Vancouver on $3.79! Or: treasure hunt help, please!

April 22, 2008 8:47 PM

Vancouver on $3.79 (including tax). Or, help me make an amazing treasure hunt!

I'm trying to put together a brief treasure hunt for two good friends in Seattle, as part of a project for sf0 (think: the real-life equivalent of a RPG, except designed by designed to be non-hierarchal and to work under the premise that madcap hijinks, to borrow someone else's words, are a form of activism and effecting change). The gist of the project is that I need to mail a penny to someone.

What I'd like to do is mail a handful of Canadian coins to friends in Vancouver, accompanied by four unexpired city bus tickets, to send them to a great location for a cheap snack (I have exactly $3.79 to spend on both of them, so two cupcakes or cookies are a good bet), then an interesting area to wander around.

They're in their mid-twenties, snarky intellectual types who like places/buildings/etc with interesting histories. One has lived in Vancouver for over five years; the other, for two years so far--so they're fairly familiar with the city. I'd like to send them to some out-of-the-way place (ideally an amazing secret place that abuts a commonly-known location or part of the city) on public transit. I'd also like to direct them toward a cheap snack first--one has a very adventuresome palate; the other likes familiar things.

Via a mefi thread from 2005, I turned up the Goldstone Bakery on Keefer at Quebec (is it even still open?), then a short walk to the Sun Yat Sen memorial garden. I'm only vaguely familiar with Vancouver, so I'm looking for a few more suggestions along those lines!

posted by soviet sleepover to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

There are great cookies for sale at Blue Chip in the Student Union Building at UBC. They sell them by weight, usually come to about $1.10 each.
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:50 PM on April 22, 2008

p.s. the Anthropology Museum at UBC is a wonderful place to visit, but costs around $8 each. You could send them down to Tower Beach to check out the old WWII era watch tower - the trailhead is right near the museum. It's commonly known to UBC students but maybe people who don't venture to the campus or to nearby Wreck Beach very often are less likely to know about it. And it's nothing special really, just a rusted old metal tower, about 15ft tall, but still... kinda cool. The Nitobe gardens are also on the UBC campus, though I've never been there.
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:54 PM on April 22, 2008

I was going to suggest the fenced off, graffiti-filled area in the skytrain tunnels leading up to Waterfront, but considering the previous locales, perhaps not the best idea.

A bunch of us did some larping there, what... 8 years ago. crap. and it was pretty surreal. Never ran into anyone we couldn't just shoot the shit with, either.

A tamer possibility is to sneak into the UBC ropes course.

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If you want adventuresome, maybe send them to a T&T Supermarket (there's one across the street from Tinseltown, there's one in Richmond, and there may be more elsewhere) and go to the cold foods section. Yohan has an even better cold-foods section. Make them try two things that they can't identify (and mail pictures of it to you - I can help you identify them if you want). If they go to Yohan, get them to put four (4) things they can't identify into a glutinous rice roll.
posted by porpoise at 10:05 PM on April 22, 2008

Whoa--the skytrain tunnels sound amazing. I imagine it's trespassing to explore them, huh? (My friends are generally law-abiding, slightly cautious sorts.)

Yohan sounds amazing--it may work! They've lived in Japan and spent time in Korea and China, though, so it may not be quite mystery-filled for them!
posted by soviet sleepover at 11:10 PM on April 22, 2008

Chinatown. Cheap food, historic architecture, world's narrowest building.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:52 AM on April 23, 2008

Casa Gelato and Strathcona walk.
They have crazy flavors and Strathcona is Vancouver's first Neighborhood.
http://www.lacasagelato.com/

All India Sweets & Restaurant on Main & 49th has lots of different indian goodies and
the Mountainview Cemetery is by 41st and Fraser a short little hike away.
posted by jade east at 11:30 AM on April 23, 2008