This year for the first time, Honda has become the main sponsor for the Celebration of Light fireworks competition, taking over the reins from HSBC. Some of the regular countries will not be competing, as well, such as Canada and China. In their place, we have newbie Vietnam, who will be competing in their first international fireworks competition outside their own country, as well as Brazil and Italy.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

Celebration of Light fireworks show at English Bay

The Celebration of Light competition is starting a bit later this year compared to previous years, running from July 28 – August 4. 

Vietnam

Brazil

Italy

Keep in mind that these fireworks are meant to be watched with musical accompaniment. Usually, it’s not a problem hearing the music, as they have some speakers located around the viewing areas and some people bring their own radios. If you are really unlucky, though, and there is a no music playing around you, you’re really going to miss out on the experience. Hopefully, you’ll be lucky enough to hear the music from where you are standing, or you could always bring your own radio with you.

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.

The slogan on their site says, “Bring Awareness to Down-thereness,” and you can guess that anybody watching is definitely going to be aware that the walkers and runners aren’t wearing any pants. It seems like a good idea for a fundraiser which says it aims to “uncover the cure for underfunded below-the-waist cancers like prostate, ovarian, and colorectal.”

Besides drawing attention to your mid-section, each participant is required to raise at least $300 in donations which go to the BC Cancer Foundation.

The Underwear Affair is held annually in the cities of Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, and it’s definitely an event that shouldn’t be missed. So far, we know that the date of the event this year is July 7, but the exact start time and running course have not yet been determined.

If you want to get the latest news about the exact details of this event, make a donation, or become a participant, just head on over to the official site for The Underwear Affair. I’ll be taking part in it this year myself, but just as a very focused observer

When I moved to Vancouver in 2003, one of the first things I noticed was that the Chinese food here is quite different compared to the Chinese food in Eastern Canada. It seemed that all the fried rice was white or yellow in color and the taste was quite bland compared to what I was used to. Besides that, some of the other Chinese food items I was used to were missing from the west coast Chinese restaurant menus, such as Chop Suey and even another one of my favorite food items: the egg roll (haven’t seen one in Vancouver yet, and on a few occasions, the Chinese server at a restaurant pointed out a spring roll from the menu when I asked if they made egg rolls).

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to tell you about a delicious plate of fried rice that I discovered at a restaurant on Davie Street. It’s actually at a Thai restaurant on the north side of Davie Street, just east of Bute called Thida Thai.

Thai Fried Rice – one of the lunch combos for less than $9.00.

The Thai fried Rice, like all of their lunch combos, comes with a spring roll and a small side salad. The fried rice can be ordered with chicken, beef, pork, or tofu, but I always choose chicken. The chicken is good quality, too, and just the way I like it: generous portions of high quality white meat (very rare I will find gristle, but it has happened a couple of times), and just the right texture. Also within the rice, you’ll find around 4 sweet tomato wedges and onion slices. It’s a very nice tasting lunch that I go back for again and again, and it definitely satisfies my “chicken fried rice” cravings in Vancouver.

Another of their items I like to indulge in once in a while is the Thai Yellow Curry lunch combo:

Yellow Curry lunch combo – includes spring roll, rice, salad, and yellow curry with potatoes and chicken (or beef or pork)

All in all, it’s a pretty good little Thai restaurant with extremely reasonable prices, and a super friendly staff. It’s quite quiet and cozy inside with some pretty nice Thai decor.

Thida Thai interior

Elephant statue/ornament

If you would like more information about Thida Thai and its menu items, try visiting the Thida Thai website at http://www.thidathairestaurant.com/.

Update: since posting this article, I was able to try out some Thai fried rice dishes at many other Thai restaurant around Vancouver. As it turns out, they are all basically the same as the rice I got here with a bit of variation in flavors (yes, I use the North American spelling of words rather than British English). In other words, I’ve yet to be disappointed, and now I know I can get it at pretty well any one of the dozens of Thai restaurants in the Vancouver area. 

The Rogers Christmas Parade

This Sunday (December 5, 2010) at 1:00 pm, come to Downtown Vancouver to check out the annual Rogers Santa Claus Parade. If you’ve seen it a few times already, it’s nothing special since they pretty well use the same floats and acts every year, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. For the parade route map and to find out more information about it, go to the official website at http://rogerssantaclausparade.com/home

Lights of Hope at St. Paul’s Hospital

I’ve been checking this out since 2003, and I never get tired of it, though it has lost a lot of its awe-factor for me. You can see it on Burrard Street near Helmcken Street. If it’s night time, you definitely won’t miss it because you won’t see more lights in one place anywhere else. It seems they manage to make it a little bit different every year. For more information about it, go to http://www.helpstpauls.com/lights-of-hope/lights-of-hope-display.

Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Gardens

In my opinion, this is the best Christmas lights attraction in the entire Metro Vancouver area. This light show is located at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, which is located at 5251 Oak Street in Vancouver. Some of the highlights of the Festival of Lights include (taken from the official site):

• Santa’s Living Room: Dec. 10 – 24 with Santa appearances 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 p.m.
• Svend and Jens, our Scandinavian Christmas Elves appear nightly in the Centre Court.
• Dancing Lights on Livingstone Lake: starting at 4:30 p.m. Two different shows – one show on the half hour and a different one at the top of the hour. Two different shows repeating in sequence throughout the evening.
• Gingerbread Wood
• Golden Chain Walk
• Community Choir Concerts on the Deck at 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm – view choir schedule
• Make-a-Wish Candle Shrine
• Candy Cane Lane
• Sparkling Spruce in the Centre Court
• Candy Cane Express model train

For more information, go to the official site at http://vancouver.ca/PARKS/parks/vandusen/website/events/fol.htm.

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

Here is another not-to-be-missed attraction which even features a Christmas train ride with a different theme every year. Before or after your train ride, you can take your time to walk around the plaza to check out all the spectacular Christmas light displays.  For getting on the train, you can either buy your tickets through Ticketmaster or purchase them on-site. Check out the official site for more information at http://vancouver.ca/parks/events/brightnights/

Festival of Trees at Four Seasons and Christmas Street

I was just at the Four Seasons hotel to check this out today. It’s always worth checking out, especially if you just happen to be in the area to do some Christmas shopping as I was today (the Pacific Centre Mall is connected). Situated in the lobby of the Four Seasons, and also up the escalator on the next floor are many trees that have all been decorated with a theme.

The Festival of Trees at Four Seasons

While you are in the area to check out the Festival of Trees, you may as well head through the mall into the Bay to see another nice set of Christmas displays. Located on the 5th floor of the Bay is a very nicely decorated area that they call Christmas Street. I’m not sure why they call it Christmas Street, since there is no street, but I think the name is pretty cool. What you’ll see is a lot of Christmas items for sale, but what makes it special is how they have all their items on display with colorful themes in different areas.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This is a McDonald's Christmas tree.

Gingerbread Lane at the Hyatt Regency

If you like gingerbread creations, you definitely can’t go wrong stopping by the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Burrard Street between Georgia and Pender.

From the official site:

This year, the centrepiece is again Executive Sous Chef Hans Lutz’s gigantic gingerbread house measuring 11 feet tall and 16 feet wide. Ingredients include 500 pounds of gingerbread dough, 400 pounds of confection sugar and 1,400 egg whites, plus a few secret ingredients and a little help from Hyatt’s engineering department. Four foot tall cut outs of gingerbread families are also available for picture taking. Nearly 40 individually crafted gingerbread creations from culinary professionals and amateurs, corporations and secondary schools round out the sweet smelling lavish display.

For more information, go to http://vancouver.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/, and click on Gingerbread Lane Celebrates 20th Anniversary in the right column.

The Vancouver Christmas Market

Step back in time … Experience A Traditional German Christmas Festival For All!

New to Vancouver this year is traditional German Christmas market located at the Plaza at Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Welcome to the Vancouver Christmas Market, an authentic outdoor German Christmas market village featuring unique holiday shopping, seasonal music and entertainment, and delicious traditional food and drink.

I haven’t been able to check this one out yet, but I plan on heading there this week. The German Christmas Market is open until December 24, 2010.

For more information, check out the official website at http://www.vancouverchristmasmarket.com/

I decided to go there on opening day this year, which was Thursday, November 18. I figured that since it was a weekday, it wouldn’t be very busy there, and I was right. The fact that it was raining probably kept a lot of people away, too.

Upon walking through the gate, I got the usual eyeful of this huge house that I was about to enter, quite nicely decorated from the outside.

Christmas at Hycroft, exterior view

There is a small box office outside the entrance where you can purchase a ticket to enter. The cost is $10 to get inside, and the ticket includes a stub that you can write your name on and put in a raffle box for the chance to win a number of prizes including getting to use the Hycroft mansion for a day for your own private party.

Now I’m going to show you a bunch of pictures that I was able to snap while exploring all the areas of the house. These are some of the best interior Christmas decorations I’ve seen, and the main reason I keep going back every year.

One of several fireplaces in the house

Showing the upper level and ground level. There is also a basement.

Frosty's family out on the balcony

All the rooms are well done and tidy

Even Santa Claus was there

Throughout the day, there is always some form of entertainment going on. While I was there, I got to see a choir performing various Christmas songs, and something else that was definitely a first for me: a quartet of elderly ladies playing the bells.

A choir performing a set of Christmas songs

Bell Ringer Quartet - a small group from "Kerrisdale Bell-Ringers" playing Christmas music on bells at the Hycroft. Click on image to see a short video clip.

In case you missed it, you can click on the above image to see a short recording of the bell ringing performance.

I lost count of how many Christmas trees they had in there.

A nice bedroom setup. Reminded me of my own bedroom at Christmas time when I was a child.

Another nice bedroom setup. I wish my room looked like this.

The dining room

This couch can fit around 10 skinny people.

This was the 38th annual Christmas at Hycroft event. It usually takes place during the last half of November, but you better pay attention and make sure you don’t miss the opening because it’s only available to be visited for 4 days. This year, the house opened to the public on Thursday, November 18, and the last day will be on Sunday, November 21.

Hycroft is owned by the University Womens Club of Vancouver, For more information about the Hycroft and the University Womens Club of Vancouver, you can go to the official website at http://www.uwcvancouver.ca/christmas-at-hycroft/

One of my favorite decorations of the night. Let it snow!

I first learned about Clearly Contacts when I saw them on Breakfast Television around 2 years ago before Halloween. They had someone on there to talk about the company and some people in the studio were showing off some of the special effects contact lenses. At that time, I had been looking for a set of spooky looking lenses to go with my Halloween costume, and when I realized that this company was local, I decided to order them right away. Just a few days later, I got my lenses in the mail in plenty of time for Halloween, and it only cost me around $60 for the pair.

After Halloween, I had pretty well forgotten about Clearly Contacts, until around 2 years later when I accidentally stepped on my pair of glasses and twisted the frames. That was around the middle of October this year, and I thought I should start looking for another pair of glasses somewhere. It was around that time when I received an email from Clearly Contacts announcing a promotion that really caught my attention.

I thought this sounded too good to be true. Ten thousand free pairs of glasses? Who are they trying to fool? Still, I couldn’t resist going to the site to check out what they had there just in case.

I noticed they had a really large amount of frames to choose from, but it was kind of hard to imagine how any of the them would look on me. That is when I discovered their really useful tool called the “Virtual Mirror.” By using that, I was able to upload a picture of my face, and then as I clicked on different frames, they would appear on my face. As a result, I was able to pick out a really good pair. I settled for a pair of Kam Dhillon frames and then waited for midnight, which was the promotion’s start time.

Actually, it was impossible to do anything on the site as soon as the promotion started, but I don’t think too many people were surprised. I couldn’t get anywhere at all and the site was pretty well down, so I figured I may as well give up and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning, though, I was able to use the site with no problems, and to my delight, when I placed my order and entered the code for the free glasses, it worked.

Anyway, a few days later, I got my new free glasses and they are so nice. Here they are:

Prescription glasses and frames, case, cleaning cloth, and jacket. All free.

Clearly Contacts claims to be the largest online retailer in Canada, and on the page that talks about the history of the company, it starts off with:

Clearly Contacts was founded by Roger Hardy in 2000, with a mission to save the world from overpriced vision care products.

Well, their prices do seem to be really good, especially when they give away 10,000 free pairs of glasses. I think I’ll continue keeping my eye on these guys to make sure I don’t miss any of these sweet promotions.

For more information about Clearly Contacts and their products, and for connecting with them on Facebook so that you can also take advantage of their occasional promotion, just go to http://www.clearlycontacts.ca.

There is a restaurant located on Davie Street between Thurlow and Burrard that I don’t go to very often. I would say I stop in for a meal around once every couple of months or less, and that’s about it. The reason I don’t go very often, though, is not because it’s bad, but because I’ve been there so many times already, I’m now at the point where I prefer to save it for special occasions only. Because it’s so good!

Actually, one of my main reasons for going there these days is so I can introduce it to my friends who haven’t tried it before, especially people who are new to the city. I know exactly what to order to satisfy their taste buds and give them a good impression of Kam’s, and so far, nobody has ever been let down.

The items on the menu that I order almost every time include:

Nasi Goreng - Malaysian shrimp fried rice with green chili, choice of pork, beef, or chicken. I recommend ordering this with chicken.

Tom Kah Seafood Soup - A combination of prawns, squid, mussels, tomato, exotic spices blended in hot and sour, coconut broth. A couple of my friends told me that this was the best soup they had ever tasted.

Ah May Chicken - Pan fried sliced chicken with sweet & sour spicy sauce. It comes with a big serving of broccoli.

Those are the three items I will order almost every time without fail. There is also another item that I will usually order, but I missed out on it during this visit. That dish is called the House Chili Beef (Beef with house chili sauce and vegetables). If you’re going to choose a beef item while you are there, I recommend that one.

There was a new dish that we decided to try on this occasion that was also quite tasty. It was a mix of prawns, vegetables, and a special sauce:

Prawns with mixed vegetables. Actually, I don't remember the exact name of this item, but I think it was either the Chili Pepper Prawns, Prawns with Black Bean Sauce, or the House Chili Prawns.

Anyway, that’s pretty well how most of the dishes look. They are mainly a mix of some kind of meat (chicken, beef, pork, or seafood) and vegetables, with different sauces. You probably noticed that they are all quite large, too. Well, that’s another thing I really like about Kam’s: if you go, you’ll definitely not leave hungry.

Most of these large dishes range in price from between $10.95 and $13.95, which I think is quite a good deal considering the quality of the taste and the large portions. Almost every time we’ve ever gone there, we ended up leaving with enough leftovers for a full meal the next day, so the food goes a long way.

2 for 1 coupon

There is a coupon that you can find in the Straight magazine that you can use every time you go to get one of your dishes for free. It is a 2 for 1 coupon. You can only use one per table, but if you bring it in with you, you can take advantage of the offer every time you visit there, without fail. The Straight magazine is very easy to find, too, as it is on every corner of every block in the Kam’s Place vicinity. The coupon looks like this:

Kam's Place 2 for 1 coupon - look for this inside the Straight

Don’t be surprised if you open up a Straight magazine and find out that the coupon has been ripped out already. I’ve come across that many times. Who knows, if it happens to you, it may have even been me who did it. The best thing to do is just grab a magazine from the middle.

Lunch at Kam’s

Kam’s also has some fabulous lunch dishes that are so big, they are a challenge for almost anyone to finish. And what a great deal! Starting from as low as $5.75, they all come with a small bowl of hot/sour soup, and a plate of food with rice, salad, and a mix of vegetables and meat.

The hot/sour soup that comes with the lunch special

Lunch plate including rice, salad, and chicken/vegetables with black bean sauce.

Another lunch plate, with a bowl of curry, chicken, and vegetables

On a recent walk-by, I noticed on their sign that they are now also serving sushi boxes for lunch. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but I will likely drop in real soon to try one out.

If you want to stop by and give Kam’s Place a try, the location is at 1043 Davie Street, which is approximately half way between Thurlow and Burrard, on the north side. They also have a delivery service to the downtown and westend area. If you’d like to order something, the number is 604-669-3389.

This was the 7th time I attended the Pride parade, and as usual, it was quite a spectacle. There wasn’t really anything that new, and the crowd seemed to be even a bit bigger than usual (someone told me there was an estimated 600,000 people there), making it almost impossible to see much, but it was still interesting to get a glimse of some of the crazy floats going by. 

The TD Canada Trust float. Click to enlarge.

Oasis float - any float that has a girl dancing in a bikini is a winner

You know an event is really big whenever Batman and Spiderman make a guest appearance

I think this blue man was in The Watchmen

The Pride Parade, 2010

If you happened to miss the Pride Parade this year, don’t worry, because it will be back again next year, and you’ll get to see all the same things again. The Pride parade usually takes place on the first Sunday of August, the day after the Celebration of Light fireworks competition.

For more information about the Pride Parade, it’s history, and it’s meaning, you can check out the official site at www.vancouverpride.ca

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this annual fireworks competition, this is actually a musical fireworks show that takes place during a timespan of around 25 minutes. So if you are looking for a non-stop barrage of fireworks in the sky with no purpose, you might be disappointed. This is a more artistic kind of fireworks show with slow moments that build up to exciting moments, and each show has a theme. 

Celebration of Light fireworks show at English Bay

The Celebration of Light competition takes place on four separate days, with 3 and sometimes 4 different countries competing with their own special arrangements and themes. It always begins on a Wednesday, and then is followed by another show on Saturday, and then Wednesday and Saturday again. When only 3 countries compete, the final Saturday show will be what is called the Finale night when the other countries use a portion of their presentation to form another full 25 minute fireworks show. 

This year, we are lucky, because 4 different countries are competing. The reason I say that is because I have never really been a fan of the Finale show. The individual shows are usually pretty good, but when they try to mix up the themes into a finale, it just never seems to work. In fact, I’m not even interested in watching any more finale shows. Since 4 countries are competing this  year, though, there will be a full presentation from that country on day 4, and if it is the same as other years when there were 4 countries competiting, that will be followed by a short finale with an especially large amount of fireworks going off at once. 

This year, the competing countries for the Celebration of Light fireworks show are:
(copied from the official Celebration of Light website) 

U.S.A.

Spain

Mexico

China

One more thing I should mention is that if you want to get some drinks with your friends after the fireworks show, it’s extremely difficult to find a place. Most of the restaurants in the Davie Street area, for example, have people standing in the entrances blocking people from entering. You might get lucky, but your best bet is to go to a place that is a bit out of the way from the columns of crowds emptying out of the downtown area.

For more information about the Celebration of Light firworks event, you can check out the offical website here.

It’s not the easiest place to find. Located on Hamilton Street south of Davie, it has a really small sign that isn’t really outstanding if you are looking in that direction from Davie Street. In fact, during my first 2 years in Vancouver, I continually failed to notice it during my many trips to Yaletown.

Rodney's Oyster House on the east side of Hamilton, between Davie and Drake

I was really impressed with the interior design the first time I entered it. It doesn’t look at all like any of the modern restaurants like Earls, Moxies, Cactus Club, and Joeys. In constast, it has a simple, old-fashioned looking interior with a lot of white. It reminded me of the interior of a ship, actually, which helped me to enjoy the seafood even more.

I was there with 4 other people at the time, and we decided to sample pretty well everything there. There wasn’t much to choose from there, so it was pretty easy to decide. They just have a simple menu with few selections.

The dinner menu at Rodney's Oyster House (click to enlarge)

The first thing we ordered was a selection of fine, fresh oysters.

Fresh oysters

Oyster closeup. If you love oysters, your mouth must be watering now.

Following that, we ordered the Oysters Rockerfellah, Pan Fried Oysters, and Shrimp Cocktail. This was, by far, my favorite moment of our dinner party.

A tray of seafood delights. Can you imagine how delicious this was? (click to enlarge)

And then, we couldn’t call it a night until sampling one of their fine desserts. I ordered the Banana Creme Brule.

Banana Creme Brule - the most unique of their 3 desserts

And that was it for our evening dinner. By the time we left, it was night time, and we were all stuffed to the max with a full selection of various items from their menu and plenty of beer. Before heading home for the night, I took one more picture of how the restaurant looks from outside at night.

Outside Rodney's Oyster House at night

After seeing my photos of Rodney’s Oyster House and all the amazing kinds of seafood you can get there, you are probably already making plans to go and check it out for yourself. If that is the case, and if you want more information about the restaurant and its menus, I recommend checking out the Rodney’s Oyster House website.