Gastown

Gastown is a historic part of town which has this cool steam clock (top picture). Its a real tourist drawer as every 15 minutes the clock goes off and plays this kind of tooting song. Gastown has all old cobbled stoned streets and loads of beautiful old buildings. The statue is of some guy called Gassy Jack who founded Gastown. It really is a nice piece of history except that is a prime tourist joint with loads of crap with the Canadian flag on it (some extremely tacky!) so unfortunanately there are homeless people everywhere. They are very forward and I had one guy come up to me in an internet cafe and ask for money. The major downside of Van is the homelessness - there are people asleep in doorways everywhere and people begging outside all the shops. Its hard to say no but what can you do? I did give one dude money the other day cause it was hot and he asked for money to buy a beer on a hot day - his honesty earned it I reckon!