond push ups while I fought off an attacker with a longsword.  SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!  This wasn’t a play sword, either, it was ten pounds of ting!ting!ting! metal and a crazy guy swinging at my head.  Let me tell you, if it wasn’t for that helmet, I wouldn’t have a head, because his sword was bouncing off me like nobody’s business.  After that, to prove that torture is always fair, I had to do 15 burpies(I HATE BURPIES) while Eric defended himself with two metal shields against an equally crazy guy wielding two swords at his head.  Yay helmets.  We made it out barely alive, but we were done!

The finish line was only three blocks away, so we sprinted (read: walked until we knew the people holding the ribbon could see us then ran to make it look like we had energy left) across it.  Done!  Chased and conquered.  We were exhausted, happy, hadn’t fought all day, and thought we had done pretty good.  The official results were just posted today (if you’re not first you’re in the dark for a few days following the Chase, as it takes a few days for the judges to make sure everything is accurate ), and we finished in 98th place!  Out of 351 teams!  In seven years this is the first time I’ve ever broken the 100 mark, and we beat our record from last year by over a hundred teams.  High five!

All told it was awesome, fun, exhausting and I’m totally doing it again next year!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, crazy, fun, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Come to Vancouver – we have the best weather!

               Ahh, summer in Vancouver.   Perfect days with a rare cloud punctuating the pure blue sky, a gentle breeze coming in off the ocean, the majestic mountains surrounding us in a comforting hug, and the sun glinting off the glass skyscrapers of the downtown core.  Damn, right it’s the best place on earth.  And you should all drop what you’re doing and come now.  Immediately.  Vancouver wants you.  We have perfect weather, so take advantage of it before stock runs out! 

                Summer finally arrived at the end of June, after the longest winter on record.  Well, technically winter was exactly the same length as every year, but this year it felt like we skipped spring entirely.  But once summer dawned, it hasn’t let up one bit.  We’ve now had nearly a month straight of “coat?  I don’t even need socks in this weather” weather, and I’m loving every second of it.  Life should operate at this temperature every day.  I guess it does in LA, but here we don’t need to deal with nearly as much traffic, garbage, smog, noise…  you get the point.  As much as I appreciate (and boy do I appreciate) the chance to finally thaw, this weather also shows off Vancouver at its best, and everyone needs to take full advantage of it. 

               Right now we’re in the midst of the Symphony of Fire fireworks competition for four consecutive Wednesday and Saturday nights, which floods the shores of false creek with thousands of “ooooh”ers and “aaaah”ers.  Soon we’ll have the Dragon Boat festival, too.  We actually don’t have a deep pool of festivals and events, but the attractions we have year-round are pretty damn spectacular, and when you see them in this fantabulous weather, they’re even better.  You can immerse yourself in the native culture of the pacific coast at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and then get your nekked on at Wreck Beach; shop Robson Street’s trendiness and then finish off the day at a waterfront cafe on False Creek; bike Stanley Park’s seawall, feed the squirrels and enormous raccoons, then visit one of the best Aquariums around to splash with the belugas and dolphins.  A few weeks ago I did the bike thing for the first time since I was like 6 and it was great.  It’s a really smooth, relaxing ride, and a 2 hour bike rental from Spokes on Denman only cost CAD$10.00!    And regardless of what you do, remember to snag a funky twist on lunch at the world-famous Japadog gourmet Japanese hot dog cart.  Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

          But honestly, I’m here in the best place on earth, and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you should be too.  What are you waiting for, people?  We have sun!!!!

Tags: aquarium, best, bikes, BlogSherpa, Canada, fantastic, fireworks, fun, Japadog, Stanley Park, sun, vancouver, weather

More Travel Porn – Chefs Vs City

        So I’ve discovered a new fun armchair travel addiction, this time on the Food Network of all places:  Chefs vs City.  It’s a great way to combine two of my favorite things – The Amazing Race and the Food Network, with teams of 2 foodies racing through one city a week completing 4 different food-related challenges.  Sometimes it involves eating a large amount of something (in Las Vegas they actually had to eat one of everything from the Bellagio’s buffet), cooking/creating something (stomping grapes/decorating a 50-lb cake/making liquid-nitrogen ice cream) or stomaching something difficult (scorching chili in LA), but it’s a great way to see what culinary treasures each city has to offer.  Plus it’s exciting and competitive.  But mainly its an interesting food travelogue.  I mean, who knew there was a place in Chicago where you can eat all sorts of edible, flavoured paper?  Check this one out.

Tags: armchair travel, Chefs vs City, daydreaming, fun, travel porn, TV

Woo hoo Going to Costa Rica!

      Saturday night I’m taking off for a week of sun and fun in Costa Rica.  Of course I’ll keep you all posted as much as I can while I’m there.  It’s going to be awesome.  Ziplining and exploring in La Fortuna, near the base of the active volcano Arenal. Dancing with hummingbirds, butterfly watching and more ziplining in the Monteverde cloud forest.  Hiking, ATV-ing past waterfalls, kayaking through a mangrove forest, monkey spotting and touring a spice plantation in Manuel Antonio.  Sweet.  Mentally, I’m on my way there already.  And it’s going to be warm, too.  Tank top and shorts weather!  Just dreaming about it is warming me up, I am so over this Vancouver winter, all the cold and rain (naturally the sun is coming out as I write this – leave it to mother nature to bitchslap my complaining), but I can’t wait. 

Tropics, here I come!

Tags: Arenal, beaches, cloud forest, Costa Rica, fun, La Fortuna, Manuel Antonio, Monteverde, travel, vacation, volcano, warm weather, zipline

The Amazing Race – Travel Lovers’ Porn

        Yep, I said porn.  Because that’s essentially what the Amazing Race is – Travel Porn.  It’s exciting.   It temporarily allows you to live vicariously through someone else, doing things so out there you might not have even fantasized about them.  It teaches you new tricks to try in real life.  And it satisfies that travel craving, while leaving you wanting more.  The best part is that, instead of having to go back into the special part of the video store, you can get it for free Sunday nights on CBS.

          For you uninitiated (shame on you), the premise is simple: race around the world with no advance knowledge of where you’re going next and very limited funds, completing various tasks as fast as possible, and if you finish first you get a cool million dollars.  If you finish last at certain checkpoints (called pit stops) you’re eliminated.  That’s it.  This is proof positive that the journey is the attraction more than the final destination, as the ending is usually one of the most  anticlimactic parts of the whole race.   But on the way you got to see just how cool the world is.

            I’m insanely jealous of the challenges they’ve gotten to do over the years.  I won’t lie, I would totally blow off my job/friends/whatever to be able to do what the racers get to do.  After seeing it on the race, I tried ziplining and, as you’ve probably noticed from my past posts, I’m hooked.  Now I just want to push my boundaries farther.  Over the years they have rappelled down Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janiero, climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, navigated the chaotic train system in Mumbai, herded llamas in Peru, made noodles in  Macau  and shopped at street markets in South Africa.   According to the previews, next week they’re climbing the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel in Singapore.  It’s nuts.  The general public may  not  have access to all of the incredible things that the racers get to  do, but for the most part the places are acessable, and with a little bit of research  you too can  enact  your own Amazing Race.  They show some off the beaten path  locations/attractions that you might have missed otherwise  and  I  have to admit that occasionally at work when someone will ask  me what there  is to see in Coober Pedy, Australia (amongst other random destinations that I  don’t know anything about and have definately  never been to) I draw on what I’ve  seen on TAR and  answer that there are opal mines and houses built underground to escape the heat.   It’s helped me finalize more than one sale, let me tell you. 

             Despite the fact that it’s essentially a game show on a global stage, The Amazing Race is at it’s heart a travelogue, and, just like Globe Trekker or Rick Steve’s Europe, it gives you a glimpse at the conditions, attractions, and people of places all over the world.  India is always a good example, as so many of the racers go there expecting nothing but  poverty and crowds, but leave surprised at the resilliance of the people and the beauty of the countryside. Through their eyes we see it, too, and gain a greater appreciation.  I had never heard of Wat Po, the temple of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok until I saw it on Season 1, but it blew my mind and that one episode gave birth to a fascination with Thailand that I still have to this day.    You can bet your ass I made sure to go to that temple and take craploads of pictures when I finally made it  to Bangkok.   

            The  racers might be doing everything at warp speed, they’re still traveling and facing the same trials and tribulations that we all do on our vacations.  They have to fight with the same flight cancellations and lost cabbies we all do, and watching them deal with these we can learn  – both from their mistakes and  their successes.  Case in point: never be rude to an airport ticket agent. They have  your vacation in their hands, and with one  little keystroke they can  sentence you to a fifteen hour flight in the middle seat in the back that doesn’t  recline and is right beside the squirming kid.  In season 2 when everyone was jockeying for flights from Iguassu Falls, Brazil to Cape Town, South Africa, team after  irate team was told there was no space on the  earliest and most convenient  one-connection flight via Frankfurt.  That is, until Danny and Oswald, the fabulous, suave and super polite guys from Miami asked.  Suddenly seats miraculously appeared and they cruised to a happy first place, all because they were the lone rational team.

     Finding a local guide is another great tip that teams commonly use.  Granted, on the race teams, particularly Mirna and Charla, will do everything short of kidnapping locals to get their insider information.  Please don’t do this.  Ask nicely.  Leave a tip.  But this is still an awesome idea.   Locals know more about the destination than anyone, and they’re usually just as excited to learn about your hometown as you are to learn the ins and outs of theirs.  This can get you from point A to point B much faster and tip you off to new, out of the way places that you would not have otherwise ever known about. 

      During all of this, the teams are navigating all these stressful challenges with their friend/partner/relative.  I always say the test of any relationship is a vacation, because your communication skills tend to shut down when you’re stressed and fatigued.  The “villans” in each season are not usually the teams that are horrible to other teams, but the teams that are horrible to one another.  The classic example is Jonathan and Victoria in season 5, where he not only screamed at her the whole way, but actually physically shoved her in anger.   Just watching the way these teams melt down serves as a reminder  not to act  like that to your friend/family member/anyone, no matter how jetlagged you might be. 

         And my personal favorite tip the I’ve learned from TAR: “Rapido” does not mean fast in every language.  It’s not that teams haven’t tried, but when you’re in Windhoek, Namibia, the cabbies are just going to give you a “stupid tourist” laugh and continue moving along at whatever speed they want to.  That being said, it’s always a good idea to learn a few words in the local language.  I’m not suggesting taking the Berlitz course or anything, God knows the teams usually can only learn what they get from the other passengers on their inbound flight and they get around pretty well, but a simple ”yes”, “no”, “thank you”, “how much?” and “where’s the bathroom?” can get you a long way.  Particularly the bathroom one.

          I could go on, but really, you just have to watch it yourself.  Even if you don’t glean anything more from the show than some pretty destinations and a whole lot of fun, it’s worth it.

Tags: 108 coin ritual, Bangkok, fun, interesting, Jet lag, The Amazing Race, Tips, travel, travel porn, Wat Po

Vancouver – Olympic Life in the Olympic City

        So we’re more than a week into the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games, or, to use a sports metaphor, wll into the home stretch.  Our muscles and wallets are sore, but it’s so, so, so worth it!   The city just feels energized, and it’s freaking fantastic.

        The pavilions, shows and events set up all over the downtown core gives the whole place a theme-park like feel (you line up for a long time, go on a short ride/see a short show, then walk to the next attraction, past souvenir and snack carts and street performers).  And speaking of line ups, at this point I think people are lining up for the sake of lining up.  The wait times at pretty much everything are multiple hours long.  Even just to get into the Granville st. Bay to buy your official team Canada tee (completely disregarding that we have tons of other Bay stores in Metro Vancouver, just a short skytrain away) is like three hours, and that doesn’t come with any guarantee that they’ll still have what you want in your size.  The longest line by far is the zipline, where, according to Radio Canada, a couple recently set the record for waiting more than 9 hours.  The ride is only ten seconds long!!!!  Think about it people, you’re turning waiting in line into an experience in itself, because you’re not doing anything else all day!  I made it into LiveCity Yaletown with only a 40-minute wait, and I was there right at opening.  God knows what it was like by 6!  Even the fabulousness that is the unique Japadog gourmet hot dog cart has a massive wait for your street meat.  By the time you get to the front, you’re ready for dinner, while you’d lined up at lunch.

          But the coolest thing is the overwhelming “We are Canada, we’re loud, proud and we ROCK!”  vibe that permeates everyday life here.  Just sitting at work I see tons of people each day wearing their Canada tees, stupid (or stupid awesome) Moose toques, and flag capes.  Vancouver has become Disneyland all of a sudden, a place where you can wear all sorts of stupid, furry things on your head, your cape has become regular office attire and the world will cease to exist when the puck drops tonight on the Canada versus Germany showdown.  Even the random stranger that approached us yesterday asking for a light said “Go Canada Go!”  by way of a thank you, and those were probably the only English words he knew.

            We’ve definately upped our international reputation, which was pretty good to begin with.  Unless you ask the British, of course, they’re really hammering us, but I think they’re just trying to call our games a failure (yes, they are really using terms that harsh) to make London 2012 look better.  They’re also forgetting that this is a Winter Games and they’re hosting the Summer, hardly an equal comparison, but whatever.  I’m Canadian, I know our games are fantastic, and at least my country has never been bombed, so the Brits can suck it.

          Even Though we still have days to go before the closing ceremonies and the start of the Paralympics, I already know I’m going to miss the Olympics once they pass.  More than anything, in the past week, people have been happy.  All the time.  It’s just a permanent smiling-at-strangers good mood that I don’t want to let slide once the torch has been snuffed.  It’s a pleasure to be in Vancouver.  Even more than usual.  And that’s saying a lot.

Tags: cape, flag, fun, Games, good mood, hockey, line up, livecity Yaletown, Olympics, toque, vancouver, zipline

Back from Ontario at Christmas!

       I did it!  I managed to fly to Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario and back without becoming a strangely dressed popsicle.  And I didn’t freak out/scare off/offend any of the bf’s family as I met them all for the first time.  High five to me.

       I left Vancouver Boxing Day at 8am – if you want to get a great parking space at YVR, get there at 530am on Boxing Day.  The place was a ghost town.  So much for those holiday crowds.  This was the day after the underwear bomber in the US, but my plane was half empty and there was no increased security or anything.  My carry on backpack (I’d always wanted to travel with nothing but a backpack and fulfill that Amazing Race fantasy of mine – it was totally worth it!) was probably a little oversized, but there were no questions and I was still able to cram it into the overhead with a slight running start.

          Arrived in Ontario to 5 degree weather, actually warmer than Vancouver when I’d left.  You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.  I was wearing a down jacket (that’s like wearing a hug, it’s the best purchase ever!) and god-awful snow boots, and it’s warmer?!  I was vindicated the next day when it started snowing, and the snow continued off and on for the rest of the trip, so that was good.  I love watching snow, anyway.  When we get it in Vancouver it’s an event, so here, with everyone being so blase about it, I was the only one stupidly happy.  Whatever.  I was on vacation, if you’ve got one time to be stupidly happy, that’s it.  And the snow in Ontario is so different than what we get out west: dry and fine, it can snow all day and barely accumulate, and it doesn’t stick to the roads too much – the ground temperature must be freakishly warm or something.  It was cold, though, one day it was minus 14 Celsius before the windchill was factored in, and there was an extreme weather warning issued.  Sweet.

        Saw a movie (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – weird shit, but my odd art film loving bf was all over it), went go-karting with some of Eric’s friends, wandered around a mall without buying anything (because Canada has the same crap in stores on either side of the country, so there was nothing to get excited about), went to a Kitchener Rangers hockey game and watched his little sister’s jumping lesson on her gorgeous horse Romeo, but aside from that it was all family gatherings.  This was totally new territory for me - I’ve never gone on vacay to just visit with people before.  If I’m on vacation and someone I know happens to be nearby I’ll totally hang out with them, but it wasn’t the purpose behind the trip.  It was an enjoyable experience.  His family is all incredibly nice, and I was welcomed right off the bat.

           Of course, the Rockband didn’t hurt, either. 

          Let me explain.  I officially met everyone in one big shot as the second day I was there was the big family Christmas dinner on the 27th.  His Grandparents (who we were staying with) held it, and they bought a full Rockband/Guitar Hero 5/Beatles Rockband set for everyone to play.  Very little bonds people like some bad singing and crazy drumming, and we had already started when most of the relatives arrived, so their first impression of me was rapping out the Beastie Boys’ “So Whatcha Want”.  Clearly it was my most shining moment.  But it served as an awesome ice breaker!  I highly recommend it.  Thankfully they didn’t arrive ten minutes earlier when I was killing dogs with my fantastic take on Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer”.  That could have led to an entirely different outcome

           The days flew by and before I knew it we were flying home, back to the tropics of Western Canada.  I could have stayed longer, although I’d need to find a better mall to shop in…  It was a great adventure.  I like his family a lot, and I’m not just saying that to kiss ass if any of them read this!  I discovered that the bf and I can travel well together – that’s a test of any relationship, and from what I’ve seen as an agent, it can go either good or bad very, very easily.  Thankfully we passed with flying colours - and that down jackets are a gift from the Gods.  I’m really glad I got to go.  Maybe next time it’ll be warmer…

Tags: animals, boyfriend, Canada, Christmas., Cold, family, Food, friends, fun, Go-Karts, Hamilton, horses, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Rockband, snow, winter

Chiang Mai night market – Amazing!

            It was probobly the friendliest shopping experience I’ve ever had, and it involved bartering.   I know, I wouldn’t have believed it either, had I not experienced it.  In fact, I found myself wandering around the market night after night and waiting for the in-your-face sales tactics I’d experienced in other night markets around the world,  but never finding any.  By just being nice, the stall-keepers had sold me on the Chiang Mai night market, and I loved it.

           The market itself, no necessarily the items for sale, was the attraction.  It’s beautiful, a crazy maze of colours, textures, lights, people and sounds, everything brighter, louder, more sparkly than it’s predecessor.  It’s quite spread out as far as night markets go, although in places you’re still inevitably squished up against the other shoppers/walkers/stall walls (but then again, that just adds to the street market experience), and it’s large square footage means if you can’t find it here, you don’t need it.  Sure, most of the wares on offer are souvenir kitsch – carved elephants, Thai pillows, T-shirts with the Chiang Beer logo on them –  but it’s fun as hell to buy it.  One of my favorite things I’ve bought anywhere is my intricately detailed tuk tuk sculpted from a Coke Light can, some wire and a couple of buttons.   Carved soap was also a huge hit (we bought 5), where the artisan takes your standard drugstore bar of Dove and carves and paints it into a stunning orchid or mum or random pretty flower, then safely puts it in a small laquered box.  They look great on display, and it’s also good to know that in case of a dire soap shortage, I have a backup.

           Bartering scares me.  I know a lot of people who love it, who attack bartering as a game and will do almost anything to come out the victor, but I always get overwhelmed by guilt and knowing that the item advertised for CAD$3 would be at least CAD$15 at home, I’m willing to pay the full price.   Don’t get me wrong, I always barter, but I’m a soft sell.  I think that’s why the Chiang Mai market and I clicked.  The salespeople, being salespeople, would call out for your attention, but all you had to do was shake your head a polite “no” and they left you alone.  I’ve been followed by annoying bootleg DVD pushers in Kuala Lumpur, so this was a welcome surprise.  Not once did we have to pretend to be deaf (man, our sign language is so bad we’d probobly accidentally insult the royal family and someone’s dog) and could wander around for hours taking in the smells, sights and ambiance.  The only people that were kind of in your face were the hilltribe women selling the wooden frogs that if you ran a stick up and down their backs, they croak.  The women themselves were equally as friendly as the other salespeople, but that damn frog sound will follow you around for days!

       If you ever visit Chiang Mai and you don’t visit the night market, you’re doing yourself an injustice.  Even if you don’t like to shop, it’s a place that can’t be missed.  I’m already trying to figure out when I can go back!

Tags: bartering, beautiful, BlogSherpa, carved soap, Chiang Mai, coke light, elephants, friendly, frogs, fun, hilltribes, night market, shopping, souvenirs, Thailand

City Chase – a step by step rocking recap

                     Yesterday the Vancouver edition of the Mitsubishi City Chase powered by Blackberry (might as well get the full name in there, make the corporate sponsors happy, not that they’re reading this) was successfully run, and, as promised, it was awesome.  I dressed up like a fireman, found myself blindfolded no less than 3 times, saw naked people, went shopping and actually went willingly to one of the disgusting food challenges for the first time ever.   This was the first year for me and the bf, and I had no idea how we would react together under stress and physical exertion, but I’m happy to report all is well and no one has to move out!  There was a little sniping in frustration at the first chasepoint, but after that it only got better and better as the race progressed.  So, I promised you a blow by blow recap of my favorite day of the year, so here goes:

                   We started at Granville Square plaza, right beside Waterfront Skytrain Station and with an incredible view of North Vancouver and Canada Place at 9am sharp with the traditional speech and geeky warm up stretch/dance routine.  Then, at 10am sharp, it was go time.  In past years, in order to receive your clue sheet you have to complete a scavenger hunt that I dread with a passion, as it can take up to 1/2 an hour to find all the obscure objects (a business card printed in a language other than English?  A cocktail umbrella?), eating up a huge chunk of your precious 6-hour maximum race allotment.  Even had a homeless man help me out with that one year.  He had heard a lot of the teams run past saying they needed an apple core, so he found one and got it for me.  That was fantastic.  But this year they made it much easier, you just had to find another team with the same last digit of your team number and then check in with them at the Olympic Countdown Clock.  No sweat.  We found a team of girls wearing head to toe metallic pink spandex (not kidding) and ran to the clock, the whole process taking maybe 10 minutes with traffic.

                  Our strategy was to find what we thought was the farthest away chasepoint and head right there, doing a lot of our additional strategizing Geographically, it may not have been the farthest point, but we started with the hardest to get to one at the Cliffhanger rock climbing gym on Terminal Ave.  This was an important point for us, as we had raised CAD$50.00 for charity in advance of the race, and if you went there you got a chasepoint stamp for the fundraising as well as the task at hand, so it was an easy two points right there.  After skytraining it to Main Street, we discovered there is no other form of public transport from there to the rock climbing, so we had to hoof it.  Getting to the gym, Eric (the bf) had to climb a rock wall while I completed a Sudoku puzzle.  Let me just say, he rocked that wall.  It took him like a minute, he just flew up there.  I, on the other hand, did not have that much luck.  With him down and the two of us putting our heads together we managed to finish that damn puzzle in like 20 minutes and hit the road again.   Apparently some teams were working on that puzzle for an hour, so, despite my supreme frustration, we didn’t do too badly.  Two points down, eight to go.

                    From there we walked the 2.7km (once again, no freaking public transportation!  I don’t think in 5 other races I ever had to run/walk that far in one single stretch before) from Terminal, along Main St and up Prior, heading to Strathcona Park.  On the way we stumbled across another chasepoint, this one a block before the park at Fire Hall No. 1.  It had only said “go to firehall no. 1″ on the cryptic cluesheet, and we hadn’t had time yet to get out phone a friend back home (thanks Mom) to google that yet, so we had no idea it was right there, but since we had found it, we were doing it, whatever it was.  Turns out both team members had to don full firefighting gear, pull a firehose out, knock down a target with the water, then drag a weighted dummy across a yellow line, and then one team member had to unroll a fire hose and then the other had to roll it back up again.  Let me tell you, those outfits are not comfortable.  Not only are they hot as hell, but they weigh a ton.  On the upside, the bf looked great all dressed up like that   This point actually didn’t take too long, and soon we were on our way.

                   One block up was Strathcona park, where I got to be blindfolded while the bf, using only words, talked me through disassembling a skateboard.  This wasn’t too bad, he gives great directions and I’m pretty adept at taking things apart, but the grippy stuff on the skateboard deck did horrible things to my manicure!  Four down, 6 to go.

                  One more block up was La Casa Gelato, Vancouver’s legendary home of the 218 flavours of ice cream.  If this hadn’t been so close to the other points and involving the word “gelato” I probably wouldn’t have gone, as they never give you anything good to eat on the city chase.  Ever.  As a rule I usually avoid the eating challenges, but this one just made to much sense logistically to pass up.  One team member was blindfolded (me again) and had to taste 5 flavours  of gelato and try to identify them.  For every one they got wrong, their partner recieved a penalty.  Of the 5 flavours the only one I got right was ginger, though I heard the others were either wasabi, lychee, corn, balsamic vinagar, fish or pesto.  Honestly, none of those rang a bell to what had tickled my taste buds.  But because of my four errors, Eric had to take one for the team (love you, Handsome) and eat two huge oysters.  I really didn’t think he was going to manage the first one without vomiting, he came pretty close, but once it was down the second one was easy and we were on our way. 

             Finally, public transportation again!  It was now just over two hours into the race and we were finally getting to use our provided bus passes.  The 22 bus took us to VVC-Clark skytrain station (the driver helped us out and dropped us off right at the station instead of the bus stop), from where we trained it to Renfrew station and ran to the Grandview Rona store.  Here the task was shopping.  Sweet.  If I can do anything, it’s shop.  They gave us a list of 8 items and we had to correctly find 6 of them somewhere in the store.  They tried to be tricky, asking for 56 lt of bark chips, when the bags came in 2 cubic feet (it works out to be the same thing), but we quickly saw through this and finished in good time.  6 down, four to go.

              Right next door to Rona was Van Tech Highschool, where we wandered around lost with another team for a few precious minutes before we finally found the chasepoint hidden on a lower field.  Once again I was blindfolded (I was the navigator of the team because I rock with maps, but when it comes to giving small directions, like ”turn a little to your left” I have this horrible tendency to mix up my left and right.  Stop laughing, you know you do it to.  Our little saying is “your left or mine?” even though we’re both facing the same direction. Thus, I was always the blindfolded one while he, who seems to know his left and right, directed) and was verbally directed to walk through a field of scattered balls, where if I touched any of them, I had to go back to the start and try again.  No touches, we finished and were on our way.  Time for the home stretch, and we had it all planned out.  from here on out, all the points we needed were along our rapid transit routes, so we were good.

                  Skytrain again back to Science World, where we got to team up with four other teams and paddle a dragon boat through a marked course.  That was fun and fast. Back on the train, it was straight to waterfront station and the start/finish line to pick up the trivia question sheet we needed to complete for our next point.  Let me tell you, it was hard being so close to the finish line and not be able to cross it, then have to run away again and hop on the nearby seabus to North Van.  The questions were hard, random facts about the world, like “Which country has the lowest literacy rate?” and “where in the world is the highest waterfall?” (I work in travel, I knew that last one was Venezuela), but between our phone a friend and working with other teams we got them all by the time the seabus docked and it was time to run again.

                 In North Van we had two options, either learn a dance routine with the BC Lions’ cheerleading squad the Felions, or draw a nude model.  The clue was very cryptic on this one, as it sounded like you had to get naked, so we had automatically ruled that out (my underwear I’ll do, no problem.  Anything more than that, no freaking way.  Luckily Eric felt the same way), despite the fact that he really didn’t want to dance and had warned me it would take him forever.  Of the two of us, I have the rhythm.  But on the seabus we learned that you only had to draw a nude model, not become one, to get your stamp.  If you were willing to get naked you could get a second stamp, but that was optional.  Since the two chasepoints were right beside one another, we figured we’d try the drawing and see how it went.  I’m a half-decent artist if I do say so myself, and we were in and out of there in 5 minutes flat, chorusing a resounding “NO!” when they asked us if we wanted to get naked for point number 2.  Besides, we didn’t need it, we were done.

                 Back to the seabus, a quick stop just behind the start/finish line to turn in our trivia sheet and officially get chasepoint #10, a run through a construction zone to get to the entrance, and we sprinted to the finish, crossing at about the 5-hour mark.  Apparently the winners finished in 2 hours 48, but I’m still really proud of how we did.  We finished.  I’ve had years when you just have to cross the line with 8 stamps because the course is going to close before you can finish.  And we finished still talking to one another!  I’m under no illusions that I’m ever going to win the Chase, I’m not a runner, but it’s all about the journey and the fun, and it was a hell of a lot of both.  On the upside, he’s already willing to do it again next year!  Sweet!  I’ve converted another one!

               Great course, great year, great race, great fun.  If you hear about a City Chase in your area, do it!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, dragon boating, fun, gross, nudity, odd, public transportation, race, rock climbing, running, vancouver, weird

The Chase is on!

                Saturday in Vancouver, the Chase is on!  It’s time again  for the Vancouver City Chase and I can’t wait.  This is year six for both me and the Chase, and it’s going to be the best race ever.

               For the uninitiated, the City Chase is like The Amazing Race, but all contained within one city, and you can only travel by public transit or foot.  An urban adventure race that’s part scavenger hunt, part footrace, part strategy and part “what the hell, let’s do it”, it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.   Being that I’m totally obsessed with the Amazing Race, this is as close to being on the show that this Canadian girl can get: six hours of running around Vancouver and completing various random tasks at ten chasepoints scattered throughout the city.  Oh, and you’re with a partner, so there’s someone there to drag you along, be dragged, argue with and hug in celebration along the way.  Check it out online at mitsubishicitychase.com or on Facebook and see for yourself.

           The big question is, as usual, what are they going to make us do this year?  All they tell us going in is where the start line is and it’s not until they say “go” that you get your clue sheets, so it involves a lot of blind faith.  Sometimes the tasks are fun (modeling your partner’s likeness out of play-doh), sometimes they’re physical (climbing the 700 stairs to the observation deck at Harbour Centre), sometimes they’re wet (the organizers promised not to make anyone ever do the underwater bowling ever again, as it was almost impossible), and sometimes they’re gross (anything with the words “smoothie” or “dog bakery” mean you’re going to have to eat something really, really gross, and last year for the first time I downed a live meal worm.  Yep, it’s as unpleasant as you’d expect, but thankfully they’re small and can be taken like pills).  God knows, it could be anything.  Kayaking.  Fencing.  Wheelchair basketball against professionals.  Nudity made it’s first appearance last year as one of the optional points was to run an obstacle course at Wreck Beach full-on starkers. 

              But that’s the fun of the chase.  The unknown.  I’m not exactly an overly-outgoing person, my friends would probobly describe me as the “quiet one” in our group, but I am incredibly competitive.  Over the years I’ve discovered that in the heat of the race I’ll do pretty much anything.  Approach random seniors and ask if I can hold their false teeth in a photo; eat the aforementioned mealworm; strip to my underwear in public for a water challenge (because, really, bathing suits are not supportive running attire); and one of my prouder moments came by completing a high ropes course, complete with rappel.  I was shaking the whole time, but that competitive streak of mine got me over that fear, and afterwards it felt really good.

             From a travel perspective (this is a travel blog, after all), it wasn’t until I started this race that I really learned how to navigate Vancouver.  Before the first year I literally studied downtown maps like I was cramming for an exam, and now this girl from the ‘burbs knows her way around.  But also, the race takes me places I might never have gone otherwise, like being a very fast-paced tourist in my own city.    Every year I end up with a shortlist of places that looked really cool as I ran through them, so now I need to go back and really enjoy them.

              But the coolest part is that this is an international race.  All across Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, London… they’re adding more cities every year, and the winners of each go on to the World Championships, which have been in Rome, Chicago, Morocco, and this year are in Argentina.  Sure, it’s way easier to race around a city you already have some knowledge about, but still I have this fantasy of running the London or Hong Kong race some year, zipping around on their great public transportation, trying new things…

              We’ll soon see how this year plays out, and I’ll post an after-race recap, but it’s going to be fun!    

mitsubishicitychase.com

Tags: adventure, City Chase, competition, fun, odd, public transit, race, rapelling, The Amazing Race, vancouver