So, I'm off to Vancouver for a week in a couple of days' time, on business. I was wondering whether any members could provide advice on:

* any particular threats/issues/things to think of (for reference, my normal environs is Oxfordshire, UK)

* any shops to visit (I'm keen on picking-up one of the new style AMK emergency blankets, as per the 2006 Shot Show report...)

Thanks in advance!

eeph

Assuming you mean Vancouver, B.C., I would recommend Mountain Equipment Co-op as a place worth visiting.

http://tinyurl.com/ju2hq

Most of the outdoor/backpack/travel stores are located within a few blocks of each other in West Vancouver.

Another store that carries Adventure Medical Kits products is Europe Bound at 195 W. Broadway. No guarantee about how many or which ones, though.

There are Army/ Navy surplus stores in Vancouver:
one at 1458 Broadway E. and one in Gastown
at 36 west Cordova st. There is another downtown on Granville
St. and one in New Westminster at 502 W. Columbia st.

For a website devoted to food: http://www.chowhound.com
scroll down to the map of the U.S./Canada and then choose
Canada, (as opposed to Toronto/Montreal) for
a list of reccomendations, opinions and condemnations <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

My favorites: The Irish Heather (brewpub in gastown)
De Dutch Pannekoek House (various)
Vera's Burger Shack (various)
King's Fare Fish & Chips (S. Vancouver)
Kirin (Richmond. BC) (Dim Sum)
Guu-w-Garlic (Japanese)
Stephos (greek) (also loud and b-u-s-y)
Earl's (chain-sort of American cuisine)
White Spot (chain-sort of Canadian <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )
Parkland Restaurant (good but $$$)

I'd avoid East Vancouver.
Gastown is old but not particularly dangerous.
Consider taking a bus/ferry to Victoria/Vancouver Island-if you don't rent a car. By all means use the transit system
and skytrain. Canadians are all closet stock car racing enthusiasts.

If you have the time and are so inclined: Granville Island market;
Chinatown night market; Capilano Bridge and Whistler, the winter ski resort (you want mountains, they got mountains)

Yes, Vancouver, B.C.

Thanks!

eeph

There's a particular block where junkies shoot themselves in the open between buildings... I think it's in the north-east area of downtown Vancouver. Maybe you could give more specific indications on this place to avoid, to the original poster?

Thanks.

I found this link that might prove enlightening:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Eastside

The only other problematical areas (if you can call them that)
were in the 1200 block of Davie St. Lots of shaven headed,
muscular gentlemen in tight black leather and sunglasses there;
and once along Main st. when some Eastern Europeans
and I exchanged 'Clint Eastwood Squints". I'm still not sure what
that one was about.