Saturday, June 22, 2013
Breakfast: oatmeal from a packet in the room. We noticed a farmer's market from our hotel room window, so we checked it out and found it quite charming, bought and ate a few pastries. We then toured the West End on foot, stopping for lunch at Legendary Noodle (lemon chicken dumplings in spicy peanut sauce; juicy pork dumplings; pork with black bean and minced mushrooms sauce and housemade noodles; three hot teas: chrysanthemum for Patrick, pearl jasmine for Tina, green for me) and for snacks and gifts at Ayoub's Dried Fruits and Nuts. Nap. Snack: leftovers from yesterday. Cab to Cloud 9 where we had drinks and appetizers and watched the sun set and the supermoon rise. Cloud 9 reminded me of the Space Needle Restaurant before a renovation, and it feels slightly smaller in diameter. Our appetizers and second round of drinks were extremely slow coming out. Our server hinted that we might receive some items we ordered for free but when the bill arrived nothing was comped and we did not complain. Cab to the Chinatown Night Market. Walked to dinner at a donair restaurant where they got my order wrong because the number 15 did not correspond to the same item in the system. Even after I received my order it was not correct (I received iceberg salad instead of couscous), but I did not bother complaining about it. Back to the hotel. Tina and Patrick went to bed, and I went out on my own, spending about an 90 minutes at Oasis where I met Raz who introduced me to Mike, Michelle, and two others whose names I didn't get or cannot recall. The music was mostly a mix of music from the 1970s and 1980s, and I enjoyed hearing and dancing to something other than house music on a Saturday night. The crowd was almost all gay, about half men and half women. Cover charge was $5, coat check was $3. I did not have a drink.