Vancouver Follies - chapter 4a: Bushart Gardens

having visited the Butterfly Gardens, we made our way to Bushart Gardens
the entrance fee was $21 per person before we even see the sign to the gardens. having had paid 20$ for the ferry ride, we decided we should see the garden and be done with it. (when i asked my friend Em whether she recommended the gardens, she said she hasn't gone in 14 years, which is typically how it goes when you live in a place you hardly visit the tourist traps...)

let me tell you the garden was HUGE and used to be a mine until the wife of someone decide to pretty it up and even planted tall willowy trees to block the view of the gardens to the factories in the background. it would've been really nice - if anything was actually IN BLOOM at the time. but as it was, early June, nothing was in bloom. The rose garden with probably hundreds of varieties of roses had maybe 3 roses partially wilted and that's it - lots of buds, no color, no blooms in full swing. we just got real disappointed from one section to another, and were done with the garden in less than an hour - but we were stranded on Victoria island because the return trips back to Vancouver were every 2 hours.

after a disappointing garden visit, we drove back to line up for the ferry only to discover that we had to pay ANOTHER $80 for the whole ferry ride, meaning we spent 40$ per person on the ferry, 21$ for a garden with nothing in bloom!!!!!!!!!!!!! needless to say we were all super bummed out at a waste of money and time on the vacation... looking forward to the Nightmarket splurge on yummy treats.

We got to the nightmarket pretty late due to the sparse ferry rides back to Vancouver, it was past 10pm when we were parked and walked into the place... it was more packed than yesterday, we decided to buy some curry fish balls as well as steamed rice rolls to try... it was delicious! but there was so much pushing and shoving as people were vying for some room to the kiosks to pay for food... the girls decided we would buy all the stuff we want seperately and go back to the hotel to eat...

the logistics kind of failed us, because most of the kiosks sell skewers of food - not meant to be carried. we didn't have tupperwares, and only some kiosks have 'to go' containers with a lid. in the end it was super stressful and most of the popular snacks required standing in line to order then taking a number and waiting for the next batch to be done cooking. i was hungry, i was tired, i bought something in super-spicy-curry that burned my tongue, causing me and W. to quickly line up for fresh sugar cane juice (which was amazingly delicious and refreshing)

in the end, the girls bought a few items and by the time we got back to the hotel, most of us were too tired to be hungry anymore, and the food was merely ok when it's cooled down - we had leftover snacks that went to waste...

oh, at the night market this time, i noticed an asian couple in fitted cropped baby pink matching nylon sweat jackets... although it is kinda cute in the typical asian way, i can't help but think that pink made the guy look even more effeminate- and i guess bravo to him for having the guts to go that far to match his dainty little girlfriend... but ick, ick and ick.