The unfamiliar city I call home

Posted on January 21, 2012

Although I’ve been here for over a year now, there are still so many parts of Vancouver and BC that I have yet to explore.

This photo is taken from the lookout on the way up to Cypress Mountain. I still can’t get over the fact that I can leave home or work and be snowboarding within half an hour. It really is a treat. Way down there you can see the Lion’s Gate Bridge connecting to downtown Vancouver. The big green mass on the other side of the Salish Sea is Stanley Park.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you get a break from all the clouds, rain and grey. Someone up there cranks up the saturation and gives you gorgeous days like this.

F1 under lights

Posted on December 15, 2011

After visiting Hong Kong and Malaysia, I hopped on a short flight to Singapore for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

This was my second Singapore GP (I attended the inaugural race as a journalist back in 08) so I knew what to expect: stinking humidity amplified by the heat from the cars and upside-down working hours. As it’s a night race, the teams, drivers and working media tend to wake up in the afternoon and then work through til sunrise.

Held in the heart of downtown Singapore, the streets of Marina Bay provide an amazing backdrop for a Formula 1 race. The course snakes its way across the waterfront, over bridges, and beneath grandstands. All at night under lights. It’s an incredible, almost surreal, experience that should be on every car enthusiast’s bucket list.

Those three days I spent in Singapore were truly punishing. I was working solo, which meant I’d run alongside the track each session (to have some variety in my photos), rush back to the paddock for the interviews, and then write my various reports until 5am. According to my iPhone I clocked 20 chafing kilometres around the Marina Bay circuit. I’m pretty sure that was the hardest shoot I’ve ever done. But it was also the most satisfying.

I’m hoping to have a few days off over the Xmas break, and if that materialises then I’ll be sure to post some updates to my neglected blog.
Speedhunters: Behind the Scenes - Inside the Formula 1 Paddock
Speedhunters: Desktops - 2011 Singapore Grand Prix
Speedhunters: Event Coverage - 2011 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying
Speedhunters: Event Coverage - 2011 Singapore Grand Prix Race Report

Langkawi, Malaysia

Posted on October 18, 2011

After spending a couple of days in Hong Kong, I hopped over to Malaysia for Phuong and Derek’s wedding on Langkawi island.

Nearly all of the travel I do is related to work, so it was awesome to take a few days off and not worry about things. I limited myself to only a couple hours of work each day and spent the rest doing sweet f*ck all.

Most of my friends and I stayed at the Westin, while the wedding was held at the Tanjung-Rhu resort. This is Westin’s private beach. Tanjhung-Rhu’s beach is truly spectacular, but the rooms were too expensive for us.

Besides the wedding, I spent most of my time by the pool or eating. Westin’s buffet breakfast was great, but the same can’t be said for the satay sticks I had for lunch. I ended up spitting out the chicken as it was completely raw inside.

After that experience I bought charcoal tablets as I didn’t want to take any chances (particularly after this bout of sickness). Instead of eating at the resort again, my friends and I went for some street cuisine instead. Locals were recommending a place called Wonderland.

While I’ve never been a big fan of seafood, I really dug the food at Wonderland. Everything was caught that day except for those monster prawns, which were frozen from the day before. The restaurant’s owner was almost apologetic that they were frozen, and also showed us all of our fish before they were cooked. We ordered until our entire table was full. Including a dozen beers, the bill came to around USD$70. If you’re in Langkawi, make sure you eat at Wonderland. My friends ate their every day and wanted to keep going back.

Debbie does it one handed.

Stray cats.

Family car? What for? This family of four - sleeping baby and all - make do with a scooter.

Langkawi is more of a resort island. If you’re looking for clubbing - like Willy was - then stick with KL instead. If you want to unwind, then Langkawi is highly recommended.

A couple days in Hong Kong

Posted on October 17, 2011

Recently I did a short 10 day trip to Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. It has been a few years since I last visited these countries, and I was really looking forward to going back. And the reason for that is the food!

Having spent my last Hong Kong trip shopping, this time around I flew in with no particular agenda – just to explore. And to eat of course.

Years ago Angus took me to an amazing wonton noodle house. It was a tiny, unassuming place but the noodles were incredible. It’s called Mak’s Noodle, and as soon as I landed I made a beeline for it.

When it comes to eating out I don’t care for fancy décor and I’m willing to put up with infuriating service so long as the food is good. Indeed when it comes to decent Asian food, it seems the crappier the establishment the better the food. Here at Mak’s, the wontons were being made by hand on the table beside me. The old dude folding them could probably do it blind folded.

This is what I had been waiting for. After craving to go back to this place for five years I couldn’t wait for the tiny bowl to be plonked in front of me. These wontons and noodles are cooked pretty damned close to perfection. I’m a fan of simple dishes, and seeing them done right is what food hunting is all about. Forget about this fusion crap. As a side note, this is the Hong Kong wonton restaurant that was on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations.

With a belly full – I ate two bowls for good measure – I wandered through one of Hong Kong’s many wet markets.

Supermarkets and chains have changed the way we eat. A book I read a few years ago, Not On the Label, talks about how our food has changed more in the past 50 years than it has ever.

Throughout Asia there are still many outdoor wet markets, which get their name because the pathways are constantly hosed down.

Something that would be an eye opener for tourists is the lack of refrigeration, although I did spot some more modern wet markets that are now indoors.

Meat hangs out in the open.

Along with other curious bits.

Decisions, decisions.

Despite what you may think, wet markets don’t stink. Sure you’re nose will know there’s fish around, but it certainly isn’t pungent.

Frogs anyone? Apparently they are kept alive to ensure freshness to the customer.

Tofu. Ready for delivery.

Hong Kong is a neon city, with the streets coming to life at night.

Spotted this on my last day in HK: an enormous Mona Lisa made out of… toast.

Next up, Singapore and Malaysia.

Random. Main St, Vancouver.

Posted on August 30, 2011

‘Atta boy. Learning the FOB squat from the get go.

Richmond Night Markets

Posted on August 21, 2011

Summers in Vancouver are great; once you experience one you start to understand why everyone here puts up with the endless rainy months. In summer, the sun goes down at 9:30pm and the weather is warm rather than stifling hot like in Aus. And during summer, the suburb of Richmond holds night markets.

Although Sydney has a high Asian population, it’s nothing compared to Vancouver. In areas like Richmond, it feels more like Hong Kong than Canada. And that means food is a big attraction of the night markets.

The Richmond Night Markets are split into two areas: one has a variety of different stalls - although most seemed to be selling iPhone accessories - and the other area focuses solely on food. It’s no surprise which one I spent my time in!

Problem was, what to eat?

Pancakes?

Perhaps some skewers? The queue for this stand was crazy.

While the variety of foods available made it difficult to choose, the endless crowds made it impossible. Often there were so many people crowding around that you couldn’t actually see what each stall was cooking.

Want sum?

Every colour of the rainbow.

Vietnamese che ba mau.

Because I’m not a fan of huge crowds, I didn’t hang around for too long. I sampled a few dishes, drank from a coconut shell and then headed home. The food prices were quite dear; I think my pre-dinner snacking here ended up costing around $20.

Living on a plane

Posted on July 14, 2011

Monday: 4AM cab to the airport. Tuesday: 3:45AM call time for a video shoot. Today: 3:45AM call time again. Tomorrow: 6:30AM drive back to the airport, a three hour flight then straight back to the studio. I am well and truly wrecked.

This month is going to be exhausting as I’ll also be covering a lot of miles in the air. I’m currently in the sweltering heat of Surprise, Arizona before flying back to Vancouver. Friday I’m off to Vegas via Seattle. Next week I’ll be heading south again to Seattle for Formula DRIFT, before hopping on the 15 hour flight back to Sydney, Australia.

Although I’ll be spending 50 hours on a plane this month, there are moments when all of the stress and tiredness is forgotten. Moments like this morning’s sunrise, when you can’t help but stop, stare and soak it all in. It almost looks Photoshopped don’t you think?

The view from above

Posted on July 4, 2011

Canada Day? One of the weird things you encounter when living in a foreign country is that you have no idea when the public holidays are. Were it not for my colleague who sits next to me, I would’ve come in on Friday not knowing that it was a long weekend. So when I heard I had three days off, I decided to go out and do some long overdue exploring.

Things have been pretty full on for me since I arrived in Canada, so I haven’t really seen what’s around Vancouver. And although it’s summer, Whistler seemed like a good destination.

From downtown it takes a bit over an hour to get there via the Sea to Sky Highway. It’s a great stretch of road with some good viewing points, and in some ways it reminds me of the Great Ocean Road. It’s super smooth, but the 80/90km/h speed limits and countless highway patrols made it a bit of a procession.

Hotels were fairly cheap considering as it wasn’t peak season. I stayed at the Nita Lake Lodge.

After a rather stressful week, I was tempted to just sleep all weekend. But that would’ve been a waste.

This was the view from the room. Totally serene. I could’ve sat out here for hours.

Initially I wanted to go fishing, but from my balcony I could see a guy fishing - and he hadn’t caught a thing all day. So instead I borrowed one of the hotel’s mountain bikes and went pedalling through some trails.

Saturday morning I caught a lift up Blackcomb as a few people had told me to check out 7th Heaven, which sits at the top of the mountain. To get there, I had to take two chair lifts, a bus, and then another lift.

This has been a weird summer. Most of the time the weather in Vancouver hovers around 15deg C, which is hardly warm! At the base of Whistler it was 21deg C, but as I progressed up the mountain the temperature dropped steadily.

Almost at the top! A word of warning to anyone who is planning to go up 7th Heaven: the wind is rather icy on the chair lifts, so wear warm clothes. It wasn’t a nice experience being battered by huge gusts of freezing winds and not being able to escape it!

Finally at the top, some 7000ft (2.1km) up in the air. This is the view from 7th Heaven. As there’s plenty of powder at the top of Whistler Blackcomb, quite a few people were still skiing and ‘boarding in spite of it being ’summer’. If you look closely you can see the lakes at the base of the mountains.

Afterwards I took a chair lift down and hopped onto the Peak 2 Peak gondola, which holds world records for having the longest unsupported span (3+km) and being the highest lift of its kind. Sadly, compared to the views at 7th Heaven the P2P gondola was a bit underwhelming.

New tees from Import Bible

Posted on June 11, 2011

Just before I flew out to FD Florida I received a package in the mail from my friend David over at Import Bible. It’s been ages since I had some fresh tees in the wardrobe, so it was very welcome!

Cool rim design on their lanyard.

These t-shirts come from their Series 5 release. On the left is their Wack design and on the right is their Hat’s Off tee. You can check them out here!

A weekend exploring

Posted on May 25, 2011

Yesterday was a public holiday here in Canada, and although I was tempted to savour the last day of the long weekend by sleeping and bumming at home, I decided to make a trip over the Lions Gate Bridge. But not to hit the slopes.

I can’t believe I’ve been in Vancouver for half a year and I haven’t gone snowboarding. When I was in Sydney, the 7 hour drive to Thredbo was always my excuse. But here in Van, I can leave work and be on the Grouse or Cypress slopes in half an hour. I guess that’ll have to wait til the next season.

Regardless, friends have been telling me there’s still plenty of other things to do in that area, such as exploring the countless trails. So that’s what I did. Here’s a quick photo from Cypress Falls. I lugged a camera around for my hike, so as soon as I get a chance I’ll upload some more pics.

NYC Part 3

Posted on May 19, 2011

Quiet Times Square.

Chaotic Times Square.

Token cab shot.

Waiting to cross.

Forgot which church this was. It was on 5th Ave.

Huge buildings are huge.

Measuring the pavement for mark-out.

Ignored.

What’s a trip to NYC without some Broadway shows. Cheap ticket ballots (around $30 instead of $130) ftw. Everyone who entered won!

Chose to watch Rain, which was the Beatles remake. It was pretty good, until I noticed that Ringo Starr was wearing K-Swiss sneaks. After that it was never the same.

A couple days later I went to Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo, which is a play starring Robin Williams. I’m not a big fan of musicals or plays, but I thought this was entertaining. Of course Robin Williams was great, but Hrach Titizian (who plays Uday Hussein) was stellar.

I was quite proud that I only fell asleep for a few minutes in each. Which was much better than half of Phantom of the Opera.

While in NYC I met up for dinner with Larry Chen, ex papparazzi turned gun drift photographer. We both had a rough day, so a nice dinner and booze was in order. We headed to the Meat Packing District to sample Scarpetta. This was their pork belly.

Bone marrow agnolotti.

Duck and foie gras ravioli.

Decided to rent a car and go for a drive out of Manhattan. The rental company I went to stored their cars in a public parking lot, and when I handed my paperwork to the attendant he pointed to an SUV in the corner and said “that’s your car.”

Now, how often do you question the attendant? Because the rental company was short on cars, I had no idea what car I would be given. So I hopped in, found the keys on the dash, and drove off.

As I was driving, I was quite disgusted at how dirty the interior was. It also had some nasty piston slap. After three or four blocks I checked the glove box… and realised this wasn’t a rental car. They had given me a car that had been valet parked.

Obviously I circled back to return the car, but what I didn’t expect was to be yelled at by the parking staff, who had threatened to call the cops because I had stolen a car. Idiots.

Forget NYC rental car companies. I’d rather deal with the turd smell in the subways.

Road closure…

Because a scene from a film was being shot.

Quite possibly a burger better than In-N-Out. Shake Shack’s to die for.

Another token cab photo.

Portrait.

Flowers in the foyer.

River of yellow.

Until next time Manhattan.

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