Hostpapa, did you kill our dreams like Freddy Krueger?

We’ve been without internet the last 3 days and have come to find our site is down. All of our posts, pages and comments had vanished. It seems our web host, hostpapa severs went down and around the same time we lost everything and our database shrunk to 0mb. Sent an email to hostpapa support and got a response saying “We don’t backup customer files, it’s up to you. case closed”

I have to say it’s pretty shitty customer service from hostpapa.ca No apology, no explanation why the servers crashed, no nothing. The only way I knew their servers went down (which they didn’t admit) is because I have a third party reporting service for outages. Also a friend of ours uses hostpapa and she actually got an email.. where the hell was ours?

Anyways, so we drank our troubles away through many pitchers of BeerLao, pool with the A-Team and many whisky cokes. This morning instead of tubing we nursed our hangovers and got ready to get our dream back up and running again. Lo and behold, I do an upgrade to the newest version of Wordpress and it magically all reappeared like nothing happened.

My guess is that hostpapa realized that killing baby kittens is wrong and decided to make it up with this magic. But really, did wordpress magically have a backup we didn’t know about somewhere in cyberland?

None the less, sorry for the hiccup, we’re now back to our regularly scheduled program starting Monday.

Out here in Thailand, there’s no news of the olympics at all. We haven’t found it on tv yet, but hope in Chiang Rai we can find a sports pub to watch the final hockey games. Luckily I just found a great iPhone app from Bell of all people, and it’s wicked.

Pulling up the events screen I have to say that we’re a bit jealous that we’re not in Vancouver right now! There’s so many concerts, Kid Koala (above), Dj Numark and tons more. If they had released all the free concerts earlier we may have rearranged our schedule a bit.

It also makes it easy to check out the games that are playing, and times.  It used my iPhone’s GPS to synch the Vancouver time to our Thailand time. This’ll make it easier when asking places if they’re open at 8AM so I can watch the game!

If your in Vancouver or traveling around and want to keep up with how many Gold Medals Canada is getting, I recommend this application for your iPhone. Just in the itunes app store.

When we’re not traveling around the world, we actually live in Vancouver. If your going to Vancouver for the Olympics and are looking for some great places to eat, here’s a list of our favourites.

Click on the addresses for a google map location.

Sunshine Diner (2649 West Broadway) - Located in Kits, this place has the best Eggs Bennedicts in town. Awesome breakfast menu and good lunch. Enjoy their 50’s atmosphere paired with a delicious milkshake!

Cafe Crepe (location maps)- If you want a great cup of coffee, cheap liquor, great crepes and fantastic panini’s, go here. There’s quite a few around including at UBC..

  

The Naam (2724 West 4th Avenue) - One of the few 24 hour restaurants in the city, they have an all vegetarian menu. Who says you can’t have desert for breakfast?

Great Sushi – The Eatery (3431 West Broadway) – Most sushi places you go to in Vancouver are excellent, but The Eatery is our favourite. With a heavy manga theme and loud music, it serves tasty infusions.

Cactus Club Cafe (location maps) – There’s about 6 of these around downtown and kits, with more throughout the lower mainland. A good place to have a steak, the Blackened Cajun Steak is my favourite.

White Spot – Everywhere! – This place is legendary. If you want a great hamburger go here. The BC Burger is one of the best hamburgers around. They call their secret sauce “Triple O” for a reason!

Steamworks Brewing Co (375 Water Street) – Located in Gastown, part of downtown, this place brews their own beer and has a great pub menu. Their nachos are fantastic and you’ll be able to watch the games. Don’t forget to order yourself what we like to call “The Tower of Power!” Tip – head down the stairs to the sports lounge, it’s more relaxed than upstairs, complete with comfy sofas!

The Boathouse (1795 Beach Ave) – Best place for reasonably priced seafood. I dare you to take the platter! This is the place we take people from out of town to get their fill, and everyones always impressed.

Go Fish – The Best Fish and Chips in Vancouver (1505 West 1st Avenue, 604-730-5040)- We’re pretty big on seafood in Vancouver. If you want the best fish and chips in town – which means ungreasy and large portions cooked by a gourmet team – head here. The halibut and chips are my favourite, but salmon burgers are always popular. Located at the fisherman’s pier on Granville Island. Look for where the fishing boats are, you can walk along the prominade. Expect a long line, open 11.30 – 6.00.

Tim Hortons Coffee (everywhere)- great basic coffee, double double is an institution here in Canada. Cheap coffee and good sandwiches you’ll trip over them everywhere.

I’ve certainly missed many, but had to make a short list of our favorites. Are there any you can recommend? If anyone takes my advice please let me know!