When we 1st visited Vancouver in 1995 for vacation, it wasn't that saturated with Asians. Yes, we do see lots of Asian then, but this time round, no joke.
The province (equivalent to states in USA) we live in is British Columbia. And it comprises of many smaller cities. Vancouver is a city by itself. The airport is known as YVR-Vancouver but its in Richmond City.... confusing eh?
And Asians don't just live in Vancouver (VE/VW), they can be found almost in the surrounding cities like Burnaby (BU), Richmond (RI), North Vancouver (NV), West Vancouver (WV), Coquitlam (CQ), Surrey, Port Moody(PM)..... (see map below)
Just how easy is it to live as an asian immigrant? If I need anything that is "chinese/asian", I no longer have to drive all the way to Chinatown. I just drive like 5-10mins and there are so many chinese stores available. I need a cup of "鸳鸯" or 泡泡茶? Easily, can find 茶餐厅. Due to the fact that Vancouver is a melting pot, there is even wider variety of stuff I can get from the major chinese supermarket, its very different from living as an Asian in Australia or even England.
Just the other day, I tried cooking beef rendang, I needed stuff like "galangal", lemon grass, lime leaves, and yup, I found them all in the supermarket easily!
Probably, some of you may have heard of this place as "HongCouver", its quite true, people assume you speak cantonese when you step into the Asian malls. In this particular mall (Aberdeen Centre), they have Daiso, Osim, the 1st Giordano in the entire North America, food court. Sometime, I thought I am in IMM when I go to Aberdeen Centre......
Also, we get a very good mix of other cultures. I can get real authentic Italy cuisine at decent price. I had the chance to meet an Italian 2nd generation lady, she showed me some Italian desserts, Italian desserts doesn't comprise of just tiramisu lor, they have lots of varieties of pastries, but they are really too rich and sweet for my liking though. I live 2 streets away from the "Little Italy" only :-)
Probably, some of you may have heard of this place as "HongCouver", its quite true, people assume you speak cantonese when you step into the Asian malls. In this particular mall (Aberdeen Centre), they have Daiso, Osim, the 1st Giordano in the entire North America, food court. Sometime, I thought I am in IMM when I go to Aberdeen Centre......
Also, we get a very good mix of other cultures. I can get real authentic Italy cuisine at decent price. I had the chance to meet an Italian 2nd generation lady, she showed me some Italian desserts, Italian desserts doesn't comprise of just tiramisu lor, they have lots of varieties of pastries, but they are really too rich and sweet for my liking though. I live 2 streets away from the "Little Italy" only :-)
Indian food, ah, how can we forget them? No prob, there is a "Little India" here too!
Of course Vietnamese food is very very available. As far as I remember, its quite expensive to eat Viet noodle back in SG....
With the great influx of immigrant from mainland China, its common that people assume we are from either HK or China (anyway, same rite?) A lady from Shenzhen, overheard me talking to kiddo in English and Mandarin, so she came over and asked me...
“你是乡下哪里人?英文和国语都会说？"
For a moment, I felt "insulted", I looked like 乡下人 meh???
Then I realised its their way of asking which province of China....
And another lady from 哈尔滨 asked me “我的爱人在哪儿上班？"
爱人????? Machiam I have affair leh!!!?? Hehehe!
Have a good day, folks.
4 comments:
Hi there,
Stumbled upon your blog. It's been interesting read. We are thinking of a new 'life in a different pasture' and are going to complete opposite way from yourselves!!!
We are a malaysian family who have lived in the UK for 10 years now. We have a 3 year old daughter and are now considering returning .... looking at going to Singapore - my mum is from singapore.... so half my relatives are there ....
We love it here but we miss the extended family life. Our parents hate travelling and are not getting any younger so they don't visit all that often. If we do go back for a holiday, we only get about 2 weeks. I feel sad that the grandparents don't get to see her more. Also, as our parents get older, we worry about their health and who will be thre to take care of them. They all have good health at the moment but our thinking is, why not go back now, when they are healthy and able to enjoy their grand daughter rather than us having to go back if they become sick and old and at that time, won't be able to enjoy their grandchild! We also feel a sense of duty .... which conflicts with what we want for our daughter ....
whoops .... forgot to sign off ...
Lynn from Scotland
Lynn
thanks for dropping by. indeed, living all alone here w/o extended families is tuff. I can fully comprehend. You may never know, some people do enjoy lives in Asia. In our perspective, just try, else live in regret.......
Keep us posted of your move! :)
Lucky u! soo envy eh....some more can cook beef rendang! How i miss beef rendang eh
Ai yooo... i will have to drive like an hour to get asian stuff..
that also limited one eh...hehehehe
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