TRAVEL WRITING
Going underground
Sat 15-Nov-2003
Shopping in Canada's largest city is a bargain-basement affair, discovers Billy Briggs
The man walks up the other side of the street, his body covered from head to toe in tightly wrapped cellophane. No one seems to be paying much attention to him. He crosses the road towards me and a girl close behind him hands me a leaflet as they pass. The flyer informs me his name is Iwan Wijono, an Indonesian artist taking part in an arts festival and that his body is up for auction - ''for any purpose'' apparently.
Welcome to Toronto, Canada. Indonesian artists offering their bodies for sale is not what I expected to find, but then this place, as I am about to discover, is probably one of the least predictable and most intriguing cities I have ever visited.
Canada's largest metropolis, which sprawls along the northern shore of Lake Ontario,
covering 62 square miles, and with a population of nearly three million, is vibrant, intoxicating and incredibly cosmopolitan.
In fact, its multi-culturalism is inspiring and greatly endears you to this North American diamond, going far beyond most other cities' obligatory diversity of restaurants and sporadic pockets of ethnicity.
Chinese, Vietnamese, Somalian, Jamaican, Russian, Sri Lankan, Filipino - a multitude of nationalities has taken advantage of Canada's liberal and positive attitude to immigration over the years and each contributes magnificently to its colourful aura.
I am in Kensington market, downtown Toronto, an area of the city inhabited initially by eastern European immigrants who arrived at the turn of the 19th century. On Kensington Avenue they established an open-air market that is still the main feature of today's neighbourhood - a thronging bazaar where you can peruse the many clothes stalls, buy the most delectable meats and cheeses from its ethnic delis, or just hang out drinking coffee in its storefront cafes, watching life, and other different life-forms it would seem, pass by.
With the city of Toronto home to one quarter of a million Chinese people, a visit to Toronto's Chinatown is also an exhilarating experience and as you walk into the district you feel as if you have been transported to the streets of Shanghai.
You can barter here for everything from porcelain and jade to herbs and pickled seaweed. I stop outside one rickety stall where a Chinese man is resplendent in a white apron. He is holding a meat cleaver and animatedly beckons the crowd to buy his wares. Gabbling profusely, he fearlessly plunges his hand into a huge oil drum filled with live crabs, hauls one out and thrusts it towards me. I smile but politely refuse his kind offer.
My second day begins in the best possible fashion with a Canadian breakfast that would charm a smile from Queen Elizabeth II - eggs benedict, spicy sausages, and waffles laden with maple syrup, accompanied by fresh orange juice and the finest ground coffee.
I decide the day will start with a brief tour of downtown Toronto's shopping district. Instead of leaving my hotel by the front door, however, I simply descend one flight of stairs to directly below the hotel's reception area, and I am straight into the world's largest underground shopping complex.
Known as the Path, it is a six-and-a-half mile labyrinth linking 48 office towers and six major hotels. It incorporates 1,200 shops and services. With temperatures often plummeting as low as minus 10 during winter, the Canadians decided to build it to keep themselves warm while shopping.
And not just shopping. You can check out the Pipers Pub, with its singing waiters, Japanese breakfast bars, delicatessens, bakeries, dentists, cooking schools, and even drop-in massage shops where you can take the strain out of your retail therapy with a quick five minutes in the hands of an Indian masseur.
Not that the prices in Toronto are conducive to stress - the sales are true in every sense of the word and I would seriously avoid bringing the credit card if you are Oscar Wilde-like in the face of temptation.
My final day, and with time at a premium, I venture to the waterfront area of the city with its views of the Toronto Islands, before ascending the city's landmark which spears the autumnal sky - the CN Tower. At 1,815 feet, it is the tallest free-standing structure in the world. Many locals are dismayed that it has become a symbol for Toronto, much in the same way Parisians express distaste at the Eiffel Tower, but it should be obligatory on any tourist's itinerary, and not only for the gut-wrenching ascension in a lift. There's also the panoramic view at the top, which takes in as far afield as Buffalo in the US.
Time's up and as I sit at the airport awaiting my flight home, entranced by the most
spectacular electrical storm lighting up the city suburbs, I resolve to come back to Toronto. Three days in the city merely whets the appetite. It's then that I remember I forgot my rendezvous with the Indonesian artist and the body-sale. Maybe next time.
GETTING THERE
Air Canada operates a daily non-stop service to Toronto from Glasgow during the summer months. Economy fares from Glasgow or Edinburgh, via London Heathrow, start from (pounds) 440 return. Call 0871 220 1111 or visit www.aircanada.ca
WHERE TO STAY
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front Street West. Double rooms, including breakfast, from (pounds) 101 per room. Call 020 7025 1625 or visit www.fairmont.com
USEFUL INFORMATION
Toronto Convention and Visitors Bureau, (001) 416 203 2600 or visit www.torontotourism.com
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