GCA IV: Two Times Gay

On the second day of my solo Vancouver excursion, I chose to go to Davie Street, the gay area of Vancouver. Just a few weeks before, they had a big pride event there and I heard that 100,000 revellers attended. Once again, I slowly strolled out from the hotel. Some elevation on certain stretches but definitely walkable. The first landmark I came across was English Bay Beach. There was a cute art installation at Morton Park nearby, called "A-maze-ing Laughter" by Yue Minjun. A cheerful bunch of bronze sculptures. Took some pics, then walked down to the beach to spy on some shirtless hunks. Too little, too far. On Davies Street, I kept my eyes peeled for signs of gayness. A little rainbow flag here, a splash of colour there, a hairy-chested Superman sticker in the window, and some left over Pride decorations in the window. Other than that, they had pink dustbins and pink bus stops. That was about it. My gaydar wasn't even pinged a whole lot. But quite a big concentration of tourists there with all the hotels in the vicinity. The highlight was the Rainbow pedestrian crossing at the main intersection at the heart of Davie Village. Definitely something you wanna photograph. Part of the road was also blocked for community activities. But from what I saw, it was just boardgames. Spent some time around the amazing Living Shangri-la building that is tallest building in British Columbia (a mix of hotel, office and residences). Beside it was Offsite, a public art space installed by "Time To Let Go" by Babak Golkar. A person working nearby was nice enough to demonstrate for me how he interacted with it. Did a short detour to Barclay Street to take a look at Roedde House, but it did not interest me.















Slowly made my way back to Robson Public Market where I had an avocado turkey sandwich for late lunch from Apple Deli. Went back to rest after that. KH finished up at 5:00pm that day and he wanted to go to to Davies Street! I nearly fainted. My leg was painful from all the walking, a nagging ache in the left part of my groin (not from skanky activities la). I accompanied him anyway, and retraced my steps from earlier (bumped into a bunch of Jap boys at Morton Park!). But we did something extra by visiting the Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium. In my opinion, it's more sex shop than anything else (just a small collection of books and cards) . A good selection of hefty dildos, more silicone lube and boy butter than you could ever use, bondage rope, electronic toys, leather costumes, strap-on dicks, clitoral stimulators, douching kits and double-headed dildos. Phew. KH bought a bottle of GunOil (which his mum found by the way, don't ask) although we aren't exactly fans of silicone oil. Repeated the other sites and ended up in Stepho's for dinner. Their lamb came highly-recommended and it was no joke. Juicy and tender. Came in a huge bed of rice and rough cut potatoes. For appetisers, we had meatballs that were superb (love the refreshing zucchini-mint dipping sauce) and hummus with some pita bread. Too much to finish since the meatballs came with more of the bland rice. Yikes. With heavy stomachs, we slowly crawled and limped our way back to the hotel. A heart-warming scene played out in front of us though-- two guys holdings hands with a kid. They lifted him up together as they were crossing the road. Gay parents? KH squeezed my hand tight and we went on our way...